DiMarzio Super Distortion

Pickup features: passive humbucker
Impedence or other specs: hot ceramic

Model of guitar or bass: Guild S300-D
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: this guitar w/ Dimarzios replaced an Ibanez w/ EMG 81/85 set
Other pickups on guitar: Dimarzio PAF
Artists using this pickup: Paul Gilbert/Racer X among many; i don't care, but thought it funny that he uses them in neck position also
You musical style(s): rock, from 50s to modern indie; picking up jazz; quiet solo stuff to extreme metal/hardcore w/ bands
Reason for pickup change: mainly came as a guitar change, but aside from build quality, the EMGs sounded too artificial for me; good sustain and harmonics, but pickup dressed up the guitar too much; notes sounded like they were wearing a sweater all the time.

Perceived output level: hotter than average, seemed about equal to EMG bridge; similar to a Gibson 500T, to my ears
Tone: bright, biting, good bit of sizzle and harmonics; very tight on muted picking, fast response. poor cleans, too harsh without tons of depth.
Sonic evaluation: The Dimarzios came as an upgrade on several late-70's Guilds, including my S300. The guitar is odd, part strat, part paul, part SG, just the right balance and meat. I'm playing through a Mesa MkIV and a Rivera M60, which makes me sound like a boutique tweaker, but i found both for less than $600, so the price and tone were a great deal.
I've had the guitar for about a year and a half. In that time i've had mixed feelings about this pickup-- As my interests have shifted away from metal and heavy blues, i've liked it less, but when I want those sounds it's been ready. At first I thought I noticed a slight decrease in harmonics from the EMGs, but I feel like the harmonic range is actually broader. The EMGs seemed to synthetically amplify harmonics, this pickup sounds more natural. At times it's sounded flat, a little thin on the low end, harsh on the top. It doesn't seem suited to the Rivera, which has a bright/harsh plexi-voiced lead channel without much girth, so the SD exacerbated that sound. I've been thinking about shaking up my gear lately, and reevaluating sounds. I did a lot of tweaking with the Mesa, which has a kind of lifeless crunch channel, but after a lot of time I ended up with a nice, balanced, raw kind of edge of breakup sound-- like a bassman with a treble booster on it. This pickup started to really come through once I found a voicing on the amp that I really liked. It's pretty touch sensitive, cleans up enough for kind of Hendrix-y Marshall clean chording, spank when picked harder. I found a sound I really like as a bluesy clean tone by dialing back the volume on this pickup to about half, using both humbuckers on the guitar, with the neck volume about at 8, and the tone on the SD down just a hair. Great fringe of clean sound for fingerpicked classic rock sounds. Unless I'm just fucking around and shredding, I always find myself backing off the treble a smidge; it tends to be piercing.
I have been considering replacing these pickups, and in the process of researching others, I realized I'd never tried adjusting the pole pieces on the SD, and they were set flat when I got it. Both coils have poles that adjust with a hex key. I left the bottom coil flush with the cover, and staggered the poles by ear on the coil closer to the neck-- trying to emphasize just slightly more bass and decrease the harshness. I'm pleased to say that there was enough of an improvement in tone that I'm not in such a rush to get rid of this anymore. Was able to get a slightly thicker bass side, and de-emphasize the harsh highs for a bit more balance. The adjustable poles are a great feature that I hadn't thought would make a difference, but it seems like you could do quite a bit of tuning between the two coils to get a better sound. The pickup seems like it's not going to make a bad amp sound better, but responds well to a good amp. Very well suited to classic rock leads and classic metal rhythm, from Ozzy to Maiden to early Megadeth and Metallica. Because the PAF is pretty dark sounding, it's a good way to blend some top end into a clean tone using both pups, though I wouldn't use it for clean alone. Pretty crisp with a good push to it, but not overwhelmingly harsh and shrill like other modern distortion pickups. Hot but with a hint of 70s warmth.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I would never put this in the neck position, but others have done it and liked it, so who knows. Maybe I'll try it, since I usually feel that the neck pickup is too murky. I'd never use this by itself for clean rhythms, but for leads and metal I can't imagine anyone needing much more output. Not the heaviest sound, but enough to drive the

