DIMARZIO VIRTUAL VINTAGE HEAVY BLUES 2 VERSUS CRUISER BRIDGE

Tonight I want to share a little bit about my experience with DiMarzio products! Hopefully this will help you to decide whether you want to change your pickups to DiMarzio or not. I'm going to review the Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2 and compare it with the Cruiser Bridge. Read on! :)

Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues

Let me start with the basic specification of the pickup

Output : 170mV(according to DiMarzio)

DC Resistance : 8.5 k ohm

Magnet : Alnico 2

4-conductor-based wiring

Tone : Treble 7.5, Mid 6.5, Bass 6.0(DiMarzio's website)

This single coil is very ideal to re-create that vintage hot-rodded Strat style tone. I prefer to use this one on the neck position and use a low to medium output humbucker to get a balanced volume level. It packs some mid punch; unlike a strat, this one is a bit hot and works well with distortion.

The high notes doesn't get too harsh, the low has some definition, and the mid kicks your notes nicely. I personally like this pickup for it's thickness(I'm using .008-.038 by the way, very THIN). You can easily nail hot-Strat tone from various artists using this pickup combined with slightly overdriven amp or clean amp with a little bit boost.

I don't find any flaw with this pickup except its strange wiring methods; the cable colors aren't the usual ones. It's not using a very strong magnet so it doesn't pull your string too much, you get more sustain for sure. I don't know what's your preference but trust me, weaker magnet is sometimes better :). BTW, you might think that more mid may increase muddiness: that's not happening here, this pickup is balanced properly EQ-wise.

Price starts from $70.00, you can get it from any famous music store(in U.S. of course). I got mine from a music store in Indonesia, though.

Cruiser Bridge Model

Output : 143mV(according to DiMarzio)

DC Resistance : 5.75 k ohm

Magnet : Ceramic

4-conductor-based wiring

Tone : Treble 8.0, Mid 4.5, Bass 5.5(DiMarzio's website)

Andy Timmons uses this pickup on his guitars and he uses it pretty often on the neck position. I put this one on my PGM and I can easily nail Timmons' tone using this pickup. The sound that I'm getting out of this pickup is a natural Strat sound that doesn't get too harsh with the treble but still retains its glassy tone. It doesn't emphasize your picking too much(is that good or bad?) but I personally like it because it doesn't get too bright on the scratch notes unlike traditional Strat pickups.

Works well with distortion, good for combination with other single coils or a full sized low-medium output humbucker. I combined mine with AT-1 humbucker which basically has similar qualities with Seymour Duncan JB. I set my humbucker high and the Cruiser very low and I can get volume reduction when switching to the Cruiser on the neck. Very versatile!

Nothing I dislike about this pickup. It does have a low output(although higher than strat) but it doesn't get thin. It doesn't boost your midrange; this one is a more of a traditional single coil that everyone will surely love.

Price: starts from around $70.00, you can get it anywhere in U.S. for sure.

Which one is better?

Cruiser is definitely more traditional with some enhancement on the chord definition and power. It pushes your amp harder compared to regular single coil pickup of a Strat. VVHB2 has more midrange and for sure it will give you fatter tone compared to Cruiser; it's easier to drive your amp with the VVHB2 too! People who prefer something with standard features will enjoy Cruiser; someone who wants to get more thickness and overdrive-friendly pup will like the VVHB2.

I personally prefer the Cruiser for its versatility and basic tone but I find that the VVHB2 allows me to cover more hot-Strat-based tone; the VVHB2 is also more aggressive and shred-friendly. So really, the choice is yours! Do you like something basic or do you want a little bit of an extra punch? Anyway, thank you to DiMarzio for making such great pickups, they really earned my respect :D

Cheers and God bless :)

p.s. 4 more days until I'm able to post audio clips :D...the final part of the "Guitar Artists with Great Tones" will be available shortly, I hope that you enjoy the previous parts of the post. Feel free to share any part of this blog with the rest of the world :D

MY MODDED JEM-JR

Introduction
I just finished modding my Korean Ibanez JEM-JR WN today and I'm really glad with the result and I want to share it with all of you my dearest readers.

