Help me out with Dimarzios

[Driver Blues]

As mentioned in my other thread I have a Bluesbucker neck pickup. I'm looking for a hot humbucker for the bridge of my Les Paul to go with it. Right now I want a Super Distortion, but I don't like how it has 12 hex and the neck has 6 screw 6 poles. I'm also looking at a Norton or Tone Zone bridge. I could do a Duncan Distortion, but I kind of want to branch out and try a different brand. Will a Bill Lawrence L500XL work nice with it? I'm fine with mismatched pickups if they are really mismatched, but the minor mismatch of slightly different polepieces irks me.

 

[freefrog]

Well, I don't know if a pickup with thin blades will look less mismatched than one with hex screw poles but DM and BL have not necessarily much in common tonally: Larry DiMarzio started his own thing back in the days because he disliked the PU's wound by Bill Lawrence...

That said and as the Bluesbucker was designed to emulate a P90, a L500XL might work fine with it, in the same way than a BL worked with a neck Duncan SH1 for Dimebag Darrell. IOW, for precise edgy chugga chugga riffs with big bottom and a slightly scooped EQing, it should deliver the goods (wether it's a vintage model or a "Bill and Becky" or a "BL USA" product, albeit there's differences between these versions).

If the goal is a bridge pickup closer in specs to the neck one, more raunchy blurry vocal vibes than clarity, more focus on high mids than on bass, and a compression making it play by itself, a Super Dist might be the right choice.

If they're played through tons of gain, the difference should disappear anyway.

Good luck in your quest.

EDIT - Forgotten half of the question... No direct experience with the Norton but I know it has the same kind of inductance than a Bluesbucker so it might be a good companion for it. Tone Zone: I've still one. It's currently on the shelf. It's an intesresting application of the "Dual-Resonance" principle, with an obvious roll off in high harmonics. I don't know if its fullness would work well with a Bluesbucker.

 

[jeremy]

the tone zone is a fine pup and might suit your needs and will match the look. the sh6/tb6 would be a great option as well. the 500xl is a good pup, not my favorite, but i dont play much metal these days. its great for tight heavy riffing and blistering solos through the right rig

 

[SweetClyde99]

I like the Tone Zone, and I have another one I’m going to be installing this week, though probably after I half-air it, but it’s a huge-sounding pickup that I typically only like in inherently bright-sounding guitars (HH Teles in my case). I think the Norton would be better suited to a Les Paul than a Tone Zone, unless the Les Paul in question is an unusually bright/thin example. The Norton shares a fair bit of DNA with the Tone Zone, but it’s much more balanced tonally. It’s may not be the hottest pickup out there, but it’s one that does everything well, including heavy stuff.

 

[Aceman]

As mentioned in my other thread I have a Bluesbucker neck pickup. I'm looking for a hot humbucker for the bridge of my Les Paul to go with it. Right now I want a Super Distortion, but I don't like how it has 12 hex and the neck has 6 screw 6 poles. I'm also looking at a Norton or Tone Zone bridge. I could do a Duncan Distortion, but I kind of want to branch out and try a different brand. Will a Bill Lawrence L500XL work nice with it? I'm fine with mismatched pickups if they are really mismatched, but the minor mismatch of slightly different polepieces irks me.

My comment; The Bluesbucker is their P90 in a humbucker pup. I might go for an Air Zone with that. Still hot like a SuperD, but a little more stylistically similar in a vintage hot kinda deal. If that makes sense.

 

[nienturi]

As mentioned in my other thread I have a Bluesbucker neck pickup. I'm looking for a hot humbucker for the bridge of my Les Paul to go with it. Right now I want a Super Distortion, but I don't like how it has 12 hex and the neck has 6 screw 6 poles. I'm also looking at a Norton or Tone Zone bridge. I could do a Duncan Distortion, but I kind of want to branch out and try a different brand. Will a Bill Lawrence L500XL work nice with it? I'm fine with mismatched pickups if they are really mismatched, but the minor mismatch of slightly different polepieces irks me.

How about the natural behavior of your guitar? If it is brighter i'd for Tone Zone or anything from that branch. AT-1 or Air Zone or whatever. But if it is warmer, to achieve tonal balance i'd for brighter humbucker like Norton. Or better, if you can find a Virtual Hot PAF
https://www.tonejourney.com/post/dimarzio-virtual-hot-paf-dp214-review

 

[Driver Blues]

Air Zone seems like an option, but now that I think about it, the guitar they are going in is fairly dark. The neck Burstbucker 2 is dark and bassy near to being unusable, the bridge, a Burstbucker 3 is bright and middy.

I do have a Pearly Gates neck and a Custom Custom bridge laying around though. Might those be worth a try?

