The Treatment and Oil City

9:39PM FlagThe first public outing of the new humbucker designed with Jonathan from Feline ... look in the single pickup LP The Treatment in full swing:

http://live.mytaratata.com/emission/taratata-n488/video/4794/the-treatment-highway-to-hell-2014-multicam

Renovating a 70s DiMarzio Super Distortion

I have a massively soft spot for the original Dimarzio Super Distortion ... this one came in on the Kawai Rock and Roll Star I bought a few months ago. A rather sad example, this on has been butchered, with an extra cable shoehorned through the baseplate to form a crude coil tap.
Both bobbins were loose and hanging apart as the 'shims' had been removed to allow the bodged cable to curl around the bobbins ... and hence everything sagged!

First job was to stabilise the coils by making a pair of wood (mahogany) shims to brace the unsupported ends of the bobbins.

I decided to junk the rather short remainder of the original twin core and shield hookup cable. Installing instead a length of my Oil City four conductor cable to enable series/parallel and coil tap switching.

Here we have the new cable neatly attached ... with shrink tube rather than old tape as before! I used DIMarzio's wiring code rather than my own out of respect for 'uncle Larry'.

And a wrap of tape ... and it's done.

Winterizers

Just got some nice comments about my Firebird Winterizers ... so in a burst trumpet self blowing here they are (grin).

I recently bought my Tokai Firebird new and although the finish and playability are superb, the original pickups were muddy and lacked the definition one would expect from a mini-humbucker. Ash was personally very helpful with my inquiry about the Oil City 'Winterizers', took the time to explain how Firebird pickups were supposed to be made and how Oil City could hand build these for me. The pickups arrived ahead of time and really look the part with their nickel finish and braided leads. Having now  tried the pickups through my Marshall valve amp, these pickups deliver. Clean tones are rich with good harmonic overtones. With gain applied they remain dynamic, each string still maintaining its definition. I cant wait to get out and gig my new 'Oil City Winterizer equipped Firebird. Thank you Ash.

Regards

John