Good pot

Had some playing time this morning, sudden urge to hear the 59 in action but the Potbelly needed a little attention to the fretboard.

Rather obvious which side of the neck is showing some re-conditioning.

A set of new strings (Curt Mangan) & it's good to go. What I like about the Duncan 59s in this guitar is that they remain true in terms of performance (not a high output unit) & sound very commanding when it comes to drive. A little intrigued as to how this could be the case but some of the best driven tones don't require an over-the-top output rating. 

DiMarzio: PAF 7 (2)

As mentioned before, the DiMarzio PAF 7s are default pickups in my Ibanez SIR27F. Initially, I was putting Ibanez down for equipping a metal-type guitar (manufacturer's claim, not mine...) with the weakest pickups in the range. As it turned out, the PAF 7s could handle everything thrown at them granted they might not be some players' cup of tea. A case of Jack of all trades, mater tones of none? Of course not, the PAF 7s are very good at the job, it's just a matter of appeal.

Well, the PAF 7's 'secret' could be the fact that the magnets on board are ceramic as opposed to the sweeter alnicos for the intended purpose but then again, what was the initial intention? It wasn't made clear by the manufacturer but the PAF 7 turned out to be a super utilitarian model. Thumbs up to that.

DiMarzio: PAF 7

No, I've not retired my Duncans to embrace DiMarzio & nobody had paid me to say this. This is about reflecting the obvious & accepting what works. This is also a further understanding of the fact that Duncans & DiMarzios work differently. As I am currently looking at DiMarzios to address some tonal concerns, my approach to this was to scout for DiMarzio equivalents of my favourite Duncans but it's quite a futile exercise. It doesn't work this way. Why would a manufacturer offer the world a close alternative of their competitor's product? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of being different?

This was perhaps the reason why I find DiMarzio tones rather unagreeable; I've been looking too hard at the higher output offerings believing the products in that end would manifest the Duncans in the same output selection. Today's encounter with my Ibanez SIR27F made me realize that I've overlooked what works for me- the lower output DiMarzios. The default pickups in this guitar are DiMarzio 7s, the lowest output passive humbuckers in the manufacturer's range. They are splendid in this guitar & they will stay resident for a simple reason- they are the right pickups for the instrument. Have I come across the PAF before? Of course I have, there's one in the bridge position in my RG560, it's the pickup that replaced the Tone Zone & made me happy. A delightful episode escaped me, maybe I was distracted but today came the reminder.

To be continued.