# Dimarzio D-Activator 7 Bridge Guys - Advice needed



## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

So I installed a pair of DA7s in my guitar and the neck sounds pretty good. The bridge however doesn't sound thick or beefy and has this weird almost single coil like attack. Is that how the pickup is supposed to sound>?

My wiring is extremely simple - 1 V and 3way toggle switch. That means the red wires from each pup go to the 3 way, the green+grnd go to ground and the white+black are taped off.

Any ideas? It's very bright and single coily like..


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## mountainjam (Mar 5, 2011)

I dunno man, I recently had some trouble as well with dimarzio wiring...in the wiring diagrams the wires you have taped off get used in a 3 way or 5 way either way, that's my guess. But if you find no luck, call the dimarzio tech on monday. They have application specific diagrams available that they don't show on their website. Hope that helps a little


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

mountainjam said:


> I dunno man, I recently had some trouble as well with dimarzio wiring...in the wiring diagrams the wires you have taped off get used in a 3 way or 5 way either way, that's my guess. But if you find no luck, call the dimarzio tech on monday. They have application specific diagrams available that they don't show on their website. Hope that helps a little



Thing is on a 3 way LP style toggle (Jackson SL2H style) there's only 2 spots you can wire the pup to. I've wired the hot (red) leads to the leads and have the others taped off.


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## mountainjam (Mar 5, 2011)

Sorry dude im not much of a wiring guru, but is your neck-black and white doubled and your bridge-red and green doubled up?


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

mountainjam said:


> Sorry dude im not much of a wiring guru, but is your neck-black and white doubled and your bridge-red and green doubled up?


??

It's been a while since I've wired up passives (EMGs made me lazy)


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## mountainjam (Mar 5, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> ??
> 
> It's been a while since I've wired up passives (EMGs made me lazy)



Its all good man, but I think that's your problem. You probably are getting only 1 coil to work. On your 3 way, the red and green wires from the bridge pup get soldered together, and on the neck pup the black and white get soldered together


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

mountainjam said:


> Its all good man, but I think that's your problem. You probably are getting only 1 coil to work. On your 3 way, the red and green wires from the bridge pup get soldered together, and on the neck pup the black and white get soldered together



So on the actual 3 way switch I need the red and green to be soldered to the switch and the black and white for the neck?


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## mountainjam (Mar 5, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> So on the actual 3 way switch I need the red and green to be soldered to the switch and the black and white for the neck?



How many poles does your 3 way have, 8? If it does, the neck pup wires-black and white soldered together, the red by itself, and on the bridge pup, the red and green get soldered together and the white by itself. Im looking at the 3 way dimarzio diagram, and that's what its saying. Let me know if that fixes it, I've been thinking about trying some dactivators myself


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

mountainjam said:


> How many poles does your 3 way have, 8? If it does, the neck pup wires-black and white soldered together, the red by itself, and on the bridge pup, the red and green get soldered together and the white by itself. Im looking at the 3 way dimarzio diagram, and that's what its saying. Let me know if that fixes it, I've been thinking about trying some dactivators myself



My 3 way toggle is like an LP style toggle switch not the 8 pole ones from dimarzio.


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## Rook (Mar 5, 2011)

Try this...

Wire green and bare of the pickups to either pole of the 3 way (LP style) switch, make sure you have plenty of wire exposed from each, but that wouldn't cause your problem anyway.

Connect the middle (common) pole of the switch to the back of your volume pot, which is grounded (or should be) to the ring of the jack.

Check you have plenty of black and white exposed where they're tied off and the tape secure, one of these grounding _would_ cause what you describe but I don't think it is.

One of your three lugs on the pot should be folded to ground, it should be the most anticlockwise, make sure this is secure. A nice way of doing this is run a lead from the switch with lots of bare wire at the pot end, without folding the lug onto the base of the pot, just pop the wire through and solder it to both the most anticlockwise lug and the base of the pot. Doesn't really matter how you do this as long as you get the same result.

