DSD First impressions!

[jnewlyn]

I'm pretty sure a JB is hotter than a DSD.

[JimiJames]

paraffin wax
It's easy & works.
Weed through some vids find one that makes sense.
.2¢

[rgorke]

I used Mr. Zogg's Sex wax and a hair dryer. Seemed to work pretty well. Gonna need to do this on a vintage DSD I have.

[guitar007]

Hey, motrock...which pickup were you using before switching over to the DSD?

[motrock]

Hey, motrock...which pickup were you using before switching over to the DSD?

Motor City Nasty Nasty

[T.L.]

I'm pretty sure a JB is hotter than a DSD.

Doubt it. JB has a AlNiCo V magnet and the DSD has ceramic...

[Rich_D]

I'm pretty sure a JB is hotter than a DSD.

Doubt it. JB has a AlNiCo V magnet and the DSD has ceramic...

This gets into the "what makes a pickup hot conversation." The JB has more (hotter?) windings at something insane like 16.7 but the DSD has the big ceramic mag. It's been beaten to death at this forum that you can't take the windings as a measure of a pickup's output, but generally that is the idea.

I have been swapping a DSD and a JBJ back and forth over the past few months in 2 guitars, one poplar and one ash both with maple necks. I have some clips in http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=36015 of both but I don't have amp clips. I'm playing through a Plexi SE PCB kit in an Epiphone Valve Jr. chassis that I can switch between a jumpered plexi circuit and a cascaded gain circuit with 2 12AX7 and 1 6L6. My impressions are the DSD works a lot better for hard rock and metal. The JB just won't crunch like the DSD. Last time I was in a band I had a big problem hearing myself playing the JB through a 50w JCM 800. I can't speak to how the design elements of a pickup relate to the tone but the DSD has a lot more bottom end and sings just as much on the highs. The mids on the JB are really punchy but overall it doesn't seem as powerful and colorful as the DSD. I think I'm done with the JB.

[MrBeasty]

My '70s DSD is ridiculously micro-phonic! It picks-up the resonance from the tremolo springs!

I am a bit nervous about potting it since (from the EVH story) the plastic melts easily ... but that pick-up is hard to use live.

[Rich_D]

Mine happened to come potted from ebay. I can scrape the wax off the base with my fingernail. I have no squeal at all, so there is hope.

[motrock]

Mine happened to come potted from ebay. I can scrape the wax off the base with my fingernail. I have no squeal at all, so there is hope.

Does potting the DSD change the character of the pickup? I have a friend that told me that he loves unpotted pickups because they sound bigger! He said when you pot a pickup, you loose something!

[Coot Boy]

Mine happened to come potted from ebay. I can scrape the wax off the base with my fingernail. I have no squeal at all, so there is hope.

Does potting the DSD change the character of the pickup? I have a friend that told me that he loves unpotted pickups because they sound bigger! He said when you pot a pickup, you loose something!

Yes you loose the squeal but seriously, go ahead and pot the thing, at least you'll be able to use it and the " it looses something" is quite a subtle thing and more noticeable ( still subtle) on the lower paf type pickups. I have a late 70s DSD and it came potted. I've wound pickups and not potted them and really, after potting I have a hard time telling the diff except that the potted pickup is now usable at volume. If you play at lower volumes with no pedals and you use the lower output pickups then yes you can hear a slight more openness in the tone with unpotted but for loud playing with a stronger pickup you really just HAVE to pot.

[somethin'else]

You can pot the crap out of it, no pun intended, well, pun intended! Then use a heat gun (tube shrinker) or hair dryer to drip it all back outta there. = Homestyle "Light Potting".

[fivecoyote]

I am willing to say this is what Eddie used on WACF and/or Fair Warning. This tone is so much closer to anything early Van Halen then I have ever been!

Ab-so-frickin'-lutely. I'm goofing around with Kevin's excellent new Model A guitar and every time I plug it into my VH-ish tone setup Fair Warning tunes want to come out. If not the DSD it was some other similar pickup on that record, no doubt in my mind now. The DSD does take tweaking to dial it in, but wow!

Hope to put up a vid this week where you can hear that even through the cam/YouTube squash.

[Coot Boy]

You can pot the crap out of it, no pun intended, well, pun intended! Then use a heat gun (tube shrinker) or hair dryer to drip it all back outta there. = Homestyle "Light Potting".

If there's no cover you don't need to worry about drip drying so to speak, most of the hot wax will just run outta there when you take it outta the pot n hold it in the air for 15 seconds, then wipe off the excess. You can't really get it more "light waxed" than that.

[Rich_D]

If not the DSD it was some other similar pickup on that record, no doubt in my mind now.

The photo records seem to back this up. Looking at the Zloz EVH photobook, there are hex pole pieces all over the place during this period. He was either relying on the distortion for his sound or he put hex pole pieces in a bunch of white PAFs. Could also be mighty mites which weren't all DSD clones, but I think he got hooked on super distortions for a while and just didn't want to admit it after bad mouthing them. It's such a predictable, reliable sound with any decent amp.