Seymour Duncan Custom SH5 or Dimarzio Super Distortion

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Stradazone":cqealow8 said:
nitro":cqealow8 said:
Hard to say,the mighty mites were dimazrio super distortion clones.
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But w/o EVH's hands/Templeman/Landee/Sunset Sound that 1st studio album tone will never be duplicated, the pickup is a very small part of that equation
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That's the important part. Why the obsession with it? I mean, its a cool sound for sure, but I don't get the guys who never seem to get over trying to duplicate it. It's a big world out there! Find your own tone! :doh:
 
The Custom Custom ive tried and didn't care for it at all for early Van halen due to its alnico II magnet and wound to 14k it was a mud bomb,the highs weren't there for early van halen plus I dont hear alnico II magnet pickups on van halen 1 or any of ther early stuff.
 
What about the Duncan '78 model? Isn't that supposed to be the early VH pickup? Its a Custom Shop model, but I see them pretty regularly on the used market. What kind of amp are you using? If you're amp already has plenty of gain on tap you probably don't need something high output to push the amp even harder. There was a video here somewhere posted just recently of a guy getting a great VH tone with a Tele of all guitars!
 
nitro":3jaf4ukx said:
The Custom Custom ive tried and didn't care for it at all for early Van halen due to its alnico II magnet and wound to 14k it was a mud bomb,the highs weren't there for early van halen plus I dont hear alnico II magnet pickups on van halen 1 or any of ther early stuff.
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Didn't like the Custom Custom myself either, not that I'm looking for a VH tone, but the CC to my ears has a rather loose tone, especially in the lows.."spongy" just as Duncan describes it. Doesn't have an articulate enough high end for a VH tone.
 
The 78 is also alnico II magnet,im going to go with the Dimarzio Super Distortion.My main amp is the last amp that Rockstah(Mark Abrahamian)modded before he passed away its a Rockitt Retro 68 plexi clone with Marks mod 5.Mark did use the Dimarzio Super Distortion for the majority of his clips.
 
I doubt anyone can "hear" a pickup magnet without first knowing the pickup involved. Magnets don't sound like anything until they are part of a pickup, which happens to involve particular wire gauges, length of wires, winding pattern, etc.

If you knew the pickup (and therefore the wire gauges and length and winding pattern, etc.), you can guess what impact a magnet swap would have holding everything else constant. But you have to know that stuff first.
 
Alnico II magnets sound hollow and have a soft attack they don't have a bright sound they have this muddy thing going on.In my opinion not good for early van halen.
 
gtrwun":2qlgyoux said:
Stradazone":2qlgyoux said:
nitro":2qlgyoux said:
Hard to say,the mighty mites were dimazrio super distortion clones.
Click to expand...


But w/o EVH's hands/Templeman/Landee/Sunset Sound that 1st studio album tone will never be duplicated, the pickup is a very small part of that equation
Click to expand...
That's the important part. Why the obsession with it? I mean, its a cool sound for sure, but I don't get the guys who never seem to get over trying to duplicate it. It's a big world out there! Find your own tone! :doh:
Click to expand...



Meh, the tone chase is part of the fun.

Get the own tone thing, that's exactly how started into guitar. Bought the amp I wanted and said to hell with sounding like anybody.

Sad part is, I still sound like me no matter what I do! :cry: Why I dumped the Axe FX, 4000 amp sims and I made them all sound the same. :lol: :LOL:
 
nitro":1hti7l0y said:
Alnico II magnets sound hollow and have a soft attack they don't have a bright sound they have this muddy thing going on.In my opinion not good for early van halen.
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Not necessarily. I have a bkp stormy Monday set and a pearly gates. A2 and bright! The pearly gates extremely bright. Stormy Monday's slightly hollow, pearly gates not hollow, custom custom is all mids nothing hollow about it. Bkp VHII I had is alcino 5 and very hollow sounding. So I would agree that it is a sum of the whole pickup build.
However all the A2 pickups do have some sponge to the feel. I would say that is the common carachteristic of that magnet.
The pearly gates might be good for VH1 sound if a low output paf works for your setup.
 
nitro":3aioveta said:
Alnico II magnets sound hollow and have a soft attack they don't have a bright sound they have this muddy thing going on.In my opinion not good for early van halen.
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i would say that was more about having your a-2 wound to over 14k. not surprising that it was not bright and muddy
 
That's the reason why I didn't like the custom custom it's a over wound alnico II magnet pickup(14k).It didn't have any highs/brightness .
 
I like the SD, but the best tone I've had was from a SH5 in a MIJ Charvel Pro Mod-Alder-Jubilee-V30s. Gonna throw a Custom in another Alder guitar and hope for the best.....got a different Jubilee and V30 cab...hoping I can replicate what I used to have..
 
There are so many of the so called van halen pickups out there that to me the majority are just money makers and a lot of BS myth.The only pickups there were around back then(mid 70s)were Gibson pickups,Dimarzio and Mighty Mite that's it . Seymour Duncan started to sell pickups in 1979. Van halen 1(first album) was recorded in 1977 and released in 1978 so Edwards choses were the three brands(Gibson-Dimarzio-Mighty Mite)that were only available.
 
nitro":3b09vdcr said:
No im having another guitar built and I want to put the right pickup in vs. taking the pickup out and trying other pickups so I want to get it right the first time that's all.
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Every piece of wood, even of the same species, is going to react differently to different pickups. Maybe you'll get lucky and get the right one right off the bat, but chances are low.

Anyway...I would go with the Custom out of those. Its one of my favorite pickups out there, and is really versatile.

If you want something similar from Dimarzio, check out the Dominion. More saturated than the Custom, with a similar EQ and similar output. If you want something with more saturation, similar output, but a little more give in the feel and a little bit better dynamics, check out the Breed.

After swapping a bunch between the Dominion, Breed, Custom 5, and Custom, the Dominion is still on top as the pup that works great in my Horizon.

Having said all that, if you REALLY want to get closer to EVH tone, the EVH Wolfgang pup is the way to go. That thing sounds really good and is kind of a blend of all the best of all of these pups.
 
Will the EVH Wolfgang pickup achieve the first van halen album sound.
 
I don't think you can ask that question...a pickup doesn't work in a vaccuum...if you're rig is set up for it, then yeah, it absolutely can. Its a sum of the parts...I certainly wont be getting that sound out of a Mrak V and a Mesa Thiele.

The biggest thing contributing to that sound, anyway, was how EVH ran is amp, all starved out and then blasted to 100%.
 
I'm having second thoughts now if a want to go high output pickup or low output like a PAF type pickup I don't Fn know
 
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