One thing Ive noticed about Seymour Duncan>Dimarzios.......

Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios

  • Seymour Duncan

    Votes: 18 54.5%
  • Dimarzio

    Votes: 10 30.3%
  • Other

    Votes: 5 15.2%

  • Total voters
    33
Honestly EMGs aren't half bad IMO.
I have three 81/85 sets, it's a classic for a reason. I also love their SA single coils.

EMG's active tone controls are awesome too. I've got the SPC mid boost and AB220 volume boost in my Strat with Lace Sensor pickups, and I can get some seriously raunchy tones out of it.

I dig EMG's idiot-proof solderless hookup too, you can just drop in new pickups and tone controls with no hassle. Head and shoulders over Gibson's pcb crap IMO.
 
Both make cool pickups, but I tend to prefer Duncans. DiMarzio pickups have a "sound" to them. Sometimes I like that sound, but most of the time I don't. I find that Duncans let more of the actual guitar's voice come through.
 
I favor Duncans. The thing that gets me with DiMarzio is that I feel like they release a new pickup every 3 months. Not saying that's bad at all but there's so many offerings that it can get confusing.
 
I mean in general I wouldnt be surprised if you actually have heard more hit singles and bigger hits on music with Seymour Duncans instead of Dimarzios.......

You probably hear Seymour Duncans more than not relative to Dimarzios in real music that is popular, sells and makes money.


Its not just a WestCoast thing and they just sound right, familiar and what they are supposed to sound like good and proper.
 
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A variation of a Duncan is usually my go to or what I would probably recommend for most high gain applications. Consistency and $, for the most part.
That said; my personal favorite pickups (as in found the best bridge pickup for the guitar, ymmv) are PRS \m/, Duncan Nazgul, Railhammer Chisel, Burstbucker 2/3, Classic 57. The young me would have been all over 500T, Super Distortions, and Invaders. I would probably still leave those in a guitar that came with them if they were paired properly, but wouldn't seek them out.
Ima bit of a basic dude but honestly the Seymour Duncan SSL1 sets are amazing and the JB/59 combo is more than enough for me. Its just bread and butter stuff :dunno:


And yes Gibson Burstbucker 2/3 for the win and extra love for 490R & 498T *_*
 
A lot of love for Seymour Duncans here and well first time I ever got any real compliments from a crowd was with Seymour Duncans......

People thought it was the amp or pedals or the guitar but being real a lot of it was the Seymour Duncans.


Also jamming with others from player to player definitely get praise for the Gibson pups and how they sound and Burstbucker 2/3 sound amazing on their own but in a band context its just magic stuff. Probably those compliments from other real players and not just dudes playing acoustic or whatever who wear Fedoras carry more weight than anything.


Mainly its just that "sound in your head vibes"...... and it just does it right for me and maybe there is better but Im more than happy with Seymour Duncans and its nothing fancy but they get the job done.
 
A lot of love for Seymour Duncans here and well first time I ever got any real compliments from a crowd was with Seymour Duncans......

People thought it was the amp or pedals or the guitar but being real a lot of it was the Seymour Duncans.


Also jamming with others from player to player definitely get praise for the Gibson pups and how they sound and Burstbucker 2/3 sound amazing on their own but in a band context its just magic stuff.
If it had been equipped with DiMarzios, you would've had bras and panties flying up at you all night and you would've taken no less than 9 girls home.
 
If it had been equipped with DiMarzios, you would've had bras and panties flying up at you all night and you would've taken no less than 9 girls home.
Now I need to try another 7 string DiMarzio pickup! Which one LOL!
 
If it had been equipped with DiMarzios, you would've had bras and panties flying up at you all night and you would've taken no less than 9 girls home.
Right on maybe it is the pups or maybe its not and I have no doubt Dimarzios are sick for others too but just feel at home with the Seymour Duncans.

It was pretty nice many dudes complimented the Charvel, Princeton Reverb and pedals......

Came back a few days later and received the same compliments for the Princeton Reverb and pedals..... problem was I didnt bring any of that this time and all I had used was a Rolang Micro Cube and a different Charvel but with the same Seymour Duncan set. Tone is in the fingers of course but yeah whatever you pick Duncan or Dimarzio the pups play a bigger role than I thought or I cared to think before that.
 
Here’s a question for you Dimarzio Evoluion guys.

I played one of the newer Indo Jems not long ago (not the Jem Jr but the Jem with gold hardware, without the scalloping on the highest 4 frets) and the bridge humbucker sounded really strange, like the wiring was messed up maybe? It sounded like it was either in just single coil mode or maybe parallel singles mode, like the lows had plenty of body and squish like you’d expect, but the highest resonant frequencies were way high up there, almost in single coil territory. Very sparkly and “delicate” sounding in a way I didn’t expect a humbucker to sound. It was also quite a bit more noisy than the neck humbucker, which was almost totally noiseless even under a good amount of gain.

Is that just how Evolution bridge humbuckers sound?
 
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I favor Duncans. The thing that gets me with DiMarzio is that I feel like they release a new pickup every 3 months. Not saying that's bad at all but there's so many offerings that it can get confusing.
I find their branding is pretty crap too (hilarious given how much emphasis Larry puts on his trademarked product names).

Like, they offer the 36th Anniversary PAF, the PAF Pro, the PAF Master, the PAF 59 and the PAF 57. None of these names are indicative of what the differences between the actual pickups are.
 
Here’s a question for you Dimarzio Evoluion guys.

I played one of the newer Indo Jems not long ago (not the Jem Jr but the Jem with gold hardware, without the scalloping on the highest 4 frets) and the bridge humbucker sounded really strange, like the wiring was messed up maybe? It sounded like it was either in just single coil mode or maybe parallel singles mode, like the lows had plenty of body and squish like you’d expect, but the highest resonant frequencies were way high up there, almost in single coil territory. Very sparkly and “delicate” sounding in a way I didn’t expect a humbucker to sound. It was also quite a bit more noisy than the neck humbucker, which was almost totally noiseless even under a good amount of gain.

Is that just how Evolution bridge humbuckers sound?
I have an Evolution in the bridge of a superstrat of mine and sounds like a normal humbucker, just a hot one that sounds to have a bit more presence/treble to it than others, but also clear enough to let you know you just missed a note.
 
I've been quite happy with models from both brands, at least once they've found the right host. Many times I've picked wrong and then eventually found the right host. That has mostly been with pickup models for which it was my first time trying it.
 
Never been a DiMarzio guy, too much mids and not enough bite for me. With that said, I stick with Duncans unless I find a better deal for the price, as Duncans aren't that special as well (at least most of them are not). I had luck with some Suhr pickups, Schecter, EVH and some custom handwound made here.
 
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