All user reviews of 5/5 for the DiMarzio DP224 AT-1 Andy Timmons

The guitar is a J&D Les Paul copy. Made in taiwan, mahogany back/maple top, bolt on maple/rosewood neck. The guitar is acoustically loud, and brighter than typical les paul.

I have owned duncan TB 4,5,6,12,15. Dimarzio Evo, Evo2, TZ, Super 3, Paf Pro, FRED.
The AT-1 is so far the best of them all.

The sound is fat but not dark, it's very balanced. Tight compact bass, thick syrupy low mids.
The high notes scream, but in very musical way compared to dimarzio EVO (more complexity and depth). Perhaps due to AT's Alnico 5 magnet as opposed to EVO's ceramic.

Solo playing is a joy with this pickup. It is laden with harmonics. Great sustain.
It responds well to dynamics in pick attack.

Compared to dimarzio Tone Zone (a highly popular model from dimarzio), the AT-1 does not sound exaggerated in the mids. The sound is classic, with a touch of fatness.
Much more natural, much more versatile.
Better lead tones, and better harmonics.

For heavy rhythm playing it sounds really brutal. In my experience it can get a bit flabby with dropped tunings. The guitar, being 24.75' scale might be to blame on this. But for normal tuning, it's really thick and brutal.

I find it a bit strange Mr.Andy Timmons use this pickup with normal output single coils. Because in my experience it has plenty of power. It kinda overpower my neck pickup (stock pickup, vintage PAF output level, gonna replace soon).

Honestly I'm thinking of loading all my future humbucker guitars with the AT-1. It's that good.

Andy Timmons is an awesome player, and he always had a great tone. I attribute a lot of that to the fact that I naturally gear towards the Mesa/Boogie tone, but he also has a great taste in pickups. In his custom Ibanez guitar, he has this AT-1 pickup, and it sounds great. In fact, it sounds a lot like the old school JBs of yesteryear. For those who don’t know, the JB used to be made differently than it is today. Today’s JBs are a bit harsher and not quite as organic as they used to be. The DiMarzio AT-1 seems like an attempt at trying to sound like the old Duncan JB pickup from way back when. It has this very pleasing midrange to help push the amplifier, but it isn’t so hot that it’s trying to absolutely destroy the amp with input. The best thing about this is how nicely it responds to volume control adjustments. You can really work the volume knob for amps that don’t really have a master volume. I’m talking about old school Marshall amps. In fact, that’s what this pickup seems to be geared towards. Put this in a stratocaster and run your guitar through an old JMP, and you have a magical tone. Granted, Andy Timmons uses a mahogany bodied guitar with a Mesa/Boogie, but either works great. His tone is dark and smooth, whereas the Marshall one would be grindy and in your face for that perfect hard rock sort of tone. This pickup can even do metal, although it probably wouldn’t be as great as some of the other pickups that DiMarzio has to offer. This is one of my top five favorite bridge pickups that DiMarzio has to offer, so if you ever get the chance, I think it’s worth giving it a spin. It should work in pretty much any body wood you can think of.

It's been 3 months I use this pickup installed in the bridge position on an Ibanez RG 3120.
I think this pup is well balanced, while still hot and not unmanageable with a large output level, for example.
Before, I had the pickup DiMarzio / IBZ, then I put a Seymour Duncan SH5.
It has a much warmer character than the other two, especially compared aus SH5 I find too aggressive and not enough in this rhythm, because of the lack of high-mids. This pickup brings a lot anyway, presence! It cuts through the mix, while having a good presence in the bass, unlike the DiMarzio / IBZ, too average in the big riffs.
Regarding the soli, it is very common in the sense that the highs are not invasive, they are still present eh-and are not screaming. Artificial harmonics are triggered very well (especially with a good tube amp pushed well yum).
The only criticism I could make it is to be a bit messy in large Accor's Dream Theater for example-it seems that the notes are somewhat "clustered" if you know what I mean .. . But it does not bother me that much, and it is a minor printing, it's very, very well.
In my registry rock / fusion / progressive, it goes very well, heat, precision, and versatility are fat there. For metal, prog goes, but not extreme, but this pup is not addressed to such guitarists.
In any case, a pickup that deserves to be known! On occasion, the price / quality ratio is very good (for me € 65), nine in the 100 € it is acceptable, but all pickups have the same price anyway ...
With experience, I do not know if I would do that choice, precisely because I have no experience!
I want to try other DiMarzio, as Steve Morse, the Breed, the Crunch Lab or the legendary Super Distortion (bridge position for the course).
I hope this review was helpful!