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Hatsubai « Passive sounding active »
Published on 03/26/11 at 12:13The DiMarzio D Activator Neck is DiMarzio’s attempt to replicate an active sounding neck pickup while remaining passive. It’s a very hot neck pickup with four conductor wiring, adjustable pole pieces on both coils and a ceramic magnet.
This pickup is BRIGHT. I can’t stress that enough. It has this searing bright quality. They pulled it off successfully with the Humbucker From Hell, but I think they really dropped the ball with this. I can only assume they were trying to emulate an EMG 81 in the neck. DiMarzio claims that this pickup isn’t thin sounding, but I got a few guitars that’ll beg to differ. That, or we hear things quite differently. I especially like how they mention it makes a good bridge pickup. I highly disagree with that, but I’m sure some out there can make this thing work in nearly any rig. Chris Broderick uses this pickup, and he gets a cool lead tone out of it.
I’ve never tired this thing split simply because of how bright it is. I should have tried it in parallel, but I didn’t keep it in my guitars very long. I wish they would have emulated the EMG 85. I love that pickup in the neck. It’s very fat and smooth sounding while still remaining tight and powerful. The good thing about this pickup is that it does have a lot of harmonics. If you’re looking for something like that in the neck, this’ll probably be a good choice. I don’t recommend this for any dense, hard woods like maple or walnut. It’ll just be too much for those. This pickup seems to work best in mahogany for obvious reasons.
Overall, if you’re looking for an active kinda sound, I think the D-Activator X Neck is a better choice. However, if you always feel the neck pickup sounds muddy, this pickup could be for you. It all depends on your tastes.
This pickup is BRIGHT. I can’t stress that enough. It has this searing bright quality. They pulled it off successfully with the Humbucker From Hell, but I think they really dropped the ball with this. I can only assume they were trying to emulate an EMG 81 in the neck. DiMarzio claims that this pickup isn’t thin sounding, but I got a few guitars that’ll beg to differ. That, or we hear things quite differently. I especially like how they mention it makes a good bridge pickup. I highly disagree with that, but I’m sure some out there can make this thing work in nearly any rig. Chris Broderick uses this pickup, and he gets a cool lead tone out of it.
I’ve never tired this thing split simply because of how bright it is. I should have tried it in parallel, but I didn’t keep it in my guitars very long. I wish they would have emulated the EMG 85. I love that pickup in the neck. It’s very fat and smooth sounding while still remaining tight and powerful. The good thing about this pickup is that it does have a lot of harmonics. If you’re looking for something like that in the neck, this’ll probably be a good choice. I don’t recommend this for any dense, hard woods like maple or walnut. It’ll just be too much for those. This pickup seems to work best in mahogany for obvious reasons.
Overall, if you’re looking for an active kinda sound, I think the D-Activator X Neck is a better choice. However, if you always feel the neck pickup sounds muddy, this pickup could be for you. It all depends on your tastes.