DiMarzio's Billy Sheehan 'Relentless' pickups

[thrashingbass]

Relentless P are out-new Model P pickup with Sheehan's newer design as seen in all of these recent pickups (Relentless Middle, Vintage 60s, Relentless J.) I gave in and purchased them direct from Dimarzio, as only banjomikez seems to have them in stock-no major retailer does.

The name is fitting, but also a hard search online, as everyone assumes "Relentless Pickups" means DP296. DP299 should be similar, I would bet, but with the "traditional" Model P/J height adjustable pole pieces. I was going to order the Middle pickups, but saw the new Model P variant and went for it (hopefully I do not regret it/it does not sound too dark-tonal diagram shows .5 more low mids over the original, but -2 treble. But also higher output than the original. Sheehan's Relentless Middle has a tiny bit more output, but better treble according to the diagram.)

Here is the link:
Relentless P™ | DiMarzio

Ordered in gold, to match a new Squier I will be receiving over the mail soon. The stock pickup is probably quite good as-is, but I wanted a Relentless or Model P bass for a while, and they do have their own, non-subtle tonal differences over most P pickups, for better or worse.

 

[fourstr00]

Was thinking about a Relentless J or 60’s J as the J in a PJ Carvin. The stock J hums like crazy and is overmatched by the P.

Anyone have any experience?

 

[groooooove]

Was thinking about a Relentless J or 60’s J as the J in a PJ Carvin. The stock J hums like crazy and is overmatched by the P.

Anyone have any experience?

if i were you i'd replace both pickups when modding a carvin.

i LOVE carvin basses and own a bunch of them. if your opening it up and heating up the soldering iron, it's worth the extra few bucks to also change the P pickup. I own 3 carvins right now with modded electronics and can't believe how good the results are.

obviously your question is specifically about the dimarzio pickup.. no idea... patiently waiting to hear demos from someone somewhere.

 

[thrashingbass]

The new "Relentless P" on a 40th Anniversary Squier Gold Edition. The original pickups were truly excellent, and there was no need to switch them, but I wanted a Model P style of Precision bass. Excellent pickups! Haven't tried a Relentless Middle, but this is great as it is-sounds similar than the many original Relentless sound samples, but very versatile (not that the Relentless Middle isn't-just that it does sound "like a P bass", but with lots of girth, without losing much clarity.) Haven't tried them with my amp yet.

Recommend you try them for yourselves. Same price as Relentless Middle. Definitely top-notch pickups! "Super P Bass" vibe-not vintage, but not too modern sounding (remember it's based on the original Model P.) Love them, alongside my humble Squier.

 

[greenscharlie]

very nice, looks like a jewel

 

[Danger McLovin]

Double precision DiMarzio:
Relentless DP296 and DiMarzio Split P- DP127.
Both pickups are wired together in series.
The knobs are 1 volume and 1 tone.
see profile photo

 

[greenscharlie]

thats a bomber

 

[thrashingbass]

Double precision DiMarzio:
Relentless DP296 and DiMarzio Split P- DP127.
Both pickups are wired together in series.
The knobs are 1 volume and 1 tone.
see profile photo

View attachment 4898471View attachment 4898474

Must sound quite gnarly! Dimarzio power indeed!

And I always love flying Vs, despite all the hate for the 80s Gibson model. They will never be popular for bass, but that's part of their appeal. Easier to wear than the Explorer shape to be sure (nothing against Explorers-they are just huge as basses.)

 

[greenscharlie]

seem to have changed the tone guide Relentless™ Middle | DiMarzio

Thanks for sharing! Interesting... but meh

View attachment 3987503[/QU

Less bass from 8.5 to 5.5 and middle from 8 to 6.5, more balanced.
Did they re-tune them ?

 

[thrashingbass]

seem to have changed the tone guide Relentless™ Middle | DiMarzio

Less bass from 8.5 to 5.5 and middle from 8 to 6.5, more balanced.
Did they re-tune them ?

Most doubtedly; they just re-made all of their tonal profiles into lows, low mids, high mids, and highs from 2020, some time afterwards.

I would love to see their older 3 frequency pickups interpretations. And both versions are just that: interpretations, rather than frequency response analysis-which are also very subjective!

IMHO, it's better to write them if you have an specific question.

Love the new Model P, Relentless P. According to the new graph, the older one has better highs, but in practice it is a very clear-sounding pickup, though not "hifi" sounding. I can imagine it is a hotter Model P, yet they did some magic so it's not a muddy mess, like many overwound pickups can be. Power, lots of thunder and perfect mids! Subjective to my taste of course.

I still think well-made vintage pickups are awesome, but it's good to have a bit of variety, and this one is of the best kinds. Despite the "4" in treble, it does not really sound dark, just thunderous-"present" to say the least.

