Taming the Tone Zone..

[Speeddemon]

Agreed but that can be explained by the "even a broken clock is right twice a day" idiom

Well, the Norton is a great bridge pickup. And, pardon the hyperbole, you haven't lived until you played a split Air Norton in the neck position with high gain.
There's a reason I got 3 guitars with Air Nortons in it. Two guitars with Super Distortions, 1 with an AT-1 bridge, 1 with a Norton + Breed Neck. Especially the Breed Neck will never leave my Flying V.
I need to try the AT-1 in a superstrat once; I got it in a Les Paul now; good, but thick-ish, yet versatile. Still got a spare double kreem (paging @Shreddy Mercury ) Norton too, for that Les Paul, should I want to remove the AT-1.

Look, I love my fair share of Duncan's too; two of my main guitars (and 2 more 'lower' tier ones) are Duncan loaded.
But DiMarzio definitely makes some good stuff that doesn't suffer from the nasal, vocal, cocked wah honk.

 

[glpg80]

All of my videos with my charvel are a highly modified tonezone pickup. I took it apart, repotted it, made a change, and also used a different magnet. It wouldn’t even assemble back correctly but it’s my favourite pickup and better than anything I’ve ever came across. I did this over 20 years ago back in my gigging days when active pickups weren’t popular and high output options were limited. It’s what my ears know well and how I voice my amplifier designs.

 

[DanTravis62]

All of my videos with my charvel are a highly modified tonezone pickup. I took it apart, repotted it, made a change, and also used a different magnet. It wouldn’t even assemble back correctly but it’s my favourite pickup and better than anything I’ve ever came across. I did this over 20 years ago back in my gigging days when active pickups weren’t popular and high output options were limited. It’s what my ears know well and how I voice my amplifier designs.

At that point that is not longer a tonezone, that's a GLPG80 custom pickup

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

I like the TZ without the tone in the circuit.

BAM! This is mandatory and it works very well in a Charvel of mine, especially for leads.

That said, I think one TZ is enough for my collection, and a Super Distortion is better overall any time someone wants a thicc, hi output bridge pickup. Even so, I think the original D Activator is the best DiMarzio made for my needs....it's hot, but less thicc and brighter than almost any other commonly used DM.

 

[thegame]

Well, the Norton is a great bridge pickup. And, pardon the hyperbole, you haven't lived until you played a split Air Norton in the neck position with high gain.
There's a reason I got 3 guitars with Air Nortons in it. Two guitars with Super Distortions, 1 with an AT-1 bridge, 1 with a Norton + Breed Neck. Especially the Breed Neck will never leave my Flying V.
I need to try the AT-1 in a superstrat once; I got it in a Les Paul now; good, but thick-ish, yet versatile. Still got a spare double kreem (paging @Shreddy Mercury ) Norton too, for that Les Paul, should I want to remove the AT-1.

Look, I love my fair share of Duncan's too; two of my main guitars (and 2 more 'lower' tier ones) are Duncan loaded.
But DiMarzio definitely makes some good stuff that doesn't suffer from the nasal, vocal, cocked wah honk.

I’m very sorry to hear that. I hope modern medicine finds a cure one day

 

[glpg80]

At that point that is not longer a tonezone, that's a GLPG80 custom pickup

Low budget but it puts out over 1.8V

 

[Speeddemon]

I’m very sorry to hear that. I hope modern medicine finds a cure one day

Sorry, can't hear ya over the awesome tones I'm getting.

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

Well, the Norton is a great bridge pickup. And, pardon the hyperbole, you haven't lived until you played a split Air Norton in the neck position with high gain.
There's a reason I got 3 guitars with Air Nortons in it. Two guitars with Super Distortions, 1 with an AT-1 bridge, 1 with a Norton + Breed Neck. Especially the Breed Neck will never leave my Flying V.
I need to try the AT-1 in a superstrat once; I got it in a Les Paul now; good, but thick-ish, yet versatile. Still got a spare double kreem (paging @Shreddy Mercury ) Norton too, for that Les Paul, should I want to remove the AT-1.

