Dimarzio Tone Zone: Sad and Confused

[CosmicDebris]

I agree MR, whenever I buy replacement pups I get Paf Pros. Not I sound out there I can't get with them.

[nightofthelivingshred]

Look we all know the PAF Pro is a great pickup, can we stay on topic?

I wonder if the pickup isn't wired right? I tried EQ'ing my amp differently for the pickup and bite just isn't there. I used to have the EMG 18 volt mod in my other guitar and that blew away the sound of this TZ crap...

[rastachild]

i totally agree with madryan and have pretty much the same philosophy when it comes to pickups. however, to play devil's advocate, the other side of the equation is that we all have wildly varying ideas of what good tone is. and no one is 'right' per se, because tone is subjective. sometimes someone will rave over a certain pickup and then post a clip of them playing with the pickup in action and i often find myself thinking i would never play with that tone. so you have to keep that in mind whenever people recommend pickups.

for instance, i found the tone zone to be muddy, overly bassy/middy and lacking definition when playing chords. it seemed to be better for soloing mainly because it gives a certain 'aww' or 'oval' sound. kind of like it's on a certain wah pedal setting. but it is a high output pickup and i found it didn't give a lot of room for the type of nuances i prefer in my playing.

others who like the tone zone say it is 'fat' with 'tight bass' and great for palm muting rhythms. they also call it 'warm'. so you can see that one man's 'muddy' is another man's 'warm'. my 'lack of clarity' is another man's 'fat'. so it's very subjective.

[jb4674]

Dude, why did you adjust the pole pieces on it to begin with? Generally when you want output you should just raise of lower the distance of the pickup to the strings. Although that's not the norm, most people tend to do that and are pretty happy.

Jimmy

[tt0511]

I agree with Rasta. I just put a Tone Zone in my RGT320 because, although I didn't have a big problem with the stock Dimarzio/IBZ pups, I wanted more bottom end than they offered, ...and after some time of playing my custom swirl JEM with the Norton in the bridge, their was a difference between the overall quality of sound between the Norton and the IBZ bridge pup.

I put the TZ in last night and love it. It is not muddy to me at all. The low notes have great definition and chords sound great with all individual notes ringing out. There HAS to be truth in how you EQ your amp with a given guitar setup. Since different pickups are setup with an EQ curve of their own, to plug that into an amp that's been adjusted for a completely different set of pickups with their own EQ curve and expect it to sound exactly right to your ear is a little simplistic, ...though I admit it "can" happen.

Personally, I pulled the mids back a little on my amp with the Tone Zone. Adjusting the EQ on the amp a few different ways yielded VERY different tones, ...some too bright for me (so much for the muddy pup theory).

I'd say it's possible your Tone Zone may be wired incorrectly, could be defective, could be adjusted incorrectly for your preferences, could be corrected by amp eq'ing, or may simply not be the sound you are looking for or maybe it doesn't do well in your particular guitar. There is a story I've heard, ...don't know if it's true, ...supposedly Mr. Nordig threw out an Evo pup that was troublesome and replaced it with a new Evo in Vai's jem. Vai instantly hated the new pickup and made the bus turn around to go get the old pup out of the trash. If there's any truth to that at all, ...then you have to allow for individual pups of the same run to sound different, which adds another dimension here.

Of course, ...I am using a peavey classic 30 which is not anything like a Mesa Mark IV, so perhaps that's part of the equation of why I think mine sounds so good.

[Rodney James]

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[nightofthelivingshred]

God, I don't know, I have a tech guy that I go to do get all the stuff installed. He definitely knows what he's doing so all the pots should be the right ones for the job, he's done plenty of work on my EMG-equipped guitars and they all came back sounding fantastic.

[Rodney James]

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[nightofthelivingshred]

Thanks for the info. I know what pots are but what are caps? Capacitors?

[brothersnowgone]

Originally Posted by nightofthelivingshred

Thanks for the info. I know what pots are but what are caps? Capacitors?

yeap!

[Brando Clean]

"Ok, so let me state I'm coming from usually playing EMG 81's, so what would you all suggest? Still a norton pickup? Or maybe a super iii?"

Then let me tell you to stick with the EMG or try HZs in ceramic if you like MEG tone. Perhaps try a Bill Lawrence 500 XL. All of these sound awesome dirty, but no so good clean. =1 for Paf Pro recommend. I love the EMG 81 in bridge. Too bad it is such a biznatch to have both in a guitar.

[Glados]

I think Dimarzio Evolutions is the best pickup. Because it has a bite edge sound and fat sound great sound great sustain. I know there is better pickups out there, but overall is Evolutions perfekt for all kind of style and playing and will sound great, nice for shredding too.

IMO

Dimarzio fan

[albee1952]

Great thread. Wiring could be the problem but I also agree that different stuff works for different players. I have ToneZones in an RG3120 and a J-Custom(both mahogany with maple tops) and they sound excellent. I have a Breed in a basswood RG2550 that roars. I have an Air Norton in the neck of another 2550 and it is the sweetest neck tone ever(still have the PAF Pro on the 3120 and J). Everything can affect the final tone. Body wood, pickup height, playing technique, amp, etc. Sometimes you just gotta figure it out the hard way.

[MadRyan]

I just picked up a regular Norton to run in my Les Paul because I've changed amps to much lower gain stuff, so a bit more output would be nice, but then the Norton isn't really high output. I'll throw it in tomorrow and see. IMO, the TZ sounds great in some guitars, but I've never owned one of them. A big part of that is most likely the voicing of the amp. If you've got a Boogie Lonestar or Mark IV which can be really thick and smooth it's going to sound muddy. If you play something like a VHT or a really bright Marshall clone it might be just the ticket.

[Lewis]

I have just put a Tone zone in my Epiphone les paul and It sounds great, it has great cut and really brings out harmonics.