DiMarzio Illuminators?

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I'm liking the sound of that. Was considering getting dual PAF Pros, but I may go with the Illuminator bridge instead, or I might throw it into a PRS Mushok sig I plan on getting.

 

[5150time]

Strange - the rosewood option that used to be on the Dimarzio Illuminator 6 page has disappeared. I guess the world wasn't ready.

 

[lobotom]

so i grabbed a JP13 at guitar center today and plugged into a 5150III 50 watt, here's a little clip of the Illuminators

Mind you I'm not a lead play so spare me the ridicule..just figured i'd throw some higher register notes in there so you could hear.

https://soundcloud.com/joe-cox-5/illuminator-test

Pre gain on 6, Bass on 6, Treb on 7, Mids on 9, Post just below 1. iPhone microphone... Presence i think on 5 or 6

My take- very tight for staccato riffing. Clearest chording i've personally ever heard from a pickup (i've never played a BKP, so cannot personally compare). I think i'm going to buy a set to replace my D-Activators. IMO, the Illuminators slay the CL/LF

Thanks for the clip bro.

Alex

 

[FantasyMetal]

Hey everyone,
I've had my JP13 for a couple weeks now, and I have to say that compared to the CL/LF in my JPXI, I much prefer the Illuminators (at least bridge position). While I've never been much to believe the hype on "clarity" of pickups, I finally get it. I've felt for a long time that the Crunch Lab is not my cup of tea and the Illuminator bridge just destroys it. Much clearer and more pleasing to the ear. Seriously considering buying an Illuminator 7 for my JP12-7 now. However, I don't really hear too much of a difference between the Illuminator Neck and the LiquiFire. Probably roughly equivalent, though I notice that my JPXI has a more "tubey" sound than my JP13. Anywho, just thought I would share my observations.

 

[Legion]

Dude, is that unboosted? No Tubescreamer/clean boost or anything?

 

[SKoG]

Strange - the rosewood option that used to be on the Dimarzio Illuminator 6 page has disappeared. I guess the world wasn't ready.

Also the metal covers option is gone on the 7's page. That got my hopes up.

 

[onefingersweep]

Am I the only one that thought his playing in the first video was garbage?
At least during those scale runs

No you're not the only one. John Petrucci and his band is garbage now days.

Regarding the pickups. I'm very interested. I've wanted to try some high output low DC resistance pickups in my all Mahogany guitar for quite a while now. Dimarzio almost always deliver IMO, and they're reasonably priced. Can't wait to try these puppies.

 

[JoeChugs]

Dude, is that unboosted? No Tubescreamer/clean boost or anything?

if it's me you're taking to, no boost. that's a 5150 III at low volume. amp and pups are tight as hell. not sure how much tightness the amp would retain if the post was turned up, but I don't think tube screamers are as vital to the EVH as they are to most other amps...it really does cover a lot of ground. (mind you I use tube screamers on my own 6505+)

 

[teamSKDM]

You know, if you look at the specs of both the illuminators and bulbs new pickup, theyre almost eq'd the exact same, and have almost the same output and also have just about the same description and objective. if you put both ceramic and alnico magnets in the illuminators, i bet theyd be the same pup! haha,jk but they are very very identical. and misha did say one of his favorite pickups ever were the original jp7 pickups.

 

[Legion]

if it's me you're taking to, no boost. that's a 5150 III at low volume. amp and pups are tight as hell. not sure how much tightness the amp would retain if the post was turned up, but I don't think tube screamers are as vital to the EVH as they are to most other amps...it really does cover a lot of ground. (mind you I use tube screamers on my own 6505+)

I see. That's GREAT to know, thanks dude!

I am waiting to see some full length/full mix clips of this one.

 

[Given To Fly]

There is a new video with Jake Bowen jamming with Petrucci (apparently Petrucci is Jake's Uncle...) and I guess I needed to hear the Illuminators played against another pickup because now I love them. As I said in another thread, they sound "like a punch to face!"

Having said that, the CrunchLab 7 is one of the best bridge pickups I've ever played. I think its really strange some people hear clarity while others hear muddiness but all I know is a JPX7 with the CL/LF combo through a Roadster or Mark IV is a very very very good thing.

Of course, I would be happy to take a donation of a JPXIII-7 to compare the two pickups combinations. Heck! I'll even pay half of the shipping costs.

 

[Heroin]

would the pups need the active eq thing like on the JP13?

 

[Rook]

Just a couple of objective cues with regards getting an idea about pickups based upon the over-simplified information you're often supplied on the web.

First: You can't break the frequency response of something as complex as a pickup down to 'bass, middle and treble', 2kHz is treble but so is 10kHz, lots of 2 will sound bitey but lots of 10 will sound very scratchy and bright. point being two pickups can approximate to the same BMT shape but be totally different.

Second: DC Resistance is one of three factors that allow you to construct a 'transfer function' (the effect of a pickup on an input signal measured from the output), and on it's own it's pretty meaningless. It can tell you how tall the peak of a pickup's response is (in terms of q factor) but without knowing L or C you don't know where that peak is, and if each pickup is made different and from different materials, the R value will have a different effect on every pickup. Higher DC value, can roughly be taken to mean tall peak somewhere, no idea where though. Point being two pickups can have identical DC Resistance and be completely different.

