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King Loudness « A really cool rock pickup! »
Published on 05/01/11 at 07:58I purchased an early nineties Ibanez RT650 that had one of these pickups loaded in the bridge position. It's basically supposed to be (from what I'd read), a Super Distortion with a coil splitter switch. It is essentially that from my experience, so basically it's meant to be a hotter take on the PAF, good tone but with attitude. The Dual Sound took this pickup and added a coil splitter to broaden the tonal palette which helped quite a bit. I'm not normally a huge fan of higher output pickups but the Dual Sound was a very good sounding pickup that allowed a good range of dynamics when you used the splitter.
Clean tones with the humbucker mode weren't my favourite by any means. They were a little bit too hot and compressed for my liking (due to the pickup output most likely). However, when I split it, it provided a really cool twangy sound that reminded me a lot of a Telecaster. Obviously being an Ibanez superstrat guitar, the country cleans weren't flawless but it was a pretty good approximation for sure.
The drive tones were why this pickup was as good as it was. I really liked the nice top end "sizzle" that it had. That sort of sizzle is something I really look for in a guitar meant for LA rock or metal and this pickup definitely has it. This sizzle is mixed with a good chunky low end and a nice flat midrange which allowed the guitar to shine for both rhythm based metal riffage and faster Paul Gilbert esque lead passages, alternate picked at speeds of fury! When the coils were split it provided a nice set of Stratty tones that reminded me a lot of Ritchie Blackmore's tone, very thick and overdriven, but punchy and with that classic Strat top end chime.
All in all I feel that the DiMarzio Dual sound is a great sounding pickup for hard rock/metal music, and when combined with the coil split, there are many other tonal options which make the pickup more desirable. Not recommended as a super versatile pickup, but just as a great hard rock machine.
Clean tones with the humbucker mode weren't my favourite by any means. They were a little bit too hot and compressed for my liking (due to the pickup output most likely). However, when I split it, it provided a really cool twangy sound that reminded me a lot of a Telecaster. Obviously being an Ibanez superstrat guitar, the country cleans weren't flawless but it was a pretty good approximation for sure.
The drive tones were why this pickup was as good as it was. I really liked the nice top end "sizzle" that it had. That sort of sizzle is something I really look for in a guitar meant for LA rock or metal and this pickup definitely has it. This sizzle is mixed with a good chunky low end and a nice flat midrange which allowed the guitar to shine for both rhythm based metal riffage and faster Paul Gilbert esque lead passages, alternate picked at speeds of fury! When the coils were split it provided a nice set of Stratty tones that reminded me a lot of Ritchie Blackmore's tone, very thick and overdriven, but punchy and with that classic Strat top end chime.
All in all I feel that the DiMarzio Dual sound is a great sounding pickup for hard rock/metal music, and when combined with the coil split, there are many other tonal options which make the pickup more desirable. Not recommended as a super versatile pickup, but just as a great hard rock machine.