Swapped pickups, not happy...Tone Zone the solution?

[threadkiller]

I recently changed out the pickups and the pots in my Les Paul. Now, I absolutely love the Dimarzio Norton (not Air Norton) in the bridge on my Explorer so I figured with both guitars being mahogony why not. I put a PAF Pro in the neck and Norton in the bridge. The neck pickup sounds great. The bridge sounds a little thin and weak. It is wired correctly. I find myself looking for more low end and more output/sustain. Took it to practice last night and it sounded mosquito thin at times. I have experimented with pickup height. Minimal help there. I was wondering if the Tone Zone or possibly Illuminator might be the solution to my problem. Any thing I can do to help my existing pickup? Any suggestions. Most of the Tone Zone clips I find are modern metal and I'm playing classic rock mostly. I like a medium hot pickup with lots of overtones generally and about the heaviest I get is old metallica. I generally like a pickup with output a little hotter than vintage. Funny how you can love a pickup in one guitar and not in another. I'm thinking it might be because the LP is weight relieved.

 

[MrDowntown]

Think a DSD would work for you? That pickup always sounds good to me for classic rock, and even some of the heavier stuff. And it can always be lowered to take some of the heat off of it....

 

[AmpliFIRE]

I recently changed out the pickups and the pots in my Les Paul. Now, I absolutely love the Dimarzio Norton (not Air Norton) in the bridge on my Explorer so I figured with both guitars being mahogony why not. I put a PAF Pro in the neck and Norton in the bridge. The neck pickup sounds great. The bridge sounds a little thin and weak. It is wired correctly. I find myself looking for more low end and more output/sustain. Took it to practice last night and it sounded mosquito thin at times. I have experimented with pickup height. Minimal help there. I was wondering if the Tone Zone or possibly Illuminator might be the solution to my problem. Any thing I can do to help my existing pickup? Any suggestions. Most of the Tone Zone clips I find are modern metal and I'm playing classic rock mostly. I like a medium hot pickup with lots of overtones generally and about the heaviest I get is old metallica. I generally like a pickup with output a little hotter than vintage. Funny how you can love a pickup in one guitar and not in another. I'm thinking it might be because the LP is weight relieved.

Tone Zone in a LP...? Pure mud IMO

Sounds like you need a Super Distortion

 

[Speeddemon]

I recently changed out the pickups and the pots in my Les Paul. Now, I absolutely love the Dimarzio Norton (not Air Norton) in the bridge on my Explorer so I figured with both guitars being mahogony why not. I put a PAF Pro in the neck and Norton in the bridge. The neck pickup sounds great. The bridge sounds a little thin and weak. It is wired correctly. I find myself looking for more low end and more output/sustain. Took it to practice last night and it sounded mosquito thin at times. I have experimented with pickup height. Minimal help there. I was wondering if the Tone Zone or possibly Illuminator might be the solution to my problem. Any thing I can do to help my existing pickup? Any suggestions. Most of the Tone Zone clips I find are modern metal and I'm playing classic rock mostly. I like a medium hot pickup with lots of overtones generally and about the heaviest I get is old metallica. I generally like a pickup with output a little hotter than vintage. Funny how you can love a pickup in one guitar and not in another. I'm thinking it might be because the LP is weight relieved.

Tone Zone in a LP...? Pure mud IMO

Sounds like you need a Super Distortion

What he said.
The Tone Zone even showed some muddiness in my Charvel So-Cal Pro Mod (where it came stock, with an Evo Neck). That guitar went through numerous pup swaps, until settling on an Air Norton -Norton(b) combo. If you like the Norton tone, with more beef, without mud=Super D.
Note that the harmonics are NOT the same, nor is the coilsplitted tone. Norton does an awesome Tele impersonation in a Les Paul, yet the Super D gets really anemic, when split.
Oh, a fine alternative outside the DiMarzio realm:
Duncan SH-14 Custom 5 (or SH-16 Custom/Hybrid). Both work AWE-FUCKIN-SOME in Les Pauls, bringing weight without mud.
And perhaps an AT-1 is to be considered, although I hear it can be quite dark compared to the Norton. I've always wanted to try one in the Les Paul I have a Norton in now, with 500k pots.

