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Post subject: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 8:23 pm
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I'm planning on putting together a pickguard with DiMarzio's to try them out. I have two very different combo's that I'm thinking about and I might just try them both.

For a real clean sparkly Strat sound:
Neck Area 58, Middle Area 67, Bridge Area 61

For a hotter blues sound:
Neck Virtual Vintage 54 Pro, Middle Virtual Vintage Blues, Bridge Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2

With this second set, they recommend 500k pots. Does anyone have any input on these combos or on using the 500k pots?

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:32 pm
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I have always used the stock 250k CTS pots with my Virtual Vintage pickups and had no issues whatsoever.

"For a hotter blues sound:
Neck Virtual Vintage 54 Pro, Middle Virtual Vintage Blues, Bridge Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2"


For this combination I would install the VV Blues in the neck position and move the VV54 Pro to the middle. A .022 or .033 tone cap would probably be ideal for this set of pickups.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:32 pm
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I'm running a mixed set of Dimarzio Areas in one of my Strats and I think they're awesome.

250K pots though.

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 8:44 am
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Thanks for the input. I assume the 500k pots would mellow the tone some?

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 2:01 pm
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No.
Quite the opposite.
500s will sound much brighter than 250s with the same pups.
As I said earlier the stock pups are quite bright (and relatively low in output) and even with a swap to 250s on the pots it was still on the bright side. If you like lower output pups and a brighter tone they will do quite nicely with a swap to 250s. Many people swear by those Alnico II Pros. I sold mine quickly after I swapped them out. I found I needed something just a wee bit warmer. They were just too thin for my taste.

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:09 am
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BMW; are you saying you tried the Virtual Vintage pups and found them too thin sounding?

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 10:06 am
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No. I'm saying the stock pups were too thin for my taste even after a swap to 250s.
I'm running Dimazio Area pups in my Koa Strat with a Kinman K9 switch.
'61 (bridge), '58 (mid), and '67 (neck)
I also bought a Virtual Solo for the bridge position just in case the '61 wasn't hot enough but I have not yet tried it as the setup is wonderful as is.

That guitar is pictured below in my tag-pic.

Retroverbial and Martian also run a similar setup but I believe they place them in different order. Martian does at least. Not exactly sure about Arjay's setup.

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 10:54 pm
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I have two guitars configured with DP414, DP415, and DP416 (bridge, middle, neck respectively). Stock 250k pots, Russian "Vitamin Q" PIO cap of .022mfd.

The third guitar is set up with a now-OOP Virtual Vintage Pro at the bridge, a Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues in the middle, and a Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues II at the neck. Same pots and cap as above. The pickups in this guitar are significantly hotter than the other two -- nearly as much gain as traditional dual-coil humbuckers. The downside is, they don't sound quite as "stratty" as the lower-gain DiMarzios. They're still very convincing, but I can sense the difference notably when playing clean at lower volume levels.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 11:23 pm
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Hey Arjay,
I had to look up those numbers. I had forgotten that one of your pups is no longer made, the DP414. IIRC I think you said it was one of the Virtual series and possibly that it predates the Virtual Solo that I bought but haven't tried. I think yours may have been called Virtual Vintage Solo Pro? Do you recall any data on that pup as to where it sits relative to the other Virtuals in terms of tone colour and output?

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 12:06 am
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Here's a relatively comprehensive list of Strat-sized pickups that DiMarzio has discontinued for one reason or another......

http://www.guitar.com.au/pickups/dimarz ... _chart.htm

(click on the links for specific performance data)

It's where I first learned of the OOP DP404 Virtual Vintage Pro (the bridge pickup in my latest Strat build).

The bridge pickup in my other two DiMarzio-equipped guitars is the DP414 Virtual Vintage Solo Pro which was apparently discontinued shortly after I bought mine in 2008.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:09 am
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Thanks Arjay; more info, more better!

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 9:27 am
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Anytime, Drew.

BTW you can periodically find the discontinued DiMarzio models on the secondary market, some of them still !@$ and unused.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:25 pm
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Update.
Tonight I just finished swapping out the '61 I had in the bridge and installed the Virtual Solo that I had sitting at the ready. As expected it is hotter than the '61 but not as much as I thought or expected. It is also beefier on the bottom but this aspect is more than I expected. It's dark enough it will take some getting used to but I already like it better and I have only played with it for less than an hour. It's certainly not dark enough to get into PAF territory or anything like that but it is darker than I was expecting. Quack power is improved but jangle is slightly diminished. It's funny but I used to thing of those two aspects of Strat tone as being so closely related that they were interdependent. I guess not.

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:55 pm
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So whaddya think, Matt......is the Virtual Solo a "keeper"?

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: DiMarzio Combo's
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:57 am
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I think so, Rog. I put about another hour or so on it tonight. It's definitely growing on me. I liked the 61 ... a lot. I guess that's why I left it in there for so long. It had a pleasing old school twang to it but this one takes overdrive a whole lot better. Whether I'm using the amp or a pedal it has a better sounding growl. I know a big part of that is the higher output but it's more than that. The bottom end grunt is quite compelling. Also, when I use the bridge and neck together for a Tele style sound it seems more Tele-like than before with the 61. Now I'm thinking about maybe finding a home for the 61 in the middle position in my Partsocaster. That's just an idea I'm sort of tossing around for now. I'm going to rework the config on that one but I'm still not sure what I want to do with it. The HSH config isn't pleasing me the way I had hoped. I'm leaning toward a more conventional HSS, possibly with a P90 at the neck. Again, just juggling ideas for now.

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