Metropoulos Forum

Dimarzio Super Distortion - purchased 1979 (ish) - first pickup i ever bought - screwed it directly into the body of a JCPenny electrical gueetar i inherited from an older brother.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6179660" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The clip above is the same pickup screwed directly into the body of an el cheap-o Bradley, Flying V - submitted for your scrutinization.

rgalpin wrote:Dimarzio Super Distortion - purchased 1979 (ish) - first pickup i ever bought - screwed it directly into the body of a JCPenny electrical gueetar i inherited from an older brother.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6179660" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The clip above is the same pickup screwed directly into the body of an el cheap-o Bradley, Flying V - submitted for your scrutinization.

Sounds fat, I like the lowend thump of this clip the mids and lows sound great, a little clanky in the highs but sounds good THICK!

Sounds good indeed!

And, just to state the obvious, remember to take out tone controls out of your guitars circuits when evaluating pickups for VH-tone, I learned this the hard way yet again the other day. I have this 83' Kramer Pacer with a tone control I believed was pretty transparent, it wasn't! The Motor City Black Iron humbucker I recently got really came alive doing this.

rgalpin wrote:Dimarzio Super Distortion - purchased 1979 (ish) - first pickup i ever bought - screwed it directly into the body of a JCPenny electrical gueetar i inherited from an older brother.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6179660" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The clip above is the same pickup screwed directly into the body of an el cheap-o Bradley, Flying V - submitted for your scrutinization.

Nice playing there Rob. Great string articulation and the gain sounds pretty close to VH1...maybe a little shy. But you're squeezing every bit of juice outta that rig So the Bassman is driving the gain into the Plexi??

Oh hell yeah Blix, tone control is just something in the way. One has to keep in mind also, Ed wanted maximum mojo and most players if they replaced a pickup didn't take the caveman simple go for the throat like Ed. Those tone control suck up any balls a pickuo will have. The usa pv special and usa standard wolf are great examples as the standard has the tone control and is there fore duller on top. Plus back then if a player did a swap in say like a les paul, they woulda most likely had it all wired back to like stock. Ed didn't want stock, he was out to make some shit different and something new happen by experiment.
That clip posted sounds like all the attack and frequencies are there to me. Did you notice a bump in the mids using this pickup compared to other ones?

rgalpin wrote:Dimarzio Super Distortion - purchased 1979 (ish) - first pickup i ever bought - screwed it directly into the body of a JCPenny electrical gueetar i inherited from an older brother.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6179660" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The clip above is the same pickup screwed directly into the body of an el cheap-o Bradley, Flying V - submitted for your scrutinization.

sounds sweet! not dead on but the little dreamer bit is very telling. a DSD definitely does the VH thing very nicely. In fact, I use super D's in the guitar in my avatar, the one in the bridge position has an A2 magnet and even with my JTM45 clone and some clean boost it can do a VH-esque sound, very dynamic and responsive, lots of gain. 45's are nowhere near the same sound as a 68 100watt obviously and the gain levels are not equal at all. I don't have space to crank it otherwise I would and it would probably have a similar gain level, especially if i moved the pickup closer to the strings as we've seen Ed does. Either way I think the super distortion or any pickup that's similar in spec is a good pickup to use for VH. plus, Ed would certainly be aware of it, as he was obviously aware of KISS and probably knew about Ace using a SD.

Pickup selector tricks anyone?

If the mighty mite distortion was a clone or maybe slightly different or even just cheaper than a SD it makes sense Ed would pick one up and at least try it.

Taking the ceramic magnet out of a Dimarzio super distortion and replacing it with a alnico II magnet is basicly a Duncan Custom Custom SH11.

I recently won a '70's Dimarzio Super Distortion off of eBay. Here's what the seller had listed:

"This is a vintage Dimarzio double creme Super Distortion pickup with mounting ring, screws and springs. The coil is open and there is no reading on the ohm meter. The mounting ring footprint is 90mm by 45mm. There are some scratches on the pup and ring. The lead is 12+ inches long.
There is no reserve for this old pup in need of repair."

The problem is that I didn't notice the part about it being a "repair"! All I saw, naturally, was the suspiciously low price! Typical of my ADD!
Anyway, I ended up being the highest bidder and it was then that I realized that it was a "repair"! Oh well I figured, when I get it I'll just send it out to Kevin Smit and have him fix it. But when it arrived, I took it out and measured on the ohm meter and to my surprise, it read 12.95K! So, I immediately installed it in my "Unchained" replica....


...and guess what? It works fine! In fact, it sounds amazing!

NICE CLONE JIMI! What was the deal with the unchained guitar? was it a charvel he used? and why did he dump it? i always liked the look of it. looks nicer than the frankie after he painted it red/black/white that thing is a clusterf**K!

Marshall SL12301 wrote:NICE CLONE JIMI! What was the deal with the unchained guitar? was it a charvel he used? and why did he dump it? i always liked the look of it. looks nicer than the frankie after he painted it red/black/white that thing is a clusterf**K!

There is a huge long thread on the Unchained Guitar. It may be this thread, but Jimi knows all the scoop.

Marshall SL12301 wrote:NICE CLONE JIMI! What was the deal with the unchained guitar? was it a charvel he used? and why did he dump it? i always liked the look of it. looks nicer than the frankie after he painted it red/black/white that thing is a clusterf**K!

This thread should answer all your questions (and make your head spin ):
http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... ta#p257813" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

jimi22812 wrote:

Marshall SL12301 wrote:NICE CLONE JIMI! What was the deal with the unchained guitar? was it a charvel he used? and why did he dump it? i always liked the look of it. looks nicer than the frankie after he painted it red/black/white that thing is a clusterf**K!

This thread should answer all your questions (and make your head spin ):
http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... ta#p257813" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wow thanks! hey anyone know if this clip is a dsd?
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10396307" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
that sounds amazing if it is!

Marshall SL12301 wrote:

jimi22812 wrote:

Marshall SL12301 wrote:NICE CLONE JIMI! What was the deal with the unchained guitar? was it a charvel he used? and why did he dump it? i always liked the look of it. looks nicer than the frankie after he painted it red/black/white that thing is a clusterf**K!

This thread should answer all your questions (and make your head spin ):
http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... ta#p257813" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wow thanks! hey anyone know if this clip is a dsd?
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10396307" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
that sounds amazing if it is!

Judging from the post date of that clip, I'd say it's the DSD. Mark recently finished an amp for Craig Parker Adams, I believe his is a 69 Metal face Marshall. Craig will dig that amp for sure

efraser68 wrote:
Judging from the post date of that clip, I'd say it's the DSD.

well then looks like i need to try the dsd again!

I just got a old 70 one from ebay early yesterday and agree with everything the OP said in his opening post to this thread.
I never knoew dimarzio changed this model?
I had a newer one(2001-2004?) which sounds NOTHING like VH or my older one i just got and when i read here that everyone thought EVH used this on the 1st record i thought you guys were smoking crack, but then this guy" dirty cooter" posted a clip of peter thorn using a old one and DAYUM!
Other than buying old used ones i wonder if any winders make a clone of these older ones?