DiMarzio Norton

[Zhaezzy]

    Just installed a Dimarzio Norton in the bridge of my Magenta Velocity and i am pleasantly surprised. It is a middle high output alnico humbucker and has a nice snap to it the highs are a bit rolled off due to the heat of the pickup. What surprised me the most is that I have a coil tap in this guitar I always thought a coil tap is usually a waste and the pickup just ends up sounding weak without the bite you want from a nice single coil. This pickup rocks when tapped just a nice tele like bite a great change from the humbucker tone. really adds a lot to this pickups versatility. I just wanted to put this out there for those of you that are deciding on what to put in their build also would be great to hear about other humbuckers that sound great tapped.  arty07:

 

[Cagey]

I tend not to tap humbuckers for exactly the reason you mentioned - one coil of a PAF-style humbucker is usually too anemic for any practical use. But, a few months ago a buddy and I put a P-Rails in his Melody Maker and had results like you describe with the Norton. Single coil sounds great, humbucker sounds great, tone control became useful and volume control became dynamic. Really opened that guitar up to a lotta things it wouldn't have been good for otherwise.

Downside, sort of, was it made another guitar in the stable somewhat redundant, so it could go bye-bye without too many tears. Upside to that was it made some cash available for some new pedals. What's that old saying about doors closing but windows opening?  :laughing7:

 

[aarontunes]

IIRC, the Norton has mismatched coils. When you tap it, you get the stronger of two, which is why it sounds better than some other pickups when tapped. Sounds pretty good as a humbucker too.


My favorite DiMarzio pickup is the Breed, but the Norton might be my second fave.

 

[Zhaezzy]

      Cagey I have been wanting to try some P-Rails in a guitar have not really tried them as of yet. I was thinking od doing a one pickup build with a series parallel upper lower selector. Double A that makes sense that the coils are different strengths because the power loss was less than you would typically get. I have tried quite a few Dimarzio's so far and this is my favorite for tapping but I still like the Mo Joe and Fred for shreddy stuff my Brian Mays in my jazzmaster make that guitar but i would not use them for everything but they make that guitar special and stands out from almost any other 3 pickup strat type. Had an Air Norton in the bridge on an axe some years ago and it worked but was not nearly as good tapped.

 

[drewfx]

You can partially split an HB by just putting an appropriate resistor to ground between the two coils. Or you can do like G & L basses and use a capacitor to ground instead so it's basically a HB at low frequencies and SC at high frequencies.

And I know of at least one PU maker that will tap (I wish people wouldn't say "tap" when talking about splitting HB coils, as it makes actual coil tapping confusing) one coil of his HB PU's for combining with the other coil (splat option):

http://www.zhangbucker.com/humbuckers.html

There's really no reason to have it all or nothing - unless that's the sound you want.

 

[TBurst Std]

You can partially split an HB by just putting an appropriate resistor to ground between the two coils. Or you can do like G & L basses and use a capacitor to ground instead so it's basically a HB at low frequencies and SC at high frequencies.

And I know of at least one PU maker that will tap (I wish people wouldn't say "tap" when talking about splitting HB coils, as it makes actual coil tapping confusing) one coil of his HB PU's for combining with the other coil (splat option):

http://www.zhangbucker.com/humbuckers.html

There's really no reason to have it all or nothing - unless that's the sound you want.

I have a couple Zhangbuckers with the splat option for a VIP build.  I'll let you know how they sound when the build is done, but don't hold your breath as this build started in 2009. LOL

 

[Hendrix]

      Cagey I have been wanting to try some P-Rails in a guitar have not really tried them as of yet. I was thinking od doing a one pickup build with a series parallel upper lower selector. Double A that makes sense that the coils are different strengths because the power loss was less than you would typically get. I have tried quite a few Dimarzio's so far and this is my favorite for tapping but I still like the Mo Joe and Fred for shreddy stuff my Brian Mays in my jazzmaster make that guitar but i would not use them for everything but they make that guitar special and stands out from almost any other 3 pickup strat type. Had an Air Norton in the bridge on an axe some years ago and it worked but was not nearly as good tapped.

i have try P-Rails , not really like it , it OK use as a  HB PU's , but when splitting , the Rails part single coil vol drop a lot , and P90 part is much hotter and louder , not really balance to be useable on splitting .

 

[BigSteve22]

      Cagey I have been wanting to try some P-Rails in a guitar have not really tried them as of yet. I was thinking od doing a one pickup build with a series parallel upper lower selector. Double A that makes sense that the coils are different strengths because the power loss was less than you would typically get. I have tried quite a few Dimarzio's so far and this is my favorite for tapping but I still like the Mo Joe and Fred for shr0eddy stuff my Brian Mays in my jazzmaster make that guitar but i would not use them for everything but they make that guitar special and stands out from almost any other 3 pickup strat type. Had an Air Norton in the bridge on an axe some years ago and it worked but was not nearly as good tapped.

i have try P-Rails , not really like it , it OK use as a  HB PU's , but when splitting , the Rails part single coil vol drop a lot , and P90 part is much hotter and louder , not really balance to be useable on splitting .

Although I've also found the P-90 portion of the P-Rail pups to be much hotter than the Rails, I don't have a problem with that. I suppose that if you wire them for independent mode selection it would be, but my wiring scheme is to use neck and bridge pups in the same mode: Both P-90, Both Rail, or both HB, (series and parallel options available). The disparity caused by the uneven coil winding therefor has no real effect for me. I just tweak the volume depending upon which mode I'm using.

 

[Last Triumph]

I have the Norton in the bridge of my VIP with an Air Norton at the neck - great well balanced combo.

I never thought of tapping them - how does one go about this?