oilpit
New member
Re: Pickups for Ibanez J.Custom - for instrumental rock
I realize that the conversation has kind of moved past ceramic magnets, but as somebody that used to be fervently against all things ceramic, I feel the need to chime in. Discounting a pickup because of the magnet it uses is just dumb, *especially* in Dimarzio pickups.
With Duncans the magnet does make a pretty pronounced difference in tone, you'll definitely hear the characteristics (good and bad) of whatever magnet you're using in most any Duncan wind.
However this straight up does not apply to Dimarzio pickups. I'm not sure what it is about them but the magnet is a *much* smaller piece of the tone puzzle in Dimarzio pups. I'll be interested to see if any fellow forum users agree/disagree with this assessment. I realize it's a bit of a hot take to make such an unfounded claim, but I'll be damned if my experience with the couple dozen I've tried doesn't make me pretty damn sure of it.
Honestly my biggest piece of advice is just don't look at any one variable in a vacuum, because there is so much at play that even the most knowledgeable hobbyist still won't know/consider compared to a winder with literal decades of experience like MJ or Larry Dimarzio.
I wasted so much time and missed out on so many great tones by making big sweeping generalizations like that e.g. "no ceramic neck pickups", attitudes like that will make you miss out on lots of great potential sounds.
I realize that the conversation has kind of moved past ceramic magnets, but as somebody that used to be fervently against all things ceramic, I feel the need to chime in. Discounting a pickup because of the magnet it uses is just dumb, *especially* in Dimarzio pickups.
With Duncans the magnet does make a pretty pronounced difference in tone, you'll definitely hear the characteristics (good and bad) of whatever magnet you're using in most any Duncan wind.
However this straight up does not apply to Dimarzio pickups. I'm not sure what it is about them but the magnet is a *much* smaller piece of the tone puzzle in Dimarzio pups. I'll be interested to see if any fellow forum users agree/disagree with this assessment. I realize it's a bit of a hot take to make such an unfounded claim, but I'll be damned if my experience with the couple dozen I've tried doesn't make me pretty damn sure of it.
Honestly my biggest piece of advice is just don't look at any one variable in a vacuum, because there is so much at play that even the most knowledgeable hobbyist still won't know/consider compared to a winder with literal decades of experience like MJ or Larry Dimarzio.
I wasted so much time and missed out on so many great tones by making big sweeping generalizations like that e.g. "no ceramic neck pickups", attitudes like that will make you miss out on lots of great potential sounds.
