DiMarzio True Velvet neck? (have t.v. middle)

[Nagisa]

I have an Ibanez AZ hss and a true velvet middle. It's "ok". I liked the fat 50 on my strat better. I'm wondering if the neck is good, so I can pair it - or if I should just get a fender neck pup.

I'm looking for smooth overdriven stratty leads for rock and blues, but able to clean up too.

I have store credit and the only fenders they sell are 69s and 54s btw.

Thanks!

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: DiMarzio True Velvet neck? (have t.v. middle)

Red Velvet

 

[Nagisa]

Re: DiMarzio True Velvet neck? (have t.v. middle)

On the DiMarzio site it's marketed as a bridge pup. Is this going to do good cleans in the neck too?

 

[Nagisa]

Re: DiMarzio True Velvet neck? (have t.v. middle)

Also the hs-3 is tempting but again the cleans won't be traditional strat..

 

[Blille]

Re: DiMarzio True Velvet neck? (have t.v. middle)

I think it’s a matter of personal taste. I used to have an old blue(?) velvet in the neck of my strat I really liked but if you didn’t like it in the middle I’m not sure you will like it in the neck. IIRC it has less lows than your average strat pickup. After listening to every demo under the sun I got a 54, ordered it and was a bit disappointed. Went back to SSL.

 

[Mononoaware]

Re: DiMarzio True Velvet neck? (have t.v. middle)

Look up some YouTube videos of the split sound on the HS-2. Some guys swear by it for a classic strat tone. Guys like Eric Johnson.

If you like it, wire a push-pull and profit.

Edit: I've got a True Velvet, and though it handles gain very well, I've never cared for the cleans in neck or middle. It wouldn't be my first choice for that application.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: DiMarzio True Velvet neck? (have t.v. middle)

On the DiMarzio site it's marketed as a bridge pup. Is this going to do good cleans in the neck too?

The Red Velvet is pretty much just an overwound old-style Strat pickup with a modern stagger, so it sounds more like an old Tele bridge pickup. I have it in all three positions in my Black Paisley Strat. The neck position is what really sold me on it. It had jumped around to all the positions, and I liked it everywhere...but the pickups I had it matched with (which included a True Velvet) always felt lacking to me. Eventually I just got two more Red Velvets and put them in along with the original one, which had already landed in the neck position, after being tried in both the other positions. It's a great slightly-hot-vintage Strat tone, almost as if you had a Tele bridge pickup in every position of your Strat.

Anything can do good cleans, if you play good cleans. If you play it hard as hell into an amp with a ton of gain, then of course it won't give you good cleans. But if you play it gently into a properly set amp, it'll give you a beautiful clean tone, without sounding shrill.