Third: When listening to clips of a pickup on the internet try to think about what impact the pickup itself might be having. I did a whole bunch of pickup tests and demos with seemingly vastly different pickups but using the same Axe preset and to me playing, each one was very different, they felt different, on the recordings one could possibly hear that one is subtly different to the next when played alongside one another, but if someone went away then came back and I played them a clip and said 'which pickup is that', they'd never get it. Pickups are felt more than heard, and the differences you hear, you need 100% consistensy from clip to clip in terms of the setup and even the playing the hear them.

Annoyingly the words are usually the thing you need to read, more usefully from your piers than a piece of marketing copy. I'm gunna try and get hold of some of these soon, I'll post a review if I manage, I encourage others to do the same beforehand to help me decide if I'll be wasting my money! Sounds like something I'd be interested in though, I love me some attack.

 

[Given To Fly]

Just a couple of objective cues with regards getting an idea about pickups based upon the over-simplified information you're often supplied on the web.

First: You can't break the frequency response of something as complex as a pickup down to 'bass, middle and treble', 2kHz is treble but so is 10kHz, lots of 2 will sound bitey but lots of 10 will sound very scratchy and bright. point being two pickups can approximate to the same BMT shape but be totally different.

Second: DC Resistance is one of three factors that allow you to construct a 'transfer function' (the effect of a pickup on an input signal measured from the output), and on it's own it's pretty meaningless. It can tell you how tall the peak of a pickup's response is (in terms of q factor) but without knowing L or C you don't know where that peak is, and if each pickup is made different and from different materials, the R value will have a different effect on every pickup. Higher DC value, can roughly be taken to mean tall peak somewhere, no idea where though. Point being two pickups can have identical DC Resistance and be completely different.

Third: When listening to clips of a pickup on the internet try to think about what impact the pickup itself might be having. I did a whole bunch of pickup tests and demos with seemingly vastly different pickups but using the same Axe preset and to me playing, each one was very different, they felt different, on the recordings one could possibly hear that one is subtly different to the next when played alongside one another, but if someone went away then came back and I played them a clip and said 'which pickup is that', they'd never get it. Pickups are felt more than heard, and the differences you hear, you need 100% consistensy from clip to clip in terms of the setup and even the playing the hear them.

Annoyingly the words are usually the thing you need to read, more usefully from your piers than a piece of marketing copy. I'm gunna try and get hold of some of these soon, I'll post a review if I manage, I encourage others to do the same beforehand to help me decide if I'll be wasting my money! Sounds like something I'd be interested in though, I love me some attack.

There are many wise words in your post, but I stand by my observation that the difference in tone was not subtle. However, I don't think you are wrong about the "marketing" aspect of the video's; Dimarzio made sure we heard JP sound really good.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

They didn't do a good job in that.

It wasn't his video that sold me on the pickups, it was some dude on this forum that did.

 

[MikeSap]

just installed an illuminator in the bridge of my MIJ Rg7421 and i could not be more disappointed. i'm definitely going to contact dimarzio on monday and try to get to the bottom of it. all i keep reading about is clarity and whatnot, but it just sounds so bassy. almost like a neck pickup or the stock pickups on my rg7320z. really not impressed so far. although, i have bought dimarzio pickups before that were labeled and packaged in the bridge pickup packaging and ended up being a neck pickup. on several occasions actually. hopefully that is the case here and i'm given a bridge pickup that sounds like all of the good things i've heard so far. otherwise, he's a seriously disappointed illuminator player right here.

 

[Rook]

Are you 100% sure it's wired right? Otherwise I'm a little disappointed to hear that, these sound like my kinda thing in many ways by DiMarzio's description, your brief review would be off-putting if it were to turn out your pickup is legit.

 

[Jonathan20022]

That is quite disappointing to hear, hope you get it worked out and hopefully it's a mislabeled neck pickup in that sense.

 

[Legion]

When listening to clips of a pickup on the internet try to think about what impact the pickup itself might be having. I did a whole bunch of pickup tests and demos with seemingly vastly different pickups but using the same Axe preset and to me playing, each one was very different, they felt different, on the recordings one could possibly hear that one is subtly different to the next when played alongside one another, but if someone went away then came back and I played them a clip and said 'which pickup is that', they'd never get it. Pickups are felt more than heard, and the differences you hear, you need 100% consistency from clip to clip in terms of the setup and even the playing the hear them.

Holy shit, nailed it.

Sucks about the (possible) pickup mislabeling, Mikey. Hopefully it'll get sorted, good luck.

 

[TheShreddinHand]

just installed an illuminator in the bridge of my MIJ Rg7421 and i could not be more disappointed. i'm definitely going to contact dimarzio on monday and try to get to the bottom of it. all i keep reading about is clarity and whatnot, but it just sounds so bassy. almost like a neck pickup or the stock pickups on my rg7320z. really not impressed so far. although, i have bought dimarzio pickups before that were labeled and packaged in the bridge pickup packaging and ended up being a neck pickup. on several occasions actually. hopefully that is the case here and i'm given a bridge pickup that sounds like all of the good things i've heard so far. otherwise, he's a seriously disappointed illuminator player right here.

Was there ever any resolution on this? Kinda scared to order these!