Hot (tip) from your jack goes to the wiper of the pot, and the red cables from both of your pickups go onto the most clockwise lug (the one that isn't in the middle or soldered to the base haha).

Are the pickups both the right way up?


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## mountainjam (Mar 5, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> My 3 way toggle is like an LP style toggle switch not the 8 pole ones from dimarzio.



Im not familiar with an lp toggle, but I still think the same concept applies. Also forgot to mention, the neck green wire and bridge black wire to volume, if you haven't done that. Hope you can figure it out dude


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## Rook (Mar 5, 2011)

mountainjam said:


> Im not familiar with an lp toggle, but I still think the same concept applies. Also forgot to mention, the neck green wire and bridge black wire to volume, if you haven't done that. Hope you can figure it out dude



The way one pickup's wired has nothing to do with the other. With an LP switch, when one's connected, the other's completely out of the circuit, and therefore has no effect on the first whatsoever.


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

Fun111 said:


> Try this...
> 
> Wire green and bare of the pickups to either pole of the 3 way (LP style) switch, make sure you have plenty of wire exposed from each, but that wouldn't cause your problem anyway.
> 
> ...



After drawing that out on paper I think that would totally disconnect the switch from the circuit since I'm connecting the ground to the switch and the output of the switch to the ground of the pot. 

You sure about this?


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## Mordacain (Mar 5, 2011)

that diagram should work. You just need to transpose the wiring color codes. However, for this, its very simple, instead of the black pictured you use the red on the dimarzio (black and white twisted together, soldered and taped off). Green and bare still go to ground.

Its sounds pretty much like what you described you had done already, so maybe just make sure the white and black have a good connection. That could explain the thin sound since you won't have it running in series without white & black connecting to eachother.


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## mountainjam (Mar 5, 2011)

Fun111 said:


> The way one pickup's wired has nothing to do with the other. With an LP switch, when one's connected, the other's completely out of the circuit, and therefore has no effect on the first whatsoever.



Lol dude I gave it my best shot, but you sound like your in the know about this one.


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

Mordacain said:


> that diagram should work. You just need to transpose the wiring color codes. However, for this, its very simple, instead of the black pictured you use the red on the dimarzio (black and white twisted together, soldered and taped off). Green and bare still go to ground.
> 
> Its sounds pretty much like what you described you had done already, so maybe just make sure the white and black have a good connection. That could explain the thin sound since you won't have it running in series without white & black connecting to eachother.



Yeah - that's what I did. I'll recheck those white+black leads to make sure they are indeed intertwined properly. Might even solder them to make sure.

+eRep to you sir.


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## Rook (Mar 5, 2011)

Yes, my method works.

It effectively does is changes which pickup is grounded, when a pickup isn't grounded it's totally out of the loop, and is a decent alternative to find what the problem is.

It's worth a shot, you can always disconnect it again.


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

Fun111 said:


> Yes, my method works.
> 
> It effectively does is changes which pickup is grounded, when a pickup isn't grounded it's totally out of the loop, and is a decent alternative to find what the problem is.
> 
> It's worth a shot, you can always disconnect it again.


Will give it a shot in 5 min. Sorry didn't mean to sound like an ungrateful ass.


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

@Fun111 - tried your method my friend. Still getting the feeling like the bridge DA7 is running as a single coil..

EDIT: Both coils sound off when tapped by a screw driver... so maybe it's out of phase? Also could brand new strings be causing that snap that could be associated with single coils?


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## mountainjam (Mar 5, 2011)

Maybe your just used to emg's? It took me a few days to adjust to dimarzios. I thought they sounded weird at first as well


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## djpharoah (Mar 5, 2011)

mountainjam said:


> Maybe your just used to emg's? It took me a few days to adjust to dimarzios. I thought they sounded weird at first as well



Could very well be


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## Mordacain (Mar 5, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> @Fun111 - tried your method my friend. Still getting the feeling like the bridge DA7 is running as a single coil..
> 
> EDIT: Both coils sound off when tapped by a screw driver... so maybe it's out of phase? Also could brand new strings be causing that snap that could be associated with single coils?



