Vintage DiMarzio Super Distortion vs Modern: Is There a Real Difference?
- Baris Sahin
- 17 hours ago
- 8 min read
Some pieces of gear don’t just produce sound — they carry time inside them. The DiMarzio Super Distortion is one of those pieces. I’ve already written a detailed review about it, dissected its output, its midrange character, its ability to push an amp into singing sustain. That chapter, I thought, was closed. But recently, a vintage Super Distortion found its way to my bench. A true time capsule from another era. If I’m being honest, I bought it for the double cream look. Purely aesthetic. I already had a Super Distortion — the one I reviewed before — so this wasn’t about necessity. It was about curiosity… and maybe a bit of nostalgia. Then I plugged it into my measurement tools. And that’s when things became interesting. Because what I read wasn’t just the “same pickup, just older.” There were differences. Real ones. The kind that make you rethink what we assume about consistency, production eras, and the subtle fingerprints of time.
Test Guitar
Vintage Super Distortion (VSD shortly) still standing on my “Pink Tiger” for a while. That pink tiger is a superstrat has a Jackson Dinky body made of alder, one piece maple neck in modern C profile, German made Jackson Floyd Rose tremolo with Japanese stainless steel saddles, 25,5” scale, stainless steel frets, Alpha 500K pots and elixir strings in E-std tuning. Guitar has Dimarzio Al DiMeola DP201 in the neck and No-name blade style middle pickup (~9K thou). Its primary (unplugged) tone is neutral to fairly bright.
Evaluation
Let’s read the official desciption from 97 catalog first;
“Super Distortion
guitars: BC Rich (original USA production), Dean (original USA production), Charvel (original USA production), Guilds (same)
artists: Vinnie Moore, Al DiMeola, Tom Sholz – Boston, Bruce Kulick – Kiss, Ace Frehly – Kiss, Earl Slick - David Bowie, Frank Gambale
SUPER DISTORTION
This is the pickup that started it all. The Super Distortion was the first pickup specifically designed to kick a tube amp into total overdrive, and is still the yardstick by which all other high-output pickups are measured. The Super Distortion has a perfect mix of power and tone: both single-notes and chords jump out of the amp and fill the room with a wall of sound. The balance of tones is classic–thick, boosted mids, big lows and fat highs. This is the sound you’ve heard for over two decades on platinum records, from players as different as Ace Frehley, Al Di Meola and Paul Gilbert. Discover what they (and hundreds of other great players) know–the Super Distortion is the best all ’round high power pickup ever made.”
Want to see the measurements, right here!
Dimarzio Vintage Super Distortion DP100
Magnet – Big Ceramic
Advertised DCR: 13.68 K Ohm (Series)
Measured DCR: 13.4221 K Ohm (Series)
Measured DCR: 6.7278 K Ohm (Screw Coil)
Measured DCR: 6.7442 K Ohm (Slug Coil)
Inductance @100Hz: 7.4436 H (Series), Q:0.3482
Inductance @100Hz: 3.152 H (Screw Coil)
Inductance @100Hz: 3.2699 H (Slug Coil/steel spacer coil)
Measured C: 106pF (measured with bare cable)
Calculated Self Resonance Peak: 5.6659KHz
Output: 425 Milivolts (advertised)
EQ (B/M/T) – 8/8/6 (80s catalogs), 8/7,5/5,5 (2012 catalogs) – 8/6,5/6,5/4,5 (official website)
Gauss: 480G screws,470G slug (measured at top center of D&G pole pieces)
Patents: None
Ambient Measurement Temperature: 25C
At this point, I feel compelled to revisit an article I also referenced in my previous review. Written by Larry DiMarzio himself, it tells the story of the birth of the Super Distortion — and perhaps, in many ways, the birth of DiMarzio as a company. If you haven’t read it, you’re genuinely missing out. That piece did completely shattered the walls of prejudice I once had toward the brand. If you haven’t read it, you are truly missing out on a great deal.
After this brief historical excursion into the pickup’s origin story, let’s move on to the main subject of this article: the differences between a vintage Super Distortion and a more modern production model. Let’s begin, first of all, with a comparison of their technical measurements with a table;
Specs Measured | Modern Super Distortion | Vintage Super Distortion |
DCR (Series) | 13.486 | 13.4221 |
DCR South Coil | 6.6560 | 6.7278 |
DCR North Coil | 6.8320 | 6.7442 |
Induntance (Series) - H | 6.4821 | 7.4436 |
Q | 0.3020 | 0.3482 |
Inductance (South) | 2.7073 | 3.1520 |
Inductance (North) | 2.9905 | 3.2699 |
South Gauss | 480 | 480 |
North Gauss | 540 | 470 |
Capacitance (Series) | 116 | 106 |
Calculated Self Resonance Peak (KHz) | 5.80 | 5.67 |
As you can see from the table, nearly all of the fundamental technical parameters that influence the sound are almost identical. All but one: inductance. Between the current production model and the vintage example, I measured nearly a 1 Henry difference in inductance — and these measurements were taken back-to-back, at exactly the same temperature, in the same test environment, using the same LCR meter and the same probes. For those who may not be familiar, a 1H difference is well within the audible range. In a pickup like the Super Distortion, the difference between one humbucker measuring 13.55kΩ and another measuring 13.98kΩ may very well fall within normal tolerance and not translate into a clearly audible distinction. Likewise, a JB reading 16.64kΩ versus another at 17.48kΩ may not necessarily create a meaningful tonal shift. But a 1H difference in inductance, in my opinion, is a far more defining and distinguishable parameter.
