There were certain sounds I would hear that would make me go, вЂњMan, thatвЂ™s so heavy.вЂќ You get an idea in your head of what youвЂ™re looking for, but I think you only know that youвЂ™ve found your tone whenever you actually stumble onto it. There were a bunch of people I listened to when I was a kidвЂ“everybody from Eddie Van Halen to Randy Rhoads to Tony Iommi. I wanted it to tear your face off, but still have a round tone. GW: Which players influenced your tone early on?ДD: I grew up on heavy metal and everyone I listened to had distorted heavy sounds, but I wanted mine to be a bit more abrasive. If you ever listen to a Pantera record, thatвЂ™s what youвЂ™ll hear through this pickup. When you pull your volume knob down to 1 or 2, you can still get it sound clean.

It will give you some extra gain, but it wonвЂ™t go so far that your sound breaks up and is going crazy. You donвЂ™t have to fight to get the guitar to ring out in the way you want. ItвЂ™s very saturatedвЂ“not to the point where itвЂ™s overly fuzzyвЂ“but it has a smooth and crunchy distortion tone. ItвЂ™s really got the smushiesвЂ“where itвЂ™s toned in so that it feels like youвЂ™re playing on a sponge. So basically, what we got was a super hot-rodded Dime pickup thatвЂ™s got the right kind of Dime distortion. ThatвЂ™s how we were able to actually hone in on the tone we were looking for. So IвЂ™d be playing all of my other guitars that already had my tone set, then IвЂ™d put on the guitar with the new Duncan pickup in it and then I could really evaluate where it was sitting tonally. Every time IвЂ™d get a new pickup to try, weвЂ™d swap it out. We were on tour when all this was going on and I had one guitar that I was using for the testing. They went to work on it and then sent me two or three samples to try out and they nailed it. When I got together with Duncan, I explained exactly what I was looking for and I gave them one of my old pickups as a starting point. IвЂ™d tried out a lot of different pickups and some of them had the right kind of distortion, but IвЂ™d be missing the sustain or feedback I wanted or getting the wrong kind of feedback. ItвЂ™s not fuzzy distortion or real nasty and gritty sounding, but itвЂ™s more of a deep, thick tone with some sizzle on the top. ThatвЂ™s what I call a вЂњsmushyвЂќ toneвЂ“like when youвЂ™re going вЂњshung, shung, shungвЂќ and you get that warm tone with the distortion mixed in and it has the low end thatвЂ™s kicking you in the butt while the top end is cutting your face off in the right way, but not ripping your face off. It wasnвЂ™t like it was smushed together, the way I wanted it. When IвЂ™d add some dirt to the cleaner pickups, it was just a clean sound that was coated with distortion. It seemed that distortion pickups were too distorted for me and clean pickups always had a poppy sound that was almost like a StratВ®. I was always trying to find a pickup with super-high output and lots of gain and IвЂ™d tried out lots of different pickups. I realized that there was not a pickup out there that did exactly what I wanted it to do.

Since then, IвЂ™ve switched over to Washburn guitars and those guitars needed a new pickup that would work well with them and give me the sound I want. Those pickups went out of production and became hard to find. GroundWire: Tell us about the creation of the Dimebucker and how this pickup was voiced.Дimebag Darrell: When I was playing the old DeanВ® guitars, I found a pickup which fit that guitar. Dime became the trendsetterвЂ“a modern metal god that todayвЂ™s players venture to emulate.Дime tells GroundWire about the development of his new signature model pickup, the SH-13 Dimebucker, and gives us the scoop on how he shapes his trademark sound both onstage and in the studio. Rather than to follow the trends set by others, Dime raised the bar for metal guitarists by creating a sound that was even heavier and more brutal than his predecessors. Bred on classic rock and heavy metal, Dime analyzed the styles and tones of his favorite players, then forged his own signature style and sound with Pantera. Dimebag Darrell is a player who needs little introduction.

Dimebag darrell guitar rig