DiMarzio DP163FB Bluesbucker Humbucker Pickup F-Spaced Black

And now for something completely different: the Bluesbucker® looks like a standard humbucker, but sounds like a P90 and cancels 60-cycle hum as effectively as the average humbucker. This means any guitar with standard size humbuckers can now have the sound of P90s without altering the guitar in any way and without noise. Patented Virtual Vintage® and Airbucker™ technology let the Bluesbucker® “see” a narrow string window like a true single-coil, making it extremely sensitive to playing dynamics. When a pair of these pickups are on together, they achieve the open, slightly hollow sound that two single-coils produce. Splitting the pickup produces a sound similar to that of a Strat® pickup, with very little drop in output.

F-spaced pickups measure 2.01" (51 mm) center-to-center from the first polepiece to the sixth. Standard-spaced pickups measure 1.90" (48 mm). Although some players believe that F-spaced pickups are only for the bridge position of tremolo bridge guitars, many guitars with fixed bridges (including post-1998 Gibson® and Epiphone® Les Paul®, SG® and semi-hollow guitars) should have F-spaced pickups in the bridge position. Most tremolo equipped guitars that have a nut width of 1-11/16” (43mm) or more should also use an F-spaced pickup in the neck position. If you’re replacing a bridge-position pickup and you're not sure what your string-spacing is, it's usually better to get an F-spaced model. It is not necessary for the strings to pass exactly over the center of the polepieces for best performance, but it is wise to avoid a situation where the E strings are sitting completely outside of the outer polepieces.

Tech Talk

The coil with the 6 adjustable slotted poles is the “hot” coil. The coil with the solid poles is along for the ride to cancel hum and look cool. Since one coil is doing most of the work, the direction the Bluesbucker® is installed makes an obvious difference in the sound. When the hot coil is closest to the bridge, the sound is brighter; towards the neck is warmer. Even though the look is a little nontraditional, we like the sound of the bridge pickup “backwards” (with the screw coil towards the neck). With a Bluesbucker® in the neck position with the screw coil towards the bridge (also “backwards”) the combined sound is Tele®-like. With the neck pickup in the more traditional direction, the combination is like two P90s. The Bluesbucker® comes with special wiring instructions.

Download Installation Instructions 
Find the right wiring diagram for your guitar

Specs

Wiring: 4 Conductor 
Magnet: Ceramic 
Output mV: 224 
DC Resistance: 10.07 Kohm 
Year of Introduction: 2001 
Patent: 5,399,802 & 5,908,998

Pickup Dimensions 

Tone Guide

Treble: 6.0

 

Mid: 5.5

 

Bass: 4.5