WTT: 1980 Dimarzio bridge PAF for 1980ish Hamer neck PAF

[Jakeboy]

I have a matching creme set of 1980 Dimarzio triangular feet PAFs that I bought from RobB here. 

The neck pup is identical to the bridge and clocks in at 7.62K.  This pickup is marked Dimarzio. I'd like to swap my cream PAF for a zebra or not 1980ish Hamer Dimarzio neck PAF as these were underwound a bit. This would restore my Checkerboard Special to stock.  My PAF can be used in either position and it does sound awesome. I know I will like a slightly underwound PAF better.

Looks good too as you can see below.

Let me know if you have one to trade. If not, no biggie as I love the way she looks and sounds!

 

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd432/revelmark/d363a11b5a3a8cd8205a6c431aad8d17.jpg[/IMG]

 

[Jakeboy]

No one has a late 70s/early 80s Dimarzio/Hamer neck pup that they would swap for a killin' 1980 Dimarzio bridge pup?

[Disturber]

I am not sure I get what you are saying? You have a neck pup already that reads 7.62 Kohm, but you want something that reads lower?

The 70's Dimarzio's varied in strength. As the 80's came the standard DP103 were usually slightly under 8 K even for the bridge version. The OEM Hamer PAF's were usually hotter. The Hamer paf's were usually over 8 K for the bridge. I have a 78-79 from a 4-digit that is over 9K. So they varied.

The Hamer neck version varied too. I have neck versions that reads from 8.49 K to 7.50 K. Your 7.62 K PAF would in my book be perfect for the neck position. It does not matter ever if it originally came from the bridge in some guitar, they are the same pickups so it would do fine in the neck too.

As most Hamer neck pickups I have seen varies between high 7K's to mid 8K's I'd say that going much lower than 7.62 would move it away from the output of an original OEM Dimarzio Hamer DP103 Paf. Just use what you have and you'll be find.

Bridge or neck, they sound the same in either position. Just adjust the he height of the pickups to match. And USE the screw poles too. These pickups can be finky in how the sound. They can be bright if not adjusted correctly. In some guitars they have been so bright on the high E and B strings that I mag swapped them for A2's, which made them absolutely killer in those guitars. Much better than putting in another brand of pickups.

[kizanski]

You're going to have to throw in cash for a Hamer zebra neck pickup. 

It's not a straight up trade situation. 

[Jakeboy]

Are the neck pups from that era harder to find?

Adding some $$ to the mix is not a problem. 

[atomicwash]

You could also see if Josh would rewind your original pup to your specified resistance.

[Jakeboy]

27 minutes ago, atomicwash said:

You could also see if Josh would rewind your original pup to your specified resistance.

Now THERE"S an idea! Thanks AW!

Does anyone know what the original resistance/Henries was on the late 70s-early 80s neck pups? I know they were underwound a bit, probably for clarity.....

[kizanski]

1 hour ago, Jakeboy said:

Are the neck pups from that era harder to find?

Absolutely.

No rhyme or reason to it, but it's the way it is.

[Jakeboy]

1 hour ago, kizanski said:

Absolutely.

No rhyme or reason to it, but it's the way it is.

Considering each guitar came with one of each, that's kinda bizarre.....I love the bridge PAF tone...lots of rasp and snarl. Bright too. Some people don't like that.

maybe the necks are rarely seen for sale because the sound so damn good?

[kizanski]

Just now, Jakeboy said:

Considering each guitar came with one of each, that's kinda bizarre.....I love the bridge PAF tone...lots of rasp and snarl. Bright too. Some people don't like that.

maybe the necks are rarely seen for sale because the sound so damn good?

Larry DiMarzio made a shit ton of money selling (and patenting) double creme pickups.

I would wager that somewhere along the line thousands of people pulled the zebra pickup in favor of the double creme.

Because it was the '80's and that was the law.

[Disturber]

18 hours ago, Jakeboy said:

Now THERE"S an idea! Thanks AW!

Does anyone know what the original resistance/Henries was on the late 70s-early 80s neck pups? I know they were underwound a bit, probably for clarity.....

Like I wrote above your 7.62Kohm pickup is right in the ballpark for where the Hamer neck paf were in output.

It seems they varied, some as high as over 8 Kohm, but mostly it seems around 7,5 Kohm, give or take.

There is no need to re-wire that pickup. Just use it as it is. Or try to find a zebra version. That is a pain though, and will cost you at least 100 $, probably more.

[Jakeboy]

Disturber,  I somehow missed your first post in this thread. That was the info I was looking for. I dig the way both both pups sound. I like bright and that they are. Gives a good contrast to my other buckered guitar. These are vintage pups and though I am certain Josh could do a great job, I have decided to not have it rewound. 

The set is killer as is. I had read about Hamer neck pups being underwound in the early 80s..pre-Slammer.....I know that can often work wonders for a neck pup...but so can adjusting the overall height and the screw poles themselves. Zebra would be cool, but if there is not a noticeable difference tone,  then this thread is done.

[velorush]

I'll throw in another curve on this done thread.  Here's my '80 Special as it came to me:

Completely jacked up! Right? I thought, "who in their right mind would have committed such a blasphemy!?" I quickly changed the pickups back to the "right" orientation:

Sounded much worse by comparison. The zebra pickup turned out to be the darker of the two (and a little higher in DC resistance than the bridge). The double cream was too bright for the bridge position. Whoever changed the pickups before I bought it was in their right mind! Changed them back and it sounded brilliant again.

 

A theory on the premium pricing commanded by zebra pickups relative cream:

Have a look at this Hamer pickup from the Special:

And another from that era:

This one looks identical on the bottom as the first one. This pickup was originally out of an Aria Pro. Mr. DiMarzio produced OEM pickups like these for many brands and almost every one I ever saw (other than in the neck position of a Hamer) were double cream. Did DiMarzio make zebra pickups for anyone else? No idea (but I'm sure others do and hopefully will chime in), but from what I can tell, the supply of double cream pickups appears to vastly outweigh the supply of zebra pickups, and thus the premium in zebra price. [/theory].

 

[Armitage]

Wasn't Dean the first company to put zebra DiMarzios in guitars?

[Jakeboy]

Ok, that makes some sense of the zebra rareness and resulting desirability.

 

[luis]

Jake, some japanese makers offered those DiMarzios (either PAF o SD) on their higher end models. I have a great and ligth Tokai LS-100 OR (Joe Walsh model, very rare ) with those triangled PAFs. It has another PAF replica now. Greco offered in EG900 model too if I recall well.

 

[Jakeboy]

I didn't know that Luis. Thx!

[serial]

On April 5, 2016 at 7:46 PM, Armitage said:

Wasn't Dean the first company to put zebra DiMarzios in guitars?

No-Hamer started doing that in 1975, before Dean existed.  Dean did the double-zebra thing, but as I recall, even the early Deans were double double cream Super Ds.

Hamer neck zebras are much pricier (sometimes two-three times a double cream) because a standard double cream PAF from the correct year can swap out, but Hamer's zebra becks were 'reverse zebra' with slugs on the black coil.

 

 

[Jakeboy]

Thanks for that important clarification, Steve.