Want to hear me, and some other people, playing some Yngwie? Check out this playlist: kzfaq.info/sun/PLNaLwTdlpQNFMOAPGrLAGqirCvBsokngd

The Dimarzios sing. The Duncan’s scream. Both sound amazing but the Dimarzios sound legendary.

dimarzio sounds way more like normal strat pickups, it gave yngwie a unique sound using them with distortion. the duncans just sound more like regular humbuckers

Great video, you've helped me decide to go with the Dimarzios. The Duncans are too dark and not as Stratty. Plus the tones from Yngwie's classic albums (the tones everyone chase) were made with the Dimarzios 🤷🏼‍♂️

I slightly prefer the Dimarzio recorded tones. However the Duncans feel so much better when playing in the room through an amp. With the Dimarzios, the very lower-than-vintage output requires you to pile on the gain or volume. The duncan's slightly higher output and more aggressive voicing is perfect for playing at bedroom volume levels. I would love to hear the split tones with a 5 way switch, with some clean reverb and compression and chorus for an 80s sound.

I was friends with Yngwie's personal Luther, and actually lived in an apartment on the 2nd floor of the shop. Yngwie used to come by and hang out all the time. It was great. I've seen The Duck and all the main guitars disassembled all the time. I know well into the early 2000s, he still had the DiMarzio for sure. The story he told me, was that DiMarzio would not bend on the pickup profile Yngwie wanted. They basically said "this is perfect, don't mess with it", but Duncan gave Yngwie tons of different winds, materials, prototypes etc I til he found the one he liked, and then he left DiMarzio. Bjorn Englen (Yngwie's former bassist) was also my bassist and we used to talk about this all the time on tour. I personally like the HS-3. I had them on the neck of my 1st Fender. The Fury in the bridge would probably be better. I myself though, really like the Fender Texas Specials in my strat. I have also Vintage Noiseless that I like very much.

There are many comparison clips between these two pickups on the net, but often it was almost impossible for me to hear tonal difference. What I hear in this clip is exactly tonal difference what I experienced with these two pickups. The Fury is not bad at all, but HS3 is truly YJM signature tone (especially early works), period.

One thing a lot of Strat players don't do right, you should first set your amp's settings to make the bridge pickup sound good, then go from there. Don't expect it to be as thick as a humbucker, just tight yet solid lows and mids, and not too bright. Then raise the height of the high E side very close to the string so you get a strong note that sustains, then bring the low E side down until you can hear all the notes in a full chord clearly and the low strings sound tight and crisp. Then switch over to the neck pickup and do the same thing but go back and forth with the bridge so that they're balanced. When adjusting the neck pup itself, the low E side will wind up being set very low to get the boomyness out of the low strings so be careful not to go too far and drop it in. Once they're set, you can balance the middle pup in between. This is why a lot of strat players can't get the bridge pickup to sound good and always just go to the neck. It begins with the bridge pickup. And try to do this through your main amp. If you still find the bridge pup too bright, try wiring the neck tone pot to it. If you want to fatten it, install a base plate. There are a few different types out there.

The Duncan's are higher output but the DiMarzio's sounded better. Just crank the amp a bit when you use the DiMarzio's and you'll be fine!

I went with HS3s, not such a big fan of Yngwies later work or sound. Great video 👍

Think on this: All the greatest Yngwie albums were composed with the Hs DiMarzios. The legendary tone and magic! When he started to use Duncans, he got muddy and crappy sounding...

4:10 4:56 Best way to compare

For a truly fair comparison the guitars need to be identical. Better yet, they should be done on the same guitar and just swap out the whole pickguard. There is a HUGE difference between even just the maple vs the rosewood, not to mention body/neck density/weight and hardware, age etc

Yngwie's rushin ascending runs have the "boom" sound discussed here, also his wild vibratos. Hell yeah

Came for the pickups, stayed for the playing! Nice job man! A bunch of youtubers demo are tough to listen to cuz the playing is ,,,rough. But you are a pleasure to listen to! Thanks! I have the Dimarzios, was just wondering how it compares, thanks!

Dimarzio has a patent for making pickups without strong magnets so they have less string pull which I think is important.

Listened to this again after a year and even more strongly agree with the Di Marzio being the more true to malmsteen tone. Bearing in mind i prefer his tone up until mid 90's then (still di marzio i know) when he just seemed to add extra OD and ridiculous amount of delay. I think,to me, it is like the difference between a PAF and a higher output humbucker, PAF needs the extra boost but the tone is inherently "sweeter" and that is the difference here? They have that "buttery" neck tone which the Fury's seem to have lost. The Duncans just sound like excellent rock pickups without the the warmth to my ears! I have tried both by the way. and the Di Marzio with the right boost and amp,is that stupendous tone we all loved (back in the day hehe!)

