Dimarzio minibucker

[j. pierce]

I don't imagine the folks here have a huge amount of interest in production pickups, (otherwise, why would you be making better pickups yourself?) but I have a Dimarzio minibucker out of it's cover here, (the plan is to see if we can't cram it into a regular humbucker cover to mount it in the bridge position of a guitar routed for standard buckers) If anyone is interested in pictures of the innards, or dimensions, etc., I'm glad to take some, it'll be in this state for a few days.

It's not constructed quite like a "normal" minibucker - the coils are screwed to the baseplate, (so it's not held together by the cover) and it's more like a PAF with two slug coils. Looks like a ceramic and an alnico magnet in there. Bobbins seem like they're made to be used for stacked pickups, with only the top half wound.

It's not an amazing pickup, but I really liked it in the guitar I pulled it out of. One of these days, I'll replace it with something proper, but as I'm parting out one guitar I built, and fixing another, the parts are basically "free".

[dodona]

I just ordered a pair of Gibson Minibuckers, therefore I am interested in pictures of the innards, or dimensions, etc..

Thanks a lot in advance

[David Schwab]

I'd like to see it too. I take photos and measurements of every pickup that comes through my shop. You can learn something new everyday.

[belwar]

Yeah if you are willing to share it, post them in this thread! It makes a great addition to the Pickup Makers Archive. Im sure someone will add it to that pickupedia thing too.

[j. pierce]

Here's some pictures. Sorry they aren't great, but they get the idea across. Any desire for a better look at something, let me know.

The poles don't touch the magnet or shim at all. Kind of odd shaped ceramic magnet; the bit that looked like a small Alnico magnet before I broke enough wax away to really see what was going on is a steel shim. What looked like "stacked" or "double" bobbins, after removing wax, is actually a continuation of the core of the bobbin past the bottom flare.

Filed a bit of the cover, it's nickel silver. Baseplate appears to be the same.

Coils measure 6.03K and 6.06K.

Considering how it seems fairly different than the traditional minibucker sound, it seems to sound pretty right on from what I remember firebird pickups sounding like, although it's got a little more bite to it. I really liked the tone out of this p'up when I had it in this guitar I had built years ago.

[j. pierce]

Some measurements: (these are all in inches, because I can't find my digital calipers, and my dial one is in inches...)


Bobbin core: (Assuming the inside is the same dimensions as the extension below the bobbin)
2.23" long, by .22" wide, the coil height is .25"

The outside of the bobbin: (although the bobbin isn't quite full)
2.5" by .5"

The lower flange is .25" tall.

The polepieces seem slightly wider on the top; 5/32" from the bottom, 3/16" from the top.

The polepieces are about .5" tall - maybe a little more. They don't reach all the way through the plastic, so I measured the bobbin height and subtracted the recess from the bottom.

The magnet is 2.5" long, .2" wide, and .25" tall.

The shim is 2.25" long, .06" wide, and .2" tall.

[Peter Naglitsch]

That steel shim looks very much like the steel shim I found when repairing an early 70s DiMarzio Super Distortion HB. I guess that is what they used if they couldn't find a correct sized magnet. The only thin that doesn't surprise me is that they haven't patented it. They might have called it something like a "special steel alloy tone enhancement bar" or something.

Do you know when this mini HB was made?

[j. pierce]

I bought the pickup through my local music shop when I built the guitar... so around 2005-2006?

Edit: looking through my HD, the in progress images of this build are from early '06, so yeah, around then. The shop ordered it direct from Dimarzio for me. Jeeze, you'd think I'd be able to remember a couple years ago better than this.

[j. pierce]

The interesting thing about the shim is that it makes the magnetic pull noticeably stronger on that side of the magnet. Granted, I don't have a gauss meter here, but it's strong enough to be noticeably more pull on a pair of needle nose pliers or a screw driver if you put it on the steel side of the magnet/steel sandwich. I don't know much about magnets, but I guess it wasn't what I was expecting. I wonder if that changes the sounds of the two coils?

