Passive Humbuckers

[Bert|Evil]

Hey all!

I have a guitar with a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker and 2 single coil rails. I’ve been thinking of upgrading to a Seymour Duncan Parallel Axis Distortion, Seymour Duncan Dimebucker, Seymour Duncan Invader, or DiMarzio Tone Zone. Basically, I’m trying to get it as “hot” as my Charvel with active EMGs, but still keep it passive. I'm told that the Parallel Axis Distortion will get close.

I’ve read a lot of negative reviews on the Dimebucker, so I thought that I’d get some opinions. I still play a lot of metal, as well as some classic rock.

[lonewolf]

The Invader has high output, but I thought they were kinda muddy with very little upper harmonics.

The JB is one of my favorite pickups and it is one of the higher output passives available. If the JB's output isn't hot enough for you but you like its tone, the Distortion Parallel Axis is somewhat similar in tone, with a much hotter output.

I must have read the same reviews on the Dimebucker.

[metalchurch]

The only passive pickups that I think even come close to the sound and output of an EMG are the DiMarzio Evolution, Bill Lawrence L500XL, and DiMarzio D-Activator.

The JB is nice, but the high end is too brittle for me, maybe try it w/ a 250k volume or tone pot, that might tame it a little.
Some guys swap the magnet out with an Alnico8 with great results.
A Seymour Duncan Custom is basically a JB without the highend, so that might be an option as well.

I never had much luck with a Dimebucker myself. I think that they're one of the biggest pieces of shits on the market. I had 4 of them through out the years all in different guitars and I had the same result each time.
Way too much high end, almost nasally. It's good for riffing, but it can get muddy and undefined as well.

Another option would be a passive pup of your choice with an EMG PA-2 active boost, or an EMG-AB afterburner.
These are preamps that work with active or passive pups and you can set the boost anywhere from 0-20+ db.

[orangekick]

I have had Rio Grande BBQ's in the bridge position of most of my guitars and that is a really nice, hot pickup.

[songsmith]

Does anyone still use Dimarzio X2N's? I had one on an old Kramer with the aluminum neck... the sustain was incredible, but I couldn't get a clean sound, it just plain refused to play sweet. Just not in that guitar's personality, and some guitars have strong personalities. The lap steel Marc Prave gave me simply will not work for anything but old country, but it does that brilliantly. That's why I named it Slee-um, after Marc.--->JMS

[metalchurch]

Does anyone still use Dimarzio X2N's?...--->JMS

Good call, I forgot about those puppies, they have the bark and the bite.

[Bloodsong]

the Dimebucker almost sounds like a wah pedal depressed right at the point of where the treble starts to break thru to me. chunky, nasally, and over compressed. not crazy about it at all. ughhhhh.....

[tonemonster]

the parallel axis has 3 different ones. the PATB 2 is the hottest at 21.6 and that is hotter than Dimarzios. that is what i have in my kramer pro axe. it is a mahogany body.

[Bert|Evil]

Another option would be a passive pup of your choice with an EMG PA-2 active boost, or an EMG-AB afterburner.
These are preamps that work with active or passive pups and you can set the boost anywhere from 0-20+ db.

I already have one of those in my Charvel, and it's not being used. I threw the EMGs in there recently, and I only put the Afterburner in there a few years ago because I really needed a new motherboard.

I'd put it in this guitar (a Soloist), but I only have one tone knob. It's my understanding that you'd have to disarm that one tone knob altogether for the Afterburner. My Charvel has two tone knobs, so I didn't care as much when I used it.

[Bert|Evil]

The Invader has high output, but I thought they were kinda muddy with very little upper harmonics.

The JB is one of my favorite pickups and it is one of the higher output passives available. If the JB's output isn't hot enough for you but you like its tone, the Distortion Parallel Axis is somewhat similar in tone, with a much hotter output.

That’s pretty much what I was thinking, Wolf! I do like the tone of the JB a lot, it just needs to be hotter.

the parallel axis has 3 different ones. the PATB 2 is the hottest at 21.6 and that is hotter than Dimarzios. that is what i have in my kramer pro axe. it is a mahogany body.

I didn’t realize that there are 3 Parallel Axis options, but I think that we’re talking about the same one. I’d be putting this on an alder body Soloist.

[lonewolf]

The Invader has high output, but I thought they were kinda muddy with very little upper harmonics.

The JB is one of my favorite pickups and it is one of the higher output passives available. If the JB's output isn't hot enough for you but you like its tone, the Distortion Parallel Axis is somewhat similar in tone, with a much hotter output.

That’s pretty much what I was thinking, Wolf! I do like the tone of the JB a lot, it just needs to be hotter.

the parallel axis has 3 different ones. the PATB 2 is the hottest at 21.6 and that is hotter than Dimarzios. that is what i have in my kramer pro axe. it is a mahogany body.

I didn’t realize that there are 3 Parallel Axis options, but I think that we’re talking about the same one. I’d be putting this on an alder body Soloist.

Right. The hottest is the DISTORTION Parallel Axis that I mentioned.

The other 2 Parallel Axis humbuckers are the ORIGINAL and SARACENO models. There is also a 4th one that is a single coil humbucker stack.

[Bert|Evil]

The other 2 Parallel Axis humbuckers are the ORIGINAL and SARACENO models. There is also a 4th one that is a single coil humbucker stack.

I did see the Sarceno model before. I just didn’t realize that it was a Parallel Axis.

[killedbydeath]

If you have the patience you could allwasy hot wind your own pickups. Used to be a popular solution to get a hotter sound. Is kinda old shcool though, haven't heard of anyone doing it in years. I guess with alot more pickups comercially available it has kinda fallen by the wayside as a way to upgrade.

[MOONDOGGY]

I'm eventually putting a pair of Q-Tuner neo pickups in my bass based only off reviews I've read. I haven't read reviews on their guitar pickups, but I'd wager to say they compare with regular guitar p/ups the same as their bass p/ups compare w/ regular bass p/ups. The harmonics are better and they are more versatile.

Here's a link:

http://www.q-tuner.com/

They ain't cheap, but they may be worth looking into.