DiMarzio Pickups Problem

[theapprentice]

Hi, I bought new pickups for my RG350EX a few weeks ago. I got the following:

DiMarzio Evolution Bridge and Neck
DiMarzio Area 58

Since I am a complete noob when it comes to wiring pickups, I asked for help from a master guitar tech in our area. He was very kind and was more than willing to do the job for me. He wired the pickups' conductors in pairs (parallel humbucking) and instead of a split coil humbucker + top middle single coil combination for positions 2 and 4, he simply blended the signals of the two activated pickups (full bridge/neck humbucker + stacked single coil combination for 2 and 4) which actually sounded great for an alternative to not having the coveted DiMarzio EP1112.

The only thing that felt wrong was this: when I was still using the stock INF humbuckers on the guitar, they seemed to respond well to the overdrive of my amp which is a crappy Marshall MG. I felt that each note just comes out of the amp coated in pleasant distortion. After the pickups replacement, the Evolutions sounded less aggressive even on OD2! I was wondering if this was because the humbuckers were wired in parallel or the Evolutions just "preferred" to be played on tube or higher-gain amps. Please help.

[Vim Fuego]

IF he did wire the humbuckers in parallel mode you would expect them to be quieter and thinner sounding than usual.
Did you ask him for this non-standard wiring?
Jim

[theapprentice]

Originally Posted by Vim Fuego

IF he did wire the humbuckers in parallel mode you would expect them to be quieter and thinner sounding than usual.
Did you ask him for this non-standard wiring?
Jim

Actually, no. I text-messaged him yesterday and asked about the wiring he did with the guitar, and if he could do series humbucking instead. He told me that he could do it but it would affect the volume of the positions (e.g. one position might be louder than the others) based on his personal experience. Not that I think he doesn't know his trade (he's been a musician for 21 years) but he just might be wrong about the volume issue. Maybe I'll just let him rewire it when I come by his shop.

BTW, are the Evolutions really that snappy, regardless of wiring? With the current setup they almost sound like Strat pickups.

[Vim Fuego]

Originally Posted by theapprentice

Actually, no. I text-messaged him yesterday and asked about the wiring he did with the guitar, and if he could do series humbucking instead. He told me that he could do it but it would affect the volume of the positions (e.g. one position might be louder than the others) based on his personal experience. Not that I think he doesn't know his trade (he's been a musician for 21 years) but he just might be wrong about the volume issue. Maybe I'll just let him rewire it when I come by his shop.

BTW, are the Evolutions really that snappy, regardless of wiring? With the current setup they almost sound like Strat pickups.

The snappiness is a symptom of having the humbucker in parallel mode, it's one of the ways of making a humbucker sound like a single coil. In normal series mode the humbuckers will be thicker sounding.
As for the difference on volume then he's correct, especially if he wires the humbucker coil taps in position 2 and 4. The two humbucker positions would be louder than the single coil positions, some people (myself included) consider this a great feature as you can go from heavily overdriven bridge HB to less over driven bridge single coil and middle just by the flick of a switch.
Jim

[theapprentice]

Thank you very much for the information, Mr. Jim. The way I understand it, parallel humbucking is basically like two separately wired single coil pickups placed side by side so they cancel hum, but would still retain their characteristic 'cutting' tone, right? Regarding the volume difference in positions 2 and 4, what would happen if the two humbucker coils are both hooked up with the single coil? I can't split the humbucker coils because I need to turn off the bottom coil of the stacked Area 58 pickup for 2 and 4 to cancel hum. To do that, I need that dang EP1112, which doesn't seem to be available anywhere here in the Philippines.

[Vim Fuego]

Originally Posted by theapprentice

Thank you very much for the information, Mr. Jim. The way I understand it, parallel humbucking is basically like two separately wired single coil pickups placed side by side so they cancel hum, but would still retain their characteristic 'cutting' tone, right? Regarding the volume difference in positions 2 and 4, what would happen if the two humbucker coils are both hooked up with the single coil? I can't split the humbucker coils because I need to turn off the bottom coil of the stacked Area 58 pickup for 2 and 4 to cancel hum.

Yup.
IF you didn't tap the Evos in positions 2 and 4 the levels would be more even, but the sound would be less 'snappy'.
To get fully humbucking tapped options you'd have to coil tap both the Evolution and the Area 58. You could do this but you'd probably need a different 5 way from the one you have in the 350, also you might find the coil tapped 58 doesn't sound too good!
My advice is to just tap the Evos in position 2 and 4 and leave the 58 humbucking. This will give you the charateristic 'snappy' sound but with the posibility of hum. The Jem single coil doesn't humbuck and obviously nor do strats in the single "single coil" positions so you'd probably never notice it!
Jim

Just read your update, the VLX91 from Ibanez is functionally equivalent to the EP1112 and so are other "Superswitch" versions if you want to tap the 58 .
Jim