[dpm]

The gap between the poles and the magnet/shim is what DiMarzio patented in their 'Airbucker' stuff. I believe the steel shim is part of the 'Virtual Vintage' thing which, off the top of my head, basically refers to screwing around with the inductance of the coils. IIRC, the holes between the bobbins are used in some models to put more steel into the coils too.

FYI, the soapbar Virtual P90 has the magnet against the polepieces of one coil and 3 steel shims between the magnet and the polepeices of the other coil.

[David Schwab]

Those bobbins remind me of the ones they use on the Virtual Vintage Pro stacked Strat pickup. Those extra holes on the bottom are for steel slugs to increase the inductance of the bottom coil, which as you can see is also a different size.

Back when Dimarzio made the pickups for the original Guild Brain May guitar, they used bobbins like this. They looked like the top half of a stacked pickup. Maybe these are from the same die.

DiMarzio does a good job of putting new parts into old looking designs.

[Peter Naglitsch]

I bought the pickup through my local music shop Jeeze, you'd think I'd be able to remember a couple years ago better than this.

You are younger than me so, yeah, I excpect you to remember

[ShannonH]

That steel bar is still in the current Super D. I got a copy of "electronics for musicians" for Christmas, and the the book is a synthesis of a bunch of info from everybody. There is this loong section from Bill armstrong, where he says two things that I think might apply here: Air coils have increased treble and a greater iron load increases bass. Is it possible that the steel bar in intentional? I think so. DiMarzio doesn't skimp on magnets and such. This is part of the design ethic I love about DiMarzio, that they come up with the Airbucker, (increase treble) and then even things out with a metal plug next to a ceramic magnet that should be pushing the trebles more, but is tempered by the iron. Ever wonder why the bass is soo heavy on the super D, with that massive ceramic magnet and relatively low K (for high output) winding? I believe it is the iron bar. Just my two cents....

[David Schwab]

The airbucker is interesting, because they are using a full strength alnico V magnet, and then knocking it down to alnico II territory. You would think they would just use a weaker magnet, but I guess they have their reasons.

My friend was installing a Virtual PAF into a guitar that needed shorter legs, so he was swapping the baseplate with another one. The pickup was quite interesting. From the front you saw a normal PAF looking pickups... six screws and six slugs. However, from the back you saw the pickup really didn't have normal slugs. They were the same diameter as the screws, and had heads about the same size also. But from the front they looked like slugs. They did not extend out the back of the baseplate.

So they are using totally balanced loads in each coil. Then between the screws/slugs were holes with more slugs, seen only from the back, and flush with the back of the bobbin. These are to increase inductance. Lastly, the four outside screws/slugs had small nylon washers to act as spacers to keep the magnet a set distance from the poles, and is glued to the back of the two bobbins ... that's the airbucker part.

I give them credit for making a vintage looking pickup that's not made in the vintage fashion, and my friend swears by them.

I was quite surprised when I recently installed an Air Norton neck pickup in someone's guitar. That has to be my favorite neck pickup now. I've always liked the SDHB too. I still have an original from the 70's. Some of their pickups make me cringe though, like the Tone Zone.

The metal bar, and some with brass bars, must be intentional because they don't skimp on magnets. I've seen several sizes of ceramic magnets in their pickups. Like the Evo set. The neck is would PAF range with fairly matched coils, and a pretty thin ceramic magnet, and the bridge has a real thick magnets and is would with each coil having different gauge wire. So these odd features have to be part of the designs.

Larry did learn from Bill Lawrence and Dan Armstrong, when he worked at Armstrong's shop in NYC, and Steve Blucher seems to come up with some interesting ideas. For all the patents on odd designs, like 5530199 and 5111728, they must have tried dozens of things that didn't work.

I find the styles of the various pickup makers interesting.

[ShannonH]

and how

I find the styles of the various pickup makers interesting.

Me too! I really dig the idea of using new materials to get "vintage" sounds.
I always try to think "How do I keep making this sound with modern materials." One thing about the airbucker, in an older catalog, Dimarzio states they use A5 because they can get a more consistent magnetic strength from them. It probably also has to do with bulk pricing and tooling. Peace!