I wouldn't expect it to be out of phase, its would sound super thin and cranky if it were, but not have a single coil-esque snap to it (at least not the humbuckers I've played with and phasing).

I'm thinking perhaps you got a dud and the North -South coil wires are loose on the pickup itself...


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## Rook (Mar 6, 2011)

Can you post a video?

Just a note on what mordacain said, if black an White aren't connected together you get no output, because one coil has no hot and the other no ground.


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## Dead Undead (Mar 6, 2011)

Pickup height.
pot could be cooked?


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## Kamikaze7 (Mar 6, 2011)

Hey DJ,

As Mordicain posted with the Duncan wiring diagram, the wiring is correct, but you just swap the black with the red wire to the switch -like you have it. I have a similar application - 1 vol, 1 tone, 3-way toggle - and have the DA7's hooked up with them in my Horizon 7. I think the reason why the signal from my DA7's is a little weak is because the pickups sit under the strings at a slight angle and not dead flat level under them, as a result one coil picking up more than the other. Having wired DiMarzio's too many times in the past, it sounds to me that the black and white wires on the bridge don't have a good connection. If you re-try that connection there and it don't work, I'd say call DiMarzio on Monday and see what they say, or tell them that you wanna send it back and either have that one fixed or you want another one...

Sorry to hear that your having a bitch of a time trying to get it to work the way it's supposed to... Good luck either way though!


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

Guys after endless searching through various guitar forums it seems the DA7 bridge (and it's 6'r counterpart) have this single coil like attack and tone till you turn the gain up. I've found a few cases where the single coil like flavor disappears with tremendous amounts of gain.. however when you roll it back off you get that single coil like tone again.

So in short the wiring was correct, the pickup is not defective and I appreciate all the help  It's just the nature of these pups I guess.


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## Rook (Mar 6, 2011)

Lol is the single coil aspect a good thing?


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

Fun111 said:


> Lol is the single coil aspect a good thing?



Well for everything that's not needing a boosted 5150 levels worth of gain it's kinda annoying.


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## mountainjam (Mar 6, 2011)

So everything considered, what is your final verdict?


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

mountainjam said:


> So everything considered, what is your final verdict?



Well now that I know it's how it's supposed to sound I can put my guitar back together and jam for a while. I'll update this thread with my verdicts.


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## Mordacain (Mar 6, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> Well now that I know it's how it's supposed to sound I can put my guitar back together and jam for a while. I'll update this thread with my verdicts.



Interesting... I can say the same for the Liquifire though, very single-coil like attack and tonal qualities with less gain and very smooth with gain added. Its quite an interesting sound though can certainly be undesirable in certain applications.


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

Mordacain said:


> Interesting... I can say the same for the Liquifire though, very single-coil like attack and tonal qualities with less gain and very smooth with gain added. Its quite an interesting sound though can certainly be undesirable in certain applications.



Yeah I think the uber brightness of these pups (esp the bridge) makes for the almost single coil like attack that I've been noticing. This is the first time I'm running a dactivator in the bridge and thus was taken by surprise.


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## Rook (Mar 6, 2011)

I'd put some 250k pots on there. Might flatten it out a little bit.

What value pots are on there?

What capacitors?


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

Fun111 said:


> I'd put some 250k pots on there. Might flatten it out a little bit.
> 
> What value pots are on there?
> 
> What capacitors?



It's a 500k pot. I'm just running a Volume pot and a 3 way toggle. I might give a 250k pot a chance - only thing is I believe they are harder to find in mini-pot sizes.


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## Rook (Mar 6, 2011)

Mmmm fair point. Why does it have to be a mini pot? Limited space?

Forgot about the no tone control thing, lol.


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

Fun111 said:


> Mmmm fair point. Why does it have to be a mini pot? Limited space?
> 
> Forgot about the no tone control thing, lol.



