Duncan to Dimarzio pickup swap questions.

Rick540

Rick540

New member
I've got a Jackson DX10D with Duncan Designed HB-103 pickups in it and plan to switch them. After much debate and research and going back and forth, the DiMarzio Fred seems to have the exact type of tone that I'm shooting for.

I was originally considering getting some Seymour Duncan pickups but as I already said, the Fred seems to be exactly what I want. I've never installed pickups before but when I was considering Seymour Duncans I looked at the SD wiring diagrams and they matched what I already have and seemed like a simple 1 to 1 switch.

The Dimarzio diagrams on the other hand seem quite different though. The only diagram they have of a HxH setup says it for a 3-way center coil split which I don't think my guitar has. The Jackson site only says "3-Position Blade: Position 1. Bridge Pickup Position 2. Middle Pickup Position 3. Neck Pickup" about the switching in my guitar. Also the Dimarzio diagram shows all the pickup wires going directly to the switch while the SD drawing shows no wires going to the switch. PLUS, the switch shown in the DiMarzio drawing shows a pickup switch with 12 posts and my switch only has 8 with three wires connected to it. And finally, are the resistors the same in each drawing? Would i need to change the resistor out? I also forgot to mention I only plan on replacing the Duncan Deisgned bridge pickup with the Fried and leaving the neck for now.

Is this type of swap going to require a major rewiring job? I would hate to pay someone to do the swap since it would save me some money (which I don't have much of), to do it myself. I'm just somewhat confused on where to start.

Here's the diagrams:

SD
spgr6h.jpg



DiMarzio
2rokzeu.jpg


Thanks for any help. I was going to ask all this on the DiMarzio forum but apparently they don't have one.
 
Re: Duncan to Dimarzio pickup swap questions.

Hi, if you dont have alot of money and want to experiment with PU swaps, then you need to learn how to solder!

Its not that hard, and kinda fun. Just get a 15 Watt pencil soldering iron, some solder, and some soldering wick (to remove solder), from radio shack. About $10 for all of it.

Since those PUs in the first diagram are 4-conductor, but run in series, swapping with dimarzios should be easy. There is a color equivalent chart you need to find between duncans and dimarzios. I think it is in the FAQ on the dimarzio site. You can use that diagram but obey dimarzio coloring.

Once you've done a simple pickup swap, you can try more advanced projects. I recommend the Dimarzio Multipole 5-Way switch which lets you select any combination of coils from the differnt pickups in your guitar. Lets you run series, parallel, split, etc. .
 
Re: Duncan to Dimarzio pickup swap questions.

Thanks for the info. FWIW I've been a welder for about 8 years and although I've never done any electronic soldering I'm pretty confident I can learn. Soldering is pretty much just TIG welding on a smaller scale. Regardless, I plan to practice on some old electronic stuff quite a bit befor I dive into my guitar.
 
Re: Duncan to Dimarzio pickup swap questions.

Just "tin" both parts before trying to connect them.

Once both parts have some solder on them, touch the parts and heat from underneath if you can, and when you remove the heat, they will fuse together.
 
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