 

[marcello252]

I have a problem with Dimarzio HBs, apart the super distortion, the paf pro and the 36th ( I owned the three) I don't understand the differences between the others, too many commercial name completely unrelated to the real characteristics, I mean, Air zone, tone Zone, norton, Air norton, at, evo ... it's like entering in a cloud, if someone asked me for an advice it would be a big big Dunno.
End of my unrequested rant.

 

[ehdwuld]

Tnoe Zone would be a good bridge picup to match up
the Air Zone is just a slightly deguassed version

Dimarzio doesnt used differnt magnets
the put a non conductive spacer to achieve the same re sults

Air Norton is just a Norton with a spacer between the A5 magnet and the pole peices

 

[donaldr]

The neck Burstbucker 2 is dark and bassy near to being unusable, the bridge, a Burstbucker 3 is bright and middy.

Have you played with pickup height and screws height? If not, you should.
I was not satisfied with the '61 in my Les Paul until I spend an evening fine tuning pickup/screw height. They are now very good.

 

[marcello252]

Tnoe Zone would be a good bridge picup to match up
the Air Zone is just a slightly deguassed version

Dimarzio doesnt used differnt magnets
the put a non conductive spacer to achieve the same re sults

Air Norton is just a Norton with a spacer between the A5 magnet and the pole peices

thank you!
Anyway, on Dimarzio page, I count 67 different HB , it's waaaaay too much for my limited mind to memorize their characteristics and understand what I really want. It's like those ice cream parlors here in Italy where you can find 30 ice cream flavors, I stand mouth open in front of the counter trying to choose the three I want

 

[nienturi]

thank you!
Anyway, on Dimarzio page, I count 67 different HB , it's waaaaay too much for my limited mind to memorize their characteristics and understand what I really want. It's like those ice cream parlors here in Italy where you can find 30 ice cream flavors, I stand mouth open in front of the counter trying to choose the three I want

My friend, it is simple at Dimarzio. If there is "Air" word at first, it is something like degaussed version. Some of their pickups have that like Tone Zone-Air Zone, Norton-Air Norton. On the other hand you can see similar kindo reflection at Duncan, too. There are platforms that you can create more pickups. Just like what happens on the cars, you know. There is VW Polo and Seat Ibiza and Skoda Scala, all share same platform. And like that, there are JB platform, Custom platform, Jazz platform etc.

 

[soulforger]

The Breed neck model, is a fantastic bridge pickup, especially for Les Pauls! It is a bigger, fatter, PAF Pro, and would go great with the Bluesbucker. This is no longer regular production but is still available by order, and is usually easily available on Reverb or eBay as quite a few shops order them. Edit- per Dimarzio spec it is: output: 325mv about 10k and bass-7.5 mid-7.5 treble-6.5.

 

[nienturi]

The Breed neck model, is a fantastic bridge pickup, especially for Les Pauls! It is a bigger, fatter, PAF Pro, and would go great with the Bluesbucker. This is no longer regular production but is still available by order, and is usually easily available on Reverb or eBay as quite a few shops order them. Edit- per Dimarzio spec it is: output: 325mv about 10k and bass-7.5 mid-7.5 treble-6.5.

I should definetely try it.

 

[Aceman]

I do have a Pearly Gates neck and a Custom Custom bridge laying around though. Might those be worth a try?

Maybe. Custom Custom in a dark guitar might not fly.

Or, if a Floyd is involved, It might be awesome.

So how did this turn out???

 

[eclecticsynergy]

IMO the TZ might be too fat for a dark-sounding, as well as being voiced very differently from the Bluesbucker neck..

Normally I'd concur about the Breed neck; I feel it makes a really great medium-hot bridge pickup.
However, it has the double hex poles and the OP wants a regular humbucker look.

I agree the VHPAF could be a great pairing with a Bluesbucker tonewise, but the Virtual humbuckers are getting pretty hard to find these days.​
Anyway, I think the OP wants something hotter.

I'd say maybe look into the AT-1 for warm & thick, or the Norton for something a little more typical that's still got the trademark DiMarzio vowel tone..
Norton is great in a Les Paul that isn't too mid-centric - which most LPs aren't.

 

[marcello252]

The Breed neck model, is a fantastic bridge pickup, [CUT]. This is no longer regular production but is still available by order,.

so there are actually 68 HBs in the DMZ catalogue (I think this is almost a dealbreaker for me)

 

[soulforger]

Yeah, it's all the signature models haha, there are even more that can be ordered, Kiko Loureiro, AlDimeola etc. but there are actually several Breed necks on Reverb currently in stock. I had forgotten about the fact that you want standard slug/screw poles. Eclectics suggested AT-1 or Norton fits that bill and are both killer pups as well.