 

[metalmaniac93]

I recently changed out the pickups and the pots in my Les Paul. Now, I absolutely love the Dimarzio Norton (not Air Norton) in the bridge on my Explorer so I figured with both guitars being mahogony why not. I put a PAF Pro in the neck and Norton in the bridge. The neck pickup sounds great. The bridge sounds a little thin and weak. It is wired correctly. I find myself looking for more low end and more output/sustain. Took it to practice last night and it sounded mosquito thin at times. I have experimented with pickup height. Minimal help there. I was wondering if the Tone Zone or possibly Illuminator might be the solution to my problem. Any thing I can do to help my existing pickup? Any suggestions. Most of the Tone Zone clips I find are modern metal and I'm playing classic rock mostly. I like a medium hot pickup with lots of overtones generally and about the heaviest I get is old metallica. I generally like a pickup with output a little hotter than vintage. Funny how you can love a pickup in one guitar and not in another. I'm thinking it might be because the LP is weight relieved.

Tone Zone in a LP...? Pure mud IMO

Sounds like you need a Super Distortion

I agree 100%!!!

 

[SFW]

If you want to stay with DiMarzio then the Super Distortion should work well for you.

 

[Dopethrone]

recheck everyting about your wiring, including the bridge pickup pot. sometimes they can be overheated and cause some issues like you described

 

[fek]

+ whatever # we are up to on the no Tone Zone in a LP. I also yanked the one in my SoCal days after I got if for being too much on the low end.

 

[Stradazone]

Dimarzio Air Zone is another good choice to fatten up a guitar, I put one in my Ibanez Les Paul, after trying about 3 different other pickups the Air Zone did the trick, very similar to the Tone Zone but slightly less output, more dynamics

 

[BigBellyRocker]

I recently changed out the pickups and the pots in my Les Paul. Now, I absolutely love the Dimarzio Norton (not Air Norton) in the bridge on my Explorer so I figured with both guitars being mahogony why not. I put a PAF Pro in the neck and Norton in the bridge. The neck pickup sounds great. The bridge sounds a little thin and weak. It is wired correctly. I find myself looking for more low end and more output/sustain. Took it to practice last night and it sounded mosquito thin at times. I have experimented with pickup height. Minimal help there. I was wondering if the Tone Zone or possibly Illuminator might be the solution to my problem. Any thing I can do to help my existing pickup? Any suggestions. Most of the Tone Zone clips I find are modern metal and I'm playing classic rock mostly. I like a medium hot pickup with lots of overtones generally and about the heaviest I get is old metallica. I generally like a pickup with output a little hotter than vintage. Funny how you can love a pickup in one guitar and not in another. I'm thinking it might be because the LP is weight relieved.

Tone Zone in a LP...? Pure mud IMO

Sounds like you need a Super Distortion

What he said.
The Tone Zone even showed some muddiness in my Charvel So-Cal Pro Mod

Yup, I have a USA So-Cal and the Tone Zone does sound a little bit muddy or on the low end. Somebody recommended the Dimarzio Super Distortion but this pickup has a higher bass rating than the treble rating. I don't know if this combination will sound good in a mahogany body guitar. I have a ash body Charvel guitar and the Super Distortion sound perfect. Obviously, everyone knows that ash body wood has a brighter sound so it should balance out the high bass rating from the Super Distortion.

 

[threadkiller]

Ah the old super D. why do I always make this so complicated?

 

[Speeddemon]

I recently changed out the pickups and the pots in my Les Paul. Now, I absolutely love the Dimarzio Norton (not Air Norton) in the bridge on my Explorer so I figured with both guitars being mahogony why not. I put a PAF Pro in the neck and Norton in the bridge. The neck pickup sounds great. The bridge sounds a little thin and weak. It is wired correctly. I find myself looking for more low end and more output/sustain. Took it to practice last night and it sounded mosquito thin at times. I have experimented with pickup height. Minimal help there. I was wondering if the Tone Zone or possibly Illuminator might be the solution to my problem. Any thing I can do to help my existing pickup? Any suggestions. Most of the Tone Zone clips I find are modern metal and I'm playing classic rock mostly. I like a medium hot pickup with lots of overtones generally and about the heaviest I get is old metallica. I generally like a pickup with output a little hotter than vintage. Funny how you can love a pickup in one guitar and not in another. I'm thinking it might be because the LP is weight relieved.

