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Hatsubai « Similar to the HS3 »
Published on 04/09/11 at 16:07The DiMarzio HS-2 is one of the original pickups that DiMarzio developed for the Stratocaster. It uses “stacked humbucker” technology, which means that one coil is placed on top of the other to give it the look of a single coil but help keep the hum down like a humbucker. It features four conductor wiring, an Alnico 5 magnet and staggered pole pieces.
The HS-2 is one of the pickups that Yngwie was first given before he used the HS-3 and eventually the YJM (now called the HS-4). This pickup has less output than the HS-3, and it also sounds cleaner. The low end on this is fairly pushed back in favor for some higher end treble. The bumped up treble helps keep the pickup sounding clear and crisp, but it can also get overly bright depending on what guitar you put it in. The midrange is fairly even with nothing really noteworthy going on.
DiMarzio says that this can be used in any position, but given how low the output is, I pretty much use this exclusively as a middle pickup. In the neck, I find it is too bright and lacks the power I want. In the bridge, it’s way too underpowered and is overly bright. In the middle, when it splits with the neck, it delivers a fairly nice, clean tone that’s great for clean passages. The pickup seems to prefer more neutral woods like basswood and alder, but it should be able to be used in mahogany and ash without a problem. I’d just be careful if your particular piece of wood is bright sounding as this can get a bit too harsh in the treble frequency.
Given how low output this pickup is, it’s not one of my favorites. When I put things in the middle position, I generally want them to be super low output and clear sounding. This can do that tone fairly well, but I feel there are other pickups out there (such as the DiMarzio Area ’67) that work better in the middle.
The HS-2 is one of the pickups that Yngwie was first given before he used the HS-3 and eventually the YJM (now called the HS-4). This pickup has less output than the HS-3, and it also sounds cleaner. The low end on this is fairly pushed back in favor for some higher end treble. The bumped up treble helps keep the pickup sounding clear and crisp, but it can also get overly bright depending on what guitar you put it in. The midrange is fairly even with nothing really noteworthy going on.
DiMarzio says that this can be used in any position, but given how low the output is, I pretty much use this exclusively as a middle pickup. In the neck, I find it is too bright and lacks the power I want. In the bridge, it’s way too underpowered and is overly bright. In the middle, when it splits with the neck, it delivers a fairly nice, clean tone that’s great for clean passages. The pickup seems to prefer more neutral woods like basswood and alder, but it should be able to be used in mahogany and ash without a problem. I’d just be careful if your particular piece of wood is bright sounding as this can get a bit too harsh in the treble frequency.
Given how low output this pickup is, it’s not one of my favorites. When I put things in the middle position, I generally want them to be super low output and clear sounding. This can do that tone fairly well, but I feel there are other pickups out there (such as the DiMarzio Area ’67) that work better in the middle.