dimarzio super distortion with a alnico 5 magnet-WOW!!!!!!

gnugear · Post by **gnugear** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:30 pm

jcm800nut wrote:Hmm, do any of you that have tried this have a duncan JB pickup too? Do they sound similar? If it's close to a JB, I won't bother. But if it is different, I might just get a super distortion and try it. I have a dimarzio alnico5 magnet sitting around, oddly enough. I'd hate to waste $70 on another pickup I don't need though.

I have both. The Super Distortion has more presence to it in the upper mids. I don't think they sound much alike.

jcm800nut · Post by **jcm800nut** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:54 pm

Thanks gnugear, I might just give it a try. I have yet to find a higher-output pickup that sounds right to me, they are usually eq'd too much, either chopped and middy, or piercing and cold. I love the compression and crunch they get though. Maybe this will hit paydirt.

jcm800nut · Post by **jcm800nut** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:10 am

Hey man, I wanted to say thanks again, I ordered a super distortion based on your input and slapped it into my cheapo maple fingerboard ibanez rg. I wanted to get the feel for it first so I left the magnet stock.

I can't believe I've never used one before, it sounds really dang good!

Sinasl1 posted that awesome ain't talkin' bout love clip, I had to give it a shot too. I wish I knew how he was mixing himself in with eddie like that. Too cool... I can't play worth a crap, but I liked the tone and thought I'd give it a shot.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default ... tent=music

It's nothing fancy, just my guitar into a boss dd-3 into the jcm800, mic'd with that rockband microphone that comes with the video game on the ps3, into the audacity freeware. No other effects added, the delay makes it sound kinda reverbed up already. I gotta figure out how to hook up my sm57, this rockband toy mic just is not capturing the sound well, all the presence is gone, but the basic tone is there. Oh well, I'm having a blast!

Thanks again you all, I haven't played as much in the last 5 years put together as I have in the last week since I started monkeying around with the amp.

This forum rules! Thanks George!

StuntDouble · Post by **StuntDouble** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 7:35 am

Woodinville...is that up N of Bellvue?

Bronco · Post by **Bronco** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:19 am

Woodinville IS up north of Bellevue...heck I live about 15 minutes north of that off highway 9...

gnugear · Post by **gnugear** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:37 pm

And I'm in Redmond.

rgorke · Post by **rgorke** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:21 pm

Are you all using a 250k or 500k pot with the Super Distortion? I would think a 500k but wanted to confirm.

ant · Post by **ant** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:39 pm

Yea 500k is the way to go with hums

cary chilton · Post by **cary chilton** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 3:09 am

Hey Mark what magnets did you end happiest with for EVH tone, V's or II's?

dnatronic · Post by **dnatronic** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:19 pm

Note that a superdistion with an alnico V magnet appears to be the same pickup as the peavey wolfgang pickup. Both have a ~13.6k winding.

bmf5150 · Post by **bmf5150** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:59 pm

dnatronic wrote:Note that a superdistion with an alnico V magnet appears to be the same pickup as the peavey wolfgang pickup. Both have a ~13.6k winding.

the wolfgnag i have is 13.85k.they both sound similar,but different in the lows and lower mids.

StuntDouble · Post by **StuntDouble** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:10 pm

Maybe someone mentioned it and I missed it, but has anyone tried rewiring there A5 Super Distortion in parallel?

Mr. Beasty · Post by **Mr. Beasty** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:54 pm

StuntDouble wrote:Maybe someone mentioned it and I missed it, but has anyone tried rewiring there A5 Super Distortion in parallel?

Good question!

StuntDouble · Post by **StuntDouble** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:42 am

From the little bit of parallel wiring I've heard, it didn't sound right...but, that's with lower PAF output pups. Maybe the natural mid hump of a higher resistance pup would offset the tonal shift that some might call "nasaly" in a PAF, and the added highs might augment the lack of highs in a higher output pup? This might account for the single coil cut of his humbuckers and why his higher ouput pups in some respects, sound more like a PAF.

Gainiac · Post by **Gainiac** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:22 am

I did the operation on the mid 70s Dimarzio Super Distortion in my 76 Greco FV900. This guitar was made in the same factory as the Ibanez Destroyer and Rocket Roll, and has the multipiece ash (sen?) body, maple neck and rosewood board.

Wasn't super easy. They really put a lot of glue in there, so I really had to take the whole pickup apart. I was literally bending the baseplate trying to pry the bobbins off. A blow dryer helped a lot to loosen it up, and then the bobbins came off. There was a magnet and one spacer, and I was able to fit in an Alnico 2 from WCR by removing the spacer.

Also, some had said that the WCR magnets are standard size. But note the Super Distortion magnet is narrow and thick. The WCR magnet is wide and thin.

On to the important stuff. Needless to say, it's immediately obvious why EVH thought his PAF magnet was more "toney." In fact, I would hazard a guess that there is no way he settled for a stock Super Distortion for any of those albums. WIth the ceramic, there is a blanket effect. The Alnico 2 literally opens up the tone and produce some smooth sweet mids and high end.

BTW, my Super Distortion bridge has a DCR of 12.74. My neck Super Distortion reads 13.54. So they varied quite a bit, and it's probably impossible to know what EVH's was. I guess it makes sense he would have preferred a hotter one, but the variation is still worth noting.