Michael Amott knows a thing or two about tone. Whether it's vintage death metal with Carcass, hard rock with Spiritual Beggars or his main job in Arch Enemy, Amott has the ears, hands and sense of sonic taste to craft the perfect sound for whatever musical situation he finds himself in. After flings with guitars like the Ibanez RG550 and his former ESP signature model the Ninja, Amott is now a Dean endorser, with his own line of signature guitars. And central to the tone of this imposing axe is the DMT Tyrant, Amott's signature humbucker from Dean's pickup division, Dean Magnetic Technologies. Amott was kind enough to arrange for a Tyrant humbucker to be sent out for review after I interviewed him recently.
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On first glance the Tyrant looks a lot like a Seymour Duncan Invader due to those large nickel hex pole pieces. It doesn't spec out the same though: the Invader draws its power from three ceramic magnets, overwound coils and twelve black oxide cap screws and it has a DC resistance of 16.8, while the Tyrant uses an Alnico V magnet and has a DC resistance of 16.2K. The Tyrant is also different to the Seymour Duncan JB, the humbucker used in his old ESP signature, which has a DC resistance of 16.8K, although the JB also uses an Alnico V magnet. But there's a lot more that goes into a pickup's sound than just magnet type and DC resistance.
I installed the Tyrant into my 1987 Ibanez RG550 for testing. Amott describes the Tyrant's tone as being similar to his previous pickup but with higher output and a scoop in the mids. That's certainly a good starting point to describe the sound, but it has enough personality to stand on its own two lugs (gettit?) too. The Tyrant seems to be two different pickups in one: a high-gain one and a more traditionally-voiced one. Crank it up via a heavily saturated metal rhythm tone and it has enough of an upper midrange push to force itself to be heard above the fuzz of distortion, and a tight enough low end to not smear all your ‘chugga chugga' low-string riffs. The midrange dip doesn't remove too much thickness from the body of the note, instead subtly thinning it out, giving the impression of a little ‘air' around the notes. There are some rather blazing harmonic overtones jumping out when you kick into lead mode too, and it tracks very well for fast playing.
Well, i just recently bought a Dean Custom 750X 7 string, and the DMT Designed pickups it came with surprised me by how good they sound, considering how affordable the guitar was ($250). They are quite smooth sounding, smoother than my Dimarzio DP-101, however they don't sound as full and aggressive as i'd like them to. DMT pickups are serviceable, much better than BDSM pickups. Michael Amott actually uses a set in his guitars made by dean. They still won't be as good as a dimarzio or duncan, but they're far better than BDSM pickups.
Use more of a traditional metal amp setting and the Tyrant seems like a different pickup entirely. The natural compression it exhibits in high-gain mode is lifted and it instead becomes quite a dynamic pickup. The mids seem more apparent and the highs seem a little drier – and this is all with all other amp settings unchanged aside from the gain on my Marshall DSL50. It's here that you really begin to hear how the Tyrant fits in with the Spiritual Beggars side of Amott's musical personality. It's kind of like a modern take on the classic NWOBHM-style rhythm tone.
Dean DMT Time Capsule Black & White The Time Capsule is a solid distortion-class humbucker. What I'm digging about the Time Capsule is that it's more melodious and less harsh than some of the contemporaries out there. I'm thinking that this is also what has some people hunting down those ones from the 70s.
The clean sounds are good too but you probably won't use them too much if you're interested in a pickup that looks as mean as this! With this much output it's hard to get a completely clean sound out of the Tyrant unless you do some serious amp tweaking. But there's a lot to like if you're into slightly grittier, grainier clean tone, or if you use an ultra-clean solid state amp like the Roland JC120 which would really keep the Tyrant on a leash.
'It works very nicely for me,' Amott said of the DMT Tyrant. 'It's what's on the last couple of Arch Enemy albums. That's what you hear on Khaos Legions: that guitar, that pickup, everything, which is very cool. I'm very happy that I can use my signature equipment in the studio! [Laughs] It's good stuff. When you're in the studio, usually the engineer will tell you, 'I know you want to use this guitar, but let's try another one. Okay, I like this one a lot more, play this,' and you end up playing a guitar that you don't really like playing that much but that sounds better. And that didn't happen this time around so I'm very, very pleased with that. No problem taking pictures and video in the studio! [Laughs] I can actually represent Dean guitars, so that's nice. And I can really fly on that guitar. It's the guitar that I'm most comfortable playing, so it's just nice that I can play that on the album.'
The Tyrant isn't just a JB in different clothing or anything like that: if you want a JB, get a JB. What the Tyrant offers in comparison is something a little more specifically dialled in for metal styles, and something which will get Amott fans a little closer to the monster tones on Khaos Legions.
The Nostalgia humbucker is one I happened across about 5 or so years ago. In the neck position of a guitar I was checking out, it was something that became an interesting answer to some of the issues that some players have with models commonly used for the neck slot.
If you left my article on the DMT Baker Act bridge humbucker wondering about a good neck counterpart, here it is. It can be a real journey for some players to contend with a few of the neck humbuckers that are thrown at us to match up with powerful bridge pickup. I think that Dean does a good job of answering that need with the Nostalgia model.