The original un-modded version of this guitar features an Ibanez ILT floating locking tremolo and Ibanez INF series pickups on all positions. It was my very first guitar that I own and not borrow from other people. It costs around $500 when it first came out and I pay almost the same price for that. I got lots of beautiful memories with this guitar, I learned a lot of materials using this guitar and it's been very friendly to me until today.

For some tone chasers, entry level Ibanez guitars probably won't please them as they sound crappy(sorry) and they feel crappy(sorry) as well. But not for me, this guitar is pretty versatile and reliable except that the ILT trem broke one day and I replaced it with Korean Floyd Rose. Now with the modifications, I even dare to compare my baby to some high-end good sounding Strat or Strat-like guitar, YEAH BABY !

Now onto the modifications

First of all, the modification that I did is to replace the trem of course as I mentioned above, the ILT proved to be a non reliable trem.

Then I replaced the pickups as usual with DiMarzios. On the neck and middle, I put Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2. They sounded SUPER AMAZING; the tone is very SRV 70-ish and works well with mild and heavy overdrive units. On the bridge I put PAF Pro and I got that Paul Gilbert tone instantly on my bridge position!

On a clean rig, the singles sounded very Strat-ish with all those glassy sparkly highs but with some extra mid punch while the PAF Pro sounds almost like a single coil but with more lows and mids and of course it's hotter than the others although not too much. All of the pickups are pretty low output and as I did with my PGM, I reduces the height of the neck pickup and increases the height of the bridge pickup to get instant less gain sound by just switching the pickup.

PAF Pro vs AT hum, VVHB2 vs Cruiser

The PAF Pro is not as hot as the AT humbucker and it lacks the mid punch that the AT humbucker has, but it has better high and clarity compared to the AT. The VVHB2 sounds much more like a hot strat compared to the Cruisers, but the Cruisers has more pronounced bottom and treble compared to the VVHB2. All of them are great but they're all different in terms of sound characteristics.

Nonetheless, they're all very impressive in terms of performance and tone. Easy to play with and sounds pretty well when combined together. No complaints, no flaw, it's like having a new guitar. I even dare to challenge someone with an American Deluxe strat on a tone match because it sounds almost like a vintage Strat with an LP humbucker now(or even better than that, I have 24 frets and floating trem, Strat comes with 22 mostly haha!).

Korean Floyd vs ILT vs Edge Pro

The new Floyd trem sounds okay to me. It's not as smooth as Edge Pro trem and it does not have extremely long sustain, but it's much better than the ILT tremolo. The tone that I'm getting from the trem is similar to the tone of a vintage style tremolo of a strat or something, twangy and rounded but not as twangy as a Telecaster. It does not stay in tune as good as the ILT and Edge Pro though because it has different string insertion mechanism.

More mods on the way

Next, I added capacitors on my volume knob as well as a resistor on parallel to make that treble bleed mod and reduce the output a little bit so the entire signal won't get too hot. But I also take out the tone knob and put the volume knob on the former tone knob routing. I get more volume by doing that. If I put Cruisers and AT humbucker, I'll probably get similar tone to my modded PGM ha ha !

Tone pot that blocks the tone

By the way, removing tone pot really helps the tone to get more volume and uncompressed feeling. That tone pot is actually a potentiometer or in an easier term: an adjustable resistor. Putting resistor in series with your signal will cause current reduction and thus you get lower output from your pickups. It also compressed the overall guitar sound a little bit. If you have the courage and heart to try something new, and if you rarely use your tone knob, try taking it/them out and hear the positive difference!

For this guitar, I won't be able to post audio clip or anything like that until probably next year when all my rigs will be transported back from Seattle to Indonesia. When that happens, we can probably hear some clips of me comparing the JEM and PGM using same FX units! How cool is that !!!

Visually unappealing

The overall modification sounds great but it DOESN'T look great. That's because now the single coil on the neck position does not cover the humbucker routing completely. I have to get a new pickguard to solve that aesthetic-related problem.

I don't really care though to be honest

As long as it sounds good, I don't complain. Right now, all I want to do is play that baby all day long and all night long. I plug it through a digital crappy(sorry) Korg Tonework AX1500 and now the overall tone that I'm getting is almost like using a POD X3 Live, very very lively thanks to those modifications.