The guitar originally had EMGs and thus the holes drilled for the pots are the smaller/mini 5/16" diameter ones vs. 3/8" for normal passive pots.


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## malufet (Mar 6, 2011)

I had the same problem with mine, Took me hours to figure out. Your problem looked like it was out of phase, you just need to change the wire. In my seymour duncan it was white instead of the black wire.


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

malufet said:


> I had the same problem with mine, Took me hours to figure out. Your problem looked like it was out of phase, you just need to change the wire. In my seymour duncan it was white instead of the black wire.


Hmm..Did you fix it with your dactivator?


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## malufet (Mar 6, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> Hmm..Did you fix it with your dactivator?



Yes it worked for me, I had invaders, check the diagram just convert the sd diagram colors to dimarzio. I switched the black to white.


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

malufet said:


> Yes it worked for me, I had invaders, check the diagram just convert the sd diagram colors to dimarzio. I switched the black to white.



I did that a few posts above - wired it up just like the SD diagram. Same brightness


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## malufet (Mar 6, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> I did that a few posts above - wired it up just like the SD diagram. Same brightness



did you tape off the black and red wires? try the other wires. some were green. I'm talking sd here. Can't find my notes. lol


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## malufet (Mar 6, 2011)

I found it, in dimarzio, try to use the black wire instead of the red wire. Tape the white and red. Good luck.


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## Rook (Mar 6, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> The guitar originally had EMGs and thus the holes drilled for the pots are the smaller/mini 5/16" diameter ones vs. 3/8" for normal passive pots.



Not up for drilling it out?


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## djpharoah (Mar 6, 2011)

Fun111 said:


> Not up for drilling it out?



Not on this guitar (custom shop).


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## Rook (Mar 6, 2011)

Oooh fair play.


Pics?


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## Mordacain (Mar 6, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> The guitar originally had EMGs and thus the holes drilled for the pots are the smaller/mini 5/16" diameter ones vs. 3/8" for normal passive pots.



This is another reason I like Alpha pots, you can get Fullzise pots with the 5/16 shaft


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## Mordacain (Mar 6, 2011)

Also, since I've since a few different posts confusing the color codes, this should help everyone:


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## Rook (Mar 7, 2011)

Mordacain said:


> Also, since I've since a few different posts confusing the color codes, this should help everyone:
> 
> *big ass colour code pic*



I have this saved on my computer, lol, should make it my background.

This is why I don't understand why people are suggesting switching wires


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## MJS (Mar 7, 2011)

If you still have any doubts or think something could be off, you could shoot them an email at [email protected] -- any time I've contacted them, they've been very helpful & replied pretty quickly. I'd just include as much info as you can, things you've already tried, etc...


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## djpharoah (Mar 7, 2011)

MJS said:


> If you still have any doubts or think something could be off, you could shoot them an email at [email protected] -- any time I've contacted them, they've been very helpful & replied pretty quickly. I'd just include as much info as you can, things you've already tried, etc...


Just did - looks like I'm exchanging the pair and possibly going for a more familiar pair in the EVO7/Blaze Neck or EVO7/Liquifire.


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## malufet (Mar 7, 2011)

Fun111 said:


> I have this saved on my computer, lol, should make it my background.
> 
> This is why I don't understand why people are suggesting switching wires



I followed the color codes and i got a split coil sound. switched the wires and finally got it right.


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## Rook (Mar 7, 2011)

malufet said:


> I followed the color codes and i got a split coil sound. switched the wires and finally got it right.





Bizarre!


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## MJS (Mar 7, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> Just did - looks like I'm exchanging the pair and possibly going for a more familiar pair in the EVO7/Blaze Neck or EVO7/Liquifire.



Probably can't go wrong with the Evo7/Blaze combo. When I had my RG, that's what I had & liked it. I eventually wanted to throw a Blaze Custom in the bridge to compare it since a lot of people seem to prefer that over the Evo7... but ended up selling the guitar before getting around to it.


