Dragon IIs vs Vintage Bass in Neck Position

[CantankerousCarl]

With most of my newer guitars being 22F with thicker necks, thinking of making my next CE or CST purchase a 22 fretter...

So, how do the DIIs compare in the neck position specifically w.r.t. the VBs that I am very familiar with in my CE24s and STD24?

As I play (and dig more every day) my S2 Mira, I absolutely love the roundness of the neck pickup, and although I loves me my CEs, the old VBs are not nearly as round.

Subjectively, how do the DIIs compare?

 

[Sage]

I actually just performed this experiment on my Cu24. I've been using a set of Dragon II pickups for some time and I swapped out the neck pickup for a Vintage Bass to see if I liked it better.

First thing I noticed was that the Vintage Bass, though not much hotter in terms of resistance, sounds noticeably louder than the Dragon II neck. It's also brighter and has almost a single-coil vibe, whereas the Dragon II sounds a bit thicker and not as clear. You might call that "rounder," I'm not sure (this is why talking about music is like dancing about architecture). The Dragon II sounds more like a traditional neck humbucker to me, whereas the Vintage Bass is more like a single-coil. Not exactly like a single-coil, but moving in that direction.

I switched back to the Dragon II neck. The Vintage Bass sounds fantastic when engaged by itself, but it overpowers the Dragon II bridge pickup in the combination positions. If I could get an underwound VB that worked well with the Dragon II bridge, I'd be in heaven.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Maybe my DII's are broken? I have the opposite opinion of Sage, my covered DII is my favorite hum bucker for the neck position, it's crisp and chime-y and splits more realistically than my VB does... Could have something to do with the guitar it's in though.

 

[gush]

I actually just performed this experiment on my Cu24. I've been using a set of Dragon II pickups for some time and I swapped out the neck pickup for a Vintage Bass to see if I liked it better.

First thing I noticed was that the Vintage Bass, though not much hotter in terms of resistance, sounds noticeably louder than the Dragon II neck. It's also brighter and has almost a single-coil vibe, whereas the Dragon II sounds a bit thicker and not as clear. You might call that "rounder," I'm not sure (this is why talking about music is like dancing about architecture). The Dragon II sounds more like a traditional neck humbucker to me, whereas the Vintage Bass is more like a single-coil. Not exactly like a single-coil, but moving in that direction.

I switched back to the Dragon II neck. The Vintage Bass sounds fantastic when engaged by itself, but it overpowers the Dragon II bridge pickup in the combination positions. If I could get an underwound VB that worked well with the Dragon II bridge, I'd be in heaven.

JUst an FYI- I saw a youtube vid of joe walsh showing how to set up a les paul. One thing he did was to get the bridge pickup set the way he thought it sounded good not really caring how far away it was from the strings. Then he put toggle in middle position and adjusted neck pickup to get a perfect balance between the two. That was it.

If you ever put the VB back in there give it a try. Good luck.

 

[Sage]

Maybe my DII's are broken? I have the opposite opinion of Sage, my covered DII is my favorite hum bucker for the neck position, it's crisp and chime-y and splits more realistically than my VB does... Could have something to do with the guitar it's in though.

Weird. My experience was that the DII did in fact split better, so that jibes with what you're saying. In fact the DII set in my Cu24 gets a very convincing strat quack in position 7 of the rotary. So while I prefer the tone of the VB by itself, I preferred the split coil sounds from the DII set. I assumed this is because the set was calibrated to work together, but it could be as you say, that the DII split sounds better than the VB split.

JUst an FYI- I saw a youtube vid of joe walsh showing how to set up a les paul. One thing he did was to get the bridge pickup set the way he thought it sounded good not really caring how far away it was from the strings. Then he put toggle in middle position and adjusted neck pickup to get a perfect balance between the two. That was it.

If you ever put the VB back in there give it a try. Good luck.

That is actually what I did. I got the DII bridge to where I liked it and dropped the VB as low as it would go without falling off the mounting screws. It still slightly overpowered the treble pickup. Not by a lot, but by enough to be noticeable.

 

[Professorben]

FWIW...
I used to have a CU24 running a VB in the neck (stock) had to let it go and only recently got a CU22 as I missed it soooo much. (best guitars ive ever played)
i found the Dragon11 to be a far smoother, tuby and rounded sounding pickup, more gibsom LP than the Ibanez RG of the CU24 if that makes sense.
although I'm sure most of that was to do with the position of the pickup on 22 fret instrument compared to a 24.