DiMarzio Elemental
Submitted at: 17:48, 10/7/2002
Product Info
Pickup features: Humbucker
Impedence or other specs: volume slider, 15 ft cable, adjustable poles
Price Paid: US $65
Purchased from: Mars Music, Springfield VA
Instrument
Model of guitar or bass: Really old Kay acoustic
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: none
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: *shrugs* most "artists" could afford a better one
You musical style(s): alternative, folk, rock, emo
Reason for pickup change: well...i went from no pickup to A pickup...because i wanted to be able to amplify for volume and adding effects
Sound
Perceived output level: a bit on the quiet side, but you can adjust the poles to help a little
Tone: i play around a full step down, so its always a bit bassy, but not overly tinny like other pickups
Sonic evaluation: i generally play through my Carvin PA head or my Hughes and Kettner Vortex half stack. better clearity throught the PA, but the added reverb and bottom end of the half stack is nice
For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: great match for anyone playing acoustic but needing to amplify. pop it in and go!
Overall Rating
Comments: for the price and what it is, its a great pickup. the humbucking helps with my low and open tunings, and it doesn't sound a bit tinny like some other more expensive pickups can. there are really only two things that bug me about it: firstly the attached 15ft cable isn't very practical (needs to be longer for live situations, esp. if playing through PA at back of stage) and the 2nd is that if you accidently hit the pickup itself while strumming, you will DEF. hear a click through your amp, which sucks a bit, but by moving your strumming hand down a bit (not over top of the pickup) the problem is solved. its an 8 because of the clicking thing and the short cord
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this pickup a: 8
Submitted by: Lowell <dkoutcast@hotmail.com>
Submitted at: 23:48, 9/5/2001
Product Info
Pickup features: Humbucking with volume slider
Impedence or other specs:
Price Paid: US $60
Purchased from: Mars
Instrument
Model of guitar or bass: Gibson Workingman 00
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: none
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: Me
You musical style(s): Acoustic Balderdash
Reason for pickup change: Needed a pickup to perform live
Sound
Perceived output level: A little weaker than most humbuckers on an electric
Tone: Quite middy; too much treble warble but not enough top end 'snap'
Sonic evaluation: Plugged into PA, or else through an effects pedal box.
For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I told you, acoustic balderdash.
Overall Rating
Comments: This is an OK pickup and I'd recommend it to anyone who needed something really simple they didn't want to mess too much with. It provides an OK sound and for general acoustic rhythm work it's perfectly fine. Great for open mic nights where you just want to step up, plug in, and go.
I'm replacing it with an undersaddle pickup, though, because this pickup doesn't have the bassiness I'm looking for and sounds a little too middy and electric. I do some fairly intricate picking and I don't think it's being reproduced as best as it could be.
There's some cool things about it - for instance the volume slider on it lets you put it at about 80% and fake out a soundman. You step up, start playing, and when you want to rock and roll you can slide it up. You have to be careful though - when plugged in, at 100% volume, this pickup is rather noisy and hissy for a humbucker.
It's certainly heads and tails better than the Duncan Woody soundhole pickups. Those things are crap. I picked this one because it sounded a hell of a lot better than those and it was a quick, convenient solution.
If this pickup had the dynamic range of a peizo pickup, I'd probably keep it. It's real easy to be able to just pop this thing in, plug in and rock. No modifying your expensive plank, either.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this pickup a: 8
Submitted by: Mark Szabo <mszabo@one.net>
Submitted at: 16:58, 7/5/2000
Product Info
Pickup features: Passive Single Coil
Impedence or other specs: don't know
Price Paid: US $60
Purchased from: Guitar Center
Instrument
Model of guitar or bass: Larrivee D03
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: N/A
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: Me, of course !
You musical style(s): Strum and fingerpick accompaniments for pop ballads, rock and prayer music
Reason for pickup change: This is the first p/u on this guitar. However, over the years, I've owned guitars with other pickups including Baggs RT undersaddle piezo, Fishman undersaddle piezo with prefix preamp, Baggs dual source, and older Takamines. The baggs dual source was the best amongst these, but still, I realized that I dislike the harsh brightness and 'rubber band -like' attack of piezo pickups.
It took me some years to overcome my bias against magnetic soundhole pickups. But I'm glad that I finally experimented with this pickup option for my current acoustic guitar.
Sound
Perceived output level: Mild and typical of passive soundhole pickups.
Tone: Quite balanced and warm without excessive brightness. On outboard EQ, I like to cut mids around 400 Hz.
Sonic evaluation: Guitar is a Larrivee D03R (dreadnought). Amp is a Peavey KB-100 keyboard amp.
This pickup sounds very smooth and even. Bass is warm, and treble is clear without the piercing-brightness of other common single coil soundhole pickups.
I compared it against the Duncan SA1 AcoustaTube (humbucker), as well as the much more expensive Fishman Rare Earth (active) Humbucker. Surprisingly, the DiMarzio elemental was the clear winner for me. Both the rare earth as well as the Acoustatube can be made to sound nice, but they require much more fiddling on my Boss GE-7 EQ. Besides, these two pickups make the unwound E and B strings sound undesirably twangy and 'electric'. The DiMarzio, on the other hand required minimal EQ adjustment. Mild cutting on the mids does help. This p/u sounds warmer to me, has a volume slider, gives me the freedom to adjust individual pole heights for string balance, and also costs less. Although this is a single coil pickup, it is not noisy or harshly bright. DiMarzio claims to have patented noise/hum reduction circuitry on the pickup - guess that makes a difference.
For years I thought that mag pickups cannot sound acoustic since they don't 'read' the vibration of the wood. Piezos seemed the only alternative - however, these sound extremely brittle and harsh unless you process the signal with a Boss AD5 or Tech21 Acoustic DI or some such processor. This DiMarzio soundhole pickup, however, is able to give me very reasonable level of acoustic warmth and tone at a low price and with a convenient setup. I really like this pickup.
For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I mostly strum chord accompaniments with a flatpick or my thumb. Also play some small lead fill-ins (flatpick), and fingerpicking accompaniments.
Overall Rating
Comments: I've been playing bass and guitar for ~15 years now. My other guitars currently include a Lowden S25J (nylon), Godin LGXT (electric) and a Yamaha Pacifica (electric).
Overall, I love this DiMarzio pickup for its ease of use, low price as well as good tone. This is certainly not an 'ideal' acoustic setup. A real step up from here would be use this pickup along with a correctly placed condenser microphone and blend the two with independent EQ on the two signals. However, to me, the improvement in tone that this might bring is not worth the high cost and complexity of such a setup.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this pickup a: 10 Fantastic value
Submitted by: Jai Kasthurirangan <jai@io.com>