Ibanez Dimarzio Fushion Edge pickups - GARBAGE!

napalmdeath

napalmdeath

Well-known member
Got another Prestige, and wanted the ebony board. But these Fushion Edge pickups are absolute garbage. No articulation, stuffy, mushy low end, and no clarity whatsoever. Ibanez should be ashamed, they're that bad. This guitar goes for 2k, (I paid much less), but a pickup upgrade is absolutely a MUST..

I know little about Dimarzios, being a Duncan guy for years, and I know the mounting tabs are rounded vs. square, but I need a solution.. So, suggestions would be great. I need more high mids/treble, less bass, (yet tighter), and somewhat subdued low mids. So far, me research and much reading leads me to the Evolutions. But, I'm open to suggestions. I love the guitar, but it's a total turd with these Fushion Edge pieces of crap.

Guitar's awesome, aside from that.
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That guitar has been on my list. The looks are killer! You added to the list of not being a fan of those pickups in that guitar. I haven't played one yet. How is the neck? Super thin and flat?
 
Frehley12 said:
That guitar has been on my list. The looks are killer! You added to the list of not being a fan of those pickups in that guitar. I haven't played one yet. How is the neck? Super thin and flat?
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Thin and flat, yes, but they are WIDE, which I love about these necks. They're 43MM at the nut, same as a Gibson, (1.695").
 
napalmdeath said:
Got another Prestige, and wanted the ebony board. But these Fushion Edge pickups are absolute garbage. No articulation, stuffy, mushy low end, and no clarity whatsoever. Ibanez should be ashamed, they're that bad. This guitar goes for 2k, (I paid much less), but a pickup upgrade is absolutely a MUST..

I know little about Dimarzios, being a Duncan guy for years, and I know the mounting tabs are rounded vs. square, but I need a solution.. So, suggestions would be great. I need more high mids/treble, less bass, (yet tighter), and somewhat subdued low mids. So far, me research and much reading leads me to the Evolutions. But, I'm open to suggestions. I love the guitar, but it's a total turd with these Fushion Edge pieces of crap.

Guitar's awesome, aside from that.
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Maybe you just need some of the new tuners from PRS to open up the vowel sounds.

Nice looking axe though!
 
That is a beautiful looking Ibby!

Evolutions can be zingy in the bridge. I mean, they work but I didn't like them as much. The neck pickup is good though.
I can suggest a few to check into that I have used before with success:
-Evo 2 bridge
-Gravity storm bridge and neck
-Utopia bridge and neck

For Duncans....you can put them in there! You just slightly grind the tabs to fit.

Pickups are a very personal thing because we all hear things differently.
 
rewire it wide open first. that should do it quick. Bypass the tone pots. Have you played with height adjustments? Look at the value on the pot...probably a 500. Could change it to a 1 meg. I think ed did the 1 meg some times and bypassed the tone pot other times. I have heard but never seen this done-removing the pole pieces from the pups. Like I said-I have only heard of that......
 
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That guitar is siiiiiiiick!!!!

While we are on the subject of Dimarzio's, is there any one of their pickups other than the super distortion (which I like) that is not shit? I have no bias against them whatsoever. I've tried to get into them numerous times just to change things up and they all sound cheap and undefined to me.

I'm more than willing to hear suggestions from y'all. So far I've tried the Gravity Storm, the X2N, the Fred, Super 3, Tone Zone, Dactivator, Dominion, EVO 2, and PAF Pro. Shit. All of them. IMO of course.
 
PurityS.L.G said:
That guitar is siiiiiiiick!!!!

While we are on the subject of Dimarzio's, is there any one of their pickups other than the super distortion (which I like) that is not shit? I have no bias against them whatsoever. I've tried to get into them numerous times just to change things up and they all sound cheap and undefined to me.

I'm more than willing to hear suggestions from y'all. So far I've tried the Gravity Storm, the X2N, the Fred, Super 3, Tone Zone, Dactivator, Dominion, EVO 2, and PAF Pro. Shit. All of them. IMO of course.
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I'm beginning to think I'm in the same camp. I've not heard a Dimarzio that did much for me. The Tone Zone in the last Prestige I had was a brute with a lot of bass, but could be tamed with pedals/EQ's, etc..

That said, I did some tinkering and was able to get much better results with 2 EQ's. One in front, one in the loop. I boosted up some high mids in front, and dipped the lows in the loop. Works pretty well. It's a lot of nonsense to fight the thing, but it sounds much better. BUT, new pickups are imminent. I already have a TB-5, thinking about a '59 in the neck.
 
