Vintage DiMarzio Super Distortion or Mighty Mite 1300 Tonal Characteristics?

  • Thread starter Thread starter scottosan
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Got a surprise Sunday delivery of my brass baseplates. The change in tone was not subtle. It's exactly as I suspected. More low mids and less highs, but without losing the grind. Now it has as much low-end as the SD, but holds together and feels better. Mid content is more abundant and musical. Can't wait to try the MM1300
 
I've always felt Larry's preference for brass baseplates had a lot to do with the vowel tone that's a hallmark of so many DiMarzio models.
 
eclecticsynergy said:
I've always felt Larry's preference for brass baseplates had a lot to do with the vowel tone that's a hallmark of so many DiMarzio models.
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The most expensive parts of a pickup are the wire and the baseplates. Larry has done good with a good portion of his catalog using cheaper parts. Even many of his neck pickups use the same amount of winds as a PAF, but with smaller/cheaper wire. Not a knock on his pickups, because his designs accounted for a accommodated for these differences. I've been against brass baseplates, but after working with the new hex poles, I can now hear the benefit of using them to compensate.
 
I spent some time last night with the Super D, Mighty Mite 1300 and the prototype

The SD is an 80s, and is potted. The MM1300 is microphonic, making it difficult to a/b at all volume and gain levels. As such, I've had to resort to my ToneX for the higher gain settings.
I agree the the MM is tighter than the Super D. While similar in spec, the MM does sound a little bit hotter. It's hard to describe but while the overall characteristics between the 2 have quite a bit of similarities, the SD has a bit of dryness in some frequencies that I feel lacks some musicality, specifically in the mids and the single high notes don't seem as fat.

Next was the prototype vs the MM1300. The MM seems like it has a little more mids and slight hotter in the mids. The feel and the lows are really close. The proto has more mids than the SD, less than the MM, but to my ears I like the string to string clarity of the proto the best. As for highs it's close, the MM seems to have a touch more highs and lows on single high notes. Again, real close and I need to spend more time here and the A/B comparisons were done in 2 different guitars, so I need to remove that variable. I did some recording last night that I'll post in a bit, but already, really close tones in a poplar/maple setup vs alder/roasted maple. I'll swap the pickups and get recordings through the ToneX of the pickups in the same guitar
 
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