First Post DiMarzio V V Heavy Blues

[Rob Eadgbe]

Hi all, great forum. I've been lurking for a week or two, but it's time to ask a question. Hope I can also contribute to some of the other treads from time to time.

I'm at a crossroards with my '95 American Standard. I currently have the DiMarzio VV Blues in the neck, and the Heavy Blues in the bridge, with a stock single coil in the middle. I'm gonna replace the middle pickup, but the way my switch is setup I never use the middle pickup alone. Position three on my switch is a psuedo Tele sound using the neck and bridge pu's together.

I considered buying an RWRP middle pu, which would likely be the most economical, and the least wasteful solution. I find it hard to justify buying a great pu to just fill in on quack sounds. Trouble is, I'm also thinking of moving the Heavy Blues into the middle, and replacing it with a VV Solo. I love the definition of the Heavy Blues, but it just doesn't have the ooomph I'd like for hard rock.

I can probably find a home for the Heavy Blues in the neck position of another guitar, but perhaps the best and ultimately cheaper solution is to leave it on the guitar. Any thoughts...

[Garage_Studios]

You could also buy a Seymour Duncan Lil 59 (which is a humbucker). I have one in the bridge of my strat and I love it. It's the shape of a singlecoil so you won't need to route or buy a new pickguard. It was also made to be used with 250k pots so you won't need to buy 500k pots--which are usually used with humbuckers. All I have to say is that it ROCKS and handles distortion VERY well. It seems that even when I go overboard on the distortion it still holds up great. I've talked to other people about the Lil 59, who also have it in the bridge, and I've never heard a bad comment or complaint about its tone. The only thing you be wondering about is quack. Well the quack sound is much thicker (obviously) which I don't particularly like--some people do though. So I ordered a push-pull pot for my guitar. The way mine is set up is when the pot is pushed in, the p-up is wired in parallel (more of a single-coil/P-90 sort of sound but still totally quiet) and when I pull the pot out it sets the pup in series (which is how normal humbuckers are wired). I like to think of it as a boost switch. But when the pup is in parallel I get all the "Sweet Home Alabama/Life in the Fast Lane" quack I can handle in position two. I really enjoy the flexibility of this setup and will keep it that way until I buy an actual Les Paul. Hope I helped.