Interestingly, if we look at the resonance frequencies calculated from measurements taken under identical conditions and with the same methodology, the current production Super Distortion comes out at 5.80 kHz, while the vintage unit measures at 5.67 kHz. That said, it’s more accurate to treat these as relative values rather than absolutes. Measuring capacitance in 4-conductor humbuckers can be somewhat tricky, and even small inconsistencies can significantly affect the calculated resonance frequency. For that reason, I find it more scientific and rational to evaluate the difference between them rather than focusing on the absolute numbers.
Within that context, one could reasonably expect the newer Super Distortion to sound slightly clearer, while the vintage unit would sit a bit closer to the midrange, with a subtle emphasis toward the mid-mids.
I’ve been thinking about the reason for this for quite some time. First, to be absolutely sure about the pickup’s authenticity, I contacted DiMarzio technical support. The originality of the unit was confirmed, and I was also told that such an inductance value could indeed be within spec. Fair enough. But why? Two possible scenarios come to mind.
The first concerns the coils themselves. After removing the outer tape and examining the bobbins, I noticed that the older Super Distortion appears to have visibly “fatter” coils. I’m sharing the photos below — please take a close look and leave your thoughts in the comments. Is it just me, or does the vintage SD genuinely seem to have bulkier bobbins? If the older unit were wound with 43 AWG wire and the current production model with 44 AWG, this visual difference could be considered normal. However, my counter-argument is this: if different wire gauges had been used, I should have observed a more noticeable difference either in DCR or in inductance. The relatively minimal difference between the two makes me think they were wound with approximately the same gauge wire and a very similar number of turns. The visual discrepancy may instead stem from differences in the internal structure or molding of the bobbin plastics.
The second scenario involves the metallurgy of the metal components. Take a careful look at the internal photos. The diameter and length of the pole screws appear identical — or at least extremely close. The only visible difference seems to be in the threading of the screws. If the inductance variation originates primarily from the pole pieces, then the explanation could lie in differences in the metallurgy of the screws themselves. Perhaps the older screws contain a higher percentage of iron (Fe), subtly influencing the magnetic circuit and therefore the inductance. One day, I may remove the pole piece screws from the vintage SD, install them into the newer one, and measure the inductance again. That could be an interesting experiment.
Another question that naturally follows is whether this >7H inductance characteristic is unique to the particular pickup I have, or if it reflects a broader trend among older units.
After writing this article, I happened to come across three additional Super Distortions — two of which were non-functional — that I estimate to be from the early to mid-1980s. The working unit once again measured above 7 Henries (DCR: 13.223 kΩ). When I brought this up with DiMarzio technical support, their response was: “7 Henries is a little high, but probably within tolerance for pickups from that time period.”
Based on this entire process, my takeaway is that having an inductance value above 7H may indeed be a characteristic that can be generalized across older Super Distortion units.
Now, let’s move on to the tone by ear. Is there a difference between these two Super Distortions I have in hand? Yes — there is. Now, I can’t say for certain how much of what I’m hearing is influenced by the psychological factor of already knowing about the inductance difference. That awareness may play a role — or it may not. But to my ears, the difference is clearly noticeable. I first installed the vintage Super Distortion into the same guitar where I had previously used the current production model. Using the exact same amp settings — the very same saved tone — I felt a difference. However, a significant amount of time had passed between those tests, so I had to consider the possibility of memory bias. To rule that out, I installed the current Super Distortion into my new Charvel and compared again one by one but from different guitars. Once more, I perceived the same kind of difference I had initially suspected.
So, by evaluating the tone, one can ask does the official description — “thick, boosted mids, big lows and fat highs” — still hold true? Moreover, as a counterpoint to my own observations, is there really a night-and-day difference between a current Super Distortion and a vintage one? To sum it up, the answer to the first question is yes, the classic Super Distortion tone is very much present in both pickups. However, in my opinion, the vintage unit leans slightly more toward the low&mid mids, resulting in a somewhat a bit thicker overall character by comparison. The most accurate way to demonstrate this would be through a precise Bode plot curve, but unfortunately, I don’t have the means to perform that measurement at the moment. Once I do, I’ll revisit this and update the review accordingly.
Another important question is this: is it worth chasing after vintage Super Distortions? The tonal difference between old and new units is not at a level that justifies paying unreasonable prices. I’m not entirely sure what the market looks like across different countries right now, but I do see some listings asking for quite high amounts. That said, if the price difference is reasonable, they can certainly be worth considering. Especially if you have a brighter-sounding guitar, you might even prefer the vintage Super Distortion over the current production model.
Conclusion
The DiMarzio Super Distortion has always been more than just a high-output pickup — it’s a reference point in electric guitar history. What this comparison shows is not a radical redesign, but something more subtle: the natural variation that comes with time, materials, and production philosophy.
The vintage units don’t redefine the Super Distortion — they refine it in a slightly different direction. A bit more low-mid weight, a slightly different feel, and perhaps a touch more “age” in the response.
Is it night and day? No.
Is it real? Yes.
And perhaps that’s the most interesting part. Because in the end, this isn’t just about measurements or specifications — it’s about how small differences accumulate into something you can actually feel when you play.
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