Hey, dad! (Part 44)

Hey, dad! Thanks for letting us pose with your set-up. This is my little project for school, we take turns to bring Bruno the bear home & record whatever we do with it. Well, my teacher would soon know that Bruno can't even move his fingers to strum a guitar. But wait... Bruno has no fingers so that explains everything.

New pickup- Ibanez SA1260

So this is the latest pickup trio in my Ibanez SA1260:

• Neck: DiMarzio True Velvet
• Middle: DiMarzio Area 67
• Bridge: D'Activator X

Initially, the neck Area 67 stayed put but after some time, I feel I can do better with a more twangy pickup in the neck, especially with lots of distortion so the 67 migrated to the middle position. I have a non-stacked unit in the neck, the True Velvet, which is the best for this guitar. It's frustrating hunting for the right preferred DiMarzio for the SA1260 due to its heaviness. Also, I'm not a DiMarzio fan, the selections I made are less fruitful, I'm more familiar with the Duncan selections but I would want to keep the pickups here an all DiMarzio affair.

Dimarzio: D Activator X

This is my Ibanez SA1260 with a fresh bridge pickup- DiMarzio's D Activator X. The previous humbucker in there (also a DiMarzio), a PAF 36th Anniversary humbucker, didn't last a month. The pickup doesn't do well with a hefty guitar like my SA here which also churns out much bottom end in its unplugged performance, a vintage voiced/ output pickup doesn't help the situation; it's adding oil into water.

My initial intention was to go for a Seymour Duncan humbucker as I've had much success matching the various models on offer to the guitars I own but I decided to keep it a DiMarzio affair since the single coils (stacked humbucker actually) in there are DiMarzios (a pair of Area 67). I need a pickup with a strong midrange response, nothing too excessive in the treble offering but with enough bass to push lots of bottom end palm muting through. The D Activator X offers high levels of midrange & bass with the former exceeding the latter offerings slightly. Regardless of whatever niche appeal the manufacturer proposes this pickup for, it works in this guitar. I didn't grab it by virtue of its high output which is typically associated with heavy music because that's not a sure formula. I'm in it for the clarity & distortion saturation.

PS: Thanks Beez for the excellent workmanship once again.

Ibanez: SA1260... the deviation

It's another pickups overhaul, this time my Ibanez SA1260 received some significant make-over. The default pickups were retired for good & as you can see here, the cavities are some of the neatest the manufacturer has to offer.

No whammy applications with this guitar so 5-springs in there, as usual.

The reason why this post is tagged as a 'deviation' is evident in the pic above; I chose to have a Mallory capacitor instead of the usual Orange Drop routine. I was doing some spring cleaning for the last few days or so & discovered I had a Mallory stashed away in one of my guitar bags. The numeric on it had faded & I thought it should be used as soon as possible before some further deterioration takes place. I also had the volume & tone pots replaced; despite the guitar being very new, the pots were stiff. All these done at BEEZ's.

Finally, a fresh set of GHS .009s in the guitar & my preferred action set up. Played this guitar after watching CSI last night for quite some time. The other reason why this is a 'deviation'- DiMarzio pickups in here. Despite being a hardcore Seymour Duncan fan, I digress occasionally as a check of sorts; I don't mind having other brand name pickups in some of my guitars as a tonal reference. The newbies here are:

• Neck: DiMarzio Area '67
• Middle: DiMarzio Area '67
• Bridge: DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary