How Larry DiMarzio’s pickup revolution defined the sound of 1970s guitar rock

[gtr31]

Evidently Ed didn’t like the stock Super Distortion as he swapped the stock ceramic magnet for an A2 from a real PAF. Makes sense for the more open, bright and articulate tone he got. I think that’s where Sean at Pariah pickups got the idea for his Pasadena Black pickup he offers. Around 14K with an A2 magnet.

I am not sure if he went to Alnico 2 later. Rumour is the MM pickup was a de guessed Alnico 5 , Ed had a broken underpowered JB that h loved and the music man was to emulate that
Jim DeCola who worked at Peavey said Ed never used A2
The Peavey Wolfgang was an A5
The Fender Wolfgang was the same pickup
Jim said he could not copy the Dimarzio so he did a few things to get that A2 like qualities but he insists all the pickups were pretty much the same and always A5 variations

 

[Kelly]

I am not sure if he went to Alnico 2 later. Rumour is the MM pickup was a de guessed Alnico 5 , Ed had a broken underpowered JB that h loved and the music man was to emulate that
Jim DeCola who worked at Peavey said Ed never used A2
The Peavey Wolfgang was an A5
The Fender Wolfgang was the same pickup
Jim said he could not copy the Dimarzio so he did a few things to get that A2 like qualities but he insists all the pickups were pretty much the same and always A5 variations

The alnico 2 story comes from EVH using a Duncan Custom Custom in the neck of his MM prototype, according to Dimarzio.
https://www.dimarzio.com/story/remembering-edward-van-halen

 

[JohnnyGtar]

I am not sure if he went to Alnico 2 later. Rumour is the MM pickup was a de guessed Alnico 5 , Ed had a broken underpowered JB that h loved and the music man was to emulate that
Jim DeCola who worked at Peavey said Ed never used A2
The Peavey Wolfgang was an A5
The Fender Wolfgang was the same pickup
Jim said he could not copy the Dimarzio so he did a few things to get that A2 like qualities but he insists all the pickups were pretty much the same and always A5 variations

The black Frankie (Made by Duncan) pickup and American Wolfgang pickups that Fender sells to the public have A2 magnets. However, Ed's signature guitar has an A3 magnet in the neck position and I've never seen an A3 Wolfgang neck pickup from Fender/EVH that's available to the public.

I forget which our members talked about this, but they said that Ed had MJ at Duncan whip up 15 sets of special pickups for the last VH tour and that he (one of our members) scored a duplicate set of those pickups. I have no idea what magnets are in those. Could that member chime in?

Apologies for my crappy grammar.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

I am not sure if he went to Alnico 2 later. Rumour is the MM pickup was a de guessed Alnico 5 , Ed had a broken underpowered JB that h loved and the music man was to emulate that
Jim DeCola who worked at Peavey said Ed never used A2
The Peavey Wolfgang was an A5
The Fender Wolfgang was the same pickup
Jim said he could not copy the Dimarzio so he did a few things to get that A2 like qualities but he insists all the pickups were pretty much the same and always A5 variations

The Explorer copy / shark guitar which the first few albums was used had Maxon Japan A8 humbuckers. I had a 70's Greco LPC
that had the same pups.
Very unique sounding. But almost every pic of that guitar i see has a different pickup.

 

[gtr31]

The black Frankie (Made by Duncan) pickup and American Wolfgang pickups that Fender sells to the public have A2 magnets. However, Ed's signature guitar has an A3 magnet in the neck position and I've never seen an A3 Wolfgang neck pickup from Fender/EVH that's available to the public.

I forget which our members talked about this, but they said that Ed had MJ at Duncan whip up 15 sets of special pickups for the last VH tour and that he (one of our members) scored a duplicate set of those pickups. I have no idea what magnets are in those. Could that member chime in?

Apologies for my crappy grammar.

My theory and could be totally false
Is the Dimarzio “Air” came from that study of the broken JB and Ed
Basically the “air “ gave the A5 less string pull and is underpowered
Jim DeCola at peavey had to get that same tone but the problem is Air was actually a physical bar under the magnet to weaken and Dimarzio had a patent that they could easily prove , So DeCola had to get that same tone and underpowered A5 without using the patented AIR tech
To this day I suspect the MM bridge
Is closest to AirZone or Airnorton
Or another air variant that EBMM had rights too

 

[70 Mach 1]

I know a gentleman that loves Dimarzio, he owns an old guitar shop in STL. "Best thing that ever happened, guys coming in and wanting the Dimarzios, I had drawers full of PAF's!"

your friend speaks the truth. right after i bought this beast in 1980 I tossed the stock T Tops in the trash. Yes in the goddamn trash.
only Dimarzios SDs were cool with the 10th grade jammers

