Area '61 Review

[marnold***]

I just got my DiMarzio Area '61s installed in my Floyd Rose DST-3 last night. Over the next several weeks, I will give my continuous review of these pickups. I'm sure you'll be thrilled. Note that my DST-3 only has one pot: a 500K Alpha volume pot.

First of all, a minor point about cosmetics. I think the black-pups-on-white-pearloid-pickguard looks good. I'm glad I went with that. Also the pole pieces have a slightly wider spread than my Floyd's do. The only place where that is a "problem" is that the low E string just barely goes over the bottom of its pole piece. That doesn't seem to affect anything at all.

I've only had about an hour's playing time on these so far, so I've only run them through the basic paces. The first thing that strikes you is how quiet they are. They are dead quiet--humbucker quiet. They are so quiet that I initially thought something was wrong when I plugged my guitar in. I thought I had miswired something until I stuck a string and sound came out. If I turn my AD30VT to the Numetal setting and face my CRT, there is no noise. If I try the same trick with the neck pickup on my '51 it sounds like a bad walkie-talkie.

On to the sound. I must confess that my first listen was not a "sky opening and angels singing" moment. It's not that they were bad. It's just that the general tone was quite similar to my old pickups. I also couldn't crank it up at the time because the kids were sleeping. My frustration with getting the ground to solder to the Floyd claw didn't improve my disposition at the time either.

Today, I've had a chance to play louder and listen more closely. One thing that struck me right away was how much more articulate they are. What I mean by that is the old pups would get lost in mud quickly, especially playing chords with the middle and neck pickups together. There is no such mud here. They are a little brighter than stock. The bass is more well-defined and less likely to mud up.

While the neck sounds similar to the old ones, the middle sounds quite a bit different. I don't know how to define it. Punchier midrange maybe? The quack position is decent, although they are by no means the quackiest pickups out there. Right now, I've got the neck pickup raised a little less than 1/8 inch over the pickguard. The middle is only slightly over the pickguard. I'm sure playing with the heights will produce some interesting changes.

Then I added my TO800 into the mix. I think I found what these pups were designed for. The articulation that I mentioned before really comes in here. The phrase "Texas blues" came to mind. They seem to really encourage me to pick hard and attack the strings.

My initial impression is that if you are looking for what I think is a "vintage" Fender clean, you might be better off going with an Area '58 or '67. If you want to play some blues, these would be right up your street. Time to turn some more knobs on my AD30VT and see what these things can do!

[Robert****]

Cool, thanks! Why do you think Area '58 or '67 has more Fender vintage clean sound?

[marnold***]

Cool, thanks! Why do you think Area '58 or '67 has more Fender vintage clean sound?

The '58 because it has ever so slightly less output, but mainly because it is brighter with less low end and midrange. Others have said that the '61 has more of a "compressed" tone than the '58. I'm not sure what that means. The '67 has the least output and is the brightest of the three.

[marnold***]

OK, here are the clips I promised. I apologize for my sloppy playing. I played a little 12-bar blues shuffle rhythm with a turnaround for kicks. I play it three times in both clips. First time through is with the neck pickup, the second time through is with the neck and middle pickups, and the third time through is the middle pickup only.

Both were recorded using my custom Black 2x12 settings on my AD30VT. I ran the line out the line in on my sound card and recorded using Audacity. The only thing I did post-processing was amplifying both by 0.8 decibels. The tracks were then exported as 128K MP3s.

Original Pickups
Area '61s

I'm glad I recorded these clips. It seems to me to be crystal clear that the '61s are brighter and more articulate than the stock. Also, you can detect slight bits of hum in the first clip and none in the second.

[Robert****]

Sounds good Matt! Actually both clips sound good.

[oldguy]

Thanks for the clips, Matt. They sound good, I do think the Area 61's are an improvement, after a couple listens. As you say, they seem more articulate, like more of what goes in is coming out cleaner and clearer.:

[Tone2TheBone]

OK, here are the clips I promised. I apologize for my sloppy playing. I played a little 12-bar blues shuffle rhythm with a turnaround for kicks. I play it three times in both clips. First time through is with the neck pickup, the second time through is with the neck and middle pickups, and the third time through is the middle pickup only.