Usually I prefer Duncan over DiMarzio but this time I have to say DiMarzio HS3 are a lot better. At 7:00 on the rhythmic parts, the notes are too muddy while on the HS3 you can hear every single string. Being a huge fan of the early Malmsteen albums and "Trilogy" being my favourite, HS3s is what I would choose!

thnxs for this video, i do like both of them a lot, but just for personal preferences i would go for the HS3.

The HS-3's sound more like real single coils, very similar sounding to my 1988 MIJ Fender Contemporary Standard Strat with Kahler trem. Great demonstration, cheers!

This is a clean sound. With tons of reverb.. Because I like it.

My favorites are the DM HS3. I have them both the SD Fury in my YJM Strat and the DiMarzio in my Squier Strat. HS 4 neck, Wilkinson vintage middle and HS3 bridge. The HS3 produces in my personal taste my favorite perfect tune I want. I enjoy both brands!

I like the Duncan Bridge and Dimarzio neck.

I have both in two different Strats. I prefer DiMarzio, but my clean boost is always on, even when I need a pure clean sound. I prefer this way rather than using hotter pickups. Texas Specials are my favorite single coil pickups, but they can be noisy in some live situations. With the DiMarzio HS-3 and a clean boost I can get close to the Texas Special, and knowing it is what Malmsteen was using in his first albums just makes me feel better, haha...

I just bought a used American Professional with YJM pickups in it, so I guess I put my money where my mouth is. I've been looking for the right Strat for a long time and finally found it! Thanks for the comparison, I found it helpful.

The Duncan's to me sound less sweeter but clearer to my ears...they come across as slightly brighter...Either way this was an excellent demo and much appreciated ! Finally i've heard these pickups properly side by side.

Just recieve my yjm guitar yesterday... My dream guitar.... Cant wait to jam with my friend

I know this video is old as hell but I was able to get a original 1988 YJM signature strat and it came with the dimarzio, I did not really like the dimarzio pickups that much and then I saw this video and it really helped me, I bought the YJM seymour duncan and put those on the guitar and it freaking screams, I do prefer the YJM, it was a nice upgrade. Thanks

Here's an interesting tale of pickup serendipity: I'm just putting together a new Strat, ebony fretboard, 3.25 lbs alder body, super-thin nitro cellulose lacquer, but wasn't sure what PU's to put in it... Wanted something noiseless, and I tend to prefer a humbucker in the the bridge position, so I looked at some Rails for that, but they're really hot, so finally had a friend rewind a Hot Rails for me, and replace the magnet, giving it a much more vintage PAF vibe... But then I was picking through an old box of junk I brought with when I moved from Germany to the US, and to my amazement, I found the first two pickups I ever bought, somewhere around 1984 as a kid of 16, to put into the neck and bridge of a gutted old Ibanez Roadstar II that was my first 'real' guitar... And those two pickups: Dimarzio HS-3's..! I restored the old Roadstar to original in the early 90's, found a complete original Ibanez pick guard for it, and gave it to my nephew. I threw the old Dimarzios in a box, where along with THREE different original Sony Walkman cassette players, and a bunch of Van Halen, Scorpions, Ozzy, AC/DC, and Iron Maiden cassettes, they eventually found there way from lower Saxony to the American Southwest. And now the HS-3's live in the new Strat, where they sound FREAKIN' AMAZING, and are the perfect match for the under-wound Rails pickup in the bridge. I play with .10 - .52 D'addarios (Light Top/Heavy Bottom set), and those pickups just wail and growl like crazy. I'd totally forgotten about them for almost 30 years, and after that long sleep, and traveling halfway around the planet, they've found a home in a guitar I imagine I'll be playing for a long time to come. I know this story doesn't have anything to do with the pickup comparison of this video, and I apologize, but I thought y'all might appreciate the way it happened. And, it goes without saying, to my ears HS-3's all the way! Though I have owned many Seymour Duncans, which are overall as good as Dimarzios, as well as Lindy Fralins, T.V. Jones, Burns, Armstrongs, DeArmond, and all the factory PU's too... So many good pickups out there, they all have a voice and a place, I make it a mission to find the ones that fit the guitar perfectly, regardless of brand & model. It's like my own personal match-making service! Anyway, cheers, and thanks for the great comparison video!

Liked the video for expressing the best reason to use lots of reverb.

