DGT Pickups

Hope this doesn't derail the thread too much, but if a person wanted aftermarket pickups that were as close as possible to Core Grissom pickups, what would be recommended? I won't be buying a DGT because I know I wouldn't like the neck, but I've read over the years how great the pickups are and wouldn't mind trying them, or something extremely close.
 
Cranknfrank said:
I’m a veteran (old guy) player and I have two ‘08 DGT’s. The pickups were designed and voiced for that specific guitar. It’s only my opinion, but I think the guitars sound best with the original pickups. Now, I know a number of guys who took the DGT pickups out and put in various boutique pickups. The next step for most of those guys was to sell the guitar. To me, they bought the wrong guitar. They bought a DGT because they thought they would magically sound like David Grissom. They didn’t sound like David so it must be the guitar. Right? Most of these “change the pickups” guys were also changing pedals and amps and even their cables. These guys are ALWAYS changing their gear. What they should be doing is practicing and trying to improve their playing. That’s the biggest thing that will improve your tone - not surfing the internet for the gear that will magically turn you into a good guitarist.
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I would say the pickups were designed to Grissom's ears. The guitar itself is just the typical recipe of wood and metal.
 
The way I see it, if I pay 4-5K for something I can do whatever I damn well please to it. It's for PLAYING, not for "reselling". Sure, keep the DGT pickups in case you ever sell it, but jeez: it's MY guitar, I'll customize it however I see fit... just like Grissom did to eventually turn the McCarty INTO A DGT.

For example... I have added a Tremol-No to my DGT, so I can tune to drop D when wanted. I also found the neck pickup (which Grissom never uses, but I DO) to woofy for my taste, so I installed a "de-mud mod" on the neck pickup to remove some of the low end, now it's perfect...FOR ME. Which is the point: FOR ME.
 
alantig said:
What, this old thing?

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Easily one of the most beautiful guitars ever made. I mean it.
 
I'm of two minds on this. For the most part I think the OP makes total sense. Why buy a guitar with pickups you don't care for?

And yet...

Our guitars are part and parcel of our individual, unique musical voices.

I always like to keep my amps stock, and in terms of wiring and appearance I do. But once I've decided to keep an amp, the first thing I do is replace the factory-installed modern tubes with NOS, to get the amp sounding a little more vintage (which for me means late '60s, and I buy NOS tubes from that era whenever possible).

I also restring my guitars with pure nickel strings instead of nickel plated steel, for more of that round, vintage tone, as opposed to a modern, much brighter tone.

I replace IEC AC power cords with higher end Essential Sound stuff (makes a difference, never thought I'd believe that, but I was wrong).

In other words, I mod my gear to suit my needs in these admittedly small ways.

I wouldn't hesitate to switch from DGT pickups to something else, IF the DGT pickups no longer floated my boat for any reason. I figure the guitar ceased to be PRS' or DGT's once I bought it! ;)

I would save the original pickups in case I later changed my mind.
 
Johnnykuz said:
OK, this is a bit of. rant. Not aimed at anyone, just shaking my damn head. I've heard many people talk about how they want to buy a DGT and replace the pickups. WTF!!!! The pickups are a vital part of this signature guitar and replacing them simply lowers the value and makes the guitar sound like it's.....no longer a DGT! If you want to replace the pickups in a guitar, don't buy a signature model. These pickups are part of the "stamp" of a signature guitar. I saw a beautiful DGT on Reverb.com today and in looking at it, i saw that the owner replaced the DGT pickups with Gibson pickups and no longer even has the DGT pickups. To me, that DGT is worthless. At this point I ask, why didn't you just buy a Gibson or a Fender guitar and play with different pickups all you like. I'm almost 70 and have been playing for 57 years. Is this phenomenon a "youth & inexperience" thing? I'm curious because my 38 year old whose been playing for 31 years suggested he'd like to do the same thing. I guess I'm just old because it seems pretty stupid to me to buy a $4-5K guitar and replace the pickups.

OK, end of rant.

PS: I have two DGT's, an '08 maple capped cherry burst and a '12 all mahogany McCarty burst standard. Wouldn't change a thing with them.
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I agree. I love my dgt. I would never , never , never put Gibson pickups in a PRS. Never !
 
Lewguitar said:
Then they would probably be alnico 4 humbuckers. Depends on the year, but if you can believe Tom Holmes and the guy who wrote this article, most pafs used alnico 4. https://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/about-alnico-magnets-in-historic-humbuckers-and-p-90-pickups#:~:text=For both the P-90,x 12.7 x 3.175
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Yeah, I've read alot of articles like this over the years, all come to different conclusions. My opinion is they are all true... to a point. I'd be willing to bet many PAFs had A2, A4, A5... whatever was handy... it wasn't a precise formula back then, they grabbed whatever they had out of the box and wound them up to whatever... DC resistances also were not consistent, hence some PAFs are magic while others are meh.

I think the DGT Core pickups are A2. I've seen some people say A4, but over the years I'm pretty sure I saw PRS verify they are A2.

Back to the point- whatever is in them, they are designed to sound like GIBSON PAFs, so in effect you ARE playing "Gibson pickups in a PRS" (on a DGT).
 
ruger9 said:
Yeah, I've read alot of articles like this over the years, all come to different conclusions. My opinion is they are all true... to a point. I'd be willing to bet many PAFs had A2, A4, A5... whatever was handy... it wasn't a precise formula back then, they grabbed whatever they had out of the box and wound them up to whatever... DC resistances also were not consistent, hence some PAFs are magic while others are meh.

