Super Distortion rocks! (MkII)

[dirtycooter]

Shit the bed & roll around in it like your crazy! I am stunned completely outta my mind on this thing. Just butchered the black pv usa wolf standard to install this thing. Had to dremel/plunge rout about 8th inch the part in the pickup cavity the pick up ears are screwed to a little deeper as this pickup is taller than the wolf's originals.




So damn worth it

I tested it out on the line 6 amp this morning, and even though its not a real amp, it does give a close approximation of whats goin on or gonna happen in my full rig. I am stoked about pluggin in later to the hodacker rig!
Everything I wanted to improve about the 59 such as more pronounced mid honk, harmonics, touch and tap harmonics, touch sensitivity, cleaning up with that volume rolled down while maintaining that sparkle, the big thunk on palm mutes, it all just jumps out so harmonically rich, has that searing burn, its all gone in that direction!!! While losing seemingly nothin I loved about the 59. So far, I am super pleased! But, its gotta be tried on the big stuff and I am worried about uncontrollable feedback, this
thing is super hot light your balls on fire! Totally made the basswood wet paper sack spark to life! I was down on basswood and was thinkin of sellin both wolfs, not now. Totally transformed this guitar completely from what it was.

[Blix]

Shit the bed & roll around in it like your crazy! I am stunned completely outta my mind on this thing. Just butchered the black pv usa wolf standard to install this thing. Had to dremel/plunge rout about 8th inch the part in the pickup cavity the pick up ears are screwed to a little deeper as this pickup is taller than the wolf's originals.




So damn worth it

I tested it out on the line 6 amp this morning, and even though its not a real amp, it does give a close approximation of whats goin on or gonna happen in my full rig. I am stoked about pluggin in later to the hodacker rig!
Everything I wanted to improve about the 59 such as more pronounced mid honk, harmonics, touch and tap harmonics, touch sensitivity, cleaning up with that volume rolled down while maintaining that sparkle, the big thunk on palm mutes, it all just jumps out so harmonically rich, has that searing burn, its all gone in that direction!!! While losing seemingly nothin I loved about the 59. So far, I am super pleased! But, its gotta be tried on the big stuff and I am worried about uncontrollable feedback, this
thing is super hot light your balls on fire! Totally made the basswood wet paper sack spark to life! I was down on basswood and was thinkin of sellin both wolfs, not now. Totally transformed this guitar completely from what it was.

I can't say I'm surprised!

DiMarzio got it right in 1972, the year I was born

[nitro]

Has anyone compared the Dimarzio Super distortion,Seymour Duncan Distortion and the Gibson 500t,which would be the closest to Eds van halen 1 sound.I did do a experiment with the Gibson 500t I took out the two outter ceramic magnets(the 500t has three ceramic magnets)and kept the center magnet and it really opened up the sound,anyway your thought on the three pickups.

[planetjimi]

Shit the bed & roll around in it like your crazy! I am stunned completely outta my mind on this thing. Just butchered the black pv usa wolf standard to install this thing. Had to dremel/plunge rout about 8th inch the part in the pickup cavity the pick up ears are screwed to a little deeper as this pickup is taller than the wolf's originals.




So damn worth it

I tested it out on the line 6 amp this morning, and even though its not a real amp, it does give a close approximation of whats goin on or gonna happen in my full rig. I am stoked about pluggin in later to the hodacker rig!
Everything I wanted to improve about the 59 such as more pronounced mid honk, harmonics, touch and tap harmonics, touch sensitivity, cleaning up with that volume rolled down while maintaining that sparkle, the big thunk on palm mutes, it all just jumps out so harmonically rich, has that searing burn, its all gone in that direction!!! While losing seemingly nothin I loved about the 59. So far, I am super pleased! But, its gotta be tried on the big stuff and I am worried about uncontrollable feedback, this
thing is super hot light your balls on fire! Totally made the basswood wet paper sack spark to life! I was down on basswood and was thinkin of sellin both wolfs, not now. Totally transformed this guitar completely from what it was.

I have a DSD I purchased a month ago to put in a build. Havn't found a neck yet for the ash body I'm gonna put it in. I have a basswoodbody/maple neck build i was not going to put it in cause I figured the basswood/DSD combo would be muddy. Are you saying that it will not sound muddy? Right now I have a 59' in there.

[rgorke]

Shit the bed & roll around in it like your crazy! I am stunned completely outta my mind on this thing. Just butchered the black pv usa wolf standard to install this thing. Had to dremel/plunge rout about 8th inch the part in the pickup cavity the pick up ears are screwed to a little deeper as this pickup is taller than the wolf's originals.




So damn worth it

I tested it out on the line 6 amp this morning, and even though its not a real amp, it does give a close approximation of whats goin on or gonna happen in my full rig. I am stoked about pluggin in later to the hodacker rig!
Everything I wanted to improve about the 59 such as more pronounced mid honk, harmonics, touch and tap harmonics, touch sensitivity, cleaning up with that volume rolled down while maintaining that sparkle, the big thunk on palm mutes, it all just jumps out so harmonically rich, has that searing burn, its all gone in that direction!!! While losing seemingly nothin I loved about the 59. So far, I am super pleased! But, its gotta be tried on the big stuff and I am worried about uncontrollable feedback, this
thing is super hot light your balls on fire! Totally made the basswood wet paper sack spark to life! I was down on basswood and was thinkin of sellin both wolfs, not now. Totally transformed this guitar completely from what it was.