Comments: I am happy with this as a stock pickup; it's definitely *the* sound of late 70s heavy rock and early 80s metal. If I spilled acid on it and it stopped working, I'd explore some other options. It's better than a lot of things, but harsher than Duncans. As adjusted now I like it equally as well as the Gibson 500T, or the Dirty Fingers. My tele copy has Fralins in it, my first set of hand-wound pickups, and I find myself playing the tele all the time because of the harmonic depth of those single coils. I'm probably going to get a set of Fralin humbuckers (haven't decided on the combo) but I'll keep these, and likely put them in a 1980 Ibanez Artist I have coming, depending on the sound of the Ibanez electronics. They're definitely better than many other options out there, and have their own characteristic sound, but they're not deep enough for me, not what I hear as I'm falling asleep at night. If I could afford to keep a guitar set up just for this tone I'd want it at times; The difference to me is that they sound just good. The Fralins make me play longer and more creatively because they have so much nuance, and that's what seems to separate a great pickup from a very decent one.

Pickup features: Passive ceramic magnet humbucker
Impedence or other specs: The only "specs" you need: It sounds KILLER!

Model of guitar or bass: 1973 Gibson SG
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock 70's Gibson Bridge Pickup
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Most noted: Tom Scholz of Boston, that numb-nut from KISS, you know...the less faggy of the two KISS guitarist who named himself after a comet, and whats-his-name with the hair from Iron Maiden
You musical style(s): From classic rock to punk to rockabilly
Reason for pickup change: Stock 70's Gibson just didn't have enough "Umpf" to it...very lackluster and unbalanced sound...high notes lacked solid tone, got tinny while low notes were too flubby and not defined. So if you played a full chord you got mud at the start and too much treble at the end.

Perceived output level: Like a very hot PAF without being overbearing. Enough push to make a good amp break up on the cleaner settings.
Tone: Thick yet articulate...seems very balanced to my ears eventhough its rated as having boosted mids and bass.
Sonic evaluation: I'm using a 73 Gibson SG with a Tech 21 Trademark 120 (an amp that is unforgiving to crappy pickups, one reason for the switch) Beautiful solid tone, hands down. I love it. Classic hot, thick, singing humbucker tone that pushes an amp just the right amount without overpowering. Fat yet tight and articulate...I can play a full bar chord with full on distortion and hear every note and nuance. If you are looking for a classic solid rock tone this is what you need. Sounds great with any level of overdrive and/or distortion...edgy, tight, articulate, and thick, yet never muddy or over powering. Doesn't do clean on its own very well...in fact I can't get a completely clean tone out of my amp with it. However if I use it conjunction with my neck pickup on the SG it yields a very nice warm fat clean tone just on the edge of breakup.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play eclectic rock ranging from classic blusey rock to old school punk to weirdo effecty Cure-like stuff. Probably wouldn't be a good neck pickup if you wanted to play clean at the neck., otherwise you'll probably get a very fat singing distorted neck tone

Comments: This is THE humbucker by which ALL hotter 'buckers should be judged by. Dimarzio brought these out in 1976 and they're a classic, an overlooked classic at that, more people should check the Super Distortion out when looking to put more power in their sound and quit messing around with actives and all these other zillions of overpowering muddy or screechy pickups. I tried a Tone Zone first...TOO bassy and middy, just ridiculous actually. Completely overpowers your tone. Dimarzio recommended I try a Fred and swapped me for one...the Fred sounded like a beefed up single coil and was very fizzy sounding when overdriven, so I went for the classic Super Distortion and realized that's what I should've gotten in the first place! Kicking myself for not giving it a go a long time ago!