I was never crazy about them until recently when i defied logic. I had them way down low about 8/64ths
it was my first soldering hack job ever. they nostalgic to me so i never changed them out

recently I tried them both up closer to about 3/64ths and they woke up and shine

they play just as well clean as they do with dirt.

also the Low strings are not misaligned. the bridgee was busted/warped and I changed it a while back

 

[JohnnyGtar]

My theory and could be totally false
Is the Dimarzio “Air” came from that study of the broken JB and Ed
Basically the “air “ gave the A5 less string pull and is underpowered
Jim DeCola at peavey had to get that same tone but the problem is Air was actually a physical bar under the magnet to weaken and Dimarzio had a patent that they could easily prove , So DeCola had to get that same tone and underpowered A5 without using the patented AIR tech
To this day I suspect the MM bridge
Is closest to AirZone or Airnorton
Or another air variant that EBMM had rights too

I know Steve Blucher. He retired from DiMarzio a couple of years ago. Back in the late 90's he asked me to send him my Peavey Wolfgang pickups so that he could check 'em out. He sent my pickups back and also gave me an Air Zone (bridge) and an Air Norton (neck). Those DiMarzios made my Wolfgang sound amazing. I had the Wolfgang with the carved maple top. Thanks for sharing what Jim did for Ed's pickups! I think the Air Zone and Air Norton are the closest to the MM, too.

 

[Floyd Eye]

I know a gentleman that loves Dimarzio, he owns an old guitar shop in STL. "Best thing that ever happened, guys coming in and wanting the Dimarzios, I had drawers full of PAF's!"

Which old guy is that ? Maplewood ?

 

[japetus]

Which old guy is that ? Maplewood ?

Mike @Acme

 

[matttornado]

I have a DiMarzio 36th anniversary bridge pickup that sounds thin and weak in my 1980 LP Standard, 1984 Explorer and Superstrats. It's a dud for me.
I also have a vintage 70s super distortion and a 90s era one. They are much better & sound pretty awesome in my LP but kinda thin in all of my other guitars.

I like Semour Duncan JBs better as they sound fuller to me in all my guitars.

 

[japetus]

So, he stole the PAFs from the customers who got their pickups replaced with DiMarzio's? He didn't give the original pickups he took out back to his costumers? Wow! That's pretty bad.

No, they didn't want them. It was a lighthearted insightful joke/observation about how how popular Dimarzios were at the time and didn't want the PAF's anymore and wanted the new "hot thing"....but now those PAF's are worth a fortune. I am sure he gave them back if they wanted them. But thanks for turning a simple comment into some strange, underhanded shit.

 

[AKMlarry]

Everyone had super distortion pickups back in the day.

 

[jabps]

“Gibson had lost the recipe — not only for guitar building but for making pickups based on their original design.” How Larry DiMarzio’s pickup revolution defined the sound of 1970s guitar rock​

https://www.guitarplayer.com/makers/larry-dimarzio-the-super-distortion-pickup

When Dimarzio said he worked in a "guitar lab", that was literally the name of the business. The Guitar Lab was run by Charles LoBue. Dimarzio worked for him doing setups and other work, they had a big box of dead pickups and Charles asked Larry if he could get them to working. Considering he had an electronics major that was his first foray into pickups. Notable for Charles LoBue is he built Paul Stanley and Genes custom guitars and where they first ran into Dimarzio and became friends. Paul had two guitars built and the bass Gene used was used up until he switch to custom Spector basses. Paul and Ace were two of the very first people to get Larry's pickups. They've been with him pretty much since.

 

[JohnnyGtar]

When Dimarzio said he worked in a "guitar lab", that was literally the name of the business. The Guitar Lab was run by Charles LoBue. Dimarzio worked for him doing setups and other work, they had a big box of dead pickups and Charles asked Larry if he could get them to working. Considering he had an electronics major that was his first foray into pickups. Notable for Charles LoBue is he built Paul Stanley and Genes custom guitars and where they first ran into Dimarzio and became friends. Paul had two guitars built and the bass Gene used was used up until he switch to custom Spector basses. Paul and Ace were two of the very first people to get Larry's pickups. They've been with him pretty much since.

Thanks for that information, bro. I appreciate it.

 

[311boogieman]

I like the SD Custom Custom in my LP Goldtop.

Yeah - it is a great pickup imo

My Super Distortion is sitting in a box

 

[DiMarzio Media]

Evidently Ed didn’t like the stock Super Distortion as he swapped the stock ceramic magnet for an A2 from a real PAF. Makes sense for the more open, bright and articulate tone he got. I think that’s where Sean at Pariah pickups got the idea for his Pasadena Black pickup he offers. Around 14K with an A2 magnet.

Checked in with Larry DiMarzio, and this probably isn't accurate. On a regular basis, Ed said misleading things, and even played with his back to the audience early on, because he did not want people to see what he was doing. Swapping an alnico magnet into the Super Distortion would not give you the results you are describing. In the shootout performed by Pete Thorn, his conclusion was that Ed did use a Super Distortion.