Both were recorded using my custom Black 2x12 settings on my AD30VT. I ran the line out the line in on my sound card and recorded using Audacity. The only thing I did post-processing was amplifying both by 0.8 decibels. The tracks were then exported as 128K MP3s.

Original Pickups
Area '61s

I'm glad I recorded these clips. It seems to me to be crystal clear that the '61s are brighter and more articulate than the stock. Also, you can detect slight bits of hum in the first clip and none in the second.

Can you email me those files so I can hear them?

[sunvalleylaw]

Nice Matt! I enjoyed them. Thanks for the review.

[marnold***]

Can you email me those files so I can hear them?

Sent you an email via this site, but I don't know if I can attach files through it.

[marnold***]

One thing I've noticed today is that these pickups are VERY sensitive to differences in height. I tried setting them up as the instructions suggest: 3/32" on the low E and 1/16" on the high E. Apparently these Alnico 2 magnets don't have as much string pull as standard single coils. I think I like them backed off a little bit from there. Right now I have them a 1/2 turn of the mounting screw lower. Even a little change like that has quite an effect on the tone of both pickups and the "quack" setting. I think I may try backing them off even further.

[marnold***]

I've lost track of my adjustments now, but I think I've got them a 1/2 turn lower than my previous post. I must like them because I've developed a pain in my left wrist from playing so much. With both pickups on and my TO800 set with the drive at 9:00, level at noon, and tone at 3:00 combined with my AD30VT's Black 2x12 settings, I'm getting a pretty convincing SRV "Scuttle Buttin'" tone. If only I could play that well.

I was also playing the middle pickup alone with the UK70s model. It adds just enough extra brightness over the neck to cut through with authority. All six strings really sing on chords. Before I had to fight very hard to avoid mud. Now it seems that I have to go out of my way to get any mud.

I'm still taken aback by how quiet they are. My brain keeps saying "There should be hum!" when I turn up the volume but it just isn't there. My only real gripe is now I REALLY want to replace the bridge pickup with a Screamin' Demon, get a new switch so I don't have to coerce it into the bridge-middle position, and add a push-pull for the neck-bridge and all-three settings.

The funny thing is that these two Area '61s almost cost me as much ($125) as the whole guitar did ($149). Still, even when you figure in ~$100 for a Screamin' Demon and ~$35 for a new switch, pot, and knob, it still will cost me slightly less than the guitar sold for originally ($419). Except now it will be Seriously Awesome.

[marnold***]

For some reason, I've been all over this song lately even though I'm not a big Velvet Underground fan. Here's my hacking at the main riff to "Sweet Jane." First time through: neck only, second: middle and neck, third: middle only. Same settings as previous except I cut back on reverb a tad.

Sweet Jane

As an aside, why is it that when I click the "record" button, my fingers get all stupid? What I can play just fine I suddenly can't play at all if I'm recording.

[Rocket]

As an aside, why is it that when I click the "record" button, my fingers get all stupid? What I can play just fine I suddenly can't play at all if I'm recording.

Ya know... I learned that I have that same affliction. No problem if someone else punches it up but I find it distracting and breaks the vibe somehow if I have to do it myself.
Maybe a concentration thing?

[oldguy]

marnold........
Did you ever hear Lou Reed's live version of that song with Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter playing guitars? The album was "Rock and Roll Animal", I think.

[marnold***]

marnold........
Did you ever hear Lou Reed's live version of that song with Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter playing guitars? The album was "Rock and Roll Animal", I think.

I've heard of it, but I don't think I've heard it. Is it similar to this one (quite the funky intro--it also looks like a mustache convention):


Here's a more familiar version (Lou's playing it with open chords, I played it with barre chords like his guitarist in this vid):


If you want to get way mellow, here's the Cowboy Junkies' version (with one less chord):

[marnold***]

Well, I've had a couple more weeks with these pups since my last post. They're keepers. I toyed with the idea of trying the Area '67s for a more vintage tone, but listening to these '61s more frequently with distortion sealed the deal for me. They've got plenty of cajones and can cut through pretty much anything. After the height adjustments, I got a very nice quack tone as well. Tonight, I was messing around with the bridge-middle quack and found that to be very enjoyable too (at least if my switch weren't so flaky). Overall these pups are a great improvement in tone and are dead quiet to boot. Two thumbs up from Rev. Rawk.