Pickup features: Humbucking passive pickup
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: epiphone les paul standard
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar: some other dmarzio i'm not sure
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): blues rock and a little bit of everything else
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level: trebly and has good distortion but sometinmes it is a little to trebly so i put the switch in the middle position to even it out.
Tone: trebly and good with distortion for screamin' solos
Sonic evaluation: epiphone les paul with a mesa boogie amp. sounds great.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: bluesm,rock and some other stuff it is a great screamin rock solo pickup

Comments: good but sometimes the treble can get annoying. I like it reccomend for rock lead guitarists.

Pickup features: Passive Humbucker
Impedence or other specs: 425 mV output, around 13.5K Impendance

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez RG570
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: DiMarzio PAF Pro
Other pickups on guitar: the PAF Pro was moved from bridge to neck + crap ibanez single (about to be replaced)
Artists using this pickup: Paul Gilbert, Iron Maiden, Al DiMeola......
You musical style(s): Thrash Metal / Progressive Metal / Instrumental (neo-classical)
Reason for pickup change: the PAF Pro is a lovely pick-up in the bridge position, sweet harmonics and great clarity... but lacked any sort of bass end and wasn't high output enough for my liking. consequently i moved it to neck position (where its awesome) and purchased a Super Distortion to go in the bridge position.

Perceived output level: Much hotter than the PAF Pro. with mids scooped and lots of gain, this gives EMGs a run for their money
Tone: Lots of bass end, at the same time great PAF-Pro like clarity on high notes. think of it as a PAF Pro with more bass and higher output.
Sonic evaluation: I use it in my '91 Ibanez RG570, through a modded Crybaby, Boss DD-2 and running into a MetalHead Electronics boutique rack pre-amp (with a mesa 20/20 power amp coming soon!).

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: High output enough for all types of metal and hard rock, enough clarity for shred.

Comments: awesome tone. responds to amp EQ change extremely well, with mids scooped this is a thrash monster; with mids full-on, its a great classic maiden (sabbath / maiden) and shred pick-up.
i certainly love the bass end it puts back into my tone (just as DiMarzio say, 'it puts back the low end that a tremolo equipped guitar can bleed off'.
its a great pick-up, definetely has a unique tone.
not my favourite however (Evolution's hold THAT position in my aural heart), but definetely very usable, with great tones.
i'm the sort of guy that will not buy the same pick-up twice, because i want to have a wide range of tones available to me - so even though its not my 'perfect' pick-up, i do use it, and plan to use quite a lot in my solo / recording work.
its versatility will make the RG my main live guitar as well.
also, DiMarzio customer support is worthy of being mentioned. very quick response, very helpful - a great addition to an already great product line!

Pickup features: Passive Humbucking
Impedence or other specs: 425mv

Model of guitar or bass: Gibson Les Paul Standard AAA Flame
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock 498T
Other pickups on guitar: PAF Pro
Artists using this pickup: ME
You musical style(s): EVERYTHING Rock/Metal/Blues/Country
Reason for pickup change: 498t was a wimp. The 490R was overpowering it easily.

Perceived output level: This is much hotter than the stock pickup and right on par with the Neck PAF Pro.
Tone: CRISP Great distortion and good pick harmonics. Not screechy or 80's sounding as I have read.
Sonic evaluation: I play my Les Paul through a Genz Benz El Diablo 100 and Gflex 4x12. This pikup cuts through very well on this amp. It pushes the clean into bluesy breakup at full gain. I could barely get that with the stock pickup.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play Metal and Hard rock mostly but love to jam on the blues and some DMB.

Comments: I would buy this again. It is just righ for my needs. I can get as heavy as I want and still have the abuility to play other styles as well.

Pickup features: humbucking-passive
Impedence or other specs: check out dimarzio.com

Model of guitar or bass: IBANEZ PS10 II LTD ICEMAN
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: STOCK V 8 V7 WHICHEVER
Other pickups on guitar: BRIDGE V8 V7 NOT SURE WHICH
Artists using this pickup: SHORTER ANSWER WOULD BE WHO HASNT
You musical style(s): IMAGINE KISS MEETS VAN MEETS MEGADETH MEETS NIN
Reason for pickup change: The stock bridge one had great rythym sound but leads were a tad thin.