Since first getting the Nostalgia humbucker, I've tried it in the neck to be paired with a few high ouput bridge models. It's a great option. At the core of the character is a classical voicing. A little open with an evenly balanced character. And that balance seems to be where the magic happens for this pickup.
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This is where I point out that that in a true nod to the classic humbucker of days gone by, the Nostalgia can be used in either position. I know, they do offer the product in a neck and in a bridge designation. When I noticed that mine has no position noted on the label, I called in to ask for confirmation. Yes, I did meter the pickup, but the specs posted on the Dean site were so close it could have gone either way. That's when they told me that a Nostalgia model is suitable for either position. Nifty!
Still, for now, this is about the Nostalgia in the neck role. I'd rather pick up (ha! a pun!) another one and try them as a full set before discussing it in the bridge.
So then, in the neck, the Nostalgia deftly navigates the dangers of a neck pickup being too rigid or too boomy. At a time when some players have to spend extra money to modify or custom order a classic-sounding neck humbucker, this saves the day. Lows are more precise while having the feeling of some vintage sag. Mids are even. Highs are present and defining.
The Nostalgia character translates to chime and detail on clean amp settings and focus and presence on a dirty setting. The specs put it right in a sweet spot for this sort of humbucker. As with the Baker Act, it seems as if Dean has an ear for what players would like refined into a bit of a product-improved option and then present it at a reasonable price.
Humbucker Pickups Comparison
For an idea of how they sound, check out a Nostalgia set in this video from Dean:
…. wha? …. hey, sorry if I lost track. Busy drooling over that Cadillac. Me & My Wine, anyone?
How about some specs:
Adobe reader for mac upgrade windows. Adobe Reader Mac performs the same function as Windows version. Thus, it gives you the ability to open PDF files directly on the interface. It is easy to use and all you have to do is to import the file into the interface and it does the rest. About: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software is the free global standard for reliably viewing, printing, and commenting on PDF documents. And now, it's connected to the Adobe Document Cloud − making it easier than ever to work across computers and mobile devices. For instructions, see Install an older version of Adobe Reader on Mac OS. Double-click the.dmg file. (If you don't see the Safari Downloads window, click Finder (User Name) Downloads.) Double-click Install Adobe Acrobat Reader DC to start the installation. Choose Help About Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Note the version. Close the product. If you do not have the latest version installed, download the needed installer from the following locations: Adobe Reader full installers and updates for Windows; Adobe Reader full installers and updates for Mac OS; Adobe Acrobat updates for Windows.
Series – 7.938 K
Inductance – 4.791 H
Split N – 3.957 K
Split S – 3.971 K
Parallel – 1.981 K
Magnet – Alnico 5
Humbucker Pickups Amazon
This is where I point out that that in a true nod to the classic humbucker of days gone by, the Nostalgia can be used in either position. I know, they do offer the product in a neck and in a bridge designation. When I noticed that mine has no position noted on the label, I called in to ask for confirmation. Yes, I did meter the pickup, but the specs posted on the Dean site were so close it could have gone either way. That's when they told me that a Nostalgia model is suitable for either position. Nifty!
Still, for now, this is about the Nostalgia in the neck role. I'd rather pick up (ha! a pun!) another one and try them as a full set before discussing it in the bridge.
So then, in the neck, the Nostalgia deftly navigates the dangers of a neck pickup being too rigid or too boomy. At a time when some players have to spend extra money to modify or custom order a classic-sounding neck humbucker, this saves the day. Lows are more precise while having the feeling of some vintage sag. Mids are even. Highs are present and defining.
The Nostalgia character translates to chime and detail on clean amp settings and focus and presence on a dirty setting. The specs put it right in a sweet spot for this sort of humbucker. As with the Baker Act, it seems as if Dean has an ear for what players would like refined into a bit of a product-improved option and then present it at a reasonable price.
Humbucker Pickups Comparison
For an idea of how they sound, check out a Nostalgia set in this video from Dean:
…. wha? …. hey, sorry if I lost track. Busy drooling over that Cadillac. Me & My Wine, anyone?
How about some specs:
Adobe reader for mac upgrade windows. Adobe Reader Mac performs the same function as Windows version. Thus, it gives you the ability to open PDF files directly on the interface. It is easy to use and all you have to do is to import the file into the interface and it does the rest. About: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software is the free global standard for reliably viewing, printing, and commenting on PDF documents. And now, it's connected to the Adobe Document Cloud − making it easier than ever to work across computers and mobile devices. For instructions, see Install an older version of Adobe Reader on Mac OS. Double-click the.dmg file. (If you don't see the Safari Downloads window, click Finder (User Name) Downloads.) Double-click Install Adobe Acrobat Reader DC to start the installation. Choose Help About Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Note the version. Close the product. If you do not have the latest version installed, download the needed installer from the following locations: Adobe Reader full installers and updates for Windows; Adobe Reader full installers and updates for Mac OS; Adobe Acrobat updates for Windows.
Series – 7.938 K
Inductance – 4.791 H
Split N – 3.957 K
Split S – 3.971 K
Parallel – 1.981 K
Magnet – Alnico 5
Cheap Humbucker Pickups
For my take, the Nostalgia is an excellent and affordable option to cure the ills that players can have with some of the neck humbucker options on the market.
Dean Dmt Design Humbucker Pickups Reviews
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