An Evening With A Hot Blonde - Part 2 - A new "pickup" line

Empty house?  Check.  Rockin' amp?  Check.  Sexy new guitar (a.k.a.  The hot blonde)?  Check.  Paul Gilbert signature Dimarzio Injector pickup set (a.k.a. The new "pickup" line)?  Check.  We are ready for launch.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I do all of the work on my guitars.  Originally, I started learning because I was too poor to pay someone to do it.  Now, I've grown to really love it.  It's soothing.  It takes my mind off of the rest of the world because, if I stop paying attention, bad things can happen to the guitars I love so much.  But there's no reason why I work on my own guitars that is more important or a driving force than plugging the guitar you just finished working on into an amp and hearing the results loud and clear.  I got to have that tonight.  And, oh baby...

I decided to start out playing a guitar with pickups I was more familiar with so I could use that as a comparison to the Injectors.  So, I went with my hot rod reissue strat.  She's got Dimarzio pickups too so it's a fair comparison as to how the new pickups will stand up.


This is why my wife says that this new guitar is my last.

 So, here's what I learned about the new pickups.  They are VERY hot.  Now, when I say hot, I mean they are extremely high output pickups.  Apart from a side by side humbucker like a rail style pickup, the Virtual  Solo is the only strat style pickup that Dimarzio makes that have higher output.  Okay, that only means they're louder.  The amps at a football stadium are louder than mine, but they don't sound all that good.  So, how do the pickups sound? 

Like any non-rail single coil, they still can't compare to a humbucker for crunch and drive at the same gain level.  However, turning the gain up just a tiny bit, brought these pickups up to that level of crunch I need.  They are VERY articulate.  More so than a humbucker.  Which can be good and bad.  Hearing everything you're playing with crystal clarity is good.  But, it also means that you can, more clearly, hear mistakes or sloppy playing that might not be as noticable from a humbucker.

They sound like single coils, only bigger.  With a standard strat wiring, all the classic strat tones were there with the exception that the bridge position doesn't sound as thin and tinny and is much more usable than the standard strat pickups.  Basically, They sound like a strat...on steroids.  Lots and lots of steroids.  I can get all of the beautiful strat tones I love some much and that really do define guys like Michael Gurley of Dada, David Gilmore and Stevie Ray Vaughan.  But, with not much more gain than I use for my humbucker guitars, I can achieve a lot of the more ellusive harder sounds from guys like Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilberts more recent work that can normally only be achieved by kicking a Marshall all the way to eleven and then driving it harder with an overdrive in front. 

I'm not a tone chaser.  I'm not trying to figure out how to make my guitars sound like Paul Gilbert or Yngwie (I do understand that quest though.  I've been on it before.  I tried hard to sound like my idols until I finally started realizing that, not matter what gear I play or how it's set up, I'm still gonna sound like me.)  I didn't buy these pickups to try to get the Fuzz Universe (PG's new album) sound.  I bought them because I love strat sounds but also need a gutsier pickup.  They deliver.  And, they make it hard to put this down.

All in all, I am not disappointed in the least and I can't wait to plug this baby into my stage rig and really cut loose.  That's my plan for tomorrow. 

But, now that this guitar is all setup and playing beautifully, I don't have a project to work on anymore.  Now, I have to figure out what I'm gonna work on next.  Hmmm...That Katana's paint looks pretty weathered.  Maybe it's time to do something about that.