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Post by angusftw on Jun 22, 2010 20:53:18 GMT -5
Hey guys i've been gassing for a hm strat and been watching a few but i keep seeing ones with another bridge pickup that is blatantly not a dimarzio super 3 appearence wise. Now i've got a theory that these are stock and that they are possibly dimarzio super distortions since they used these in a few other models but i'm not sure and would like to hear input on this?
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Post by heem6 on Jun 23, 2010 1:02:53 GMT -5
lBeast has some theories/scoop on that. Hopefully he'll see this thread and pop in with the 411.
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Post by lbeast on Jun 23, 2010 21:11:35 GMT -5
lBeast has some theories/scoop on that. Hopefully he'll see this thread and pop in with the 411.
Cast your eyes beloward (I think I just created a new word!)!
This is the famed Fender HM Strat International Series which was probably the 1988 "Offshore" model spoken of in the 40th Anniversary book of "The Fender Stratocaster" by A.R. Duchossoir. These are probably the first incarnations of the HM Strat, which were not distributed to the US initially. I saw one for sale recently in England which leads creedence to my belief that this series was the famed offshore model initially distributed abroad, but not in the US. As you can see it has a unknown humbucker in it. It is my belief that this is indeed the first Dimarzio put into a Fender guitar by the factory and probably is a Super Distortion, not a Super 3. I have a regular SD which came in my Fender Custom Shop Setneck Strat Floyd Rose model and it is much weaker than my SD3 equipped HMs and sounds nothing like an SD3. Notice in the picture below that the pickup has regular pole pieces unlike the SD3 which has hex pole pieces. Now say what you will, and you will, but that is my tale and your sittin' on yours.   |
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Post by angusftw on Jun 24, 2010 9:23:48 GMT -5
That would explain a lot because i live in scotland so obviously i'm looking at UK/europe based hms. Infact im shopping around just now and as far as i know i've only seen ONE hm strat with a super 3 for sale over here so they're alot more common over here with this other pickup.
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Post by heem6 on Jun 24, 2010 11:25:39 GMT -5
The history of the Super 3 pickup is that Fender came to DiMarzio and asked for a new pickup for their new HM guitars. DiMarzio made a modified version of the Super Distortion (more mids, chopped treble) and gave it to Fender as a starting point from which to work.
Fender tested it and discovered it was a really cool pickup. They told DiMarzio not to make any more modifications - they wanted to go with this prototype. Originally called the DiMarzio H1 and/or H2, it was given an "H" designation because that meant "Made Exclusively for Fender." A few years after the HM was discontinued, the pickup was made available to the general public in 1994, under the Super 3 name.
So another theory is that this pickup could have been the original H1/H2, just made with polepieces instead of hex screws.
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Post by angusftw on Jun 24, 2010 17:10:37 GMT -5
Its a possibility. has there been any collector out there that has hms with both of the pickups who has compared them?
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Post by nickwellings on Jun 24, 2010 17:24:15 GMT -5
I live in the UK too and my only stock HM has the "non super three/non hex pole" pickup too.
Looking at the bridge pickup is a quick and dirty way fo seeing if an HM is all stock + basic guess of year, when combined with colours too.
First run colours + non hex polepiece are much more common in Europe. European customers didn't get much of the Steve Belcher's S3 Dimarzio goodness.
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Post by angusftw on Jun 24, 2010 17:28:46 GMT -5
Yeah i've looked at 5 hm strats that are located in the uk and only 1 out of the 5 have had the dimarzio with the hex polepieces.
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Post by heem6 on Jun 24, 2010 22:20:01 GMT -5
So Nick, do you also have an HM Strat with a Super 3 in it? If so, can you tell us if there are differences between the two pickups and if so, what they are?
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Post by nickwellings on Jun 25, 2010 12:40:28 GMT -5
Sorry Jim, I do not have a super 3 equipped HM.
As angusftw says, they're hard to find here!
I am pretty sure my stock one is an OEM Super Distortion.
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Post by heem6 on Jun 25, 2010 15:10:48 GMT -5
If any of our English brothers get a chance, could you take a meter reading on one of those pickups for us? If it's around 13k, good chances are it was a Super D. If it's more like 25k, good chances are it's a Super 3.
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Post by stratznhatz on Jun 26, 2010 4:09:31 GMT -5
Wow, that's a big difference in output! I've just had another look at the pic of the one I found in the Johnny Roadhouse store, it looks like it has a super d instead of a super 3 so I guess they must be the norm for the uk market.   |
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Post by heem6 on Jun 26, 2010 17:06:13 GMT -5
It COULD be a Super D but it doesn't look like one - they have hex polepieces just like the Super 3's.
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Post by spacerocker on Jun 27, 2010 5:40:05 GMT -5
I'm sure my original UK-bought HM (bought new in 1987 in Leicester) had this pick up (i.e. the non-super 3)
I don't remember being overly impressed with it, and tried a Semour Duncan "full shred" pickup, and a Dimarzio Evolution.
I preferred the Evo, for it's tone and expression, (the FS was completely OTT!) - and have stuck with the Evo one ever since!
I also put an Evo in my 2nd HM, to replace a PAF pro the previous owner had installed.
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Post by tommyh on Jun 29, 2010 17:53:40 GMT -5
Folks,
I may be able to contribute (I was asking a similar question in my own post 'What pick-ups' a few weeks back).
I am in the UK and have a HM Strat which I acquired a couple of months ago from someone who bought it from a local shop in the early 1990s so it has quite good provenance. It is Teal with S/N E827418 (I am guessing 1988?) and there is no evidence that it has been modified. I wrote -
"The humbucker I do not think is a DiMarzio Super 3. It has normal slugs & screws, a slightly rough textured top, no holes in the bobbins and the base-plate is unmarked (I have a couple of '80s Hamers that have OEM DiMarzios and they are enscribed on the base-plate) and a DC resistance of ~13Kohms. It is identical to those in several of the HM Strat pictures so I think it's original and I am therefore guessing that this is a Fender Humbucker? Does anyone know anything about these?"
I think it is a Fender as it has 2 height adjustment screws on the bass side and 1 on the treble side of the surround. This is something seen on Fender humbuckers (eg thinline tele's) but I have not seen it elsewhere. In terms of sound I feel that it is quite powerful but has quite a 'tight' bass - not so rich as eg the SD Pearly Gates in my Showmaster - so I am guessing that maybe it has a ceramic magnet??
It looks exactly the same as the one in the red HM, refinished to black, in the gallery on teh HM website.
Cheers, T.
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