I'd say they're fairly close, and both sound excellent. Maybe the DiMarzio's might be a little more flexible, as the Duncan's have a bit more output. The DiMarzio's sound a bit more "pure" when you're playing them with a clean tone. However, I'm wondering if the rosewood fingerboard gives the Strat with DiMarzio's a slightly warmer and more focused tone. The Duncan's have a killer tone when you're pushing the amp into overdrive. It's hard to choose between the two for me, I'd probably leave the DiMarzio's in, just so you have a bit of variety. Thanks for posting this!

I'm a long time lover of Dimarzio HS. The Seymour Duncan have both better bass and are darker, especially the neck pup. That said, if you're looking for something more all around, go for the HS. The YJMs are more spooky sounding Phrygian and harmonic minor realms, where you can get the brighter and crisper early Yngwie sounds from the HS. They're both great, but have distinct differences.

Great playing, man - I definitely preferred the DiMarzios

Thank you for demoing clean aswell as dirty

Great video and timing as I'm still looking into what pickups to set into one of my strats. I'd say on clean I couldn't really tell them apart. But when overdrive came into play I fell into the DiMarzio's. Felt they kept a more tight ringing at the lowend 🤔. Probably will need more comparisons though as my strat has a plastic nut which does affect. Great job on this one🖒, quite helpful.

Compare both guitars with the Marshall, switch the DOD 250 off and on to hear the difference in just Marshall and adding 250, and nothing else.

great video. love hs3 as you say both sets are good. got 1996 YJM strat and replaced original pickguard with FURY pickguard from seymour duncan. never regreted it.

Hey! I am the ORIGINAL Ynvei J Malmsteen, of course I have the ORIGINAL 2007 Di Marzio¨s model, and I´m still astonished how beautiful sounds, and now I´ve gotten so used to the scalloped fretboard (I´ve had it for over 2 years) that now it is hard for me to play on a regular Guitar.

Came here just looking for a bit of perspective on what the HS-3 is all about, not from a Yngwie fan point of view. I have a Strat I bought 2nd hand about 15 years ago, and some... things have been done to it. I just took it apart to find out what's what. It started life as a 2000 Lone Star or 2000/2001 American Strat Texas Special. Originally the neck pickup was a Fender Texas Special, but now it's a DiMarzio HS-3, and I have to say, it's a pretty good sounding pickup in that place. Not quite as sold on the SD Alnico II Pro staggered in the mid spot. Now, as to why all of this was put on a vintage 11 hole pickguard that doesn't fit the modern 11 hole body, I have no idea. the whole upgrade looks to be a bit of a butcher job. But hey, it was $300 Canadian, so not at all a loss. in any case, thanks for the perspective, and your quite exquisite playing! Salut!

To my ears the Dimarzios have better dynamics , plenty of bites , pronounced high-end. That is the Yngwie sound that I like. The Duncans have WAY too much mids , and are too hot ; might be difficult to keed control with and overdrive in front of a cranked amp. My opinion :Dimarzio HS-3 all the way🤷‍♂️

I prefer the Dimarzio Hs-3s .for my like it's more well rounded and more melodic sounding to me. I want a old Malmsteen strat from early to mid 80's with Red paint & rosewood fretboard.

I put HS3`s in one of my strats to test them on how they sounded doing Hendrix type blues rock. I later put them in more of my strats because they are higher output which pushes the front of the amp harder, which is great for smaller venues, where you can`t blow the roof off the joint with volume, plus they clean up really good when you roll back the volume, AND they have more note definition when you play faster stuff with distortion. I think they`re fantastic.

First time I hear Blackmore in your demos! Please we need more Blackmore! :D

Thank You for this interesting Video, to be honest, to my ears the DiMarzios Sound "better", but I would be keen on a further comparison, when the seymour duncan set is mounted in the guitar with the rosewood fretboard, which You mentioned as the "better" guitar. It would be great, if you would do another Video with the same Setups in Your Axe FX and similar style in playin. kind regards Markus

It all depends on what amp you use. And style. I use the yjm furys (malmsteen strat) for country as well, and they work perfectly for every situation :-)

Those fury's are killer pickups, love em.

Which came out in the 90's? I think it was the Dimarzios. I had a custom Strat built some years ago and the Luthier suggested I put a Malmsteen stacked humbucker in the neck position. I believe it was before the SD came out. Late 90's I think. I had a Fred in the bridge and no middle pickup. Should have kept it.

