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Hatsubai « The Yngwie sound ... kinda »
Published on 03/23/11 at 08:55The HS-3 was a creation by DiMarzio when they were helping create a signature pickup for Yngwie Malmsteen’s strats. Yngwie wanted a hum-canceling single coil pickup, and DiMarzio achieved that by stacking the coils on top of each other. Outside, it appears to be a normal single coil. Under the hood, however, it’s fairly different from most other single coils out there.
The DiMarzio HS-3 is a very low output pickup that is hum-canceling. It’s somewhat smooth, quiet and mostly “even” sounding. It features four conductor wiring to split it, but I can’t really recommend it. If you split it, it sounds pretty thin. On its own, it’s really lacking in most everything, despite that DiMarzio says.
The pickup got its notoriety thanks to Yngwie and his clones. The pickup does sound similar to Yngwie’s signature tone, but it doesn’t sound like a single coil. It’s almost like some sort of quasi-hybrid pickup that was created. The aggression and overtones of single coils are lost, and the power of humbuckers is also gone. The cleans on this are fairly dismal, which is surprising considering how low output this pickup actually is. The high gain tones sound somewhat open, and the notes are fairly clear. However, I didn’t feel it brought much to the table in terms of overall tone.
If you’re looking for a single coil pickup for metal, I recommend checking out the DiMarzio Virtual Solo or something like that. It has way more character than this pickup, and it actually sounds like a single coil. If you’re looking for a humbucker in a single coil size, check out the Chopper or other single coil sized humbuckers that DiMarzio offers. This is one of the few pickups that DiMarzio offers that I’m just not a fan of, despite being a huge fan of Yngwie.
The DiMarzio HS-3 is a very low output pickup that is hum-canceling. It’s somewhat smooth, quiet and mostly “even” sounding. It features four conductor wiring to split it, but I can’t really recommend it. If you split it, it sounds pretty thin. On its own, it’s really lacking in most everything, despite that DiMarzio says.
The pickup got its notoriety thanks to Yngwie and his clones. The pickup does sound similar to Yngwie’s signature tone, but it doesn’t sound like a single coil. It’s almost like some sort of quasi-hybrid pickup that was created. The aggression and overtones of single coils are lost, and the power of humbuckers is also gone. The cleans on this are fairly dismal, which is surprising considering how low output this pickup actually is. The high gain tones sound somewhat open, and the notes are fairly clear. However, I didn’t feel it brought much to the table in terms of overall tone.
If you’re looking for a single coil pickup for metal, I recommend checking out the DiMarzio Virtual Solo or something like that. It has way more character than this pickup, and it actually sounds like a single coil. If you’re looking for a humbucker in a single coil size, check out the Chopper or other single coil sized humbuckers that DiMarzio offers. This is one of the few pickups that DiMarzio offers that I’m just not a fan of, despite being a huge fan of Yngwie.