 

[DiMarzio Media]

Always liked DiMarzio's. Went through an EMG phase back in the late '80s / early '90s.

I have a guitar with a X2N; I updated a guitar this year with a set of DiMarzio D Activator-X.

I have a few Jackson Rhoads with Duncan Blackouts which I like too; these are stock pickups in the guitar.

I may update a Jackson Warrior with a set of D Activator-X. Also thought about a current Petrucci set (Rainmaker & Dreamcatcher) for something different. Haven't decided yet.

I heard Gene Simmons knew Larry DiMarzio before they were famous, introduced Paul to Larry, and Paul and Ace used DiMarzio's in the '70s maybe longer...surprised to see the current PS-10 and PS-120 with Duncan's...though I like these too. IIRC, Ace used Super Distortion and PAF in the '70s...I may do a set of these too, but need the right guitar for them.

Gene and Larry went to college together, and played music together for a short period of time. Larry was invited into the band Wicked Lester, but decided not to join. Larry introduced Gene and Paul to the Guitar Lab, where he was working at the time, and the original LoBue guitar connection came because of Larry. DiMarzio lost touch with Paul Stanley quite some time ago, however we are working with his son Evan. Larry says he has nothing but good feelings and respect for Paul, and would love to have him back as a DiMarzio endorser if the occasion arises.

 

[DiMarzio Media]

When Dimarzio said he worked in a "guitar lab", that was literally the name of the business. The Guitar Lab was run by Charles LoBue. Dimarzio worked for him doing setups and other work, they had a big box of dead pickups and Charles asked Larry if he could get them to working. Considering he had an electronics major that was his first foray into pickups. Notable for Charles LoBue is he built Paul Stanley and Genes custom guitars and where they first ran into Dimarzio and became friends. Paul had two guitars built and the bass Gene used was used up until he switch to custom Spector basses. Paul and Ace were two of the very first people to get Larry's pickups. They've been with him pretty much since.

Thank you for clarifying that the Guitar lab was the name of the business, many people confuse this. And thank you for reading the story! Gene and Larry actually went to college together, and played music together for a short period of time. Larry was invited into the band Wicked Lester, but decided not to join. Larry's keyboard player, Brooke Ostrander did join at that time. Larry introduced Gene and Paul to the Guitar Lab, where he was working at the time, and the original LoBue guitar connection with them came because of that. DiMarzio lost touch with Paul Stanley quite some time ago, however we are working with his son Evan. Larry says he has nothing but good feelings and respect for Paul, and would love to have him back as a DiMarzio endorser if the occasion arises.

 

[DiMarzio Media]

No, they didn't want them. It was a lighthearted insightful joke/observation about how how popular Dimarzios were at the time and didn't want the PAF's anymore and wanted the new "hot thing"....but now those PAF's are worth a fortune. I am sure he gave them back if they wanted them. But thanks for turning a simple comment into some strange, underhanded shit.

No, they didn't want them. It was a lighthearted insightful joke/observation about how how popular Dimarzios were at the time and didn't want the PAF's anymore and wanted the new "hot thing"....but now those PAF's are worth a fortune. I am sure he gave them back if they wanted them. But thanks for turning a simple comment into some strange, underhanded shit.

Regarding the comment that this is in response to: Originally (early 70s), DiMarzio re-wound pickups. In other words, you gave him your pickup, and he rebuilt it. Once Larry started producing the DiMarzio line, if he took out pickups and replaced them, they were always returned. For example, Larry replaced all of the original pickups in Rick Derringer's 1958 Explorer (V head) and Rick's original late 50s Les Paul. Rick told Larry to keep those pickups because he didn't want them, but Larry insisted on putting them in the guitar case inside of string packaging envelopes, saying that if you ever sell the guitar you want to be able to have the original pickups included, because they were vintage guitars (so you can return them to stock). Furthermore, in order to distinguish DiMarzio pickups from Gibson pickups, DiMarzio used circular holes instead of square holes so that a DiMarzio pickup could never be confused with a Gibson pickup. DiMarzio used a distinct color of cream, as opposed to the limited number of Gibson pickups that were off-white under their metal covers.

 

[DiMarzio Media]

I know Steve Blucher. He retired from DiMarzio a couple of years ago. Back in the late 90's he asked me to send him my Peavey Wolfgang pickups so that he could check 'em out. He sent my pickups back and also gave me an Air Zone (bridge) and an Air Norton (neck). Those DiMarzios made my Wolfgang sound amazing. I had the Wolfgang with the carved maple top. Thanks for sharing what Jim did for Ed's pickups! I think the Air Zone and Air Norton are the closest to the MM, too.

Steve Blucher is actually still works part time with the company (for the last 10 years). He continues to work on pickup design and answers a significant amount of emails!