DiMarzio Super Distortion & PAF Pro, Analysis and Review

[antigua]

www.dimarzio.com/pickups/humbuckers/high-power/super-distortion
www.dimarzio.com/pickups/humbuckers/paf-pro







I pulled this set of DMz HB's out of an FMT Tele, and according to the specs it just had "DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucking pickups", so always assumed the neck was a Super Distortion neck, but once I looked up the DP### I found out that it was actually a PAF Pro, and that there is no such thing as a Super Distortion neck pickup.

I thought the set sounded really good, and truth be told, I really just didn't care for the hair metal look of the hex screws.

Here are the specs I measured, nothing is derived from DiMarzio's own specs. Note that these measurements are taken at the end of the 4 conductor hookup wire. That adds a blanket 30pF or so, and I did not include the grounded chassis in the the measurements, so that will subtract some capacitance. In practice, these capacitance are swamped by the guitar cable, so they're effectively irrelevant.



DiMarzio Super Distortion

DC Resistance: 14.61K
- logo coil: 7.43K
- plain coil: 7.06K
Inductance:
- series: 6.570H
- parallel: 1.649H
- logo coil: 2.907H
- plain coil: 2.799H
Calculated C:
- series: 77pF (97-20)
- parallel: 238pF (258-20)
- logo coil: 130pF (150-20)
- plain coil: 148pF (148-20)

Resonant Peak:
- series: V: -8.3dBV f: 6.29kHz black
- parallel: V: -13.8dBV f: 7.72kHz red
- logo coil: V: -12.9dBV f: 7.63kHz green
- plain coil: V: -14.7dBV f: 7.81kHz gray

Loaded Peaks (200k ohms & 470pF):
- series: V: -13.8dBV f: 2.38kHz black
- parallel: V: -17.1dBV f: 4.52kHz red
- logo coil: V: -17.7dBV f: 3.47kHz green
- plain coil: V: -18.3dBV f: 3.76kHz gray

Gauss at hex screw tops center: 450G






The most striking thing about the Super Distortion is a) the big fat ceramic bar magnet, and b) the super fat screws. The cross section is therefore similar to a Filter'tron.




Based on these design aspects, it's obvious that a design goal of the Super Distortion was to get a much greater flux density and the strings, and it does see about 450 Gauss at the pole tops, compared to the PAF Pro's (and any other PAF) 275 Gauss.

The individual coils produce almost 3 Henry inductance, and have loaded peaks in the mid to upper 3kHz range, which makes them very similar to Seymour Duncan's Antiquity I Texas Hots, which I found to have values that were very close. These do have a lower Q factor, though, due to the significant eddy current losses imposed by the steel chasis, so if you were to pair the Super D with 1meg tone and vol pots, the split coils might then register a Q factor similar to the Texas Hots.

It's interesting to note that due to the excessive eddy currents caused by the fat pole pieces, there is no resonant peak at all, there is only a resonant knee at 2.4kHz. For all the talk about resonant peaks, humbuckers, especially hot ones, tend not to have a resonant peak. Rather they have cut off frequencies.

The bobbins are the same height as any typical PAF, though it's safe to assume they use 43 AWG wire. The 6.6H inductance is about 35% greater than a comparable PAF bridge, which would have an inductance somewhere between 4.5H and 5.0H. The stronger magnetism also bump ups the output voltage, though the amount by which is dependant upon how close the pickup is to the strings, but adding those two ingredients together, it's safe to say the output voltage will be at least 40% greater than that of a comparable PAF, which would help push a tube amp into overdrive.




DiMarzio PAF Pro

DC Resistance: 8.96K
- logo coil: 4.65K
- plain coil: 4.39K
Inductance:
- series: 4.351H
- parallel: 1.089H
- logo coil: 1.849H
- plain coil: 1.880H
Calculated C:
- series: 75pF (95-20)
- parallel: 245pF (265-20)
- logo coil: 136pF (156-20)
- plain coil: 133pF (153-20)

Resonant Peak:
- series: V: -9.6dBV f: 7.81kHz black
- parallel: V: -15.5dBV f: 9.37kHz red
- logo coil: V: -15.1dBV f: 9.37kHz green
- plain coil: V: -14.9dBV f: 9.37kHz gray

Loaded Peaks (200k ohms & 470pF):
- series: V: -15.5dBV f: 3.17kHz black
- parallel: V: -18.4dBV f: 5.74kHz red
- logo coil: V: -19.0dBV f: 4.89kHz green
- plain coil: V: -19.1dBV f: 4.73kHz gray

Gauss at hex screw tops center: 275G






Unlike the Super D, you can see that the PAF Pro's screws poke out the bottom of the chasis, just like a typical PAF, and it uses a standard sized ALNiCo 5 bar.

I've previously compared these hex screws to generic PAF type fillister screws and found that they were practically identical from a material standpoint. They even have the same threading as the fillister screws found in the 57 Classic. However, I've found that there are more eddy current losses associated with screws than with slugs , so two screw coils will mean a lower Q factor, though not to a significant degree.