Perceived output level: perfectly crazy
Tone: thick and defined
Sonic evaluation: I play my Iceman through a JCMDSL 50. The only effect I use right now is an Electric Mistress. I used only DiMarzios sd100"s in the late 70's and early 80's then I had kids and such. In the meantime I used the EMG Zakk Wylde setup (before anyone knew who he was) and tried the JB. The EMG's are worth consideration the JB is not... I feel that the Superdistortion offers the best of both worlds; i.e. great tone and drive from hell. It's good to be home in other words.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: ac dc KISS megadeth NIN Manson OZZY and so on...

Comments: Stolen??!! they would die. Hell yes I buy it again. Been playing since 1976 u do the math. Marshall half stack, ICEMAN, Electric Mistress cords and picks.

Pickup features:
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Stratocaster
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Seymour Duncan Hotrails
Other pickups on guitar: Dimarzio Air Zones on the neck
Artists using this pickup: Iron Maiden and Thrice are using Super Distortions ...
You musical style(s): punk, metal, hardcore
Reason for pickup change: hotrails were too whiney

Perceived output level: i know that the "greats" from the past has used super distortions, but i honestly don't really like it. it has good qualities like the higher notes sound very warm and smooth, but the palm mutes and lows are too muddy -- can get any clean palm mutes out of super distortions.
Tone: muddy
Sonic evaluation: i have a fender stratocaster, boss ns2, boss chromatic tuner, and boss metal zone going to a marshall mg50dfx. =(, yeah, i know, i need a REAL amp.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: not for metal, hardcore, punk, anything with crunchy palm mutes basically. it's good for blues and oldschool rock probably.

Comments: if it got destroyed, and then stepped on -- i wouldn't buy it again. i also have a gibson sg '61 reissue with gibson 500t on the bridge. THAT, my friend, is crazy. also, handsdown i'd go with hotrails again, too.

Pickup features: passive humbucking
Impedence or other specs: dont know

Model of guitar or bass: gibson sg with no tone pots
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: another super distortion
Other pickups on guitar: air norton
Artists using this pickup: everyone
You musical style(s): prog metal
Reason for pickup change: my other super distortion was getting old, i neaded a new one, the magnet was getting weak.

Perceived output level: hot, a tad bit hotter than the evolution. enough to give you a great sounding distortion and also a good trebly clean sound
Tone: lost of treble and midds, this is partialy due to the fact that i dont use tone pots and that adds treble and presence, it has a hard edged trble and i think the no tone pot might take away bass but i dont know. it sounds good on clean with but its nothing to die for. its mainly disigned for good hard on distortion.
Sonic evaluation: im running my sg strait into a tech 21 sansamp classic and then into the board for recording but for live stuff i run it into a crybaby and then into a jmc2000 tsl and i sometimes use a rocktron intellliflex online and a sonic maximizer. i run the gain at full and i turn the bass to half and i usualy have the mids somewere between full and half and i have the treble at ten and for some solos i turn the presence all the way down.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: like i said i play progressive rock\metal. my main influences are steve morse, tony spada and paul gilbert. this pickup is very goood for this style of playing with its full body of mids and a good presence and a great all around sound

Comments: if it were stollen i would buy another one and i am thinking of one for then neck also. i have ben playing for 20 years and i have never had a pickup stolen.(how could you anyways)i have tried a hell of alot of pickups and i think this is the best one ive tryed so fare , or at leats its the one i prefer.

