Dimarzio/IBZ RG set

[straylight]

From a set taken out of a Prestige RG.

According to the Ibanez Wiki the neck pickup is voiced like a Super 2, which conveniently I have alread analysed.

Construction is similar to the SuperDistortion, Super2 and Evolution with set screws and an oversize magnet but at least on these examples there is no steel shim an the magnet is wide enough to touch both rows of poles. I'm afraid I can't provide photos of these disassembled as I wrapped them in 3 layers of Tesa tape and repotted them as protection vs an enthusiastic floyd fanatic.

The cheap meter says 2.2H and 4.44 kOhm on each coil, 5H and 8.88kOhm so there's nothing going on with mismatched coils.

[1] "Dimarzio IBZ RG Neck"
[1] "Calculated Inductance: 5.24 H"
[1] "Calculated Capacitance: 64.3 pF"
[1] "Loaded Cutoff: 3628 Hz"
[1] "Loaded Resonant Peak: 2184 Hz -0.156 dB"
[1] "Raw Loaded Peak: 3125 Hz 12.1 dB"
[1] "Unloaded Cutoff: 8708 Hz"
[1] "Unloaded Resonant Peak: 7426 Hz 0.641 dB"

[1] "Raw Unloaded Peak: 7576 Hz 22 dB"
[1] "Raw Induction Peak: 695 Hz 5.74 dB"

The cutoff frequency is incredibly close to my Super2, but the Super2 has a 0.65dB loaded resonant peak and the IBZ demonstrates a slight (0.16dB) dip.

I suspect the spike is caused by the difference in metallurgy, the IBZ having a brss baseplate and my super 2 having a plastic baseplate and a steel shim.

I'm not sure the unloaded comparison is useful as pickup cable lenght has a huge effect, but here it is.

[straylight]

The IBZ RG bridge pickup is quite similar to the Evolution (analysis of set due soon) but is missing the whole (marketing) magic dual resonance stuff, and is similar to the (1981) V2, which is a Maxxon made pickup of similar design but with metric poles. I further suspect the IBZ bridge is wound tightly with 43AWG and the V2 is wound with 44AWG judging by the coil sizes and DC resistance. (13.7kIBZ vs 15.9kV2 and 14kOhm Evo) I think the IBZ has fewer winds than the EVO, which has 7.94k on the 44AWG coil and 6.11k on the 43AWG coil, but the bobbins look fairly full wheras on the 44AWG side of the evo there's a lot of space for more winds.

I'll do a proper analysis of the Evolution set, V2/Super70 set and the maverick X1 shortly. What I consider the "Ibanez" sound is very much the V2/IBZ/Evo pickup in a basswood and maple guitar. Note the V2 referenced here is not the more vintage voiced alnico and fillister screw pickup with the same designation introduced in the late 80s

[1] "Dimarzio IBZ RG Bridge"

[1] "Calculated Inductance: 6.92 H"
[1] "Calculated Capacitance: 69.5 pF"
[1] "Loaded Cutoff: 3156 Hz"
[1] "Loaded Resonant Peak: 1790 Hz -0.156 dB"
[1] "Unloaded Cutoff: 7501 Hz"

[1] "Unloaded Resonant Peak: 6147 Hz 1.39 dB

DC Resistance 13.7kOhm total, 7.06 red/black 6.66 white/green

[jaymenon]

So the bridge pick up has a double size ceramic magnet like the super distortion?

[straylight]

They both have oversize ceramic magnets. They're slightly different dimensions to the usual double-size ones i have, but I wasn't able to disassemble to measure. Ceramic magnets have a permeability similar to free space, so it's not mega-critical unlike alnico magnets.

> Construction is similar to the SuperDistortion, Super2 and Evolution with set screws and an oversize magnet