Hs-3 All the way

Thanks for the comparison. I think both sets have their pros and cons. I don’t think anyone would be disappointed with either

11:03 that face is priceless

They both sound good to me! I actually preferred the sound of the DiMarzio HS-3 when you were playing more than one string at once but when you were shredding I liked the sound of the Seymour Duncan YJM Furys a lot better. So, I would put the DiMarzio pickups in a rhythm guitar and the Duncan pickups in a lead guitar. By the way, did you notice any difference in static noise between the two pickups?

Best malmsteen tone comparison in youtube👍👌 Dimarzio is really cool and warmer tone. S duncan has hotter but harsher and less clarity tone.

Thanks for not just playing malmsteen licks some ppl wanna know how they sound in other types of music

I had hs3 in my strat. Sounds great for blues as well. Those pickups sing.

Oh nice👍 I ❤️ Seymour Duncan - STK-S10PGD YJM FURY!

Should’ve used the Marshall for the dirty tones at least once :) think I prefer the maple necked geetar. Dang dude, I didn’t know you were this good 3 years ago, lol. Far out man!

Thanks a lot for this video! I was looking for this exact content (i'm about to change pickups on my strat) i really like the Malmsteen's sound... I was in a very hard decision between the YJM or the Dimarzio Hs3. So last Week i ordered the Dimarzio Hs3 they sound really amazing in this review...

Great comparison, and you play in a great way too, in my case I prefer pickups with less gain since that helps in the clarity of the clean sounds (correct me if I'm wrong) which is what I occupy the most, I like the Fender sound in general, but what Ry Cooder and Manuel Galban did in Buena Vista Social Club or Erick Johnson is like what I try to emulate, so I prefer guitar number 1. Greetings from Chile!

I, just bought the Duncan's. Thanks for the input. Although I didn't realize that they are hotter than the Dimarzio's. Either way, they both sound great :)

I like the Dimarzio better. That's a little scary since the other is called the YJM. But now at least I know which one I like better thanks to your good video work! :D

That was a perfect comparison And thank you! More would be appreciated! Again thank you !🔥

As much as I love Seymour Duncan pickups, I give this to DiMarzio because like Steve vai and Ace Frehley alike, the basis of their tones are because they all use DiMarzio pickups.

Awesome playing and tones man!

Dimarzio wins but I can hear newer Yngwie in those Duncans. Great playing too! But some backstory from my memory....the HS-3 was used by Eric Johnson too. They are wired to be intentionally less output. The theory as I recall is that an amp with higher gain with a pickup with less output helps create more sustain with a cleaner tone, hence EJ’s “violin tone”. EVH also had underwound his PAF’s resulting in a tone that screams and sustains yet is oddly not that saturated in distortion (circa 1984). Personally, I’d suspect that Dimarzio was was either unwilling to or didn’t like Yngwie’s whatever, and so Yngwie jumped to SD and bad mouths the HS-3 but it’s probably not a fair assessment of great tone

Had to go back and watch this video again. I have a modded satin Strat with YJM-Fury's in them and they are great. I have a custom made maple/maple SuperStrat with a pair of guitarheads Mini Rails (which I guess are comparable to SD Hot Rails) and they are high output and don't really sound Straty. So I'm thinking about replacing them with either the HS-3 pickups or YJM-Fury pickups. I overdrive cleanish low watt tube amps anyway with pedals and love a more versatile "noiseless" pickup tone for all styles.

I thought - don't know why - the Seymour Duncan had more output, but from this point of view the two sets are the same. I have a Dave Murray USA Strat, the one with two Di Marzio Humbucker and the signal is very low. Now I'd like to compare the Di Marzio Malmsteen Strat with the Di Marzio Kotzen Strat!

For my ears Duncans sound like humbucker with some sort of single coil emulation like in some digital multieffect processor. I prefer DiMarzio. Very good video!

His best tone, IMHO, was with Alcatrazz- DiMarzio FS-2. I believe John Norum's Paoletti guitars have them.

I really like the darker tones of the HS-3 with the YJM Fury’s are just too bright in my opinion; but with the shredding the attack on the Fury was nice and single string shreds were really clear while it sounded kinda muddy with the HS-3s

DiMarzio is THE Yngwie sound!

Hola Elmo. Muy buena la comparación. Personalmente prefiero los DiMarzio, son menos filosos. Y te agradeszco todos tu videos , son muy sinceros ; entretenidos y útiles. Un abrazo desde Argentina ¡

You had my like at the Spinal Tap quote

I think the fury pickup is a lot thinner sounding than the DiMarzio pickup but I do like that chunkiness in the fury but Yngwie Malmsteen likes that high treble he got that from Ritchie Blackmore

The SD's would suit my needs in a live setting, & i've had a little addiction for the HS3 neck pickup for while, i'd still use that when recording.

