Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Face-off: DiMarzio vs Seymour Duncan

I've been playing these 2 guitars a lot lately:
  • Left: Ibanez S470- Dimarzios: Air Norton (B)/ Area '61(M)/ PAF (N)
  • Right: Ibanez S420- Seymour Duncan: Pearly Gates (B/N)
Ibanez dweebs prefer DiMarzios because majority of the endorsers embrace this pickup brand- Vai, Satch, Gilbert, Timmons, et al. Estranged individuals like me, had an initial rotten episode with DiMarzio so I went with the competitor's brand & I had to say that I was lucky- I bought the pickup that suited my needs so it was no turning back.

So it boils down to this- which pickup brand do I prefer? Simple answer: Both.

These pickups have something different to offer. DiMarzio has this peculiar adaptation to effects & other signal processors; the   more you add to them, they don't seem to be undone by gain overdose. Seymour Duncan has this signature bite that you'd hear if you plug straight through to your amp. Once you get hooked, it's the only thing you'd want to hear. I'm living with both tone options, there are no rules saying I should stay true to only one brand name. It's about liking what I hear coming out from the amp regardless of what were used to make that happen.

2 comments:

Ijau D. Koceng said...

err... no tesla? :)

subversion.sg said...

Tesla only in 1 of my Ibanez guitars, the rest are Dimarzios/ Duncans. Ok maybe EMG should join the talk as well :-)