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Dimarzio Super 3 + Liquidfire Neck

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  • Dimarzio Super 3 + Liquidfire Neck

    Well after the bummer of shielding and replacing pickups in my RR1 and it not working out, it was just too hard to track down what the issue was. Likely my soldering as it was my first time.

    So i got pissed off and tore that all down and decided to start on my next project i had lined up and come back to that later and start fresh.

    I read and studied and toiled over about what pickups i would like to try in one of my Killers that needed a complete overhaul - i replaced almost everything on it, and got a cherry 90's charvel schaller for it, the original schaller was pretty worn.

    The guitar is made of ash + has a maple neck and they are very bright and spanky, i think akira likes it like that because of all the tapping he does and the notes just pop from these guitars.

    anyway, i wanted to bring that down and give it a ton of punch and more warmth and roundness.

    The main goal was to get it to be in the sonic range of my seven string which is a polar opposite being made of basswood/rosewood, so that if i switch guitars in a set the sound is not so drastically different that i'd absolutely have to change the amp settings or have another amp and switching and all that. I wasn't so sure it would be possible.

    I decided on these two pickups due to the decreased highs and the super 3's mids - i wasn't sure what to expect from the liquidfire as it was mainly made for basswood i guess ala petrucci.

    I actually didn't think to much of the liquidfire in clips, but seemed closest on paper that it should go well with the Super3 and hopefully accomplish what i wanted.

    I hand picked every component, i chose 1 - 500k pot that read at 450k and 1 - 300k pot that read at 290k for the tone knob, and used a much smaller capacitor 0.0068pf orange drop so i could use the full range of the tone knob and hopefully just add warmth and no mud.

    For strings i chose up a custom guage to get a nice tight feel tuned down a step, and add more roundness trying to bring that spanky crowbar pingk into more of the thump of an anvil, and reduce overtones - starting with a 12 on high E - and in the middles from ernie ball 7 string set and a low E from a d'adarrio 11's set.

    I thought this would be easier than the RR1 with less pots and wires to solder, No. First there is no room in there, and also the switch if off in another cavity.
    I used shielded twisted pair for the switch to control cavity run, and soldered the pickups leads to the ends of that. Just two hums in series nothing fancy.







    Well, I got to try it out at practice today, and it all came together, like unbelievable.

    Firstly my suspicions about the amount of feedback i was getting, the shielding made such a huge difference i could bypass channel one (guitar input) on my Decimator without any problem.
    anything else is from the amp/effects loop.

    I can roll the tone knob all the way down and it just adds warmth, no mud at all, and it sounds great all the way up or down and in between.

    The Super3 is a kick ass pickup in this guitar and a fucking stroke of luck the Liquidfire is totally kick ass in it as well, it matches to Super3 like they were made for each other, even tho the super3 is way high output.
    The Liquidfire imo spanks on the SD Jazz in comparison in a bright
    guitar like this or compared to in them in alder/maple.

    I've got both pickups about equal height, and a bit low even and the volume is pretty much equal - the tone of the Liquidfire ended up just complimenting the Super3 so well, and it's still bright enough but warm and does a mean blues tone as well as that excellent sweep tone!

    My first ever Dimarzio set is a winner.

    And in all a total success!!

    As well i can also sit right in front of my monitor/pc and my rack now and the guitar is quiet as a mouse.

    Major improvement all around.
    Shielding will be done to all my guitars now, I Highly recommended as well to try smaller capacitors in your tone circuit for dual hums especially - lower than 0.022uf like a 0.015uf at least or lower, you might find it makes your tone knob much more useful.

  • #2
    Very cool, SIII is my favorite hum for metal.
    Charvel 7308 (TMZ 008), Charvel Pro-mod (yellow), Jackson Soloist Custom (Yellow), Jackson SL2H-V Natural, Gibson LPS DB, Gibson LPS EB, Gibson LPCC C, Charvel Model 2 (scalloped), Jackson DK2M (white), Charvel Journeyman, Fender Classic Player 60's strat, Carvin C66, Musikraft strat mutt, Warmoth Strat mutt, Fender MIM Jazz bass, Epiphone Classical, Takamine parlor. Marshall 2203, Marshall JVM 210H, Splawn Nitro, Fender Supersonic 22, Line 6 AX2 212, Marshall 4X12.

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