My Dimarzio Bluesbucker Review

[nienturi]

I have just uploaded a new review of Bluesbucker. Hope you like it;

https://www.tonejourney.com/post/dimarzio-bluesbucker-dp163-review​

As a summary, i particularly liked it a lot in the neck. Very sweet sounding pickup. Very versatile. Moreover its split coil tone might be the best in the neck humbuckers. Hope you like it.

 

[Chistopher]

Excellent review as always. The Bluesbucker to me is the second most underrated DMZ pickup (behind the ADM set). I especially agree with your assessment that it pairs well with the Super D bridge.

I'll also repost a quote from your review, purely because I've never seen it said anywhere on the internet. I would have taken some pictures myself, but mine is stuck under a nickel cover.

There’s no magnet under the slug coil. Instead, under the screw coil, there are two small ceramic magnets, positioned to make direct contact with the screws from the center. Measurements confirm this layout: the screw coil exhibits a magnetic field of around 400 gauss, while the slug coil barely hits 80 gauss. The slug coil’s sole purpose is to cancel hum.

 

[nienturi]

Excellent review as always. The Bluesbucker to me is the second most underrated DMZ pickup (behind the ADM set). I especially agree with your assessment that it pairs well with the Super D bridge.

I'll also repost a quote from your review, purely because I've never seen it said anywhere on the internet. I would have taken some pictures myself, but mine is stuck under a nickel cover.

Thank you so very much. I'm glad to hear it from you

 

[GuitarStv]

Huh, interesting. So would you get a similar p90ish effect to the blues bucker by pulling the adjustment screws out of a regular humbucker? That would make a non-magnetic coil and a magnetic coil type setup.

 

[Chistopher]

With the Bluesbucker the magnet field is centered around the screw coil, whereas if you remove the screws, the magnetic field is still mostly centered between the coils.

 

[GuitarStv]

With the Bluesbucker the magnet field is centered around the screw coil, whereas if you remove the screws, the magnetic field is still mostly centered between the coils.

If you remove the screws from one coil, then you're not going to pick up anything magnetic (like strings moving) with that coil . . . you need a coil with metal in it. The magnet on the bottom is going to just be picking up the slug coil, right? Seems like this:



is going to result in a pretty similar thing as the bluesbucker, but with one bar on the inner side of the slugs rather than one outer and one inner bar on the screws. I was just wondering if the second magnet adds all that much to the equation or not.

 

[Chistopher]

I would have to deffer to our resident freefrog on how big a difference that would make.

I'd think the big difference would be that you have two little magnets in opposition versus one regular sized magnet. In both cases, the 2nd coil would still have enough magnetic field to at the very least pickup up some sound from the strings, but I don't have the experience to tell you what the practical difference would be. They both move the magnetic field away from one coil, but there's quite a bit of nuance in how the two methods would generate a different shape field.

 

[freefrog]

I don't know if my contribution has any interest but IME, one single mag on one side of screw poles is not quite the same than two magnets on their two sides.

A good way to experiment with what I'm talking about is to play a same P90 at the same height under the strings, with its two magnets then with each of its magnet pulled off: IME, it makes the pickup warmer or brighter sounding according to the remaining magnet.

Another interesting test is to measure the flux with a magnetometer when the two magnets are there, then with only one magnet under the coil. The magnetic field is stronger with two magnets IME.

The following page includes what I consider as good illustrations of what is potentially going on in such cases:

https://skguitar.com/SKGS/sk/Images/pickups/Pickup stuff/Magnetics.htm

SIDE NOTE - The DiMarzio patent 5,530,199 preparing the Bluesbucker design was showing a single magnet under a noise cancelling coil reduced to a cylinder. If they did go through the hassle of using two lil' bar magnets instead of a big single one, it's potentially not without a (tonal) reason IMHO. YMMV.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I've wanted to try that pickup for a while, but I've been put off by the reported output voltage being so low. They report it as being lower than the PAF 36th Anniversary which was on the edge of being too little for my taste.

 

[Chistopher]

Output voltage is not strictly representative of volume. EQ plays a lot into how your ears perceive volume.

 

[switchman]

Thank you for posting this nienturi​ I forgot about the BB! I found your post researching some humbucker mods and its quite helpful.

 

[nienturi]

Thank you for posting this nienturi​ I forgot about the BB! I found your post researching some humbucker mods and its quite helpful.

My pleasure

I liked that BB, too but i desperately need them into double cream