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Average Price: $113
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$99
$200+
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Based on price data from 3 merchants for "DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion". Prices shown reflect NEW condition. Tracking began Apr 2, 2026.
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Description
Introducing the DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion, a guitar pickup that was born to rock. This high-output humbucker is an ode to the 70's and 80's hard rock era, designed to push your tube amplifier into overdrive. With its rich, fat tone, and thick, boosted mids, this pickup is perfect for any musician looking to add a touch of vintage rock to their sound.
The DP100 Super Distortion has a heritage that can't be ignored. It's the pickup that started it all, with many of the iconic rock guitar sounds of the past being produced by this very model. But don't let its legacy fool you; this pickup is far from outdated. Artists from various genres, from Al DiMeola and Frank Gambale to Iron Maiden and Ace Frehley, have chosen the Super Distortion as a crucial part of their signature sound.
Ideal for solidbody guitars, the DP100 Super Distortion is primarily a bridge position pickup, but it also shines in the neck position with lower-gain amplifiers. The pickup features a versatile 4-conductor wiring, allowing for various tonal options including coil splitting for a Strat-like tone and parallel wiring for a humbucking, yet slightly more hollow sound.
Key Features:
- High-output humbucker pickup
- Designed for solidbody guitars
- Primarily used in the bridge position
- Versatile 4-conductor wiring
- Ceramic magnets
- Output: 425
- DC resistance: 13.68
- Tone guide: Treble: 5.5, Mid: 7.5, Bass: 8
- Emphasized mids for a vintage hard rock sound
- Coil splitting and parallel wiring options
- Colour: Black
Product specs
| Type | Humbucker |
| Position | Bridge, Neck |
| Active/Passive | Passive |
| Magnet Material | Ceramic |
| Number of Conductors | 4 wire plus ground |
| DC Resistance | 13.68K |
| Connectivity | Soldered |
| Number of Strings | 6 |
| Covering | Uncovered |
FAQs
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What type of music is the DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion best suited for?
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The DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion is ideal for rock and metal genres, offering high output and powerful midrange tones that cut through the mix, making it a favorite for heavy riffing and lead solos.
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Can the DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion be used in both bridge and neck positions?
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Yes, the DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion is versatile enough to be used in both bridge and neck positions, providing consistent high output and tonal characteristics across different guitar setups.
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What kind of magnet does the DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion use?
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The DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion utilizes a ceramic magnet, which contributes to its high output and aggressive tonal profile, making it suitable for heavy and distorted guitar sounds.
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Is the DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion suitable for a 6-string guitar?
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Yes, the DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion is designed for 6-string guitars, ensuring optimal performance and tonal response for standard guitar setups.
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How is the DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion wired for installation?
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The DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion features a 4-wire plus ground configuration, allowing for versatile wiring options, including coil-splitting and series/parallel setups for expanded tonal possibilities.
Videos
LarryDiMarzio
Phil Collen for DiMarzio Super Distortion Pickup
Reviews
PROS
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Classic rock and metal tone, used by iconic bands and artists
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Versatile with great clean, crunch, and distortion tones
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Fat, dynamic sound with excellent sustain
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High note articulation and string separation
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Sensitive to EQ adjustments, adaptable across various genres
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Excellent for thick, chunky rhythm and screamy lead tones
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Rich in harmonics, enhances both chords and single notes
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Compatible with various guitar models and setups
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Improves the overall sound and playability of lower-end guitars
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Easy installation with multiple wiring options
CONS
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Can be too thin and brittle with inadequate bass response for some
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Requires careful height adjustment for optimal sound
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Mismatched string alignment can affect sound quality if not F-spaced
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Wiring color conventions differ from some other brands, leading to installation errors
Owner Insights
We analyzed real musician discussions from forums and Reddit to find what players love, question, and tweak about DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion.
Use cases and applications
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A user successfully installed the DiMarzio Super Distortion in both the bridge and neck positions without experiencing muddiness, indicating its versatility across positions.
