Hatsubai « High midrange bite, yet not harsh »
Published on 03/25/11 at 12:58Steve Morse collaborated with DiMarzio to create his own signature pickups way back in the early 80s. The goal was to create a pickup that was balanced but has strong midrange. The pickup features adjustable pole pieces on both coils, four conductor wiring and a ceramic magnet.
The Steve Morse Bridge model is a really cool pickup. It’s pretty hot and has this high midrange bite. The low end notes bloom nicely, and the high notes sound crisp without sounding harsh. The real cool thing about this is that it can work nicely in a single pickup guitar body. The pushed midrange is what gives this its unique tone. Steve wanted something with bite, and this pickup delivers. Split coil sounds are pretty cool. I’ve never tried it in parallel, so I can’t comment on that.
The pickup works great in nearly any wood you can think of. If you put it in mahogany, there will be a lot of midrange, but it’ll sound fat. If you put it in basswood, everything will sound pretty even. In alder, it delivers a slight bite that many 80s guitarists had back in the day. However, take all of this with a grain of salt as every piece of wood is different. You need to see what your individual guitar needs and choose according to that.
Steve Morse and DiMarzio created a really cool pickup. If you’re looking for a fat, bitey pickup that’s still clear and has really cool harmonics going on, this is the pickup for you. Just be aware that this is a fairly high output pickup. If you have a more modern amp that has tons of gain, it might be worth considering some of the lower output models that DiMarzio offers. That, or you could just run a noise gate and everything will be nice and quiet.
The Steve Morse Bridge model is a really cool pickup. It’s pretty hot and has this high midrange bite. The low end notes bloom nicely, and the high notes sound crisp without sounding harsh. The real cool thing about this is that it can work nicely in a single pickup guitar body. The pushed midrange is what gives this its unique tone. Steve wanted something with bite, and this pickup delivers. Split coil sounds are pretty cool. I’ve never tried it in parallel, so I can’t comment on that.
The pickup works great in nearly any wood you can think of. If you put it in mahogany, there will be a lot of midrange, but it’ll sound fat. If you put it in basswood, everything will sound pretty even. In alder, it delivers a slight bite that many 80s guitarists had back in the day. However, take all of this with a grain of salt as every piece of wood is different. You need to see what your individual guitar needs and choose according to that.
Steve Morse and DiMarzio created a really cool pickup. If you’re looking for a fat, bitey pickup that’s still clear and has really cool harmonics going on, this is the pickup for you. Just be aware that this is a fairly high output pickup. If you have a more modern amp that has tons of gain, it might be worth considering some of the lower output models that DiMarzio offers. That, or you could just run a noise gate and everything will be nice and quiet.