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Hatsubai « Rather have a 36th Anniv. »
Published on 03/25/11 at 11:50The DiMarzio Air Classic Bridge is DiMarzio’s take on the old 50s PAFs. However, it’s a bit irrelevant today with the new PAF 36th Anniversary Bridge out. Their goal was to create an old school PAF sound with using some of their “secret” technology. This pickup features slugs on one coil, adjustable pole pieces on the other and four conductor wiring.
The Air Classic Bridge is a low to medium output humbucker aimed towards the classic sounds of yesterday but using some of today’s new technology. The biggest gripe I have is that they claim Alnico 2 magnets are unnecessary and threw in an Alnico 5 magnet. DiMarzio’s lack of experimenting with magnets has always been one of those things that got on my nerves. The Alnico 2 magnet can really aid in giving that vintage vibe, but they decided to go with the Alnico 5 anyway…
The pickup has that air gap between the magnet and coils like some of their other pickups do. This reduces some of the output and creates some more touch sensitivity than if they’d be touching. Overall, the pickup is fairly even with a slight dip in the midrange. It has that vowely quality like the older PAFs do, but I can’t help but think that the 36th Anniversary PAF is so much better in every way. The good thing is that this works with pretty much any wood combination out there. There’s no real hyped frequency, so there won’t be any issues installing this in either mahogany, maple, basswood, etc. Split coil sounds are nice on this, and parallel sounds aren’t bad, either.
If you’re looking for a classic PAF sound, I recommend you try out the 36th Anniversary Bridge pickup instead. You’ll be getting more bang for your buck in nearly every way.
The Air Classic Bridge is a low to medium output humbucker aimed towards the classic sounds of yesterday but using some of today’s new technology. The biggest gripe I have is that they claim Alnico 2 magnets are unnecessary and threw in an Alnico 5 magnet. DiMarzio’s lack of experimenting with magnets has always been one of those things that got on my nerves. The Alnico 2 magnet can really aid in giving that vintage vibe, but they decided to go with the Alnico 5 anyway…
The pickup has that air gap between the magnet and coils like some of their other pickups do. This reduces some of the output and creates some more touch sensitivity than if they’d be touching. Overall, the pickup is fairly even with a slight dip in the midrange. It has that vowely quality like the older PAFs do, but I can’t help but think that the 36th Anniversary PAF is so much better in every way. The good thing is that this works with pretty much any wood combination out there. There’s no real hyped frequency, so there won’t be any issues installing this in either mahogany, maple, basswood, etc. Split coil sounds are nice on this, and parallel sounds aren’t bad, either.
If you’re looking for a classic PAF sound, I recommend you try out the 36th Anniversary Bridge pickup instead. You’ll be getting more bang for your buck in nearly every way.