Make no mistake, this pickup is a flamethrower. I've played with the height, tone, and volume controls, and this humbucker wants nothing more than to snarl and roar. Like all Dylan's pickups, this is articulate at every level. I've gone to a bit of an extreme by steadily increasing the string gage from .009s to .011s swapping them from nickel to silver here and there, and I can tell you the low end refuses to get muddy with the 8 Ball. I've tuned a 24.75" scale length guitar down to drop B, and this humbucker still bears its teeth, and those teeth are pearly white.
Metaphors aside, this flamethrower can be tamed. For the player that rides the volume knob, this will require considerable finesse or a linear 500k pot and some finesse. Dialing this back will not result in twang like a PAF, but more of a Kim Thayl bite. If Dylan had been making these back in the Grunge days, these would have sold out to every band in Seattle. They can make the roughest of overdriven amps sound each note clearly. Fuzz through the 8 Ball is an exercise in poise. Every other pickup will behave much as the pedal advertises, but the 8 Ball will push the articulation into ice-pick territory until the volume is dialed back. Like I said before, this thing wants to roar. It cuts through a mix with shocking ease compared to other Alnico VIII pickups.
I'd recommend this for a player who wants to find the outer limits of driven sound. There's simply so much the 8 Ball has on tap. It will clean up, but at a much lower setting than the average player is accustomed to. And where it does decide to snarl rather than roar, it's entirely composed, clear, and responsive. I have no complaints. Pair this with a Centerpunch humbucker in the neck of the guitar, and the roar becomes a surf-like jangle.