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Using the neck position with the Super Distortion can effectively capture the tone of solos in Dismember covers, indicating its utility for specific musical styles.
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The Super Distortion is praised for its performance in H-P90 setups, combining humbucker and P90 characteristics for a versatile sound.
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The Super Distortion is linked to heavy 70s and 80s sounds, prominently used by Ace Frehley, offering a distinct "Ace vibe."
Source
Comparisons
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The DiMarzio Super 2 is mentioned as the neck version of the Super Distortion, offering high output power comparable to the X2N in the bridge position.
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Compared to a stock Bridge P90, the Super Distortion offers a slightly brighter clean tone and increased output, especially noticeable with overdrive.
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The DiMarzio Super Distortion uses a powerful ceramic magnet and hot winding, contrasting with the smoother, clearer tones of a PAF 36th Anniversary which uses A5 magnets.
Source
Features and functionality
Mods and upgrades
Critic Reviews
4.5 out of 5
Based on 12 Reviews and 50 Ratings
41029
growing on me
A crusty old pair of double-cream 80s super distortions came in my vintage washburn. At first I had weird feelings about them, but they are growing on me quite a bit. This is one seriously mean humbucker. The bridge cops a lot of 80s hard rock sounds that are difficult to get with PAF style pickups. I find myself breaking into early priest licks all the time with this guy. I wouldn't say the sound is 'me', but its not bad and I get why these pickups have been so popular for so long with hard rockers and post-EVH soloist types.
The neck pickup is awful though. Mud city!
UPDATE: I just spent an hour and a half riffing through a blazing loud AC4 and 2x12 cab. I was rocking all sort of heavy Queen riffs on the bridge position... "Stone Cold Crazy", "we will rock you", "brighton rock", "gimmee the prize (from highlander, dude)", "I'm in love with my car", "Death on Two Legs" and on and on... the enormous output was really fun and gave me that extra push over the cliff to rip it up on the riffiest section with my guitar volume gunned. I need to touch up the wiring for coil taps, a phase switch on 1 pickup and a master series/parallel to get the most common brian may tones, but these super distortion really hit a vox in just the right way to do late 70s and early 80s Queen stuff, and that's a big deal to me. Also, the guitar they're in is very red-specialish in its own unique way. I think some humbcker covers with Adeson Trisonic coils hiding inside, epoxied in place might take this guitar over the top for BM tone, but the super distortions are right there copping s a lot of my favorite bridge/middle sounds from Queens arena days just riding the volume on the bridge pickup.
167
It fucks
This thing absolutely fucks hard.
Buy one, two or twelve. You won't regret it.
397
435
My favorite humbucker
I have this in my Jag-Stang and it's my absolute favorite humbucker. It has amazing tonal characteristics and such a nice warm low end sound. It's so smooth, I am always amazed that it's a 70s humbucker andI I've never heard anything better than it.
143
I have it on 2 of my main guitars!!
I have two custom guitars, an Ibanez RG370 DXZL and a custom Partcaster, both of them have Super Distortion in the bridge, sounds killer, you can play everything on them!!
268
101
Classic hard rock tone
I bought this to replace the stock pickups of a Jackson King V. It sounds killer as a bridge pickup. Can be matched to Super 2 and PAF in neck position.
Artist usage
Add artist
"Apparently Cobain developed a taste for Fender guitars just prior to recording Nevermind. "I like guitars in the Fender style because they have skinny necks," said Cobain in a late 1991 interview. "I've resorted to Japanese-made Fender Stratocasters because they're the most available left-handed guitars." During this period, he also acquired a left-handed '65 Jaguar that had a DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucker in the bridge position and a DiMarzio PAF in the neck position in place of the guitar's stock single-coil pickups. These modifications were made before Cobain purchased the guitar."
Kirk Hammett used a DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion as the bridge pickup in his 1978 Fender Stratocaster, as confirmed in the Gibson TV episode "The Collection: Kirk Hammett of Metallica."
