theQuestioneer Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 yo do any of you have any experiance with a FRED, and what kidn of sound does it have? i'm looking for a somewhat thunky, crunchy, sound with a little bit of loud and high outputy for a slightly softer, more classic rock breed of hard rock. how close does it come to this? the description looked promising, but i want to hear from someone not trying to sell it to me, if you know what i mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 in my experience dimarzio has amazing tech support, but they'll unfortunetly just read you the description on the page when it comes to describing pickup sounds and characteristics. if you're considering the fred, listen to joe satriani, that's been his bridge pickup for... umm... well a really long time. you may also want to look at the norton, paf pro, and breed models if you haven't already Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 Ever listen to Satriani? Neck position Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 IF classic is what you're aiming for I'd try the PAF Pro or Maybe a Tone Zone with 250k pots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted October 10, 2003 Report Share Posted October 10, 2003 Ever listen to Satriani? Neck position from the dimarzio's page.. Joe uses the FRED® strictly as a bridge pickup, but it's also a distinctive neck pickup and i thought i saw it fred bridge paf pro neck on his website aswell as on ibanez.com, but maybe he does use it in the neck on some of his guitars??? where did you hear neck? any closer to a desicion Q ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedy McFeely Posted October 10, 2003 Report Share Posted October 10, 2003 ok ok, not to sound too much like dimarzio, but the FRED is like a paf pro with a little more output. i replaced a jb59 in my strat with one of the freds. it has a very smooth and harmonic output. the thing i really, really like is that it responds differently to how you strike the strings. i can turn the volume on the guitar to say 5, and get a really bluesy overdrive when i really whack the strings, but if i hit them softly i can get a nicer cleaner tone, without touching the amp. i like FRED allot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted October 10, 2003 Report Share Posted October 10, 2003 I have a FRED at the bridge and what I like about it is that, because its response emphasises the mids and to a slightly lesser extent the highs, you get a very tight sharp attack on chords when using heavy distortion as well as with single notes. I would not consider it a high output pickup though... medium-high at most. If you go by the response graphs on the DiMarzio website, the Evolution Bridge pickup seems to have a very similar frequency response but with higher overall output, but I have never tried it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted October 13, 2003 Report Share Posted October 13, 2003 I thought the Fred was 'all about' the harmonics, they supposedly jump off the strings almost unasked. True? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theQuestioneer Posted October 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2003 Thanks all. Your responses as well as Satriani's tone sounds promising, i'll probably go with the FRED. Thanks for the help, the input, and putting me that much closer to a complete guitar rock on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 16, 2003 Report Share Posted October 16, 2003 and i thought i saw it fred bridge paf pro neck on his website aswell as on ibanez.com, but maybe he does use it in the neck on some of his guitars??? where did you hear neck? any closer to a desicion Q ? Actually my JS 2 came with the Fred in the neck and the PAF Pro in the bridge, could have been a factory mishap.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnuk Posted October 16, 2003 Report Share Posted October 16, 2003 I have a JS10th Chrome Dudette, Satriani's signature guitar. Most of the time he plays using a JS2 which is a JS10th made from Basswood. Ibanez first tried out the chroming idea on the Basswood. I believe now that this is due to the wood expanding and contracting. Whatever happened, it didn't stick anyway. That's why all of Satriani's guitars are missing patches of chrome. Satriani has a couple of these prototype models; last time I heard three of his guitars had been stolen. From what I can make out, he has at least two of the JS2's. I expect he also has a few of the JS10th's in case anymore of his other guitars are stolen. Ibanez solved the problem, for the production model, by making the body from a kind of yellow acrylic resin (Luthite) which was much easier to plate. From what I know of mine, I think the PAF Pro is actually in the neck position and the FRED is in the bridge. I also know that one of Satriani's main guitars, one of the JS2's, doesn't actually use the FRED at all but actually uses the Pearly Gates pickup by Seymour Duncan. He used to call the guitar 'Pearly' because of it's pickup. This guitar was stolen; so watch out for any Pearly Gates equipped chrome guitars! I play the JS10th I have thru a JCM 800 (2210, the 100 watt dual channel model). Like others have said, the FRED would seem to have a mid to high output. It has a smoother, mellow sound to it. It is very responsive and can go from crunchy and braking up to a nice warm clean even through my amp's lead channel. Harmonics are okay when played through it but the pickup is definitly towards the mid to low range of the frequencies in comparison to the PAF Pro. I like to use the FRED for rhythm type playing or when I want the sound to be warmer and thicker. To capture how I think it feels, you would want to watch the beginning of Satriani's live version of 'Cool 9' (My number / hash key is broken). I don't know if he is using the FRED in this version but the mellow jazz like sound he is using is similar to the feel of the FRED. The PAF Pro is incredibly bright and sparkly. If you think harmonics screach with the FRED, you obviously AIN'T tried a PAF Pro! I would guess that harmonics are about a half to twice as clear with the PAF Pro. The PAF Pro is much clear higher up and twangy sounding. It's good to cut cleanly through when playing a lead section, but I find it perhaps a bit too bright when playing rhythm. I dislike Dimarzio's approach to making sound clips since they use totally different tunes, different guitars, different processing and all the rest on the sound files they give you. I know that Satriani actually uses a number of processors for recorded work, like Eventides, which very few guitarists can actually afford to buy; they appear on Ebay every now and again marked as being from his studio gear. I would even go as far as to say the clip from Dimarzio of Satriani playing Flying In A Blue Dream may even have been played using the JS2 with the Pearly Gates pickup in it!!! EMG and Seymour Duncan come the closest but I'm still not very happy with there's either. These multi-million pound companies need to buy one guitar and one amp, and then play the same combination with the same solos and riffs changing only it's pickups... otherwise you have no hope of telling what you are actually going to get. It's like buying coloured painted that has a black and white label on it. I use a Boss OD-1 between my guitar and the amp to boost the output of the pickups a bit and help clean up the muddy sound of the JCM 800 when it's turned down to non-ear bleed volumes. I turn the level up to full and the drive to zero, then set the tone to however I feel that day; usually half way or all the way to full. If I had to choose between the PAF Pro and FRED I'd probably go for the FRED but I'd miss the evil harmonics from the PAF Pro. Hugs and kisses, John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theQuestioneer Posted October 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2003 wow.... long post... thanks for all that john... i'll consider what you said, and get that clip. i'm still probably going to go with it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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