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Hatsubai « Revised HS-3 »
Published on 03/26/11 at 09:09The YJM is now called the HS-4 since Yngwie left DiMarzio to go to Seymour Duncan. Basically, this is the revision of the HS-3 that Yngwie used for quite awhile in his career. It features an Alnico 5 magnet, four conductor wiring and vintage style magnet staggered pole pieces.
This pickup is not a normal single coil. It’s a stacked single coil which means one coil is stacked on top of another. This helps prevent any hum that you hear from so many normal single coils but also gives a different sound. It’s a little taller than a normal single coil, so you’ll need to buy some special covers if you want to change out the color of this. This thing is EXTREMELY low output. If you’re not used to very low output pickups, you’ll probably hate this. It has a strong treble bite to it, so it’s pretty much always going to sound kinda bright.
I’m not a fan of this pickup, personally. It’s simply too low output for me to use. Every time I try to play with it, I struggle like crazy. Some people get an awesome tone out of this pickup, so I know it’s mostly me and my playing. You just have to know what pickups work best for you. The four conductor allows you to split it, but I don’t recommend that at all. It sounds very weak when you split it due to the way the coils are placed.
The gain tones on this are pretty cool, and it’ll deliver that signature Yngwie tone you hear on so many of his albums. The clean tones are fairly dismal, though. DiMarzio says this is a neck pickup, but there’s no reason why it won’t work in the bridge. It just depends on what tone you’re going for.
This pickup is not a normal single coil. It’s a stacked single coil which means one coil is stacked on top of another. This helps prevent any hum that you hear from so many normal single coils but also gives a different sound. It’s a little taller than a normal single coil, so you’ll need to buy some special covers if you want to change out the color of this. This thing is EXTREMELY low output. If you’re not used to very low output pickups, you’ll probably hate this. It has a strong treble bite to it, so it’s pretty much always going to sound kinda bright.
I’m not a fan of this pickup, personally. It’s simply too low output for me to use. Every time I try to play with it, I struggle like crazy. Some people get an awesome tone out of this pickup, so I know it’s mostly me and my playing. You just have to know what pickups work best for you. The four conductor allows you to split it, but I don’t recommend that at all. It sounds very weak when you split it due to the way the coils are placed.
The gain tones on this are pretty cool, and it’ll deliver that signature Yngwie tone you hear on so many of his albums. The clean tones are fairly dismal, though. DiMarzio says this is a neck pickup, but there’s no reason why it won’t work in the bridge. It just depends on what tone you’re going for.