SD vs D

Same guitar series but not exactly the same model & there's a different pickup combo as well. This is what I resort to on days when I'm bored; indulge in variations. The left guitar (SEW761) sports a trio of DiMarzios, it's counterpart (S771) has Seymour Duncans. I engaged both guitar's bridge pickups only for this session & it's not pitting one against the other; it's never this approach when tone variation is concerned. So it's DiMarzio's Tone Zone at one end & Seymour Duncan's Perpetual Burn at the other. Let's take a look at the EQ charts for both pickups.

This is how the Tone Zone 'sounds' like; it's a bass saturated pickup & it makes itself heard that way. I dislike this pickup since the start & that was way back in 1991. Paul Gilbert was pictured with it in one of those DiMarzio magazine ads & I must say I fell for it. There were no You Tube back then to hear a sample at the very least before making purchase decision. This Tone Zone went into several other guitars along the way & those were bitter episodes. I tried my very best to give this pickup a chance but it's one detestable tone episode after another until I bought this SEW761; the Tone Zone somehow sounds good here. It's less fuzzy & likeable.

The Perpetual Burn, on the other hand, is virtually the complete opposite; it's a trebly pickup but a little scooped sounding. The nature of my music is a reliance on midrange / treble to supplement distortion clarity. The PB does just this but this pickup sounds excessively bright. So for those of us with less dedication to EQ, this one requires some tweaking attention for sure; not for the hasty, definitely. 

It's myopic to embrace a certain brand name at the exclusion of others & I learned this through experience. While I'm firmly in the Seymour Duncan camp, some DiMarzios are really likeable & it's a matter of time I find out what these are. In the mean time, I ran out of guitars to accommodate this adventure & that's not abut to change Lately, I've been having more DiMarzio episodes & it's largely due to the fact that I've about virtually tried whatever Seymour Duncans available out there. OK, the passive ones, at least. 

S-pop

Played this one in the morning. Didn't give it too much thought - just grabbed & played. Plain strings were corroded & the neck was slightly warped. 

Decided to give it a re-string before resuming play. Was thinking of only replacing the plain strings but there were no loose strings around so it was a complete re-string in the end, might as well. The fretboard got a little treatment & the neck attended to as well so now it's to my preference once more. The pickups you see here: Perpetual Burn (b) / Quarter Pound (m) / Jazz (n). Despite looking rather captivating, the veneer poplar top is not holding too well, it's starting to come off round the pickup cavities. 

Burly

Re-stringing continues. Might as well since I have the time, before work beckons. This one- Ibanez S771 with that poplar burl top which is a mere laminate cap. If you wish to invest in an instrument with a very thin laminate top, do consider a gloss finish unlike this one, which is satin-finished. The reason- it will start to flake off over time.

A little upgrade done- String Saver saddles. If you are interested in a set, do check the string spacing before purchase. It's available in standard & Fender spacing. I really thought an Ibanez required the standard spacing version, then again I should have measured before heading to the store & not make convenient assumptions. In fact. many of the fixed bridges in Ibanez instruments are actually sporting a Fender/ Trembucker string spacing. 

Final pack of Darco 9s for this guitar.

I've been using Darcos for some time now (but not on a frequent basis) & it's only this time that I felt a difference. Maybe it's the relative freshness of the strings that influenced my touch but the Darco set features a slightly thicker B-string. The .0115 is not standard in a set of 9s, it's from the 9.5 set & I'm beginning to prefer the feel of it. 

The pickups in this one: Perpetual Burn (b)/ Quarter Pound Staggered (m)/ Jazz (n). The PB is a scorcher, very distortion inclined but not as boomy for the metal mongers. It'd probably favour the black metal camp because here, the brand of metal is not bottom end reliant. I should be paying more attention to the QP in future considerations because it's a mean single coil for angry people's music- my type of pickup. 

Perpetual burning Ibanez

Greetings, guitars folks. This one had been probably done to death- me covering how Duncans sound like in an Ibanez guitar. I'm at it again simply because I am a fan of both brand names. They are awesome together (for me) & I'd do well to retain this combination to prevent any tone adversities (for me at least).

As related before, the Duncan Perpetual Burn (PB) is an Alnico V pickup, it wasn't conceived to do an all-out metal manifestation but it has the potential. As seen above, it's in my Ibanez S771 bridge position & the guitar sports a mahogany body as well as a fixed bridge. Despite being a fixed bridge unit, the spacing here is that of an F-spaced bridge so the Trembucker PB is in use. The complementary pickups are the Quarter pounder single coil in the middle & the Jazz in the neck.

The PB is a good clean performer namely due to its Alnico pedigree despite sporting a stronger V core. That's the likable characteristic with alnicos; there's a higher probability of them sounding good, clean. The PB was conceived to be a medium output humbucker & that's the reason it doesn't muck up at higher distortion settings. I set my EVH 5150 III to stun during test time & the clarity was impressive at any volume settings. I heard a spiked top end coming from the PB with an acceptable response from the midrange. However, the bottom end need a little jerk from the amp's EQ section to get a convincing metal-type chugging. This is a Jason Becker specified humbucker, it's not meant to appease those treading the metal turf exclusively. Nevertheless, the application is there for the taking. To put it straight, the black metal guys would be more at home with this pickup as opposed to the scooped-EQ type players. Jason Becker fans would highlight the fact that (most of) his guitars were alder bodied but rest assured, the PB is a great pickup to have in a mahogany guitar.

Seymour Duncan: Perpetual Burn

This here is the Seymour Duncan Perpetual Burn trembucker, developed with lots of Jason Becker DNA in there. OK, just tone DNA. It's an Alnico 5 at the core, it sounds blistering with drive, very Distortion-like but due to its non-ceramic nature, there's a sweet top end polish. Being an alnico pedigree, the pickup sounds sweet, clean. In summary- the PB can get as hot as it wants to be but it's not forgetting its alnico roots.

Perpetual acquisition

The weekend- it's forgettable. Today, Monday- the day ended on a bitter note. Not an entirely wasted day because I bought the Seymour Duncan Perpetual Burn humbucker. It's now available at Davis GMC, $125ea.