I have a DSD I purchased a month ago to put in a build. Havn't found a neck yet for the ash body I'm gonna put it in. I have a basswoodbody/maple neck build i was not going to put it in cause I figured the basswood/DSD combo would be muddy. Are you saying that it will not sound muddy? Right now I have a 59' in there.

One sure way to find out...

[planetjimi]

One sure way to find out...

Yes ... LOL I know ... I have so many projects going on. Sometimes it's easier to ask than to take a half hour and do it just to find out you have to reverse it.

[Ed Hunter]

Has anyone compared the Dimarzio Super distortion,Seymour Duncan Distortion and the Gibson 500t,which would be the closest to Eds van halen 1 sound.I did do a experiment with the Gibson 500t I took out the two outter ceramic magnets(the 500t has three ceramic magnets)and kept the center magnet and it really opened up the sound,anyway your thought on the three pickups.

nitro of those the DSD is the closest to the MM1300 which i believe is what was his strat for VH1

[vanhalen5150]

I have a couple of the Gibson 84T's. Must give them a whirl soon.

[rgorke]

I have a couple of the Gibson 84T's. Must give them a whirl soon.

Shannon,

I think you have a couple of everything...

[Tone Slinger]

Gene Simmons knew/knows Larry Dimarzio. Ace and Paul were using those DSD pu's before anybody else. You can HEAR how those pu's kick out a very crunchy and aggressive tone on those early KISS albums. I like how 'Detroit Rock City' represents that stiffer crunching delivery of a loud Marshall with a DSD pu.

[dirtycooter]

That story about Ed borrowin that dudes destroyer and Ed hanging around Kiss , hmmmmmm..... I think things are startin to make some sense.
What year was he hangin out with kiss and when did his boots start soundin like the tone we know?

[dirtycooter]

Plus as another note, when I seen dlr on his own with brian young a few years ago just before the vh reunion, earlier that day you could hear the whole soundcheck downtown muskegon as its was an outdoor summer show. Young was blazin away amazingly and sounded super close to evh, then starts whippin off vai era yankee rose, spot on. When in the show, it was even better up closer that night. And young used the same guitar for the whole show.

[Tone Slinger]

I think Van Halen hung out with Kiss in NY sometime in late Summer/early Fall of '76.

Most people have said that it was the beggining of '77 that Ed started to get that 'SOUND'.

By the Summer of '77, Ed had nailed his brown sound to it's highest level, that he maintained through the first albums recording (mid Sept-early Oct.) up to the 'Nightmare before Halloween' gig at the Pasadena Civic (10/30/77).

By the time of the next gig (12/31/'77),Ed had lost just a LITTLE of something.

Leadguy said it in an earlier thread, which is,, sounded like Ed went to a weaker paf (A5) by the New Years Eve gigs. Ed had previously had a ceramic magnet Mighty Mite or a Dimarzio Super Distortion (the 10/30/77 gig was the last time Ed had that 'peak' tone imo, which was a ceramic magnet humbucker).

[dirtycooter]

Well if kiss was usin super d's back then and knowin young covered vai amazingly well while also doin vh songs mostly then maybe theres a good clue here to what happened. Vai is ceramic mag user for sure. Strangley he was with roth also years ago. Cause I couldn't figure out how young could nail what seems like two different tones outta that one green wayne guitar he was using. You know Ed had to mess with every guitar he could get his hands on and you know damn well if he was hangin out with kiss he was pickin up their axes checkin them out. Look at how curious he was. All the guitars he owns and has demolished lol! Yeah, he jammed on their guitars for sure. And its in that time frame, so maybe now the picture could be gettin clearer.......maybe It was way easier to grab what was layin around back then and would be very much more logical.

[leadguy]

The Super Distortion or Mighty Mite ~14k ceramics have enough output at mid pickup heights to overdrive a plexi circuit like Ed had into Ed's overdrive zone without anything else needed.

The thing about Ed is the pickup heights.

Different pickup heights = different output voltage.

Ed has his Mighty Mite 14k ceramic just above the pickguard ie pretty low and Ed has his PAF just below the strings ie max height.

Now at mid pickup heights the Mighty Mite would be putting out say around 400mv and the PAF say 200mv but seeing that Ed had them at different heights it might be more like the Mighty Mite putting out 350mv and the PAF putting out 250mv so the PAF ends up sounding cleaner but still has enough output to drive the Plexi because it's right up at the strings for max output voltage.

Some of those boots from early 1978 sound cleaner to me and Ed was using the PAF by that time but just because Ed was using the PAF in 1978 doesn't mean he was using it for most of 1977 and then there are the Mighty Mite pickups in photos from early and mid 1977 so VH1 is a Mighty Mite ceramic as far as I'm concerned and in late 1977 Ed changes to the PAF and jacks it up right up to the strings for max output which also points to Ed's amp being basically stock because if it had a cascade or if Ed had a pedal boost then I don't think he would need to jack the PAF right up to the strings.
Jacking the PAF up like that would only be needed for a stock Plexi IMO.

What confuses some people is Ed talking about PAF's in the early interviews about how he thinks they are great and he uses them etc but these interviews start in mid 1978 way past late 1977 when he went to Seymour for his PAF rewind and early PAF's can be 9k or 10k stock so IMO the rewind was to original specs and not wound hotter. Maybe Ed fxxcked up the PAF dickin around with it and went to Seymour for the rewind and Seymour only started advertising rewinds in 1977/78 probably meaning late 1977.

Before all this there are the Ed Mighty Mite photos from early and mid 1977 and at the very least this means that the pickup on the After Zero Warner Bros demos that were recorded around mid 1977 is the Mighty Mite and IMO the Mighty Mite is used for VH1 as well and he went to the PAF in late 1977.