DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAF's vrs the real thing

[yngwie308]

Normally I don't care that much for Paul Riario's reviews, he reminds me of that dude on Supercars Exposed on the speed Channel, Tanner Foust.. , but an interesting comparison side by side with Larry D's '59.............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbgUMqUMns" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Opinions may vary..
yngwie308

[fillmore nyc]

Mucho cool-o!! Thanks for posting that, Dave. Very interesting comparison. How they would compare to WCR's or a pickup of THAT caliber would be really interesting.
The DiMarzios sound "nice", and in comparison to the actual '59, well... the '59 seems to have more frequencies open than the Dim's, but that sure has a lot to do with the guitars wood. Played unplugged, the difference in those 2 guitars is pretty substantial.
I would love to hear clips of those pickups compared to actual PAF's in the same guitar. Much more accurate comparo, IMO.

Normally I don't care that much for Paul Riario's reviews, he reminds me of that dude on Supercars Exposed on the speed Channel, Tanner Foust.

He DOES remind me of Faust, come to think of it. That episode where he tested that Benz while simultaneously going out on a date with that smokin' blonde was almost embarrassing. He's talking about cars, and she's sitting there looking like a Playboy model. I woulda shut the cam's off pronto and found an appropriate place to park... like my driveway.
/

[yngwie308]

Yes that's right Fill, I saw that episode..twice and the name given for the girl is Lori Krohn or similar, which on a search leads nowhere. In fact Mr. Foust strikes me as somewhat,...erm..you know.. . That was a heady show and it was hard to determine which was more smokin', the Benz or the blonde.. .
Yeah the pickup comparison needed to be in the same guitar, I don't know how Larry DiMarzio feels about using his '59 as a test mule though!!
It is quite dramatic how much louder the old wood is in comparison to the new wood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxZho2J2qos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Here you go..............................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS31kURDXJ4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lggHSjTt ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If this isn't an adolescent fantasy.."exposed"..
yngwie308

[Gaetano]

It's an impression of mine or the burs is twice as loud as the reissue?

Moreover it hase more bite and highs, there's no comparison IMHO. A comparison like that is not ok for his sellings imho

[SandovalPDV]

I have a set of those in one of my guitars. I think they are a great pickups I found they had a very wide round tone very balanced and sensitive to pick attack. The set I have is not covered so it has a little bite to it not like the covered ones. I have an 85 les paul custom with the original PAF's that came in it and the dimarzio's have a bit more bite and slightly higher output but I bet that has to do with the gibson paf's being covered. I like them and will have no prob using them again.

[bluze81]

To say that the RI guitar is in the ball park in tone to the orig, 59 is reaching, Larry D makes great products but he should keep that real 59 put away when comparing..

[fillmore nyc]

To say that the RI guitar is in the ball park in tone to the orig, 59 is reaching, Larry D makes great products but he should keep that real 59 put away when comparing..

True. I guess he wants people to know that his new pickup is somewhat comparable to a PAF, but to put them side by side with PAF's in an actual '59 LP tilts the playing field too much right from the get-go.
Its like Yngwie308 said... he's NOT gonna donate that '59 as a test mule, ripping out the pickups to do a REAL side by side comparo, but Im sure he could have gotten a set of actual PAF's from somewhere (even temporarily donated just for this test) and used the reissue as his lab rat. THAT would have yielded more accurate results, IMO.

I have a set of those in one of my guitars. I think they are a great pickups I found they had a very wide round tone very balanced and sensitive to pick attack.

Would you mind if I asked how much you paid for them? Im curious if they are more or less than a set of WCR's, or some other high end pickup.

EDIT!! Never mind. I found them on eBay for around $70-80 each? Does that sound about right? Pretty inexpensive for a pickup that sounds as nice as that. I wonder how they'd compare to a set of WCR Darkbursts, Crossroads, or Fillmore's ( ) though. (In the same guitar this time).

[Flames1950]

Are these pickups really any different than the "PAF" DiMarzio has been offering forever, or is the "36th Anniversary" just a marketing ploy? The price is not much different than the standard DiMarzio PAF has been selling for, at $70-$80.........
I've had a few eighties DiMarzio "PAF" pickups around over the years, only have one left -- they're a servicable pickup but nothing really special. I'd take 'em over most newer Gibson buckers I guess.

[fillmore nyc]

Are these pickups really any different than the "PAF" DiMarzio has been offering forever, or is the "36th Anniversary" just a marketing ploy? The price is not much different than the standard DiMarzio PAF has been selling for, at $70-$80.........
I've had a few eighties DiMarzio "PAF" pickups around over the years, only have one left -- they're a servicable pickup but nothing really special. I'd take 'em over most newer Gibson buckers I guess.

I wondered the same thing about how different they might be. And I agree that DiMarzio's other PAF's are "serviceable" ( ), but not much more than that. I dont even know if I'd take 'em over Gibsons burstbuckers... the BB seem to at least have some character to them. The DiM's seem kinda flat and lifeless to me. I guess they must have done something different to these 36 Anniversary pup's. They did sound better than what I'd call serviceable, thats for sure, but really only achieved about 75% of the mojo of the actual PAF's, IMO.
Plus, though that '59 no doubt sounded real good, I wouldnt mind comparing it to a '58-'60 LP that has been deemed as great. We all know how different PAF's can be in different guitars, so who's to say his is an optimum example of a '59? A guy I know has a '59 that quite frankly sounds like shit... very thin, no balls at all.

[Flames1950]

I know. The '59 ES335 my buddy's dad had has been gone long enough that I can remember the clarity, string definition and overall brightness, but not much else that may or may not have been great about those pickups. Can't remember anymore if they had a nice harmonic "swirl" content, and of course they may have sounded better in the brighter 335 than they might have in a Les Paul.

And listening to DiMarzio's '59, the neck pickup tone of the pickups I'm already using compares more favorably than I thought. His '59 doesn't seem to have the spank on the top end that I was listening for on the neck pickup -- my guitars may have more snap!

[F#m7]

To be honest, I disliked both of 'em.

[jcm800nut]

Interesting video. I have the paf 36th anniv bridge and neck p/u's. I like the bridge pickup alot with an alnico8 magnet, mine measured 8.2k though, quite a bit off their 8.6k listed dcres. It has a trippy bloom to it especially with the original alnico5 and a cool raspy sound with the aln8. The neck version, it is just the same old dimarzio paf that they always had, kinda plain sounding.

It's funny, but dimarzio's original '59 as recorded in this video sounds much more like the tone I get from my gibson burstbucker 2 pickup, almost a dead ringer, it sounds much more like this original '59 does in this vid than the dimarzio clone anyways, heh heh. In fact, the two guitars in this vid don't really sound very much alike at all, oddly enough considering the intent of this video, I'm guessing.

[T.L.]

I know this is an old thread, but I just now noticed it.
It's interesting how the original '59 sounds so much better than the reissue...