DiMarzio : recommend me something, please!

Got a coupon to buy gear from a well-known local guitar shop. Thought about buying me some pups. As they only distribute DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan, and as I already have the (in)famous JB/59 combination on one of my guitars, I've decided to go with something DiMarzio.

Now, these are my tastes: I like strong upper mids, tight lows, good articulation, good attack and good response to dynamics. I used to love the mid-80's Hamer Slammer. The Manlius Fat Diane also does it for me (not too hot, very versatile and clear, focused bass frequencies and great open "voice").

Given these data... which DiMarzio pickup do you think would fit my needs? Would appreciate recommendations for both the bridge and the neck positions.

TIA!

For neck I 100% recommend the Air Norton. It's the best neck humbucker I've ever tried. Can't help you with a bridge p-up. I've been wanting to try out the new Mark Morton Dominion model though.

The Norton Bridge and Air Norton Neck. Only Combo that I've really liked from Dimarzio. Air Norton Neck and Air Zone in the bridge is really good as well and I think you would love that combo. Puts it in your description.

What about the PAF Joe and the PAF Pro? I was looking at their tone charts and I kind of like the idea of pushing the highs a bit:

http://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/humbuckers?view=list

BTW, these guys also distribute Rockfield pickups. They are cheaper. I've never heard anything about them... Well, just saying. I'll stick to the DiMarzios, I guess.

paf pro is a great pick up. my all time Fav bridge pick up from Dimazio is the DP2

The Joe and PAF pro have a sort of annoying cocked wah sound that you either dig, ignore or hate. Kind of cool if you like to have a wah sound without using a wah...

The Mo Joe has sort of rounded highs, less output than you'd think and isn't as compressed as the Norton, Tone Zone, JB and Custom series.

IMHO, DiMarzios magic combination is the AT-1/Bluesbucker combo... of course the Norton/Air Norton is good one but I like a snappier single coil-ish neck pickup and a bridge with a little more compression and expressiveness.

So with you on the Cocked Wah thing. I hate that, its one of the reasons why I didn't like the BBQ it has that sort of thing too.

I have used Norton (bridge), PAF Pro (neck) and Air Classic (neck) with success. I did not care for a Super Distortion because it just didn't have the warmth I was looking for.

I like good attack and good articulation, so I favor compression done by the effect chain and not done at the source. As of the "cocked wah" goes, that might be interesting to me, being Michael Schenker, George Lynch, Wolf Hoffmann and Brian May my "tonal idols". The Joe or the PAF pro are getting my attention, after all you have said.

If you like the JB, the AT pickup might work for you. I haven't tried it, but want to.

Just to muddy the waters...I love the Slammers in my Phantom A5 and A7 and the DiMarzio 36th Anniversaries I put in my Special, while not nearly as hot, have a similar midrange bite and lack of low end rumbliness. Nothing that others don't do...basically hot PAFs but well done IMO.

I find the PAF Joe neck to be similar to the Duncan A2 Pro but with more dynamics. I like it quite a bit in the neck slot of my Mon Elite. I had the Bluesbucker in there which I found to be too bassy. For reference, I think the '59 has the right amount of bass for a neck pickup.

Big fan of the Air Norton, here. Had one in a Diablo that was great.

Air Norton bridge and Bluesbucker neck:

Here's another vote for the Air Norton. I have a 2002 Monaco Elite that I bought used that has Air Nortons in both neck and bridge (appears to be a factory custom order, but that was before COAs), and it's one of my favorites - all positions sound fantastic. They're outstanding pickups and a "best buy" value, too.

Before throwing out a model, I would ask what do you want to change or accentuate in the guitar you're putting these in?

Just as an example, I have a Jackson PC-1. It comes with a Super 3 in the bridge. This guitar is pretty well balanced acoustically, but the Super 3 rolls off the highs and made it sound dark. I put a Suhr Aldrich in the PC-1 and it woke it right up.

I have an '87 Set Neck Chappy thats very alive and bright. The Hamer Slammer in this guitar was also bright. Shrill would be a good word to describe it. I put the Super 3 in the Chap and it transformed that guitar into a thick meaty tone monster!!! Still plenty of high end too.

The pickups you choose should be considered for the quitar your putting them in. They will not sound the same from one guitar to the next...

I should point out that my baseline is set by my Peavey Wolfgang with stock pickups (Why on earth would anyone change them? /emoticons/default_smile.png ). My amp and effects are all set for that guitar. So the PC-1 and Chap were very different then the Wolfie. I could have easily set the amp so those guitars sounded fine, but I'm trying to get everything to sound similar to the Wolfie...

I liked the Dimarzio PAF Pro (neck) & Norton (bridge) pickups I had installed in my '95 Studio. Great combination for the sound I was after. I'm enjoying the Air Norton/HS-2/Tone Zone on my Diablo II. I also had a pair of PAF Pros & Fast Track I on an '93 Ibanez RG-570 that sounded quite good. You can't go wrong with Dimarzio pickups.

Guitar George