DiMarzio Rick Derringer Signature Humbucker Set

Rick Derringer is a name every guitar player worth their salt knows, or should know. From his breakout with The McCoys on “Hang on Sloopy” to shredding alongside Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, and Steely Dan, Derringer proves time and again he’s more than just a riff-slinger. He’s a tone architect. He drops “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” on the world and suddenly every kid with a tube amp wants to be a guitar hero. Derringer doesn’t just play rock guitar. He defines the vocabulary for a generation of players.

What separates Derringer from the average guitar slinger is his relentless tone pursuit. He’s not content to ride the same gear train for decades. Instead, he dials in precise sonic blueprints that support his blistering phrasing, his slide chops, and that clean-meets-snarling bite he’s mastered over a career of reinvention. So when DiMarzio steps in with a Rick Derringer Signature Humbucker Set in the early 1980s, you can bet it’s not some cookie-cutter throwback. It’s a full-on tone weapon built with Derringer’s DNA.

Dual Resonance Tech

Dual Resonance is basically mis-matched coils. It’s common for several pickup companies to allow about a 5% variance. But Dual Resonance is an intentional mis-matching of the coils to produce a specific “tuning” of the pickup’s voice. According to the patent, it is pretty much about putting a similar number of turns on each coil. But with different wire gauges. In this application, only the bridge model is using the Dual Resonance tech.

Installation: Stealth Mode

When you crack open the box, the Rick Derringer humbuckers don’t just look like tone tools. They look like something DiMarzio smuggled out of a secret lab. One glance tells you these aren’t your run-of-the-mill PAF clones. Each pickup sports a row of slug poles paired with a row of hex screws, giving it a visual attitude that screams “vintage-meets-vengeance.” It’s like a traditional humbucker had a back-alley brawl with a Super Distortion, and the result is a pickup that looks just as mean as it sounds. This hybrid aesthetic isn’t just for show. It hints at the balance of clarity and aggression that lies underneath the covers.

These pickups first hit the scene as part of Rick’s signature B.C. Rich Stealth model guitar. That’s an mahogany neck-thru guitar with a rosewood board, known for being lightweight. Sorry, no B.C. Rich on hand here. This set is going into a neutral sounding double humbucker guitar with a German Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo system. Each pickup has a connection to it’s own Bourn 500k pot. The neck scale is 25-1/2″ and the tuning is E standard with 10-46 gauge strings.

The Review: Tech Meets Attitude

The DiMarzio Rick Derringer set is a vintage-voiced, high-fidelity humbucker pairing that plays nice with modern rigs but still bleeds analog soul. Let’s start with the bridge pickup. This bad boy comes in around 15k on the DCR scale. Enough to punch through the mix without sacrificing clarity. The EQ is balanced but with a touch of upper-mid aggression, making it ideal for everything from bluesy bends to harmonically rich chugs. It’s ceramic, but not the brittle kind. This is DiMarzio we’re talking about. Expect tight lows, searing highs, and that chewy midrange that makes your amp sit up and beg.

Slide up to the neck pickup, and the vibe shifts. But not into mud territory. This one’s wound to about 7.8k, giving you sweet, singing leads without turning into a flabby mess. Jazz cats might like it. Fusion weirdos will love it. But really, it’s a neck pickup for rock guitarists who actually use the neck pickup. Smooth enough for vocal phrasing, articulate enough for technical passages, and still fat enough to hit that Larry Carlton meets Gary Moore zone. If your fingers are up to it.

Both pickups are four-conductor, so you get all the coil-splitting and series/parallel trickery your wiring harness can handle. And let’s be real, if you’re playing Derringer-style licks, you probably want that tonal versatility. The set plays well with high-gain amps, and doesn’t collapse when pushed through big pedalboards or loaded loop switchers. This isn’t a boutique relic. It’s a pro-grade workhorse wrapped in classic rock legitimacy.

Specs

The tone guides represented below are a best guess, as there is nothing official that I could finD.

Demo

How about we take a peek at examples from 1983’s Good Dirty Fun album, which even showcases the Stealth guitar and the DiMarzio signature pickups in the video for “I Play Guitar”.

Final Thoughts: Classic Swagger, Modern Precision

Look, there are vintage-style humbuckers that lean too far into nostalgia. There are modern screamers that sacrifice dynamics for output. The DiMarzio Rick Derringer Signature Humbucker Set threads the needle with shocking accuracy. You get the warmth of the ‘70s, the punch of the ‘80s, and the articulation demanded by today’s player. This isn’t a vanity signature model. It’s a tone blueprint from one of rock’s most underappreciated architects, co-designed with a pickup company that actually listens.

Whether you’re chasing vintage rock tones, dialing in for blues-fusion, or just need a versatile set of humbuckers that won’t choke when the gain hits eleven, this set delivers. Big tone. Tight response. Legendary DNA. And hey, if it’s good enough for Rick Derringer, it’s probably better than what’s in your guitar right now.

For reference, this DiMarzio Rick Derringer Signature humbucker set evaluation was conducted with the following: Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. ADA MP-1 Tube Pre-Amp loaded with Tube Amp Doctor ECC83 Premium Selected tubes, using the ADA MC-1 MIDI Controller. Fryette LX II Stereo Tube Power Amplifier. Physical cabs use are Marshall 1960B, Mojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.

DiMarzio Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram

7 string 16Ω 59 Airbucker Alnico 2 Alnico 3 Alnico 4 Alnico 5 Alnico 8 Bare Knuckle BKP Boot Camp Brown Sound Celestion Ceramic Charvel Custom Shop DiMarzio Dual Resonance Edge EVH Fishman Floyd Rose Fluence Gibson HSP90 Humbucker Ibanez JB Jimmy Page John Petrucci MJ Mojotone P90 PAF Pariah Pickup Seymour Duncan Singlecoil Single Width Speaker Steve Vai Tech Tip Tremolo Virtual Vintage