DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup 

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

This pickup is a solid choice for someone aiming for a Rock/Hard Rock sound. It isnt the highest output pickup but can still get pushed. Even at higher gain levels it still sounds clear and every note is even volume. So be sure your finger work is up to par. Cleans up great as well. Could use a booster pedal to make it really shine but even stand alone sounds awesome. I havent used it for any live shows, but I'm pretty sure it will stand the test of the stage.

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

First off I am not the most technical guy out there, so I may disappoint anyone looking for a very technical review. I loaded these pickups into my Mexican Strat almost a year ago in hopes of getting better sound out of a higher gain amp (not cracnked to 11, but a solid rock gain). As soon as they were installed I plugged in and tried them out on my typical amp settings that I use (gain at 2 o'clock, treble at 3 o'clock, bass at noon, and mids at 9 o'clock) and was thuroughly impressed by what I heard. After fooling around with my amp I wanted to sample the pickups in a broad range of sounds and settings, so I switched from my Blackstar amp to my Fender G-DEC and cycled through every preset (about 130 on mine). These pickups handle pretty much every single tone setting you can toss at them. My strat is set up with a HS-3,HS-3,HS-4 setup bridge to neck, and this may be the ultimate strat combo. I will set up more Strats like this in the future, and trust me I think anyone would do well if they set up the same way.

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

This is perhaps the best sweet-sounding single coil pickup I have ever heard! I have used this pickup for over 23 years and still consider it unique compared to other types and brands. I have it installed in one of my fender strats in the bridge and neck positions, and on another fender strat in the neck. In the bridge, this pickup provides a really nice clean, glassy, and crisp sound that suits perfect for blues, jazz, vintage rock, and neoclassical. With distortion, one can hear with great clarity every string (individual or chords), maybe too much (which is not bad if you care for precision and cleanliness). In the neck, this pickup provides a very sweet tone which can be enjoyed both on clean and distorted channels. Here it sounds very much like a smooth flute. Although the HS3 sounds very similar to the HS4, in my opinion the HS3 has a fuller and rounder tone. I highly recommend this pickup to anyone who likes a legendary-type of sound in both live and studio situations. You will never regret putting this HS3 in the bridge and/or neck positions!
Exceptional
Best Value for the Quality of Sound

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

Like others I chose this pickup because Yngwie popularized the HS series. So I threw an HS3/HS2/HS3 combo on my Strat and it sounded like crap. Let me explain: These are single coil pickups that has no noise when the guitar plays through heavy overdrive. But they will NEVER give you the crunch of full-sized humbuckers. Yngwie's signature sound is a clean single coil tone and his Strat setup has the pickups wired to the master volume ONLY. The tone knobs aren't even connected to the pickups at all! This is because he gets a pure tone from the pickups without the brightness from the tone knobs (which on Strats makes the sound thinner). What I didn't like about the HS3, and the HS2, was that my Strat sounded sterile, no dimension at all when I flipped through the selector switch. I recommend a set of Fender Noiseless instead. They're warm with character, noise-free, give you a nice crunch AND still remain faithful to that famous single coil Strat sound.

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

The HS3 is the finest pick up i've used in the past 16 years. It's clean sound is good for solos and it doesn't lost in the amps distortion. Its quiet humless sound is good for recording as well as live gigs as I used it for 14 years. No matter what distortion pedal i used it always sounded clean. All my guitars has a HS3 in the bridge and three have it in the neck too. I'm a ture user of the HS3, and every guitarist should know about this.

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

This pick up is very good if your looking for a nice heavy clean distortion sound. I say clean cause some distortions are to fuzzy an cant tell the notes apart. This pick up is very quite an you can tell what your actually playing....great for that power metal sound....

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

The DP117 pick up is perfect (in the bridge) for the old Deep Purple/ Ritchie Blackmore sounds. Great smooth growl when overdriven through my Marshall DSL. Still lets the tone of my strat body come through so it's not "just another Hot strat". If you want high gain, ear splitting noise from a pickup, this isn't it. This delivers an overall tone that's humless and will compliment your band mates instrument EQs. Seems to find that zone where live guitar cuts thru on stage. Also nice to have 4-wire options. Great tones if put in middle position and a Super Distortion is in the bridge (set up in my Charvel strat). Most versatile single coil available in my opinion.

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

I have this pickup in 3 Strats: the bridge of my '72, the bridge of my 2005, and the bridge and neck of my 2000. I have to have these in my strats.

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

This pickup is amazing. I was almost skeptical at first, replacing my stock Strat pickup with this, but it definitely was a good decision. Not only does it give even more of that signature Malmsteen quack than the average single coil, but it has tons of clarity, and absolutely no hum. People complain that this isn't a hot enough pickup, that's the whole point. Yngwie found that the cleaner sounding the pickup, the more clarity you'll get with distortion. This pickup certainly proves his point.

Comments about DiMarzio DP117 HS-3 Guitar Pickup:

I put this pickup in the neck position of a Vaccaro with an aluminum neck.. The vaccaro bridge pickup is a humbucker that screams and bullys the other pickups in the guitar.. until now.. the HS 3 is a sick replacement.. great power and pick attack with enhanced low end and mids and just enough highs and shimmer to let every note of your playing shine.. however, this does not sound like a strat pickup.. it is too full and lacks that strat spank.. but then again, it lacks all the noise too.. overall a great buy!