In the video, we see the real guitar Dimebag where the presenter explains the guitar characteristics, and that part of it shows that it uses Super Distortion of Dimarzio in the neck position.
From a DiMarzio Facebook post:
“I bought my first Super Distortion® pickup when I was 13 years old. I loved the power and the sound, so I've been using DiMarzio pickups ever since. I love DiMarzio pickups!” -PAUL GILBERT
in this article, karl sandoval himself says that the bridge pickup of randy's polka dot v was a dimarzio super distortion.
this article from Vintage Guitar also says he used the super distortion https://www.vintageguitar.com/9495/randy-rhoads/
The super distortion pickup was used on pat's white hagstrom III, it is also one of his favorite pickups.
Rivers Cuomo used a cream DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion pickup in the neck position of his Custom Warmoth Stratocasters, as documented on Weezerpedia.
This website covers Sonic Youth's November, 1992 interview appearence in Guitar World magazine, in the interview Ranaldo mentions that most of his Jaguar/Jazzmaster guitars are modified with DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers in the neck position.
NOTES
I think this is the second SY article in Guitar World, and it's an excellent read! All 3 guitarists are interviewed and discuss the recording of Dirty and associated gear/tunings/etc, along with the band's influence on other bands and the cost of vintage Jazzmasters, Kim's perceived frontwoman status, and which record was noisier: Goo or Dirty?. There is also a sub-article digging deeper into the band's Dirty era gear.
GEAR MENTIONED The article mentions multiple guitars:
THURSTON
several Fender Jazzmasters (1) (2) (3) (4)
one Fender Jaguar
two Tele copies (1) (2)
Turbo Rat
"I don't know anything about guitars or amps, I just know I need a 100-watt tube head."
Marshall head
Peavey Roadmaster head
a few new Marshall cabs
LEE
3 early-70s Fender Telecaster Deluxes (1) (2) (3)
Fender Jaguars (1) (2)
Fender Jazzmasters (1)
Travis Bean
Gibson SG
Lee specifies that most of his Jaguars/Jazzmasters have DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups in the neck position.
Cry Baby wah
MXR Phase Shifter
DOD Analog Delay
DOD Digital Delay
MESA/Boogie Mark III
Marshall 4x12 cab
vintage Orange head
KIM
Gibson Thunderbird
B.C. Rich [Mockingbird] bass
'64 Fender P-bass
Eterna
KIM (re: BC Rich bass): "That bass always stays in tune. You can throw it on the ground, walk on it - anything. It sounds horrible; it has no tone whatsoever. But it's really loud. Then I have an old '64 P-bass, which I bought because I thought I'd record with it. And I did use it on one song. It's really easy to play, but I missed the Thunderbird's low end."
KIM (re: "Creme Brulee"): "Yeah, it was just me. I just started playing something and Steve was playing along. Thurston was just doing some feedback on the guitar, making some weird sounds. And Lee turned on the tape machine. So we recorded it in our eight-track studio at our rehearsal space."
Turbo Rat
Dunlop Jimi Hendrix octave fuzz
MESA/Boogie amp w/ 18-inch bass cab and 4x12 guitar cab.
For the Dirty recording sessions, both of Kim's cabs were miked, and she also sent a clean DI straight from her bass to the board.
KIM: "That's the basic setup. Then I have this other box, a Hendrix octave divider that I use to get ultra-distortion, like on "100%" "Stalker" and "Theresa's Sound World". Actually, it just works like an extra distortion pedal."
On the official website for DiMarzio, amongst a list of Murray's pickups, we can see the DiMarzio Super Distortion.
On this page, on Dimarzio's official website, it says that Adrian uses Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups.
Album Usage
The DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion has been featured on the following albums:
Genre Usage
Based on how artists on Equipboard use this gear, it is most commonly found in the following genres.
Used With
Based on how musicians on Equipboard use DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion, it is most commonly used with the following gear.
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