DiMarzio Billy Corgan Rail Strat Set

Billy Corgan’s rail hum-canceling Strat set from DiMarzio is a staple of the Fender Billy Corgan signature Stratocaster. The set consists of the BC-1 in the neck, the BC-2 in the bridge, and The Chopper in the middle.

When you hear Corgan talk about these pickups, you will straight up hear him reference Sabbath. When you hit your first big chord on an overdriven dirty amp channel, you will know exactly what he’s talking about! LOL! It’s a huge tone, especially in such a small package. Once you install these, throw down a few classic Black Sabbath lines and I promise that you will hear it too.

Billy was working with the Tone Zone S in the bridge and the Air Norton S in the neck and things develop from there. In fact, in paper, the numbers look somewhat similar. But the sounds are clearly different. We will look at some comparisons of the specs a little later. Do you know what the BC-1 and the BC-2 also has in common with those? DiMarzio’s Dual Resonance technology.

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.

Installation

These Bill Corgan Strat pickup set is in a 1990 American Standard Stratocaster w/ maple neck and 22 frets on a 25-1/2″ maple board. Strings are 09-42 with standard E tuning. For the harness, I’m using the new Mojotone Solderless Convertible Strat Guitar Wiring Harness. This has CTS custom taper pots, CRL 5-way switch, Switchcraft jack, and Mojotone Dijon .022uF capacitor.

Evaluation

The Billy Corgan set is like a big heaping helping of a slice of the 1990s American music scene. It’s even been suggested that the Smashing Pumpkins are ground zero for what became the 1991 grunge music scene that decimated the 1980s reigning riff-rock.

Both of the BC models are like being hit square in the face with an iron fist inside a velvet glove. There is a healthy amount of power across the low end and the low-mids. These pickups feautre more punch than thump, with a deeper bolder presence that pushes air across the room. If your idea of musically releasing angst with a guitar, a fuzz pedal, and an amp, you have found your pickups here! LOL!

The cool thing about using The Chopper model in the middle is how well it works with the BC models. Although a release from 15 years prior to the BC rails, The Chopper is a perfectly seamless transition from one switch position to the next.

While a pummeling wall of distress is the order of the day from a dirty amp, a clean amp is quite different. On a cleaner setting, the vibe is very even and well balanced. Not at all in that bell-like chime of a traditional single coil character, this is a flatter response that opens up to a broader range of playing styles.

Specs

Since we are all pretty much pickup nerds around these parts, let’s look at the specs for the AN S and the TZ S.

Demo

While no DiMarzio has no official demo video, here are some examples of what we are talking about:

Also check out the Pumpkins’ Teargarden releases for an ide of them in action.

Conclusion

The Billy Corgan set is going to be good for alternative rock, goth rock, heavy metal, grunge, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegaze, dream pop, electronica, and more. Each model of the set is available in over a dozen color cover options and 3 choices for the rails finish.

For reference, this DiMarzio Billy Corgan Rail Strat set pickup 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.

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