Dimarzio Model One on an Epiphone Rivoli

[ButlerBob]

Hey,

I've got 95 Epi Rivoli and the pickup is noisy as hell. Looking to put a Dimarzio model one in there. I'm handy with soldering as i'm in to building guitar pedals - but have never braved working on any of my guitars or basses. I think it's time. I took the stock pickup out of the Rivoli and noticed it has 2 solder connection (easy right) - but i noticed the dimarzio model one has 4 wires hanging off it.

Any one installed one of these themselves and got any advice for me??

Thanks in advance!

Rob

[TN WOODMAN]

The Model 1 can be set up with coil tap to enable single coil or humbucking modes. Simply install a push pull pot to utilize this feature.

I have a Epiphone EBO with this pickup and love it. It was already installed when I bought the bass and does not have a coil tap but I've thought of doing this mod .

I have a 1965 Rivoli restored by Instagator and it's original pickup is awesome and dead quiet.

The Korean Rivoli are great axes, but the pickups are not the same as originals.

[ctmullins]

All of the major pickup manufacturers have wiring diagrams available on their websites. If you can wire a pedal, you can certainly do a pickup swap. The Model One gets plenty of love here. I've never used one, but may in the future!

[aquateen]

http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/defaul...alsndsplit.pdf

[the mojo hobo]

The easiest replacement would be to solder the black and white wires together, and the red to the output and green to ground. This is standard series humbucker wiring. You could also wire it to parallel humbucking, or you could add a switch to go back and forth.

You could also coil split and run single coil mode, but that would probably be as noisy as your current pickup.

Full instructions here: http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/defaul...4Conductor.pdf

I have 2 Model Ones in a Thunderbird with switches for series/parallel.

[ctmullins]

Originally Posted by the mojo hobo

I have 2 Model Ones in a Thunderbird with switches for series/parallel.

Intriguing! Got pics?

[ButlerBob]

Cheers - i like the sound of the series humbucker wiring - save adding any switches in etc.

The stock pick up on the epi is single coil right?? Be interesting to hear the sound difference - the pickup arrives wednesday!

[aquateen]

no, the original pickups are humbuckers.

[the mojo hobo]

Originally Posted by ctmullins

Intriguing! Got pics?

Yes, but the pickups are somewhat hidden by the covers.



I had this done in the late Seventies while in for the first headstock repair. Later I took out the Model One at the bridge and put it in my '76 4001 and that sounded awesome. The Thunderbird now has a Will Power in the bridge position. It is the same as a Model One but with wider spacing on the poles, a better match for the string spacing close to the bridge.

[ctmullins]

Wow - that looks pretty neat. Can I ask what prompted you to want to swap out the original Thunderbird pickups?

(OP - sorry for the thread hijack!)

[the mojo hobo]

Not a complete hijack, we are still talking about Model Ones.

It was a single pickup bass to start with. The headstock was broken, the repair shop was above a music store that had the Model Ones in stock. It was 1979, I was more into expermental than traditional, and really liked the pickups.

Also while that bass was being repaired I bought a Ric, played it stereo, liked it so the Model Ones got wired stereo too. The neck pickup to a 2x15 solid state rig, and the bridge to a 1x15 tube rig.

[ButlerBob]

Have put the Model one in. Super easy and sounds so good. Loads better than the stock and without the awful noise.

Wiring the black and white together and then hot and ground to the appropriate part of the circuit and boom!

Cheers for comments on that

[ctmullins]

Congrats!