Does anyone know what, if any, DiMarzio pickups the stock Ibanez QM1 and QM2 are based on?

I have a variety of DiMarzios in different guitars - Breeds, Evos, PAF Pros, FREDs, even a Humbucker from Hell . Since getting a new amp that really lets me hear the differences between these, I cannot get around the fact that my favorite of the lot are the stock QM pups in my 1994 S540!

I seem to remember that most "DiMarzio designed" pickups that they do for guitar companies tend to be variations on named pickups from the regular DiMarzio line. Therefor I'd love to know what these QMs are based on, because there are a number of guitars I'd like to fit them to.

If we can't be that precise, even some basic info would be appreciated. What kind of magnets are in the QM series pups? Alnico V? Ceramic? What's their output value?

There is no good information in the '94 catalog, Google only turned up one guy who thinks they are based on Evos (I can't see this being true as they are tonally a world apart) and the Jemsite search was made a little tricky by the term "QM" or "QM1" being too short to include in a search string.

Thanks for any leads.

The 97 and 98 catalogs have a table showing the QM1 and QM2 as having ceramic mags. The QM-S1 has an alnico magnet.

QM pickups are not built or designed by Dimarzio, theyre Ibanez's own pups...

Theyre the best pickups they offered (came stock in several prestige and signature guitars), miles better than the V series...

Interesting points, both!

I am surprised these have ceramic magnets. My other ceramics sound too harsh through this amp (a Splawn) and I thought I'd figured out at least to avoid ceramics. Now I find they power my favorite pup. These sound so much smoother. Puzzling. :/

Are you 100% on that info, Marianozz? I thought all Ibanez's better pickups were DiMarzio designed or made. The QMs certainly are miles better than the Vs in my book.

Hopefully if I can find a DC rating I might have a start on finding similar pickups.

I meant theyre the best pickups Ibanez made themselves...

Oh yes, I understood you on that point completely! What I tried to ask was, are you certain DiMarzio had no hand in designing the QMs?

Sorry for the confusion.

This is all very interesting, and definately deserves my first post as a new member.

I came across this website after a search on these pickups in google. Surprisingly its really hard to find out any info on them as such.

The reason I am trying to learn about them is I too love them. I just purchased not long ago an "Ibanez S1625FBNT", atleast thats what is written on the price tag. I've yet to find anything on the internet about it though. the search comes up with no results.

After doing some digging around, the guitar which looks most like what I have, is actually the S1625FB. Which is likely the same guitar, however I don't know where the NT in my price tag comes from.

You would think that with prestige guitars there would be a wealth of information out there. So basically my guitar has the QM1 and QM2 pickups that are being discussed in this topic. When I purchased the guitar I was on the understanding that the pickups in it were DiMarzio's, and after having a close look and not seeing anything DiMarzio I was a bit confused.

None the less, even with these pickups the guitar is still an awesome guitar, and it still screems with all the warmth I desire.

So if you guys do ever manage to dig up some solid information on these pickups I'd love to learn more about them. And likewise if I find anything I'll be sure to post in here.

Cheers,
Newo.

[Edit - After posting this I noticed the dates and realised this thread is long dead... *sigh*. I'd still like to leave my mark here in this thread however.]

These are my favourite p/up too. They sound less powerful than other p/ups i've got and i thought they sounded close to the PAFs that are fitted to JS guitars.

I think old V2s from the beginning of the 80s and also Super 58 are great pickups too...
But all of these are far away from recent V series (V6, V7, V8 )


I think I read some tone charts one old Ibanez catalogs like this one : http://www.ibanezrules.com/catalogs/us/1997/97041.jpg

You were looking at the join dates rather than the posting dates perhaps? A week isn't long dead, especially in the tech section, more... waiting for info.

I'm glad someone else loves these pickups. It is really not easy to find much information on them. They just make my tube amp sing, with the right warmth in the highs and musical, detailed mids that many of my other pups are missing.

I doubt the "NT" on the end of your model name concerns much more than cosmetics - perhaps Natural? - with FB probably being Figured Bubinga if my Ibanez initials recall is accurate. A lovely guitar.

Anyway, yeah, even if it's at some point in the future when the thread really is dead, I'd appreciate you adding anything you dig up on the QMs here. For me or the next guy. Cheers.

I just double checked the dates that I was looking at, and they were infact the correct ones, however me being a Kiwi doesn't help any either. Down here we write day, month, year. rather than month, day, year heh.

I just bought a QM1 on the bay to try on my RG570. But, since my current v7/8 pickups have 2 conductors and the QM1 has four (red, white, black, green) I'm not quite sure how to wire it on the standard switch. Anyone knows how to distinguish between the wires?