Tone Zone in a LP...? Pure mud IMO

Sounds like you need a Super Distortion

What he said.
The Tone Zone even showed some muddiness in my Charvel So-Cal Pro Mod

Yup, I have a USA So-Cal and the Tone Zone does sound a little bit muddy or on the low end. Somebody recommended the Dimarzio Super Distortion but this pickup has a higher bass rating than the treble rating. I don't know if this combination will sound good in a mahogany body guitar. I have a ash body Charvel guitar and the Super Distortion sound perfect. Obviously, everyone knows that ash body wood has a brighter sound so it should balance out the high bass rating from the Super Distortion.

Trust me, I *had* the Super D in that alder-bodied Charvel So-Cal! It had a good big chunky low-end, but no mud!
In the end, I wanted the guitar to be a bit more classic 80's "Maiden"/allround classic metal sounding, given the fact that it was basically my "Adrian"*, I opted for the Norton, with a slightly leaner and even tighter low-end, yet more low-end than the Duncan Distortion I tried too.
The Duncan Distortion would make things super tight and aggressive, slight loss of the Norton's alnico character. the DD would be perfect if I only would stick to speed/thrash metal.

Anyway, long story short; the Super D will NOT muddy things up! Not in a Les Paul either; I mean...Ace and Adrian can't be wrong, can they?!

*I know that A.S. had the Super D in his white Jackson too, but for me, the Norton was a tad more versatile. I love me some alnico character. By the way, I'm pretty sure that the Duncan SH-14 Custom 5 would have worked well too in that guitar. That one is now the mainstay in my ESP Horizon NT-II.

 

[paulyc]

Duncan Distortion vote here...

 

[Bloodrock]

Tone Zone has mucho low end and would not do well in a LP type guitar. I would recommend a Duncan Custom. It's one of the best all around, fairly hot HB's that kills in mahogany guitars. Not too hot, not too weak, but a fair amount of drive if you're wanting to add just a little bit of pickup saturation into your amp.

 

[BYTOR]

Aldrich sounds great in my Les Paul!!!

 

[kaeljo]

This might help
I installed a tone zone in the bridge of one of my guitars and it also sounded very thin and really weak .Not like a tone zone should sound .I have other guitars with tone zone in then and the sound is powerful and meaty.
On this guitar I played with the wiring and ended up reversing the hot wire( red ) with the green wire. The guitar sounded like it should .
Worked for me ., hopefully for for you .

 

[Manxmusicman]

Have a look at a Suhr Thornbucker +, sounds exactly like the kind of pickup you’re after. It’s a great well balanced pickup, slightly hotter than vintage but still very much a PAF.

 

[Rick Lee]

I had a super thin sound in my LP when I was using both pups. Turned out to be a polarity issue with the magnets. The bridge pup was a Wolfetone Marshallhead and the neck was a Vineham Whiskey Burner. I forget which one I pulled out, but I just pulled a magnet out, flipped it 180 deg. and all was fine after that.

In other news, I have an Air Norton in the neck position and Tone Zone in the bridge on my EBMM Axis and they sound fantastic, identical to my EBMM EVHs.

 

[PBGas]

I recently changed out the pickups and the pots in my Les Paul. Now, I absolutely love the Dimarzio Norton (not Air Norton) in the bridge on my Explorer so I figured with both guitars being mahogony why not. I put a PAF Pro in the neck and Norton in the bridge. The neck pickup sounds great. The bridge sounds a little thin and weak. It is wired correctly. I find myself looking for more low end and more output/sustain. Took it to practice last night and it sounded mosquito thin at times. I have experimented with pickup height. Minimal help there. I was wondering if the Tone Zone or possibly Illuminator might be the solution to my problem. Any thing I can do to help my existing pickup? Any suggestions. Most of the Tone Zone clips I find are modern metal and I'm playing classic rock mostly. I like a medium hot pickup with lots of overtones generally and about the heaviest I get is old metallica. I generally like a pickup with output a little hotter than vintage. Funny how you can love a pickup in one guitar and not in another. I'm thinking it might be because the LP is weight relieved.

Tone Zone in a LP...? Pure mud IMO

Sounds like you need a Super Distortion

100% agree! Probably my least favorite pickup ever. I’ve removed it from everything that I have where it came stock.

 

[Luca79]

I swapped the Norton for the Transition; it have little more output, tighter bass and more high and harmonics. To me is more "lively" and natural response, when the Norton was more a "flat".
Is ceramic but can tame the ice picking with the height and pole adjustment (dropped bright strings like EB and now use regular D'addario)