I bought the vintage HS3’s with no screw for my 2 70’s Strats for the bridge position, And I installed the same era HS2’s in the neck, and it sings beautifully through my ‘71 Marshall’s.. You do have to crank the overdrive, but the tone is legendary.. at least in the room. And I end up keeping the tone on the clean side

I played the Seymour Duncans and it was cool to hear how they were different. I still love the Hs-3. I just wish they louder! How much louder are the yjm’s? The Seymour Duncan’s have a really cool eq on the recent yjm strats I’ve played.

Fun videos and GREAT playing 👏👏👏

Di Marzio wins no contest. That´s the Yngwie tone.

The YJM furys are great if you hook them up like Eric Johnson does with the tone control connected to the bridge pickup otherwise they are just way to bright.

If I were you I'd switch the pickguards!!!! I too Prefer the Furys, but I also prefer rosewood necks! You can always undo this if you need to sell one later.. (Yngwie said in his book the HS3s were a compromise, but that's the only option he had at the time)

I like the clean and more articulate sound of Dimarzios but then again with that Yngwie sound Duncans had more to give in terms of output and ''meat''. Hard choice but I've pretty much always used Dimarzios and especially Virtual Vintages, used to use HS-3 and now it's just lying around, so yes I go with Dimarzio but finally Duncan pickups that sound very very appealing! And very tasty and nice playing!

I like the Dimarzios more. I hope soon I can buy a set and put them in my Fender Japan. Actually I will let a luthier do it and make the Brian May switching so that I have 13 sounds instead of 5.

I really like the Dimarzio’s, the furypickups sound close to the BL L-250 which I been using for some time, it’s whatMalmsteen was using before the Dimarzio

I find the Hs3 thinner and the Fury more balanced tonally with no as bright of the top end. The Fury definitely has that bluesier tone to it.

Would like to see the sets swapped on the guitars. I find rosewood has a a more defined vibration than maple. Those dimarzios blew me away but your playing is freaking good. Thanks for your video

You should use the same one guitar loaded with these two different pickup-sets each time, to be accurate.

Amazing comparison! Furys are definately beefier..Just wanted to ask something...I have a 2017 yjm strat just like yours with the maple.It has a weird and very slight fret buzz on the low strings especially the low e.Again its very slightly noticable but its still there.Does your guitar have the same issue? Or i am just hitting the strings really hard?

To my ears (And I see a lot of conflicting opinions) the SDs sound like Yngwie sounds today. So if you want his sound, that's it. But the Dimarzio's sound amazing, more organic, more balanced and therefore a bit more versatile. If I had to buy, I would go after the dimarzio. Great vid and playing!

Great video!!! I prefer the YJM Fury, because they have more gain and bass, but still keep the Yngwie's tone soul. Cheers from Brazil.

Im a Dimarzio guy for last 20 years. Love the SH 1 but for NOT jus sounding like YJM, the Duncan Furys really do kick ass. VERY dynamic and response is amazin in my opinion. All subjective as he stated. Peace!!

I loooove the HS3s, but also being a Paul Gilbert (and other guitarists like him who used to use really high output pickups) fan, i think the Furys would give the best of both worlds

I think the Dimarzio hs3 sound more single coil, It's closer to the real Strat tone; the Duncan seems to be a very powerful pick up, but i Prefer the di marzio for the balance

The rosewood fretboard and maple sound different I use rosewood for rhythm work and maple for leads. I think pickups sound same the fretboard make bigger difference than pickups

I LOVE YNGWIE FOREVER!

Besides Duncan and DiMarzio, what other brands of stacked hum-cancelling single coils do you recommend, and what do you think of actives like EMG and Fishman?

Hi excellent comparison and playing, thanks Elmo. I Had a lot of Fender YJM with Dimarzio do you try to snip the TONE Cap? Sound's more Yngwie for me, HS3 are less compressed and open and brightness that YJM had Appears. Like Many others and you the yngwie sounds is with Dimarzio at his best period. (Really don't like his songs and sound after Facing the Animal)

love wat yr doing here-very very sweet depth sound and clean-and highly pure-i have oceans 11 pedal and big muff got them as gift-I love them

very good video man. both are great, killer pick ups. looking for differences between these two is like pixel peeping and 10000% magnification in photography.

Nice playing man, great tone, but the S Duncan furry have a little muddy sound...the D HS3 are the best ...🤟

Right on! My main man across the ocean that understands why pedals,amps and everything else were made! So thankful not another dry tele player playing boring crap! Wake up to all demo folks, turn on some drive, or at least warn us that its gonna be country!!!!!!!!!