I think the DGT Core pickups are A2. I've seen some people say A4, but over the years I'm pretty sure I saw PRS verify they are A2.

Back to the point- whatever is in them, they are designed to sound like GIBSON PAFs, so in effect you ARE playing "Gibson pickups in a PRS" (on a DGT).
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Tom Holmes worked for Gibson and when Tom says he found records of what magnets Gibson purchased in 1959, and they were alnico 4, I see no reason not to believe him.

I have a set of pickups Tom made in my ES-335 and they're wonderful. They are definitely alnico 4 humbuckers.

But to be honest, I prefer alnico 2 in a humbucker. More mids and a chewier, sweeter sound. I like the Duncan Custom Shop Antiquity humbuckers.

Gotta wind them right though. A2 can lack treble and sound wooly and muddy, especially when I turn the volume control down.
 
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Lewguitar said:
Tom Holmes worked for Gibson and when Tom says he found records of what magnets Gibson purchased in 1959, and they were alnico 4, I see no reason not to believe him.

I have a set of pickups Tom made in my ES-335 and they're wonderful.

But to be honest, I prefer alnico 2 in a humbucker. More mids and a chewier, sweeter sound. I like the Duncan Custom Shop Antiquity humbuckers.

Gotta wind them right though. A2 can lack treble and sound wooly and muddy, especially when I turn the volume control down.
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Oh, he specified 1959? So one year of PAFs. Sure, it's possible all the 59's are the same magnets. Highly UNlikely all PAFs were.
 
ruger9 said:
Oh, he specified 1959? So one year of PAFs. Sure, it's possible all the 59's are the same magnets. Highly UNlikely all PAFs were.
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Tom may have found shipping records from other years. I don't know. But I spoke to him once, and he felt that most Gibsons from 1959 had alnico 4 in their humbuckers and P90's.

So that's the way Tom made his humbuskcers. With Alnico 4.

I've read that Seth Lover specified Alnico 2 when he designed the humbucker and some say that's what Gibson used in the first years of the humbucker. 1957 or so.

Duane Allman had a '57 Goldtop Les Paul but he wanted a Sunburst '59.

So he traded his '57 Goldtop for the '59 Sunburst but insisted that the pickups be swapped, because he liked the electric sound of the '57 Goldtop better.

So his '59 got the '57 pickups, and the '57 got the '59 pickups.

At least that's the story.

Don't know if the '57 had Alnico 2 pickups, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

I like them better than A4 too!
 
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I tend to buy guitars because I like the way they sound, feel, play and/or look. I don't tend to buy guitars I don't like the Pups on as I can buy a guitar to get that 'sound' without needing to buy after-market and modify a 'new' guitar. I can understand changing a guitar because your taste or requirements have changed and its 'cheaper' to change Pups than to buy a 'New' guitar, especially if your 'old' guitar has everything else you wanted. Each to their own of course, its their money, their guitar etc...

The DGT's are a PAF style Pup with Coil 'TAPS'. They tap off a certain amount (tweaked over years) to give the sound they do when you pull up on the tone Pot - something 'Gibson' PAF's don't. You may find some PAF style Pups that sound similar, but whether you'd get the 'same' experience when tapped, I doubt it. The DGT Pups, inc the way it taps, is what makes a DGT a 'DGT' in my opinion.

However if people do want to 'tweak' it to suit their preference, It's a modified DGT at best or 'their' guitar at worst - it's still got the fantastic 'core' DGT aspects at its heart and now it works for them and their requirements better than from those that Dave Grissom himself wants from the SAME Core platform. Anyway, does it matter?

As for Magnets, Dave himself says he doesn't really know, its all about the way he wants them to sound and leaves it to Paul (and his pickup technicians) to make a pickup that sounds exactly the way it does, inc how much of a 'Tap' lifting the pot does. He talked about that with the SE, he said they spent years getting the 'recipe' right for him with the Core, they basically had the ingredients to recreate his for SE...
 
Mozzi said:
The DGT's are a PAF style Pup with Coil 'TAPS'. They tap off a certain amount (tweaked over years) to give the sound they do when you pull up on the tone Pot - something 'Gibson' PAF's don't. You may find some PAF style Pups that sound similar, but whether you'd get the 'same' experience when tapped, I doubt it. The DGT Pups, inc the way it taps, is what makes a DGT a 'DGT' in my opinion.
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The DGT has the best "single coil" sounds I've heard from a humbucker.

There's a difference between "tapping" a pickup and "splitting" a humbucker.

When you split a humbucker you disconnect one coil and only hear the signal from the remaining coil.

When you tap a pickup you connect a lead somewhere in the middle of the coil and only use part of the coil. That's usually done on hot single coil pickups.

Since I don't know the answer, are the DGT pickups split or tapped to get the stellar single coil sounds they get?
 
Lewguitar said:
Thanks! They sound like it. Alnico 4 would be brighter. More treble.
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I find the DGT bridge pickup has plenty of treble for me. If I want more, I'll plug in the tele.

And don't forget Grissom is "always running away from too much high end" -one of the reasons I love his tone. Very thick and Gibbons-like.
 
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