Falloffthebonetone
New member
About 85% of places I go when I search for the specs of Cliff Burton's Ricky say that he put a Dimarzio jazz bass style pickup in the bridge position. Many forums and even uberproaudio http://www.uberproaudio.com/who-plays-what/387-cliff-burton-bass-rig-metallica testify that it is a Dimarzio yet all of the (apparently not so obvious) evidence I have found practically screams otherwise.
If somebody knows something I don't, please tell me.
The reason I'm making this thread is because Cliff Burton is pretty much a tragic icon of heavy metal bass, and to some, those first 3 Metallica albums are holy grails of bass tone. There have even been people on this forum asking how to get his tone and it is a popular question on other forums as well, though opinions on his tone obviously vary. So this is pretty much for the history books and for anyone out there looking to get that Kill em All and Ride the Lightning tone out of their pickups. This makes sense considering that a typical Fender-style PJ set up is a common recommendation for Cliff's tone.
So, exhibit A
http://archives.rickresource.com/oldattachments/3918.jpg
http://sp3.fotolog.com/photo/3/49/104/bass_photos/1206496450_f.jpg
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/17/c7/1a/17c71aaa533df377a61c3d5b3dfa1ed1.jpg
http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo3/666Demo666/Cliff.jpg
Take a good look at the pics in these links. Most people don't notice at first glance but there are 2 things that practically CONVINCE me that the jazz pickup isn't a Dimarzio.
1. No hex screws (like on the model j, which would be the prime suspect for the Dimarzio pickup to be considering the era)
2. The color. This thing, while sometimes looks black from a distance, is actually a reddish brown or burgundy, similar to the color of his bass. As far as my knowledge reaches, Dimarzio never made pickups in this color. Seymour Duncan, however, did. And the time period for which they did, sure enough was in the early 80s. The models they did this for were typically hot stacks, jazz bass versions of which of course existed.
Here is a link to a recent Duncan forum thread concerning these covers and pickups.
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?279600-Red-brown-old-seymour-duncan-jazz-bass-pickups
Once again, if Dimarzio ever produced jazz bass pickups with aesthetics like this in that time frame, please let me know.
Exhibit B.
You'll notice in one of the links from earlier, there is a handscribbled note accompanying Cliff's Rickenbacker bass on display. Thankfully a pic of the note exists. Supposedly, it was for the early Metallica fan club. Sure enough, Cliff himself apparently wrote it and he says how he modded it straight up. It's a little hard to make out, but still legible in the correct size format. The mods include a "Seymore Duncan stacked jazz pickup", not to be confused with the strat pickup he apparently had in place of a mute or something which is also mentioned in the note along with the Gibson EB pickup.
So in my mind: if it looks like a Duncan, sounds like a Duncan, and the dude who put it in (or had it put in) says it is a Duncan, then (even without having to get inside of the instrument first hand) I see no other rational conclusion than that the thing is in fact a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack from the early 80s.
So if someone wants that old school Metallica bass tone out of their pickups then a Duncan Hot Stack Jazz would be a heck of a place to start. I should mention that I happen to believe that his pedals contributed more to his sound than his pickups, and in most pictures you can see he has the selector in the middle position. That being the case, a naturally bright sounding bass with this pickup in the bridge position and a FAT and deep sounding neck pickup used together should get you right in that ballpark.
As for the Dimarzio thing, I have no idea how word spread that that was in his bass. Maybe that still is the case and Dimarzio DID make jazz bass pickups with flat polepieces and red covers like that and Cliff got mixed up when he was writing the specs, or maybe the note was a forgery or something, but it seems like a pretty slim chance for all of that to be true.
If somebody knows something I don't, please tell me.
The reason I'm making this thread is because Cliff Burton is pretty much a tragic icon of heavy metal bass, and to some, those first 3 Metallica albums are holy grails of bass tone. There have even been people on this forum asking how to get his tone and it is a popular question on other forums as well, though opinions on his tone obviously vary. So this is pretty much for the history books and for anyone out there looking to get that Kill em All and Ride the Lightning tone out of their pickups. This makes sense considering that a typical Fender-style PJ set up is a common recommendation for Cliff's tone.
So, exhibit A
http://archives.rickresource.com/oldattachments/3918.jpg
http://sp3.fotolog.com/photo/3/49/104/bass_photos/1206496450_f.jpg
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/17/c7/1a/17c71aaa533df377a61c3d5b3dfa1ed1.jpg
http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo3/666Demo666/Cliff.jpg
Take a good look at the pics in these links. Most people don't notice at first glance but there are 2 things that practically CONVINCE me that the jazz pickup isn't a Dimarzio.
1. No hex screws (like on the model j, which would be the prime suspect for the Dimarzio pickup to be considering the era)
2. The color. This thing, while sometimes looks black from a distance, is actually a reddish brown or burgundy, similar to the color of his bass. As far as my knowledge reaches, Dimarzio never made pickups in this color. Seymour Duncan, however, did. And the time period for which they did, sure enough was in the early 80s. The models they did this for were typically hot stacks, jazz bass versions of which of course existed.
Here is a link to a recent Duncan forum thread concerning these covers and pickups.
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?279600-Red-brown-old-seymour-duncan-jazz-bass-pickups
Once again, if Dimarzio ever produced jazz bass pickups with aesthetics like this in that time frame, please let me know.
Exhibit B.
You'll notice in one of the links from earlier, there is a handscribbled note accompanying Cliff's Rickenbacker bass on display. Thankfully a pic of the note exists. Supposedly, it was for the early Metallica fan club. Sure enough, Cliff himself apparently wrote it and he says how he modded it straight up. It's a little hard to make out, but still legible in the correct size format. The mods include a "Seymore Duncan stacked jazz pickup", not to be confused with the strat pickup he apparently had in place of a mute or something which is also mentioned in the note along with the Gibson EB pickup.
So in my mind: if it looks like a Duncan, sounds like a Duncan, and the dude who put it in (or had it put in) says it is a Duncan, then (even without having to get inside of the instrument first hand) I see no other rational conclusion than that the thing is in fact a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack from the early 80s.
So if someone wants that old school Metallica bass tone out of their pickups then a Duncan Hot Stack Jazz would be a heck of a place to start. I should mention that I happen to believe that his pedals contributed more to his sound than his pickups, and in most pictures you can see he has the selector in the middle position. That being the case, a naturally bright sounding bass with this pickup in the bridge position and a FAT and deep sounding neck pickup used together should get you right in that ballpark.
As for the Dimarzio thing, I have no idea how word spread that that was in his bass. Maybe that still is the case and Dimarzio DID make jazz bass pickups with flat polepieces and red covers like that and Cliff got mixed up when he was writing the specs, or maybe the note was a forgery or something, but it seems like a pretty slim chance for all of that to be true.
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