DiMarzio DP220FBK D Activator, Bridge, F-Spaced, Black

Description:

D Activator™ Bridge
DP220

The D Activator™ Bridge has an enriched harmonic quality and the notes want to sing. Both the D Activator™ Neck and Bridge pickups were designed to eliminate the sterile edginess commonly associated with active pickups. The D Activator™ Bridge pickup is about 25% louder than the D Activator™ Neck. Since Dimarzio decided to develop both pickups as a set from the ground up, they adjusted the volume levels on the pickups so they are balanced. That way when you switch from the neck to the bridge, you don’t hear a drop in volume — also a frequent problem with active pickups — and they don’t use batteries.

Recommended For:

D Activator™ Bridge: Bridge position.

Tech Talk:

There’s a big difference between a pickup that sounds bright and one that sounds thin. A thin-sounding pickup will be brittle on the highest frets and empty-sounding in the mids and lows. The D Activator™ neck model doesn’t do this – both the wound and plain strings remain tight and bright up the neck, and very well balanced. This allows the D Activator™ neck model to function well in both longer scale bolt-ons and shorter scale, set-neck guitars. It also makes for a good bridge pickup if you want a sound with a lot of snap and power. Like all passive pickups, D Activators™ require controls with a minimum value of 250Kohms. 500K is the standard all around value, and our 1Megohm tone control is best for long cable runs.

An interesting fact about the most popular active bridge pickups is that they aren’t incredibly loud. Instead, they have a strong, focused attack that hits the amp very hard and makes them ‘feel’ more powerful than they actually spec out to be. This is an important characteristic that Dimarzio needed to capture with the D Activator™ bridge pickup. They also wanted to avoid the limiting effect that can occur with active pickups when they are played hard. This pickup is passive with a lot of headroom, and it responds quickly and accurately to changes in pick attack. A hard pick attack doesn’t cause the signal to flatten out, and picking more softly or rolling the volume control down lets the sound clean up naturally. Like all passive pickups, D Activator™ pickups require controls with a minimum value of 250Kohms. 500K is the standard all around value, and our 1Megohm tone control is best for long cable runs.

Specs:

D Activator™ Bridge:
• Wiring: 4 Conductor
• Magnet: Ceramic
• Output mV: 470
• DC Resistance: 11.41 Kohm
• Year of Introduction: 2007