Bridge pickup vintage output with all adjustable pole pieces

C

CarlosG

New member
Hi!
I need vintage output humbucker with all adjustable polepieces. I like to have balance between the strings and I don't like the effect I get with only one row of adjustable polepieces.
I know this is Duncan's forum but I was looking through the Dimarzio offer.
Steve Morse Neck model seems interesting. Has low output, but high dcr, so has much bass and middle.
Looks like it should work well in the bridge position.
I like the balance between the neck and bridge pickup, both output and tone. The Humbucker from Hell is interesting, it has little bass, lots of treble and a smaller signal so it should balance well.
So,
Bridge: Steve Morse Neck humbucker,
Neck: Humbucker From Hell.
What do you think about it?
 
As I remember the Allan Holdsworth bridge had two rows of screws.
There were two different iterations - one was overwound, but I think the original was essentially a dual screw 59B.

Suhr DSV bridge is another good one with vintage output and double screws.


That Steve Morse neck looks interesting, though: 21K wind, ceramic mag, yet low output...
Looking at the EQ chart, it certainly wouldn't sound like typical vintage output pickups.
 
one of my favorite guitars has a double screw a2 brobucker, the screw coils were slightly underwound compared to the stud, so its like 9.6k. its glorious, so is the black double stud at 10.4k.

i HATED the steve morse bridge pup, never tried the neck. its worth a try in the bridge, might be pretty good?
 
Mincer said:
FYI, Duncan can make any of their models double-screw. I have a 59/Custom Hybrid that has 2 rows of screws.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, in my country Duncan does not deliver pickups, due to idiotic EU regulations. I can only through distributors, but it will probably be expensive and a long wait. That's why I prefer something from the available standard models.
 
I really like the DiMarzio PAF Pro in the bridge. It's bright and attacky, but it's not thin, like many lower output pickups can be.

Matching a very warm bridge pickup with a very bright neck pickup has never worked for me, personally. I had the Dominion in the bridge once with the PAF Pro in the neck, and I hated how my neck pickup ended up being brighter and more attacky than my bridge pickup.

Seeing as you don't like the Duncan Jazz, not sure how you'd dig the Humbucker from Hell.
 
Rex_Rocker said:
I really like the DiMarzio PAF Pro in the bridge. It's bright and attacky, but it's not thin, like many lower output pickups can be.

Matching a very warm bridge pickup with a very bright neck pickup has never worked for me, personally. I had the Dominion in the bridge once with the PAF Pro in the neck, and I hated how my neck pickup ended up being brighter and more attacky than my bridge pickup.

Seeing as you don't like the Duncan Jazz, not sure how you'd dig the Humbucker from Hell.
Click to expand...

A PAF Pro in the bridge and neck is a great setup. Simple height adjustments balances them out. A very versatile set too.
 
The Morse pickups are very different than normal vintage output pickups. I like them, and he makes them sound amazing, but they don't feel or respond like any pickups you are used to. Steve has very specific requirements from his pickups, and switches them a lot...like a dozen times in a solo.
 
In the production Duncan line up, they have the Screamin Demon, Full Shred and Alpha & Omega set, all of which are dual adjustable coils.

Not sure how they'd fit the tonal bill though.
 
Mincer said:
The Morse pickups are very different than normal vintage output pickups. I like them, and he makes them sound amazing, but they don't feel or respond like any pickups you are used to. Steve has very specific requirements from his pickups, and switches them a lot...like a dozen times in a solo.
Click to expand...

Bridge model has low dcr, but its high output.
I'm interesting neck pickup, because Has low output, much bas and middle, so shouldn't sound thin.
I care about low output, because after many tests dynamics is something I really like. I like it when the pickup reproduces as closely as possible how I play.
The best dynamics i've heard were the p90 in the epiphone SG. My steinberger with 7.5k pickups also have good dynamics, but the sound is average.
On youtube recordings I like the 59 in the bridge. It sounds like a humbucker but has the ringing of a single in a strat. I could change the pole pieces to adjustable ones but that requires a lot of work, the easiest would be to buy two and use screw coils, but that's very expensive.
 
CarlosG said:
For me to hot. I need vintage output.
Click to expand...
For me, the PAF Pro wasn't much hotter if than the Duncan '59B. I think they hype it up a lot in the site by including it in their mid output lineup. But to me, there's no way it's in the same league as the Dominion in terms of output. They only recently moved there, even. It used to be considered "PAF output". It's only 8.4K, and it does have a slightly oversized A5 magnet, but it's only slightly oversized. It's not as huge as the ceramic magnet in a Duncan Distortion.

But I do understand you might want tamer, so maybe look into the PAF Joe.

Also, I think what Mincer is saying is even if the Steve Morse is low output, it might not behave like an actual vintage-style recipee. The DCR would make me think it might be low output, but still be pretty compressed. If I had to guess, I would say the PAF Pro would be less compressed-feeling even if it's higher output.
 
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Also, the Morse neck pickup was designed for 22 fret neck pickup position...I don't know how it would behave in the bridge.
 
Mincer said:
Also, the Morse neck pickup was designed for 22 fret neck pickup position...I don't know how it would behave in the bridge.
Click to expand...
For a lof ot the DiMarzio range, they claim they're interchangeable. The Air Norton, for example, was designed as a bridge pickup originally, yet most people use it in the neck. The PAF Pro people use in both positions. The Super 2 was designed for the neck, yet people use it in the bridge. I think the philosophy for position-specific humbuckers is just all-around different in DiMarzio compared to Duncan.

That being said, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see the benefit of using the Morse Neck in the bridge. It's probably dark and compressed from the high DCR like a high output pickup, just in a low output presentation. Not what I'd look for if I wanted a vintage-y pickup, personally. Like all of the downsides, none of the benefits of either camp.

So overall, I guess I'm saying I agree with you in a certain way, but rather than it not working because it was designed for a 22-fret neck position, I think it might not be all that great because it was designed for an extemely niche approach to tone.
 
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Rex_Rocker said:
For a lof ot the DiMarzio range, they claim they're interchangeable. The Air Norton, for example, was designed as a bridge pickup originally, yet most people use it in the neck. The PAF Pro people use in both positions. The Super 2 was designed for the neck, yet people use it in the bridge. I think the philosophy for position-specific humbuckers is just all-around different in DiMarzio compared to Duncan.

That being said, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see the benefit of using the Morse Neck in the bridge. It's probably dark and compressed from the high DCR like a high output pickup, just in a low output presentation. Not what I'd look for if I wanted a vintage-y pickup, personally. Like all of the downsides, none of the benefits of either camp.

So overall, I guess I'm saying I agree with you in a certain way, but rather than it not working because it was designed for a 22-fret neck position, I think it might not be all that great because it was designed for an extemely niche approach to tone.
Click to expand...

I am just going by what Steve Morse had said in interviews (and when I asked him) about how specific he is with neck and bridge pickups, and he needs something very different from each position. For more than any pickup set from *any* company, his set seems the most different. It isn't just a case of a less powerful neck pickup. His neck pickups are very percussive (he picks every note) and have this strange bloom to them that I think a lot of guitarists don't like (I do, however). I don't know if I'd take a chance on getting a neck Morse and putting it in the bridge unless I knew it could get a very specific tone I was going for.
 
Dimarzio: "We engineered the Steve Morse Model™ Neck specifically for this purpose, with a dark, smooth sound that is clean and uncompressed."
 
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