The PAF Pro's series-mode frequency response looks very similar to Gibson/Epiphone's PAF variety, though especially close to the Epiphone ProBucker 2:



DiMarzio's marketing verbiage tries to suggest that this pickup will sound so much better than your grandpa's PAF, but in every respect it appears to be an unremarkable PAF clone. They say "there is a spike in the mid-range". The mid range looks flat as a pancake to my eye. It's safe to assume that it's simply meant to be a neck compliment to a Super Distortion bridge, to keep the hex screw / double cream appearance in the neck ad bridge, but DiMarzio always seemed to shun "vintage", so of course they couldn't present it as such.



Setup details:

Bode plots are made with a Velleman PCSGU250 and the supplied probes in 10x mode, with the function generator feeding a driver coil of 0.48mH, placed on top of the pickup and driven with 2Vpp. The pickup is connected to an integrator circuit, designed by Ken Willmottkenwillmott.com/blog/, with a Velleman 10x probe, and fed back into the Velleman PCSGU250. I measured the probes' capacitance at 20pF, so that amount is subtracted from the capacitance calculation.

The inductance and Q measurements are made with an Extech 380193 in "SER" series mode, and the mean value between the 1kHz and 120Hz modes is recorded. The capacitance value is derived from the inductance and measured resonant peak.

Magnets are tested with a Spin Doctor ER gravitastech.weebly.com/spin-doctor-er.html

[gpdb]

Antigua - I just did my own test of a Super Distortion but my chart has much more of a peak than yours does. All the internal parts look the same as your images, except mine has flat screws holding the baseplate to the bobbins instead of philips. Also it had the SKU stamped onto the baseplate, so it might be an older model. Regardless, take a look below. The only major difference in our measurements is that I'm using 250k resistance, but still using 470pF for capacitance.  

[stratotarts]

Sept 25, 2016 18:51:38 GMT -5 antigua said:

Bode plots are made with a Velleman PCSGU250 and the supplied probes in 10x mode, with the function generator feeding a driver coil of 0.48mH, placed on top of the pickup and driven with 2Vpp. The pickup is connected to an integrator circuit, designed by Ken Willmottkenwillmott.com/blog/, with a Velleman 10x probe, and fed back into the Velleman PCSGU250. I measured the probes' capacitance at 20pF, so that amount is subtracted from the capacitance calculation.

Sorry, I've been preoccupied with things other than pickup testing for a while, so I may have missed some things. When did scope probes enter the picture? For what purpose? Where are they connected? Every configuration that I can think of, using a 10x probe, has problems or else is not helpful.

If the probe is in line before the integrator, it adds 20dB of loss, and is not terminated in the correct impedance, 1.0M. Also, as you have discovered already, the capacitance of the probe is actually greater than that of the integrator input itself.

If the probe is in line after the integrator (between it and the scope), the capacitive loading has no effect because the integrator output is low impedance, and it adds 20dB loss. In this case, the probe neither adds nor subtracts nothing. It's better to just use a BNC to BNC direct cable.

...unless there is something going on that I don't know about.

[antigua]

Apr 4, 2022 8:45:36 GMT -5 stratotarts said:

Sept 25, 2016 18:51:38 GMT -5 antigua said:

Bode plots are made with a Velleman PCSGU250 and the supplied probes in 10x mode, with the function generator feeding a driver coil of 0.48mH, placed on top of the pickup and driven with 2Vpp. The pickup is connected to an integrator circuit, designed by Ken Willmottkenwillmott.com/blog/, with a Velleman 10x probe, and fed back into the Velleman PCSGU250. I measured the probes' capacitance at 20pF, so that amount is subtracted from the capacitance calculation.

Sorry, I've been preoccupied with things other than pickup testing for a while, so I may have missed some things. When did scope probes enter the picture? For what purpose? Where are they connected? Every configuration that I can think of, using a 10x probe, has problems or else is not helpful.

If the probe is in line before the integrator, it adds 20dB of loss, and is not terminated in the correct impedance, 1.0M. Also, as you have discovered already, the capacitance of the probe is actually greater than that of the integrator input itself.

If the probe is in line after the integrator (between it and the scope), the capacitive loading has no effect because the integrator output is low impedance, and it adds 20dB loss. In this case, the probe neither adds nor subtracts nothing. It's better to just use a BNC to BNC direct cable.

...unless there is something going on that I don't know about.

The Integrator feeds into channel A of the Velleman, and a probe across the exciter coil goes into channel B, and the exciter coil is plugged into the function generator output. I believe that's how it determines the phase angle.

[stratotarts]

Oh, you're using it to monitor the source on channel B. That is okay, but I think it wouldn't be necessary because the software generates the signal generator output itself, therefore already knows the timing, and can calculate the channel A input phase difference from that.

[gpdb]

Antigua - any thoughts on the chart I provided compared to yours?

[antigua]

Apr 8, 2022 10:32:16 GMT -5 gpdb said:

Antigua - any thoughts on the chart I provided compared to yours?

You used 250k instead of 200k, so that would have the effect of increase the Q slightly.