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I know it's like swearing in church, but I prefer Dimarzio pickups. Which is not to say I think Duncans are not great pickups, but for me, I prefer the slightly modern tone of the Dimarzio line. Having said that, I would certainly never swap out a set of Duncans if a guitar I bought came with them in, but If i'm buying new, I look to Dimarzio. I do, however, spend a lot of time on this board because of all the valuable information that is available from all the experienced guitar players. I just do not like it when people post a reply like, quot;dude, all Dimarzio's are good for is target practice, go with Duncansquot;. Someone should not be criticized for liking a particular brand of anything over another, whether it be guitar, pickup, string, amp, etc. Just my two cents.

I like them too, and always have. However, since I found the Blues Saraceno...I don't think I will be going back!!

I do have a guitar coming in that is equipped with a Tone Zone and an Air Norton. We will see how it holds up to the mighty Blues.

FWIW, the guitar that has the Blues used to have a Tone Zone in it. I love the TZ, but I like the Blues better in this guitar.

DiMarzio, SD...both great.

Mike

It's not QUITE like swearing in church. You're allowed to like them. Heck, principle is the only reason I won't buy them. They make some wonderful sounding pups, they're just different than Duncans.

No matter what forum you enter, there is always going to be a little bit of favor given the quot;home teamquot;. Marshall forums are a little hard on Mesa guys, and the reverse is true also.

You can't back just one brand, it doesn't allow you to have your eyes open to new things. You never know when that quot;onequot; item will come along, and you won't allow yourself to buy it because it is from quot;that bad brand Xquot;.

I don't like everything from Dimarzio and I don't like everything from Duncan, but I have used many pickups from both company and hopefully will continue using them from both. I am pretty taken with about 5-8 pickups from each company.

In the end, it always keeps coming back to how you get to that sound that is in your head. If one company can get you there, use them.

What ever helps you play your guitar better.

I like both. Vive la difference!

Is this a repeat thread? I think I've heard this line before.

if every one liked Coke there wouldn't be any Pepsi. Lucky for me I like coke and pepsi. I would probably like whatever I tried also. SD or D or whatever. But, I love the SDUGF. This place is great.

Ah GT,

Less filling,

Tastes great.

Seen the new Miller Lite comercials. Where the guy is confronted with a big life issue and can handle it, but then they put down his Miller Lite and he has a bird.

I REALLY like the Duncan JB. But I LOVE the PAF PRO. The Pealy Gates is also very cool. I do think that the Virtual Vintage, and the HS2 and HS3 are Dimarzio's best line of pickups, especially for Strat replacement.


Originally Posted by marty_the_westieI REALLY like the Duncan JB. But I LOVE the PAF PRO. The Pealy Gates is also very cool. I do think that the Virtual Vintage, and the HS2 and HS3 are Dimarzio's best line of pickups, especially for Strat replacement.

How vintage? sounding are the HS2 and HS3? They good enough for Phil Collen right? Are they good general purpose blues rock pups?

Does SD do the true vintage stuff better and Dimarzio does the noiseless SC stuff better? Just a thought

I couldn't agree more about this forum, fun and informative... I've been using SD's for over 20 years, never tried a model I didn't like, whereas DiMarzios sometimes seemed to have a brittle edge to them, no matter what model, but i put an old Super Dist. in my strat (on a whim, for fun) after years of sitting in a drawer and was surprised at how much I liked it. About the coke and pepsi, remember those blindfold tests they used to do? Has anyone even done that woth pickups?? I bet we'd be in for some weird suprises!!

I love both companies. They both fill different niches for me...so many different tones.

I'd be losing out on so many tones had I stuck solely with Duncan and vice versa...why not use both?

Go Bare Knuckle!!!

I agree, Dimarzio's are my thing more than duncans but in studio I blend the both because the Dimarzio puts the thump in and Duncan's give it a nice top end. This board is still the best on the internet though.

My Ibanez use to be my main guitar and I had a Dimarzio FRED in the bridge and Dimarzio designed pups in the neck and middle. Then I discovered my Tele Jr which comes with Duncan P90s. It was so much more expressive than my Ibanez. So I switched. But I still buy Dimarzios if they seem to fit the bill. I will buy Duncan more often than Dimarzio, but I recently put in a blue Velvet in the middle of my hollow strat and it works great.

Its a matter of taste of course;

Paf Pro-Tone Zone-Norton.. they are great pickups i love them..BUT

I think everyone has a BEST pickup brand.. I can use Dimarzio or EMG but when someone asks : quot;Whats your pickup brandquot;.. Its Duncan...

And i think has a bigger product line..

Also has very special pups like Antiquity series..

Another great point of Duncan is their feedback.. I appreciate their care.. Scott Miller ---------- Great Man !!!!!!!

And the last important reason for me, I couldnt find a better combination of pups for my explorer (Custom Bridge----Pearly Gates Neck).

Well I got 5 Duncans and 1 Dimarzio loaded in my guitars.... I REALLY like the Duncans better myself. Not that Dimarzio dont make good stuff..... but for MY tastes the Duncan line is just WAY better. And further than that the people you deal with at Duncan are REALLY cool in trying to help you get what your looking for.

That goes a long way with me....

I like the super distortion, but thats about it. Duncan make more pickups I like.

I'm in the same boat. I prefer DiMarzios, but only because I've had more luck with them than I have with Duncans so far.

I haven't had a DiMarzio I didn't like, and so far that's only been the Tone Zone, Air Zone, and Humbucker from Hell. The Duncans I've had have been the Classic Stack, the Little 59, and the Custom. Out of those I have only really enjoyed the Classic Stack, but will probably switch it out of the guitar it's in for a SC with some more output.

Pickups are fun. Gear is fun. Brand loyalty is overrated. I just use what I like.

i think for my next project guitar, im gonna go with dimarzio. they have a better sellection of sc sized rail puckups, and thats what im looking for right now. i havent tried much of each, but i always say expirimentation is the only way to yield results.

While I probably do prefer Duncans as a collection, there are certainly pickups in others' offerings that I love. As for DiMarzio in particular, I loved the ones a buddy of mine had in his LP -- great for 70s and 80s rock tones -- but I've been only marginally happy with the UltraJazz pups I put in my Jazz Bass. I went with them based almost entirely on a shootout that Bass Player did several years back, but I think I made the wrong call.

As for this forum...no matter what brand you prefer, I haven't found a pickup related forum that comes anywhere close to this one. Putting up with the sometimes defensive attitude of the users towards the Duncan brand name is a small price to pay for info and community here.