I have a heavy heavy superstrat with an Evolution in the bridge I really dig. Buy like their page says, you gotta have chops cuz it'll highlight your mistakes more than any other pickup I have in my other guitars.
 
PurityS.L.G said:
That guitar is siiiiiiiick!!!!

While we are on the subject of Dimarzio's, is there any one of their pickups other than the super distortion (which I like) that is not shit? I have no bias against them whatsoever. I've tried to get into them numerous times just to change things up and they all sound cheap and undefined to me.

I'm more than willing to hear suggestions from y'all. So far I've tried the Gravity Storm, the X2N, the Fred, Super 3, Tone Zone, Dactivator, Dominion, EVO 2, and PAF Pro. Shit. All of them. IMO of course.
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I agree, all the Dimarzio’s I’ve tried have that problem, even the vintage ones I’ve had and I mostly just use vintage pickups fwiw
 
I find Dimarzio’s in general have the problems you’re describing, but often times IME so did Ibanez Prestige’s I’ve had tonally even with various pickup swaps (including Lundgren M6’s, which are tight)

The best higher output pickups I’ve had for the criteria you’re asking for are my ‘80’s Bill Lawrence 500L’s and ‘70’s L90’s. For recent made stuff Scott’s Roxy and Sunset Strip are solid choices
 
napalmdeath said:
I know little about Dimarzios, being a Duncan guy for years, and I know the mounting tabs are rounded vs. square, but I need a solution.. So, suggestions would be great. I need more high mids/treble, less bass, (yet tighter), and somewhat subdued low mids. So far, me research and much reading leads me to the Evolutions. But, I'm open to suggestions. I love the guitar, but it's a total turd with these Fushion Edge pieces of crap.


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DiMarzio FRED DP153 will do what you want.
 
I’d stick with your favorite Duncan’s and carefully grind the mounting legs to fit as mentioned in post #6 . Jalen pickups advertises that they can use the Dimarzio style baseplate if requested
 
Stuffy and mushy is exactly how I would describe most DiMarzios I have tried, aside from the Super Distortion, Steve's Special, Evolution and Norton. I will say the look of those pickups is badass with that guitar, and I doubt DiMarzio offers that with a lot of their line, but if they did I'd suggest the Steve's Special. It is possibly the most atypical higher output DiMarzio humbucker - clearer, articulate, tight, but not thin. It has a different sound. Petrucci used it back in the early days but otherwise the only example I can think of is Jani Liimatainen. I know he used guitars equipped with it on all the earlier Sonata Arctica albums. I used it in an alder super strat for quite a while and only changed it to repurpose that guitar for less metal sounds.
 
After Larry catches wind of this thread none of you guys will be able to purchase a genuine article double cream pickup again, lol.
 
napalmdeath said:
I'm beginning to think I'm in the same camp. I've not heard a Dimarzio that did much for me. The Tone Zone in the last Prestige I had was a brute with a lot of bass, but could be tamed with pedals/EQ's, etc..

That said, I did some tinkering and was able to get much better results with 2 EQ's. One in front, one in the loop. I boosted up some high mids in front, and dipped the lows in the loop. Works pretty well. It's a lot of nonsense to fight the thing, but it sounds much better. BUT, new pickups are imminent. I already have a TB-5, thinking about a '59 in the neck.
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I think the 59 neck version comes with long mounting legs . Might be an issue fitting it in the neck cavity of that Ibanez
 
PurityS.L.G said:
That guitar is siiiiiiiick!!!!

While we are on the subject of Dimarzio's, is there any one of their pickups other than the super distortion (which I like) that is not shit? I have no bias against them whatsoever. I've tried to get into them numerous times just to change things up and they all sound cheap and undefined to me.

I'm more than willing to hear suggestions from y'all. So far I've tried the Gravity Storm, the X2N, the Fred, Super 3, Tone Zone, Dactivator, Dominion, EVO 2, and PAF Pro. Shit. All of them. IMO of course.
Click to expand...

I have always liked the Tone Zone, but it needs to be in a bolt on superstat. I have a Crunch Lab 7 / Liquifire 7 in an Ibanez 7 string, and I have always liked those. I recently got a D Sonic, and I like it, but I find it really depends on what am I am using it with. Sometimes it is nice, and other times it is super harsh.

I find it strange how everyone loves the Super Distortion. I have one and took it out after like a day. I find a lot of Dimarzios to have this bright high end that sounds like a harsh single coil attack. I hate that sound. I also find many of them dont really have a nice bassy chug, they have more of a lower mid thud.

I do like many of their neck pickups though. I have the Evolution neck, 36th Anv Neck, and Air Norton. I like all those.
 
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