Dean DMT Baker Act Pickup- notes and quick clip

[The Rossness]

The Great part of my Charvel Socal is that it will always play well and to freshen things up, every so often, I'll change out the pickups. This time, I got a pickup from Dean Guitars, the Baker Act-


I just got it wired up and its a VERY LOUD pickup that shreds and shreds and shreds. It doesn't clean up well. It has slightly less upper mids than the JB. Not scooped sounding at all. I think its a one trick pony and it does that trick very well. More suited to metal than any other genre. Classic rock didn't work well. However I was able to get a convincing funk tone when in the middle position. Bass is tight. Its got soaring high end. It might have a tick too much hair on the highs. It overpowers the neck pickup, a Dimarzio Area 67'. Single note runs were a breeze and there's enough bass response that a neck pickup really isn't needed. It really doesn't clean up well. Playing with the volume knob did nothing really. The pickup is pretty much has two settings a "BRUTAL ASSAULT BLASTING OFF ON FIRE SHRED YOUR FACE OFF" and "off". It lacks feel because its just so damn hot. It does record pretty damn well. I made a little iPhone clip and it sounds good, towards the end of the clip I tried to roll off the volume and it sounds a little lame, which is true to the pickup. Its also super good as a pickup of hearing the individual notes. The strings really ring out. In some situations it sounds more compressed than a jb and in others it doesn't. There seems to be more "roundness" to the notes. They still slice out of the top end but not to sound harsh. The baker act is very good for soloing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdtWv8dHzw7/?taken-by=groovyadventure

[Number Of The Priest]

Face-melting tone. What was the stock bridge pickup in your So-Cal, a DiMarzio Tone Zone or a Duncan Distortion? How would you compare the DMT Baker Act to the stock pickup? I played my American So-Cal last night for the first time in a while and was reminded how the Tone Zone can be fat but a little bit flubby.

[The Rossness]

Face-melting tone. What was the stock bridge pickup in your So-Cal, a DiMarzio Tone Zone or a Duncan Distortion? How would you compare the DMT Baker Act to the stock pickup? I played my American So-Cal last night for the first time in a while and was reminded how the Tone Zone can be fat but a little bit flubby.

This is a MIJ socal and those came with a Tone Zone Bridge and Evo neck. I changed that setup to a Tone Zone/ Area 67'/ Injector. It was good for a while and the more I played it, the more I came to not like the TZ. and The Injector never sounded much like a single coil. the Area 67' I rather like and its stuck around. Eventually I put in a set of Fishman Fluence Classics and hated them. With lots of gain, they sounded fuzzier than the TZ. Notes just didn't ring through. Now I have the Dean Baker Act bridge and DiMarzioArea 67' in the neck position.

The baker act doesn't compare well to the TZ. It compares better to a Duncan JB, slightly less hi mids, tighter. It tracks notes really well. Lots of note definition. Lower mids have more compression, higher mids have less. Sounds hi-fi when distorted and lo-fi clean- but it blends exceptionally well with the neck pickup. It lacks feel, vs something like a PAF or even a duncan distortion. It has some of the qualities of a Super Distortion, where all signals feel boosted, but unlike a Super distortion, it doesn't sound like someone threw a blanket over your speaker.

I'm a little split on the pickup- It has close to no feel, but it does sound damn good!