Thought I might post a thread on some of my recent and past pickup experiences incase anyone is interested:
I’ve owned the stock Gibson 498T, JB, Custom 5, PRS Dragon II, Super 3, and now the Norton.
The custom 5 would probably be my second favorite for the ones I’ve tried. IT has an EQ curve (B-M-T) like this: 6-3-8. It’s got a nice scoop and its very vintage-59-feeling but with more output. It’s the same EQ curve as a Seymour Duncan 59 SH-1 model.
The JB was the first replacement that I purchased and its EQ looks like this: 5-6-8. If percussive or chunky playing is not your thing this is a great pickup in my opinion. It has long sustaining chords but not as much to "hold on to". I like the chunk, however, so I went with the Norton.
The Norton looks like this: 6.5-7-5. It’s supposed to be the cross between the Tone Zone and the FRED. The Tone zone looks like: 8.5-8.5-5 and the FRED looks like: 5-6-5.5. The Tone Zone is supposed to be huge and the FRED is supposed to have ridiculous harmonics. The Norton isn’t perfect but from what I can tell it was the best match between the 2 worlds of harmonics and "big". I’m still messing with it on my amp--but I'll get something good dialed in on it. I have practice tonight so we'll see what I can come up with.
I originally ordered a Super 3 from them trying to get a nice tight, big sound with nice harmonics. It was nothing close! Under Dimarzio's 30 day exchange policy I switched it out for the Norton.
I had a friend who had a Super Distortion in an SG and he let me try his guitar out so I could hear the pickup. I wasn’t overly impressed with the bottom end on it. It seemed really muddy and compressed to me. I also realized that I wasn’t overly excited about the amount of output.
I play my amp with allot of Gain (2:30-3 o’clock) so I wanted a sound that I can hear through the gain but not so much that pushes the recto into mush. With that in mind, I went out to Dimarzio's site and looked @ EQ curves on each of their pickups, and after a debate between the Tone Zone, Steve’s Special and the Norton, I chose to try the Norton.
I like the Norton because it is very "Rock and Roll"--it’s straight up clear and has enough output to push through the gain but not enough to mud it out. The only qualm I had with it was that with the tapered off top end in the EQ curve it lacked a little in top-end clarity.
I went out to Dimarzio's site and they had a mod that you could complete to your guitar wiring/components that would actually bring out the top end and help to retain clarity even as you turn your guitar's volume down. I went ahead and tried that because it seemed to be a help to my issue (not really knowing how much it would help).
Wow! Now when I back off the volume in the bridge it gets unbelievably single-coil-like, instead of muddy. The mod did wonders for me and all-in-all I like the pickup. It’s very classic sounding to me-yet tight and big. It’s perfect for my needs-between rock and hard-core (nice metal harmonics too!).
If you’re interested in doing the mod it’s pretty easy—here is a link to the Treble Compensation Mod:
http://www.dimarzio.com/media/diagrams/4Conductor.pdf
Look on the right side column towards the bottom. Be sure to read the paragraph on the Treble Compensation and the one on Component Values. I did both of them to get the results I did.
Basically take a 300k resistor and solder it between the posts of a 560pF capacitor that should be attainable @ your nearest guitar store or Radio Shack. Then solder the 2 legs of the cap across the "input hot" leg (terminal) of the potentiometer and the "output hot" leg (terminal). Then replace your current tone pot which is probably 500k with a 1 Meg-ohm tone pot. That’s it! The parts for the mod were a total of about 10 bucks--so it’s worth a shot! Let me know if you decide to do it and how it works for you-- :wink:
I’ve owned the stock Gibson 498T, JB, Custom 5, PRS Dragon II, Super 3, and now the Norton.
The custom 5 would probably be my second favorite for the ones I’ve tried. IT has an EQ curve (B-M-T) like this: 6-3-8. It’s got a nice scoop and its very vintage-59-feeling but with more output. It’s the same EQ curve as a Seymour Duncan 59 SH-1 model.
The JB was the first replacement that I purchased and its EQ looks like this: 5-6-8. If percussive or chunky playing is not your thing this is a great pickup in my opinion. It has long sustaining chords but not as much to "hold on to". I like the chunk, however, so I went with the Norton.
The Norton looks like this: 6.5-7-5. It’s supposed to be the cross between the Tone Zone and the FRED. The Tone zone looks like: 8.5-8.5-5 and the FRED looks like: 5-6-5.5. The Tone Zone is supposed to be huge and the FRED is supposed to have ridiculous harmonics. The Norton isn’t perfect but from what I can tell it was the best match between the 2 worlds of harmonics and "big". I’m still messing with it on my amp--but I'll get something good dialed in on it. I have practice tonight so we'll see what I can come up with.
I originally ordered a Super 3 from them trying to get a nice tight, big sound with nice harmonics. It was nothing close! Under Dimarzio's 30 day exchange policy I switched it out for the Norton.
I had a friend who had a Super Distortion in an SG and he let me try his guitar out so I could hear the pickup. I wasn’t overly impressed with the bottom end on it. It seemed really muddy and compressed to me. I also realized that I wasn’t overly excited about the amount of output.
I play my amp with allot of Gain (2:30-3 o’clock) so I wanted a sound that I can hear through the gain but not so much that pushes the recto into mush. With that in mind, I went out to Dimarzio's site and looked @ EQ curves on each of their pickups, and after a debate between the Tone Zone, Steve’s Special and the Norton, I chose to try the Norton.
I like the Norton because it is very "Rock and Roll"--it’s straight up clear and has enough output to push through the gain but not enough to mud it out. The only qualm I had with it was that with the tapered off top end in the EQ curve it lacked a little in top-end clarity.
I went out to Dimarzio's site and they had a mod that you could complete to your guitar wiring/components that would actually bring out the top end and help to retain clarity even as you turn your guitar's volume down. I went ahead and tried that because it seemed to be a help to my issue (not really knowing how much it would help).
Wow! Now when I back off the volume in the bridge it gets unbelievably single-coil-like, instead of muddy. The mod did wonders for me and all-in-all I like the pickup. It’s very classic sounding to me-yet tight and big. It’s perfect for my needs-between rock and hard-core (nice metal harmonics too!).
If you’re interested in doing the mod it’s pretty easy—here is a link to the Treble Compensation Mod:
http://www.dimarzio.com/media/diagrams/4Conductor.pdf
Look on the right side column towards the bottom. Be sure to read the paragraph on the Treble Compensation and the one on Component Values. I did both of them to get the results I did.
Basically take a 300k resistor and solder it between the posts of a 560pF capacitor that should be attainable @ your nearest guitar store or Radio Shack. Then solder the 2 legs of the cap across the "input hot" leg (terminal) of the potentiometer and the "output hot" leg (terminal). Then replace your current tone pot which is probably 500k with a 1 Meg-ohm tone pot. That’s it! The parts for the mod were a total of about 10 bucks--so it’s worth a shot! Let me know if you decide to do it and how it works for you-- :wink:
