My Charvel DK24 pickup journey is finally over

.....maybe it's more accurate to say it's over for the foreseeable future. :)
playing starts at 6:30
I tried the following pickups in this guitar:
Bridge: Duncan Full Shred, Alnico 2 pro, 59 custom hybrid, Super Distortion, Transition
Middle: Duncan SSL-6, Dimarzio Area 58
Neck, Full Shred, Alnico 2 pro, Air Classic, Transition
I'm super happy with the Dimarzio Transition pickups in this guitar. I'm sure there are lots of sets our there, but ........life is too short to try them all, and I'm a huge Steve Lukather fan so who cares how good all the other ones are. :) Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

[@azharkhan8796]

You nailed that riff from Transition. Such a great album. 👌

[@BenBreard]

Thanks! I agree that's a killer record. I need to go through more of Steve's catalog. I only have 2 of his solo records.

[@vapeymcvape5000]

Been wanting a DK24 myself. But I play the Atkins style and prefer weaker/stock pickups. Totally agree about prefering 22 frets as opposed to 24 too.

[@BenBreard]

I saw a black DK22 sell locally for 7 or 800. I should have bought it!! It's a cool guitar. I still hate the jack placement, but that's a paper cut IMO. I wrote up some more thoughts on this more here in case you get really bored. :) mrguitar.net/?p=2465

[@sergerichard1269]

I have the exact same Charvel. I also couldn’t bond with the Full Shred so I put on a Suhr SSH+ and it completely transformed the guitar. I’m now seriously considering pairing it with the Suhr SSV in the neck. It also works very well with the original middle pickup.

[@BenBreard]

That's awesome. I seriously debated going with Suhr pickups. I pretty much like everything that company does. I'm glad you're digging them!

[@zAvAvAz]

Sounds great. Awesome playing. I am going with dimarzio for my custom xtreme metal guitar. 3 humbuckers. Guess what they are?

[@BenBreard]

The most extreme thing I can imagine is 3 XN2 pickups. Please tell me that's your plan! :)

[@zAvAvAz]

@@BenBreard lol yesh! Thats awesomeness! Three X2N's. Hahahaha! 1530 millivolts slamming the amp.

[@BenBreard]

@@zAvAvAz do it!! Lol

[@angusorvid8840]

Regarding Glenn Fricker, pickups don't matter as much if you are using monstrous levels of gain. But I don't. I use classic rock to mid 80s metal levels of gain, so the pickups matter a lot more for me. I prefer to focus on the amp, speakers, and then the pickup if that's the weak link. I love the DiMarzio Super Distortion and Tone Zone. I play a strat with a Tone Zone as my main ax and it sounds incredible. Very warm.

[@BenBreard]

Awesome. It's sad that I've never played a Tonezone before. That's a classic for sure. One of these days maybe!! Cheers.

[@angusorvid8840]

@@BenBreard On the issue of alnico vs ceramic, you are right. It's bullshit. I started hearing all this hype of how much better alnico was in the 80s and I think a lot of it can be chalked up to the popularity of Seymour Duncan, a competitor to DiMarzio which made a name for themselves with certain alnico models, primarily the JB which is alnico 5. You can find some good interviews with Larry DiMarzio and Steve Blucher, his main engineer, who say that the magnet is only one ingredient, and many other variables go into the design of a pickup, as to whether it is warm or cold, clear or muddy, etc. And Duncan happens to make a number of ceramic pickups. I'm not a big fan of Duncan be it ceramic or alnico. I find them way too trebly and harsh and mostly lacking clarity in the mids and low end, with few exceptions. DiMarzios just have more tonal spectrum to me. Remember, you always want to match the right guitar with he right pickup. Then your amp will do the rest. My problem with Glenn Fricker is that most of what he says pertains to metal, and I don't play metal. Most guitarists don't play metal. I played metal for a few years as a teen and when I was in my early twenties in the L.A. shred scene and knew a lot of the top players. But in that scene players still would have paid more attention to their pickups, and they did. You had DiMarzio loyalists, like me, and Duncan loyalists. You had EMG loyalists as well, and also Bill Lawrence loyalists. We all had our thing. While we all knew the amp made the biggest difference, the pickup was the thing that made a guitar click. How did it feel to hit a note on that guitar and what note came jumping out of the amp's speaker? As far as "hot" pickups go, a JB and a Super Distortion play in about the same territory. I just prefer the characteristics of the Super Distortion. To me they are warmer, more familiar, and there is more clarity with gain. I don't know how much of that is due to the ceramic factor, the winding, the hexpoles, but it all works together. I've had nothing but bad experiences with JBs and always removed them in favor of a DiMarzio, like a Super Distortion, MegaDrive, X2N, PAF Pro, or, since 1991, The Tone Zone.

