Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

[SJ318]

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Like Hss set up. Wired 57/62 fender in neck position and seth lover in bridge so position "4" is neck plus bridge. Would like a slightly hotter s.coil in middle. Tried ssl-5 and was a big mistake. I knew there would be some loss of highs, but this was almost no highs. My guitar tech says Dimarzio V.V.54 pro sounds exactly like a s.c. with good highs but is about 7.5K. Sounds good. Need a strong s.c. sounding middle. Fender stacks suck in my humble opinion. thanks,
Steve

 

[ricks]

Re: Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

Never tried any DiMarzio single coils, but an Antiquity or Antiquity II might fill the bill for you, especially an Antiquity II for brightness. Another pickup to look at is the Fender Fat 50. I had one in a HSH setup and it worked very well. Why not use another 57/62 in the middle position?

 

[SJ318]

Re: Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

ricks-
The reason is that as much as I like the 57/62, and I do, I want that same type of sound a little hotter 7K - 7.5K that is capable of not only giving me a volume boost but the closest sound possible to the 57/62. I understand what a hard balance that is and will never get that sound with a volume jump like this, but the closest I can get is what I am after. My tech says V.V.54 Pro and so does the Dimarzio guys, but there are an ocean of every kind of pup in the world and I need the forums' expertise to help me nail the right one hopefully the first time.
So I am really trying to get some help here. Took me all my life to find the humbuckers I like in the neck and bridge. 45 years. I'm 60. Not broke, not wealthy (condos a little more expensive than I thought) just gotta be careful. Disabled so I don't have a car to drive around trying stuff out. That would be a huge help. But I need this forum, I trust a lot of people that read and post here, more than I can name. More than the tech I know, more than sales guys. Trust.
So there it is-Thanks,
Steve Buffington

 

[Hank-]

Re: Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

You should look into their area pickups. I have the area 67, very single coil sounding & quite a lot of output compared to the cruiser bridge that I have too. Bright but not harsh & very articulate. I think the area 61 would be the hotter of the three area's but I haven't tired it. Here's a demo of the area 67

 

[Laughing Kookaburra]

Re: Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

I think the Area pups replaced the VV. Have not used the VV in question, but, for what it's worth, the VV Tele pup I used (neck) was the best Tele neck pup I have ever used. I had no more pup needs at that time, but I sure would have tried others based on my experience with that one pup.

 

[SJ318]

Re: Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

To Hank_,Laughing K.,
Hank_, the video did not make it, any chance you could give it a try or post it YT? That would be great. And Laughing K., so you are saying the Virtual Vintage 54 Pro is an older pick-up? So area pickups pretty much different sound takes on a theme, such as BB-1, BB-2,etc. Same thing for Gilbert's Injector? Any other Ideas form the D'imarzio camp? Are the cruisers S.Coil, also? I'll go to the website soon, but I was surprised a store as big as Guitar Center doesn't carry them, one of the clerks said. I see a bunch of YouTube in my near future.
Thanks for the help.
Steve

 

[Hank-]

Re: Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

I'm a bit camera shy person lol But this guy does a few demo's of a bunch of the virtual & area pickups on his channel, much better than what I'd be able to come up with myself. http://www.youtube.com/user/drewpeterson7?feature=watch

The cruiser is what Andy Timmons uses. Sounds alot alike this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBVFcPoCdlk

They are mini humbuckers like the other dimarzio blade singles, but they sound sorta single coilish. I'm not a big fan of it really, it lacks output & spank compared to the area 67. Maybe it's the EQ but then again it's a 1994 introduced pickup so compared to what's available today, it sorta doesn't sound alot single coil like to me. It was horrible in the middle position for me, the 2 & 4 positions lost significant amount of quack and I also had to keep it lower because the blades would touch the pick when playing. Not a good hot single coil choice for the middle position for me, I prefer it in the neck. There it shines but still the output is lower than where I'd want it to be. I should have gone with the Area '61 :banghead: I found one demo of it but with SRV level gain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoAt9QJQQFU

The Injectors(not alot of demo's of these on YT) maybe a touch hotter than the Virtual Vintage heavy blues II pickup. That might actually be what your looking for though. The guy Drew Peterson has some vids of it on his channel too, HD qualtiy i think. Try going through those & see if you like any. Otherwise the Duncan Custom Shop should be able to make something exactly the way you want, but it may get expensive I guess.

I think Dimarzio has a return policy so you could send it back to them if you want something else, still seem like more effort involved but I guess that's the easiest way to demo them all.

 

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Re: Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

The '54 Pro uses Area tech, not older VV tech (don't confuse it with the old VV '54s) and yes it will do what you're asking. I've never heard a pickup that screams "SRV" more than that one.

 

[SJ318]

Re: Anyone have an opinion or experience w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintage '54 Pro?

To Hank-, RayBarbeeMusic, LaughingK and ricks,
This is GREAT, really, all the info I could ask for. Thank you so much for replying. Sometimes threads get passed over, but I really needed info on this single coil world around me. I have had some very, very stellar advice from this forum in the past, and this thread is way up there for me. Thank you so much again!
Steve Buffington