If you are considering the original Relentless Middle, and think it may lack lows due to the new 4-way graphics, do not worry about that. Has more than enough clean, without any pre-amp assistance. Mr. Sheehan just loves his bi-amping. Works well as a standalone pickup if you so wish! I think the Will Power Middle had a little bit less fullness based on some video comparisons I saw. But people have been using single Model Ps since the late 70s, and all these particular pickups are related. All have great mids, which are essential to many, many music genres.

 

[Kdog]

Good day, all! Posting this here as, A.) I have never attempted a pickup swap before and am hoping for any tips, and B.) I will be swapping in the DiMarzio Relentless Middle (DP296) and J Bridge (DP301) pickups in my 2016 Squier Jaguar short scale.
I am assuming that since these pickups are passive just like the ones that came in it originally, that wiring them in should be fairly straightforward? I’m not looking to do anything different with the volume/tone controls, so that is my hope. I assume that I would simply study the wiring diagrams that came with the DiMarzio’s and match them to the existing wiring of the OEM ones and resolder to match? Anything else I might have to think about?
Appreciate any comments!

Cheers,
Kev

 

[fourstr00]

That’s pretty much how I did it. Take a photo of the old wires, resolder in the same place. I took it slow and it was under an hour. If you know what you’re doing it’s probably a ten minute job.

 

[greenscharlie]

to my ear, a 500k V pot sounds to harsh in combi with relentless middle, gonna switch to 250k

 

[Kdog]

Hey all; so a couple days ago I had posted above about swapping a set of the Relentless pickups into my Squire Jag short scale. I've never swapped pickups before, so, though it is likely a very newb set of questions I have here, I am hopeful I will "learn by doing" and get more comfortable as I go on.

I have taken apart my Squire and am looking at the placement of the wiring and comparing it to my Relentless pickups and had a couple questions...

1.) The DiMarzio wiring diagrams of the Relentless model P pickups have a "bare" wire from each of them but they don't show them being there in the wiring diagram of a sample P&J arrangement. In the diagram for the Relentless ones, they show those bare wires being soldered to the back of the neck volume pot - should I do that as they show?

2.) Since I am only replacing the pickups themselves, can I leave the already soldered connections from Neck volume/Bridge volume/Master tone as they are?

I apologize if this might not be the right place to have this post (I guess I could have done it in the Luthiers Corner page), but I hoped that this thread being "Relentless specific", I am hoping some folks might know - thanks!

-Kev

 

[fourstr00]

Yes to both.

Bare wire is a ground and goes with green.

No reason to touch any wires that aren’t leading to new pickups. The wires to your jack and between the pots remain the same.

 

[Kdog]

Yes to both.

Bare wire is a ground and goes with green.

No reason to touch any wires that aren’t leading to new pickups. The wires to your jack and between the pots remain the same.

Awesome! Thanks for the reply, Sir!

I will attempt this switch tomorrow or the weekend, and share pics if successful! LOL

-Kev

 

[Kdog]

Well; good news and bad news…

The good news is I disconnected the old pickups and had my go at connecting all the wires of the Relentless pickups to their various places. I plugged in my Vox headphone amp to test it out while it was still all out of the body, and - Yaaaassss! It works great! I tested the volumes and tones blends and all seemed operational.

The bad news is I really didn’t take notice of all the extra wire/cord that is attached to the new pickups and it all is NEVER gonna fit inside the cavity. I will need to loosen the connections, cut those bundled wires that DiMarzio has on them, and resolder again with much smaller lengths.

A small bummer, but just diving in and doing this first bit gives me a much better sense of what I need to do, and knowing it works is very satisfying; thanks to fourstr00 for your input on this!

I will redo this tomorrow most likely and try it for real once it’s all put back together.

Cheers, Kev

 

[ctmullins]

See if you can tuck the excess cable in the pickup cavities instead.

 

[Kdog]

See if you can tuck the excess cable in the pickup cavities instead.

I gave that a look already, and I don’t think it would work. DiMarzio uses some really thick kind of ‘bundled’ black sleeving (also looks like it’s insulated with some metal), so it’s a lot, unfortunately. I should have noticed before doing all the connections, but I didn’t want to cut extra off before I knew if I might have needed it.

One thing that I did want to ask; is it a necessity that none of the soldered connections touch any other metal areas when I do put it all back together? DiMarzio had me connect the white/black wires and I wasn’t sure if they could be taped over with electrical tape to stop that from happening or what issues that might cause instead or not?

-Kev

 

[greenscharlie]

i put some painters tape around it. So they cant make contact with other wires causing a shortcut.