Hey Steve,
So I’ve noticed in this recent run you’ve added a dimarzio to the middle position of your teak cripe in place of the harmonic design z90—I’m curious what brought about this change and what pickup model it is? Also what are we looking at on the wiring/pickup selector/toggle switch front?
Thanks so much,
—Jarett
Jarett, Fl
nice catch. .
Yep, Z90 out, Super II in. DP104? I think that’s it.
Anyway, I never used the middle pickup in the Cripe, struggled with it from the beginning but it combined well with the neck so I left it in.
I’d mostly given up on three pickup guitars for magnetic issues, but figured I could get away with a Dimarzio middle for the Jerry-centric component of the O’teil gig.
Also, always looking for more hum canceling options.
I think the Dimarzio sounds perfect in that guitar, coil-tapped or full.
The wiring is a little weird; middle and neck are flipped on the 5-way selector switch so the normal M+B position is N+B on the Cripe.
Switch goes Middle, Neck+Middle, Neck, Neck+Bridge, Bridge.
Neck and bridge are RWRP, so now with the Dimarzio middle I’ve got plenty of hum canceling.
Teak Cripe has three knobs and three switches in addition to the scrambled 5-way.
Knobs are: Active volume, passive volume, master tone.
Switches: active/passive, middle coil tap, On board effects loop.
There’s a TRS jack on the face of the guitar for the loop stuff, regular passive mono out on the side.
It’s an old Waldo buffer which is perfect for the clean stuff, but I like the traditional passive PU interaction for higher gain amp stuff, so active/passive has to be switchable.
It’s pretty straight forward really, just not entirely normal.
The Cripe neck PU location is a little downstream of the standard Les Paul or Explorer 1/4 scale length I grew up with.
IN my head, the Cripe neck PU was already a great “middle pickup sound”, and the actual middle PU just felt more physically in the way than sonically useful, so it was mostly lowered flush with the body and I used it with the neck PU for a warm sound.
When I put the Dimarzio in the middle tho, it sounded like a proper middle PU, combined surprisingly well with the neck, and balanced easily full or split relative to both Z90’s.
I’m really happy with the way it worked out.