On my Ibanez SZ320-BK guitar, I currently have two Ibanez Duncans that I got with the guitar when I bought it. There's nothing wrong with them, but at the same time there's nothing special about them either. I want something with a bit more punch. That's why I'm considering buying a Seymour Duncan SH13 Dimebucker Dimebag Darrell Humbucker Pickup and use it as a bridge pickup. Everybody I've talked with say it's exactly what I'm looking for, but since ÃÆÃâÃâít'd set me back a bit should I buy 'em - and I know there are plenty of guitarplayers on this forum - I figured I might as well make a post about it. And btw, ignore the prisetag on that site. They're $190 over here. :uhh:

 

 

 

So, I have a few things I'd like answered. First, what do you think about the dimebucker pickups? If you've tried them before-- or heard anything positive/negative about them etc. Second, the size... are all Duncan-humbuckers the same size? Because I'm worried they wouldn't fit...

 

Third, anything else you can think of.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance. :)

Dimebuckers are nice pickups and will pack the punch you want, but there's pickups out there I prefer.

 

 

 

I reckon you'll get alot of people recommending EMGs, 80s or 61s, but I quite like to avoid those. I think passive pickups give a much more natural tone than the actives. But, if you do want to try actives, check out the new Dave Mustaine pickups from Seymour Duncan.

 

 

 

Other pickups I would recommend would be Bareknuckle Warpigs, DiMarzio Super Distortion or the DiMarzio Air Norton.

 

 

 

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but I play Stratocasters, so I'm not well read on Humbuckers.

 

 

 

EDIT: Pickups are (mostly) built to standard sizes. The Dimebuckers should fit in your guitar perfectly.

Yeah, my friends constantly talk about EMG:s (as well as the DiMarzio:s) and how awesome they are.

 

 

 

Anyway, I checked up on the Dave Mustaine pickups, but they're twice as expensive as the Dimebucker ones... and I have to dig deep enough in my pocket to afford the Dimebucker pickup. So maybe I'll get those sometime in the future. I'll keep them in mind anyway.

 

 

 

As for passive vs. active pickups; suppose if I wanted to fully safeguard myself, couldn't I use the Dimebucker (active, I guess?) as the bridge pickup, and have a passive one as neck pickup? I suppose, however, if you have the tone switch knob in the middle... the sound could be either really awesome or really atrocious.

 

Just a thought. :P

 

 

 

Anyway, thanks a bunch for the help. You answered all my questions, and that's more than I had hoped for.

You can, in theory set up a passive/active combo, but it's not worth the effort and takes some fiddly wiring.

 

 

 

Basically, an active pickup gets it's extra 'hotness' from an onboard preamp which is powered by a 9v battery fitted in the circuit. Passive pickups don't need any additional power, so basically you'd have to run an active and a non-active circuit from each respective pickup. Also, active pickups use different potentiometers in the volume and tone pots, so you would need to have pots specific to each pickup.

 

 

 

In short, it's just not really worth the effort.

Wow, yeah. That does sound like a lot of hassle.

 

 

 

It's a shame I sold my other guitar. Could've put passive pickups on that one, should I - sometime in the future - get interested in those (having one guitar with only active pickups and one with only passive would be pretty cool :P ).

 

 

 

... Right. Thanks again for the help.

Dimebags signature one :

 

omg... teh' sex. with that thing..

I shall squeel the paint off my walls. 8-)

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

At least I'll have that possibility.

don't know too much about all those tech stuff, but i had a passive bass and now i have an active. never want to have a passive again.

 

 

 

just buy some recharchable 9V accus and a decent loading device. although of course batteries usually have more juice then accus.