I hope this post will be useful for everyone who reads this.

Cheers and God bless :)

p.s. One more week until I'm able to post audio clips to my posts!

MY MODDED PGM30

I own a 2004 Japanese PGM30WH with Edge Pro tremolo and Prestige neck that was given to me from my Dad sometime in 2006. It's been my main guitar for 5 years now and it's sort of becoming one with me, I can't imagine living with another guitar but this.

For those who doesn't know PGM: it's Paul Gilbert's signature Ibanez series. Paul Gilbert has been using Ibanez PGMs for a long time although recently he uses Ibanez Fireman more frequently. All PGMs have painted fake f-holes on the body and most of them are basswood body with maple or maple+rosewood neck. The body shape is very similar to Ibanez RG and most of them don't have tone knobs.

Originally, my PGM comes with Infinity INF pickups that have pretty high output, I don't know exactly but the bridge one I guess is in the range of 450mV judging from the sound. That is okay for quite some time when I'm still into heavy stuffs but once I started to play something with more dynamic, the pups don't do any good anymore.

I replaced the pickups with DiMarzio Cruiser Bridge on the neck and middle, I put DiMarzio AT-1 humbucker on the bridge and I accidentally removed the Ibanez logo on the headstock. I put humbucker pickup cover on the neck single coil just so that I don't miss having humbucker on the neck haha !

The DiMarzios are working very great, I got the exact Andy Timmons'(YES, him again) pups set and that helps me to get closer to his tone. I set the neck pup to be slightly lower from the strings and I raised the bridge humbucker a little bit so I get unbalanced volume level. This is kind of weird and people tend to set all pups to be at the same volume level, but I like it since I can get lower volume just by switching to the neck pup without having to press on any pedal or roll the volume knob.

By the way, I put a 300k ohms resistor in parallel with the cap on my volume pots and it helps the tone a little bit. One thing that I love mostly about this modded guitar is the fact that it doesn't have a tone knob which makes the guitar sounds much better (Paul Gilbert is a genius !). I compared this with a fellow RG with the same Wizard II neck and equipped with the same INF pups before I modded mine with DiMarzios and this thing sounds much better, more fat, more clear tops, more dynamics, more volume as well.

The bridge is actually an original Edge Pro tremolo by Ibanez(I can't find a picture of a pgm with that trem on the internet, sorry) and that bridge totally rocks ! Well, I actually hate the fact that it's a locking trem since I can't do crazy tunings, but it stays in tune forever and the little metal where the string hits on the trem is actually very good for the sustain. I used extra light gauge (.008 extra slinky) for this guitar and it still sounds great.

The neck is a little bit thicker than your usual RG necks. Anyway, if you're a tone chaser, you'll already know that thicker neck means thicker tone. It's still very playable although you don't really have a good comfort when playing chord since the thickness of the neck isn't balanced with a rounder neck shape.

This thing has been abused many times; I broke my trem arm once, I almost lost the neck pickup, I carried it on my car trunk without hard case, I bring it out to a gig during rainy day without gig bag or anything; yet this guitar's doesn't get any issue besides few minor very-hard-to-see scratches from my jazz III pick during strumming sessions. Oh, I replaced the switch once BTW, it broke due to too much pickup switching that I did haha !

I won't sell this guitar for sure, this thing is already my part of the body. This guitar also hinders me from buying new guitar since this one sets the standard of tone and playability pretty high. This is not a relic Strat '68 with special neck joint plate, this is not a '57 Les Paul with gold top finish and original PAF pickups and this doesn't worth as much as them. If this guitar is available in the market, it would cost probably less than $1000.00 for a new one with the exact same specs.

I didn't find any flaw on this guitar except that the white paint slowly turns to yellow-ish white. I don't really care though, it still looks neat and it still sounds great, those are what matter the most. If this guitar died, I would probably get an RG with Edge Pro trem and put the same mods that I've done to that RG. I would even probably throw away the tone knob for better tone.

I'll post some sound clip of this guitar soon :)

Hope you enjoy, cheers and God bless !