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## mountainjam (Mar 7, 2011)

Bummer dj, I had high hopes for the dactivators, they were my fall back plan if I decide to take advantage of dimarzios 30 day swap policy


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## djpharoah (Mar 7, 2011)

mountainjam said:


> Bummer dj, I had high hopes for the dactivators, they were my fall back plan if I decide to take advantage of dimarzios 30 day swap policy



I really wanted to like them coming from EMGs... but in the end they're really a one trick pony aka high gain only pups (imo).


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## mountainjam (Mar 7, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> I really wanted to like them coming from EMGs... but in the end they're really a one trick pony aka high gain only pups (imo).



That sucks dude, better luck with your replacements.


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## myampslouder (Mar 7, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> I really wanted to like them coming from EMGs... but in the end they're really a one trick pony aka high gain only pups (imo).




I have the same issue with mine. For a while I was starting to think I was the only guy on the forum that didn't like d-activators


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## TMatt142 (Mar 7, 2011)

I just did some tweaking with mine and I'm kind of digging them. Not because they're a great pickup, but because they're different for me. They're raunchy as hell which is different from all the other p/u's i have. Raunchy not necessarily in a great way..It definitely is a one trick pony like Mesh said but it's different so for now, I'll keep mine.


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## Rook (Mar 8, 2011)

I don't like d Activators, at the moment the D Sonic is my favourite hotter pickup by far.


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## djpharoah (Mar 8, 2011)

myampslouder said:


> I have the same issue with mine. For a while I was starting to think I was the only guy on the forum that didn't like d-activators


You don't have to like everything that's band waggoned on this forum  I sure as hell don't.


TMatt142 said:


> I just did some tweaking with mine and I'm kind of digging them. Not because they're a great pickup, but because they're different for me. They're raunchy as hell which is different from all the other p/u's i have. Raunchy not necessarily in a great way..It definitely is a one trick pony like Mesh said but it's different so for now, I'll keep mine.


Cool - for the most part they're single coiley to me and I despise single coil bridge positions.


Fun111 said:


> I don't like d Activators, at the moment the D Sonic is my favourite hotter pickup by far.


Yup same here - I'm probably returning these for the Evo/BN combo.


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## myampslouder (Mar 8, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> You don't have to like everything that's band waggoned on this forum  I sure as hell don't.



I hear ya dude

I tried the six string version of the d-activate multiple times and loved it but when I got one for my s7420 I couldn't have been more disappointed. Nowhere near as tight as I expected and has a really shrill high end. I just can't get on that band wagon and would not recommend them to anyone with a mahogany 7


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## djpharoah (Mar 8, 2011)

myampslouder said:


> I hear ya dude
> 
> I tried the six string version of the d-activate multiple times and loved it but when I got one for my s7420 I couldn't have been more disappointed. Nowhere near as tight as I expected and has a really shrill high end. I just can't get on that band wagon and would not recommend them to anyone with a mahogany 7


Dude - I hate how 99% of the awesome 6'r pups from Dimarzio/SD just blow ass in 7 string form.


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## MJS (Mar 8, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> Dude - I hate how 99% of the awesome 6'r pups from Dimarzio/SD just blow ass in 7 string form.



The Tone Zone was one of them, right? 

Then sometimes it's the opposite, like how everyone seems to like the Evo7, but not the 6-string Evo. I actually like the Evo2 for sixes and some people have said they think the Evo7 is more like the Evo2 than the Evo. 

They'd probably be better off using completely different names for the 7 series, then maybe include similarity notes for 6 string references if necessary, like "A good 7-string choice for those that like the Tone Zone in 6 string applications, but with more of a [insert tonal difference here] sound."


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## Rook (Mar 9, 2011)

djpharoah said:


> Dude - I hate how 99% of the awesome 6'r pups from Dimarzio/SD just blow ass in 7 string form.



Totally, I think they're just running out of names.


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