I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm terrible at leaving well-enough alone. A couple of years ago I picked up a Dimarzio Mega Drive and tried it out. It's a fine pickup, but even with the bar-coil towards the neck it was a bit too biting on the high end it really lacked the correct frequency of mid-range for my tastes. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I had an apostrophe (I think you mean an epiphany). I pulled the 1/4" ceramic magnet out and put in a 1/8" rough-cast A8 with a bit of foam tape between the base plate and the magnet. The pickup is now a bit more dry, but the biting high end is gone without a loss in clarity and there's been a healthy bump in the mids. In short there are less extreme frequencies present and the voicing now has this round, punchy quality that's a bit unique to my ears.
For the neck position in the same guitar I have another massaged Dimarzio that was previously a bridge pickup in my parts-caster. An Air Zone with the stock A5 removed in favor of a rough-cast A2 that really just killed the unpleasant high-mids I kept hearing. The difference was much less extreme in this case versus the Mega Drive (I presume the air-gap between the poles and magnet has something to do with that).
Would these different voicings please everyone? Probably not, but I enjoy the different sonic textures. I hope the day finds all of you well.
