D-Sonic Installation?

[Mystic-Creation]

Hey all, I was wondering how EB installs the D-sonic in it's JP 6, I know they install it in the bridge with the bar towards the neck, which means altering the wire placement for both pickups.....my question is, do they reverse the direction of the neck pickup like Dimarzio mentions in this article below?
The reason I ask is I will be ordering a new JP in Jan, I want to make sure that there will not be an overly noticeable difference in my two JP's. Is the D-sonic's shipped with the JP's the same as the stock D-sonic?

Thanks so much and here's the info I've got:

Originally Posted by Steve Blucher @ DiMarzio
No wiring changes are necessary if the D Sonic will be installed with the solid bar towards the bridge. The wires from the pickup will be soldered to the PC board terminals exactly as labeled. We’re sorry for the complications, but there are a number of changes required if the D Sonic is going to be installed with the bar towards the neck, and the same changes will need to be made to the wiring of both pickups in order to maintain hum cancellation in the middle position. The changes are:

The red wire from the pickup is soldered to the white solder pad on the PC board.

The black pickup wire is soldered to green on the PC.

The green pickup wire is soldered to black on the PC.

The white pickup wire is soldered to red on the PC.

In addition, the installation direction of the neck pickup will have to be reversed if you want both pickups’ inner coils to remain on in the middle position. We don’t feel this is absolutely necessary, because the sonic difference isn’t very large. The difference is more obvious with the bridge pickup, but less so with the neck pickup because it’s closer to the middle of the strings, where the tone change isn’t as dramatic.

Before doing any of the above, you might want to consider the following: Most of John Petrucci’s guitars with the D Sonic blade towards the neck are in standard tuning or tuned to Eb. Most of his lower-tuned guitars have the blade towards the bridge. This is a matter of personal taste, and was arrived at by trying his guitars both ways with his amp setup. Your setup (and your taste) may not be the same as John’s, and you might want to try the D Sonic with the blade towards the bridge first. It would save you some extra work if you like it that way. One way isn’t better than the other - it really comes down to what works best for you.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

Yes, it's just like how Steve Blucher says, although EB had DiMarzio rewire the pickups so the assemblers at EB don't have to play the color changing game.

The base plate (under the bobbins) on the shelf version of the D-sonic is silver, and on the JP it is black.

 

[Mystic-Creation]

So they do turn the neck pickup around? Does this alter the tone in any way?

thanks again

 

[Mystic-Creation]

Well, mission complete, however, there was not enough wire to reverse the direction of the neck pickup soooo, it's got a little bit of hum to it in the center pickup position. Owell, it was my first pickup installation, I was very nervous but seems to have gone well.

What a powerful sound the D-Sonic has, I'm very suprised....gotta play now, just thought I would share.

Thanks.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

If you turn the neck pickup around it will eliminate the buzz in the center position. You will have to add wire to the leads to get enough slack to wire it properly.

Yes, it does have a powerful sound.

 

[Mystic-Creation]

Thanks a lot Pete for your help! The hum is there but it's not excessive in any way. I kinda wished I had seen your reply sooner I mighta got it right the first time. I will revisit this issue soon, for now I will stay addicted to the D-sonic and Neck pickup, they compliment each other nicely.

Once again thanks so much for the help.

 

[Rossie]

A question from a friend:

"The hum-cancelling is wiring, so when you flip the humbucker over, the (former-ly) positioned inside coils, are now outside. Sonic difference but the now-outer coil is still doing its hum-cancelling job."

So, why do we still need to rewire the D-sonic?

 

[Lefty_SS]

i just had a d-sonic insatlled in my silo. i had the bar facing towards the neck. i didnt have any problems with it at all. it works fine and sounds awsome. the only thing is there is a really long wire on it, so it took a while to get the pickgaurd back on

 

[beej]

The orientation of the coils doesn't matter for wiring purposes. You can rotate the pickups any amount you like and the combination of two singles will still be hum cancelling. So JP probably prefers the sound of one particular coil to the other.

 

[Mystic-Creation]

i just had a d-sonic insatlled in my silo. i had the bar facing towards the neck. i didnt have any problems with it at all. it works fine and sounds awsome. the only thing is there is a really long wire on it, so it took a while to get the pickgaurd back on

Yea it does come with a long wire but I cut mine to suite, there just isn't enough room for it.
The D Sonic is a great pickup!

 

[Rossie]

The orientation of the coils doesn't matter for wiring purposes. You can rotate the pickups any amount you like and the combination of two singles will still be hum cancelling. So JP probably prefers the sound of one particular coil to the other.

So the main purpose of the wiring is to change the inner coils?

 

[beej]

So the main purpose of the wiring is to change the inner coils?

Yeah, you're picking which coil of the 2 in each HB you want wired up in parallel.

 

[Rossie]

And the hum-cancellation mentioned in the email?

 

[scalloped]

i changed my bridge pick-up with d-sonic but i realized that those little guys on d-sonic are lower than dp100's (i dont know what are they called there are 6 metalic things)is that normal?

 

[Lou]

Those are called pole pieces. I noticed the same thing and left them as is.