[@BenBreard]

@angusorvid8840 +1 on getting the right pickup for the guitar. Lately I haven't been into Duncans as much but I will say the 59 is incredible in one of my warmoths. I really enjoy that one. I wonder if it's the mid honk in the JB that you don't like. I haven't played on since I sold my Ibanez in ~98. :) I should probably buy another one out of pure curiosity. Anyway I totally agree with you on how good DiMarzios are. I honestly have no use for boutique pickups at this point. :)

[@TerryBowling]

Great video @BenBreard! Now I want to try some Air Classics in my LP. Here's how I solved the grounding wire issue in my P90 Tele build. I used 3 tiny screws, like the size you'd find in glasses to fix a grounding wire in each of the 3 cavities (2pu and control). I then painted over these with conductive paint ($15 on AMZ). For the control cavity, I painted it over the top edge so that the cover makes a connection as well. This ensures that I have common grounding throughout. Dead quiet with no RF noise picked up and using the Kinman no-hum P90s. I'll share a pic link privately as YT does not allow links in comments.

[@BenBreard]

Thanks for that. I will try attaching a screw to the conductive paint. I like that idea as I can't really solder to it.

[@dumpstertrash420]

I always say the biggest thing affecting how good you sound is if you play the right notes. That said, I agree with you in that they do make a difference when sitting in front of an amp and when playing live; the whole feedback loop you mentioned. I imagine if you have all the outboard gear and daw plugins available for you, you can make any pickup work sonically. I had that same problem with direct mount pickups before. I think the only good solution would be to use shorter mounting screws. Your question - shouldn't all the pots be grounded to one another and then to the bridge claw wire? When you want to try another pickup again, the fortitude is quite good.

[@BenBreard]

Yeah all the pots are connected to ground and to the trem claw. My guess is the shielding paint wasn't making contact with the ground. .... but, I'm grasping here. I've heard good things about the fortitude!!

[@NewPraetorianBlues]

Briefly had this Charvel model, the Mahogany HSH DK24. I really loved the fretwork. Setup was as easy as a floating bridge could be. The speed volume knob was very fun, as well as the no-load tone pot. The pickup selection was my ideal for HSH guitars. I agree the pickups definitely could've been swapped, but that's not why I sold it - it was because of how thin the Speed Neck is. Damn unplayable for barre chords for me, and I transition between rhythm and lead far too often to use this thin of a neck profile. That being said, that's all preference, so Charvel KNOCKED it out of the park with this and I'd highly recommend a DK24 to anybody in the lead guitar realm.

[@BenBreard]

Yeah I hear you. My biggest gripe on the guitar is the jack location. Why would someone want a jack where the cable pokes them?! I don't get it. :) ......but I guess someone likes it. Cheers

[@flyonwall360]

It always amazes me when I hear people say that pickups don't matter or tone woods on an electric don't matter. Maybe it doesn't matter to an engineer in a studio, but it matters to the guitar player and especially when playing live. Years ago, I had a Hamer Chaparral Custom, and the feal of that guitar was amazing. Now, over the years, I've tried plenty of Les Pauls, and it wasn't until I found a 2005 Gibson Les Paul Studio Faded T that it felt similar to that Hamer. Come to find out that my 2005 Studio has a mohagany top instead of maple. The Hamer was also all mohagany. As for pickups, my Les Paul came with Burstbucker Pros, and they sound amazing. I couldn't tell you what they have for magnets, but I don't care as long as they sound great. Pickups and wood are important to the guitar player, and that is what counts. The ground issue you have does require a permanent fix.

[@BenBreard]

I couldn't agree more. You know I totally forgot about my temporary ground fix. It's held up, but you're right, I should come up with something better. It's funny you mention the LP, my '07 faded studio is killer and sounds similar to yours. Hamers were underrated BTW.

[@christianboddum8783]

HSH doesn't make much sonic sense in the in between sounds. Bridge and neck individually works fine, it may even make the neck pickup less muddy. But the HHs together is too thin to me, and the HS and SH (bridge - mid, mid - neck) will never challenge a Strat. I have done some clever wiring on a Ibanez RGA HH guitar that works, but standard wiring with splits will not cut it... IMO I'm a 22 fret believer 😉

[@BenBreard]

Yeah I agree that there seems to always be some amount of trade off when mixing humbuckers & singlecoils. My goal is to cover a wide range of sounds for a gig, and secondarily not have any positions that sound *bad* to me. I never want the switch to fall somewhere by accident and sound crazy. :) I think the config I have on this guitar checks those boxes. I also agree that the 2 &4 sound is tough to beat on an SSS guitar.

[@T.R.M]

3M Aluminum foil shielding tape on the back cover plate👍

[@BenBreard]

Shielding tape was installed by the factory. Maybe it just wasn't making good contact with the shielding paint?? Heck if I know!