Pickup features: passive humbucking
Impedence or other specs: no clue. i did have a clue once but not any more

Model of guitar or bass: gibson sg special
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: seymour duncan invader
Other pickups on guitar: invader (bridge model)
Artists using this pickup: like everyone
You musical style(s): prog metal
Reason for pickup change: ivaders are horrible

Perceived output level: definatly hot not as much as the x2n but more than a jb
Tone: trebly and middy not so much bassy but i dont eq my amps with alot of bass so.
Sonic evaluation: im running my sg into dunlop crybaby and then into a marshel jmc 2000 tsl 602. And in the effects loop i have a rocktron intelliflex online and for recording i use a tech 21 sansamp cuz they kick ass.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: as i said i play progressive rock. my main influences are steve vai, tony spada, michael angelo, steve morse kind of stuff and this pickup matches perfect for ths style of playing. it is good in the bridge position but i dont know about the neck. i would assume it would be god cuz it has alot of presence and never gets muddy

Comments:

Pickup features: P-90 sized humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: 93 Les Paul Special
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: stock P-100 stacked humbucker "p-90 single coil style"
Other pickups on guitar: stock p-100 in neck
Artists using this pickup: unknown
You musical style(s): rock, pop, blues, country, folk, whatever
Reason for pickup change: The lead p-100 seemed weak, even with the lead jacked up and the neck dropped down. I had searched a long time for an affordable les paul and found this beautiful Special. The neck p-100 sounds great, but the idealized Les Paul sound I had in my head was of the LP Standard/Custom Humbucker variety.

Perceived output level: more focused and dense than a paf style humbucker, but not quite as large sounding as a full sized distortion humbucker, such as a standard dimarzio super distortion
Tone: seems to have a "bump" in the lower midrage, and a little attenuation of the high treble compared to a paf style humbuker or duncan jeff beck humbucker, which I have in other guitars
Sonic evaluation: This pickup gave me the punch I was looking for in the lead position -Chords are thick and focused when maxed, and it cleans up nice without getting muddy with the guitar volume on 2 or 3. Lead sounds have excellent sustain, pinch harmonics jump out on all strings. There are also many cool variations in sound with the two pickups combined. Gibson has made many variations of LP Specials over the years, this 93 is very nice, all mahogany and heavy, pearl logo and dots, bound neck, grover tuners stock, nickel hardware. I have played mostly strats for the last 25+ years, so this LP is really something different! It doesn't have the sparkle and chime of a strat, so I guess this is due to the construction and materials in the Les Paul, not because of the pickup. It might be interesting to rig up this pickup in the bridge of a strat. Info from dimarzio suggests that this pickup also fits a LP deluxe with mini-humbuckers, I've played one several times, but I am unsure if the pickup would go in a ring or drop directly in the body on that model. One installation quirk with the Special involved the mounting screws. A standard P-90/100 has mounting screws in the middle of pickup, between the a-d and b-g strings. The Dimarzio has mounting screws at the outside edges, similar to a standard humbucker. You will be making new holes in the body, but it is underneath the pickup and will not show. For this guitar, I had to fabricate a 1/4 inch wood plate to fit in the bottom of the pickup cavity, as there was a route for wiring under the treble side of the pickup - there was nowhere for the new mounting screw to go. This was fairly easy though, even for me! d8} Right now, my main amp is a vox ad120, it is easily the best amp purchase I have ever made! Purists might say that all tube is superior, and for auditioning sounds on their own, I think they are right - BUT - The vox gets 95% of the tone of various vox, fender, marshall, soldano, dumble, and mesaboogie amps without the hassle and expense of replacing power amp tubes - none of these amps can cop the other one's sounds, so this amp has been ideal to evaluate this pickup. I could go on forever about this amp, but I will post that review under vox...

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This pickup would be excellent for any style of music where you would use a humbucking les paul, so I guess that would only exclude folk and clasical

Comments: If I had to replace this pickup, I would probably get the same, as it works great, and there aren't many options for this application - I did research some "botique" pickups before going with the dimarzio, but they ran in the $100 range. The pickup has 4 conductor wiring, so several setups were possible - series parallel,etc. If Dimarzio supplied a push/pull pot with the pickup, I would have gladly paid a few extra dollars for that option - guess I'm too lazy to hunt down the appropriate pot on my own! Despite the mounting screw mods, the installation was smooth, so I have no complaints. This was my first mod on a gibson style guitar - Leo Fender did have one thing right - mods on strats are easier - like model T's of the guitar world! Drop me a line if you have any suggestions or questions.. Joe