Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

[dannymarx123]

OK.. I have a USA standard stratocaster which is an alder body and rosewood fretboard and on my guitar i have the following pickups

neck -Dimarzio pro track
middle - Dimarzio injector
bridge - Dimarzio Mo'joe

I had a tech fit my pickups a while back with 500k pots, but i find that the mo'joe in the bridge position too bright 'especially when played on a clean channel, I did some research on the Ibanez js2400 which comes with a Mo'joe in the bridge and a pro track in the neck and this guitar comes with 500k pots, so to my conclusion even though humbuckers normally use 500k pots in say gibson les pauls, would the mo'joe sound better with 250k pots in my strat, as the only thing i can think of is that the Ibanez -JS series are warmer sounding compared to stratocasters!?

please help!

 

[Guston7]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

How are your tone pot(s) wired up? I have a MoJo in the bridge of a js1000 & it sounds great. I would not want to roll off any more high end w/250k pots. I, of course, have a master tone in the circuit that is also a 500k. So, both my pickups have a total impedance load of 250k...vol.500k+tone500k=250k nominally. Strats are typically brighter instruments anyway, but if you don't have one of your tone controls on the MoJo, then its total load is only that of the 500k volume pot. Also, the MoJo has 2 differently wound coils--you can simply flip it around and see if it is more pleasing to you that way. You can also lower the pickup a bit, screw in the adjustable poles on the bridge coil, raise the poles on the neck-side coil. This'll take a little of the 'shrill' off of it. If all that fails, by all means, go to a 250k pot. The only reason I say this last is because you did not say you had a complaint about the Pro Track & Injector. If not, might as well leave those alone.

 

[dannymarx123]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

Thanks for the reply, I know bits and bobs about pickups but not lots!
i just took my strat to a tech and had the pickups fitted and trusted him to do what he thought was right, Im in too mind about the mo'joe if i am honest, I really can't decide if i like it or not, IMO i find it sounds great for playing leads, but doesn't do 'chugging' riffs that well and the only way i can explain this is that it is not 'tight' sounding and kinds of loose, i have been looking at other dimarzio models but i am spoilt for choice i really dunno what the hell to go for,
but i will try the things you said before i did get rid of it!

Thanks

 

[chris_tw21]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

What about caps.

 

[dannymarx123]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

i really dunno what caps he put on, but i do remember it being orange and quite large in size

 

[blueman335]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

There's another option, which is resistors. You can solder a 1/4 watt 470K resisitor across the two outside lugs of a 500K volume pot, and get the warmth of a 250K. Simpler and cheaper.

 

[chris_tw21]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

If there is a bridge tone then change it to a 250k and the 500k can be a backup,if a 500k stops working.It will smooth out the highs.

 

[zakk_speed]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

The Mo'Joe is an evolution of the PafPro - it has a lot of midrange and a good defined top end that can cut through processed and gainy sounds well. The 250K will tame top end, but as the pup was designed for a basswood body it will sound brighter in alder or ash. I'm not sure you'll get the tight low end from it - 250K could even make that a bit worse.

If you want good palm muted chugging I dont think its the right pup, I'd look at a d-sonic for that, and for somwhere in between either a norton or a crunch lab.

From SD, a custom TB-5 might work for you too. HTH.

 

[JHN]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

How are your tone pot(s) wired up? I have a MoJo in the bridge of a js1000 & it sounds great. I would not want to roll off any more high end w/250k pots. I, of course, have a master tone in the circuit that is also a 500k. So, both my pickups have a total impedance load of 250k...vol.500k+tone500k=250k nominally. .

There is a misunderstanding here.
Trying to put it simply:A volume pot full up is a resistor that acts as a gate for the whole pickup's output so that you can hear it and doesn't bleed through the earth.Think of it like that.A 500k volume pot equals to a 500k resistor to the earth cable of the pickup.So having two 500k full up volume pots ,would equal 2 parallel 500 k resistors ergo the equivalent of 1 single 250k pot on 10.
But the tone control doesn't work with the whole output of the pickup frequencywise,because there is a capacitor feeding back portion of the signal ,so the percieved effect is not the same.Anyone who has tried it will testify so as it's easily listenable.A full up 500k volume+500k tone is always brighter and higher output than a single 250k volume on 10,only exception might be if you have some kind of treble bleed mod on the 250k volume.

Now to the question:If you are overall satisfied with the mid and bass frequencies of the MoJoe,first check if one of the tones affects the bridge pickup so you can adjust it.If so and you get the results you want,then check if it affects one of the 2 other pickups too.if not then you are done or even go for the permanent change to a 250k pot as Chris said,so you don't have to mess with it every now and then.Otherwise you can wire one of the tones to work for only the MoJoe.Try what blueman said above,you can fine tune it if you read this https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=225209.
It costs next to nothing,it's easy and you can revert back.But keep in mind it will affect all pickups.If that works,fine,there might even be a way to do it only for the bridge pickup,but I don't but I don't know how,maybe someone more knowledgeable than me in this forum might or you might ask your tech about that.If not I am afraid you might need to consider some other pickup.

 

[Guston7]

Re: Dimarzio mo'Joe 250k or 500k please help!!

"But the tone control doesn't work with the whole output of the pickup frequencywise,because there is a capacitor feeding back portion of the signal ,so the percieved effect is not the same...."

While it is true that it isn't the whole output of the pickup that has the resisted path to ground, the portion that IS is the upper frequencies. And, those are the ones that are most affected by lower impedance load to ground. Anyone who has pulled the tone pot out of the circuit (particularly in a high dc resistance pickup) can hear the extra brightness. So, having (or not) a tone on the pickup in question is a valid piece of the puzzle, but I see your point that I was wrong to draw it as being directly equivalent to going w/a 250k volume.