DiMarzio DP126 BK

Neck pickup is very hot, bridge pickup seems a little weak, I have to keep the neck pickup below max to keep the sound clean. As long as I keep that control below maximum the sound is incredibly crisp and clear (maybe a little clinical even) but playing around with the EQ and going through a preamp box allows me to experiment within a much wider range than with stock pickups.
I found the the mids are very prominent so turning down the mid control on the amp and rolling off the treble a little gives a much better tone for me.
I set the bridge pickup to within 3mm of the strings to bring the level up and this makes a big difference to the output and also makes that pickup usable (3mm E side, 2.8mm G side, holding down strings on last fret to make measurements). Before I did this the bridge pickup output was very disappointing.

Fitment was pretty straightforward but they supply 4 long screws and 4 a little shorter, I would have preferred 8 long ones, they could have also added a few short ones for people who needed them. Use the longer screws for the bridge pickup so it can be raised closer to the strings.

All in all I can highly recommend these pickups if you have an average bass and looking to improve the sound but not the looks. I upgraded the electronics at the same time with good quality pots and a real Sprague cap so not sure how good they would sound on the original set, my guess is you would still hear an improvement but it wouldn't be as good.

Very (and I mean VERY) hot pickups, especially neck P-pickup, bridge J-pickup is not that loud. Relatively bright and punchy, with nice mid-range growl, these pickups also provides wide dynamic range. They react really good on HOW you play. And they cut through the mix really well. You can adjust individual pole pieces according to your neck radius and also you have different wiring options (series/parallel) for wide variety of sounds.

But not every instrument will benefit from that powerfull pickups. I bought these pickups as an upgrade for my fretless bass, and they've been too much for it, too "greedy" for my taste, especially for fretless instrument with epoxy coated fretboard and nylon wrapped strings. I mean you still can dial sweet mellow tone with that volume and tone knobs, but then you just don't use those pickups for their full potential. So in the end I just kept em for future use, right now P-pickup (which seems to be just DiMarzio "model P") is working in my P-bass project (well, actually Harley Benton kit) - and it really shines there.

All in all - this is great sounding pickups with nice features.

Having upgraded a bass with an EMG PJ-X set, I wanted to try something passive with my next project and having read good things about DiMarzio, I gave them a try as they were at a great price. One of my stipulations was for a noise-free single-coil and knowing that the DiMarzio J pickup is actually two coils side by side wired in hum-cancelling configuration, these fitted the bill. These had a considerably hotter output than the original pickups on the bass, with more pronounced low mids and of course, the J was silent when soloed. Another great feature of the DiMarzios is that you can adjust the pickup pole heights with a hex-wrench, allowing you to set a consistent output across a bass with more a pronounced neck radius. As the pickups are 4-conductor wires, you also have the option of wiring them in series or parallel, giving further tonal options. Easy to fit, they look great and sound even better, I'd happily recommend these pickups looking to breath a bit of life into a bass.

These are not the most expensive pickup sets out there, but they certainly work for every cent! My bass player has very small hands and so she likes short scale basses - unfortunately too many of them are aimed at beginners and not serious players. Amongst others she has an Ibanez GSRM20 which is a wonderful tiny bass 28.6" scale but the pickups etc are obviously low-budget options. These DiMarzio's went straight in without mods - the P section now has the full rock growl and bite of a hot vintage P-bass and the J is very full with a lot of coverage. They are quite dry - nothing like an active EMG - but not as warm as a specific vintage set - but they let you do your own thing rather than forcing one set sound on you - which is perfect for our band.

I got these to replace the stock pickups in a Yamaha RBX-170. Partly because I've spent many happy hours playing my RBX170 and thought it deserved an upgrade and partly because I was interested in experimenting to discover what differences new strings / pickups / bridge made (doing one at a time so as to control the changes).

Swapping the pickups over was straightforward - destring the guitar, desolder and then remove the original pickups, screw in the new pickups, solder them in and then restring. All-in-all it took about 30 minutes.

Then plug-in and cross my fingers! Everything worked fine. The P pickups are noticeable hotter than the originals and have more low-end grunt to them. Overall a definite, worthwhile improvement. I don't use the J pickup so much (it's generally at about 10% of the P); but to my ears there's not much in it.

Overall then - a straightforward change that's made a definite, albeit slightly pricey, improvement.