Vintage output pickup appreciation !

[troublehead]

I got my Dimarzio Virtual PAF in today and loaded it in my strat. At first I was a bit disappointed. I was running it really low in the pocket like I did my Super Distortion. I decided to run it up almost touching the strings and............

Its so fat and seems like I can hold a note forever. And there's no more "quacky" attack like I hear with alot of ceramic mag pups. I wish I would have found these years ago.

 

[Robotechnology]

That's what I have in the neck of my Baker B1. After I adjusted the pup height to my liking then I was in
with it too

 

[Strat+Marshall]

I like vintage paf style pickups but I put a virtual paf and hot in my Les paul custom and could not wait to get them out. The 57 classics I had in before were much better.

 

[mightyjoeyoungxnj]

Van Zandt Vintage Plus user here...Pure vintage strat goodness. I love them!

-Joe

 

[JamesPeters]

I got my Dimarzio Virtual PAF in today and loaded it in my strat. At first I was a bit disappointed. I was running it really low in the pocket like I did my Super Distortion. I decided to run it up almost touching the strings and............

Its so fat and seems like I can hold a note forever. And there's no more "quacky" attack like I hear with alot of ceramic mag pups. I wish I would have found these years ago.

Putting vintage-output pickups closer to the strings and keeping higher output pickups a bit lower makes a lot of sense. As for ceramic pickups having "quack", well some pickups are worse than others for that (Duncan Distortion being one of the worst IMO). Vintage-sounding pickups are just a different thing in general, and I'm surprised you didn't make the move to them sooner. For a while with your guitars and amps you were "a classic overdrive guy in denial", the way I saw it.

And btw, I have a Virtual PAF neck pickup (creme color) if you want. Lemme know if you have anything you want to trade.

 

[MrDan666]

Vintage output pickups can sound and respond so nicely, they get a fat singing tone especially with vintage output singlecoils in the neck position and vintage pafs too.

Im using medium/high output pickups right now in the bridge position but im still using vintage output singles and hums in the neck.

 

[guitarslinger]

I downgraded from Suhr SSH+ to Suhr SSV.

HUGE improvement in tonal clarity and an overall bigger sound. The preamp can do some of the work itself now.

 

[Strat+Marshall]

I downgraded from Suhr SSH+ to Suhr SSV.

HUGE improvement in tonal clarity and an overall bigger sound. The preamp can do some of the work itself now.

High output pickups with a gainy preamp have always sounded a little messy to me. Never got why people do that.

 

[JamesPeters]

BTW, don't get me wrong about my preference for pickups. I like both vintage output and higher output pickups for different things. At the moment I use a Gibson 490T in one guitar with my amp (a Gryphon) with the gain turned down, and the other guitar has a Dimarzio D Activator that I use with the amp for higher gain/more modern sounds. It's not as though I need a higher output pickup to get higher gain sounds, but the feel is significantly different and I appreciate having the more "solid"/percussive sound of a more modern pickup sometimes.

The 490T is an interesting pickup, too. Stock I almost find it a bit too round, not enough snap to it (although I do like it as a neck pickup with the stock alnico 2 magnet). I put an alnico 5 magnet in it, and I find it's quite nice now, just enough bite to make it one of my favorite bridge pickups.

My preference for neck humbuckers is usually something very clear and bright, with an alnico 2 magnet.

 

[Mudder]

I can certainly hear the difference when I go from a Superdistorsion in one guitar to a Duncan '59 in another, the '59 is crunchier with some interesting undertones that I don't hear from the superdist and it's more saturated tone.

Of course, I really do like the superdist too, just in a completely different way.

 

[JamesPeters]

Gaining a new appreciation for vintage output pickups has had a very noticeable effect on what high output pickups I choose now. I used to like higher output pickups that had lots of growl, snarl and the like. Now I find I tend to prefer smoother/clearer high output pickups, and would rather dial in the amp for more snarl/growl when/if I need it. This tends to limit my choices drastically, but fortunately I don't really mind as long as I still have one or two higher output pickups around that suit my tastes.