Look, I love my fair share of Duncan's too; two of my main guitars (and 2 more 'lower' tier ones) are Duncan loaded.
But DiMarzio definitely makes some good stuff that doesn't suffer from the nasal, vocal, cocked wah honk.

It's nice to know that people remember me for my DiMarzio Bro'ness, especially considering I've been extremely inactive here for a few months now. Let it be my epitaph.

But I digest; I put an Air Norton in the neck of one of my guitars and HATED it, however, I'm pretty sure it was the tubes farting out in the amp I was playing. It seemed fine on my solid state amp and was definitely more usable after I switched out the tubes. My AT-1 I installed is in the bridge of my Warmoth Super Strat. I dig it. It's a great rock pickup, but it doesn't blend as well with the Cruiser or whatever it was I put in the neck like I'd hoped it would. I still like it, but I don't think it blends as well.

I installed so many DiMarzios in my guitars this year and then just quit playing (haven't really touched a guitar seriously in 3 months or more) that I've forgotten what pickups I put in which guitars

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

It's nice to know that people remember me for my DiMarzio Bro'ness, especially considering I've been extremely inactive here for a few months now. Let it be my epitaph.

But I digest; I put an Air Norton in the neck of one of my guitars and HATED it, however, I'm pretty sure it was the tubes farting out in the amp I was playing. It seemed fine on my solid state amp and was definitely more usable after I switched out the tubes. My AT-1 I installed is in the bridge of my Warmoth Super Strat. I dig it. It's a great rock pickup, but it doesn't blend as well with the Cruiser or whatever it was I put in the neck like I'd hoped it would. I still like it, but I don't think it blends as well.

I installed so many DiMarzios in my guitars this year and then just quit playing (haven't really touched a guitar seriously in 3 months or more) that I've forgotten what pickups I put in which guitars

The Haters are gonna say you stopped playing because of too many Dimarzios! What happened to cause you to walk away from guitar?

I don't get the Air Norton hate. I only have installed in one guitar (a neck thru Eagle), but it is perfect in that guitar. Full HB for ultra smooth leads or split for cleans rock bigly.

 

[Rackman]

I'm trying to think of a scenario in which a DiMarzio wasn't a liability for the guitar was in. And I can't remember one. I honestly wonder how they became a notable vender in an era when potted PAF/Patent#/T-Tops were ubiquitous.

 

[DanTravis62]

I'm trying to think of a scenario in which a DiMarzio wasn't a liability for the guitar it's in. And honestly I can't remember one. I honestly wonder how they became a notable vender in an era when potted PAF/Patent#/T-Tops were ubiquitous.

I assume because it was basically larry dimarzio, duncan, bill lawrence, emg, and mighty mite, and those were the literal only aftermarket pickup makers on planet earth at the time

I don't know what it is about the dimarzio manufacturing process (scott has explained some of the questionable material quality problems to me before) but I simply do not get it, especially in the modern era when there are great sounding pickups from basically every brand on earth. There's even really cheap pickups that sound kickass.

 

[Speeddemon]

especially in the modern era when there are great sounding pickups from basically every brand on earth. There's even really cheap pickups that sound kickass.

Well, tried that, didn't work.
People were claiming 'oh, the Dimarzio Chopper ain't anything special. Just get any Chinese, run of the mill 9k DCR dual-rail pickup and you'll have that tone at a low price point'.
Nope. Nuh-uh.

Bought the $15 pickup from Aliexpress, installed it. Sure, it did what it's supposed to do, but boy, was it a bland, vanilla limp stick.
Sold it locally, got an actual Dimarzio Chopper and it's still in my Kramer SM-1, together with a FT-1 in the middle and a Duncan JB bridge (was stock in that guitar). Whatever magic Dimarzio instills in the Choppers, it's working.

Hell...I'll turn this Dimarzio bashing around; if you can't get good tone out of a Dimarzio of your choice and think you need BKP's or other $200-300 a pup boutique humbuckers to get the best tone, the Dimarzio wasn't really the problem...

But, horses for courses, and recently, when I upgraded my shredstick ESP-like Horizon Custom H-S guitar, I specifically did NOT want a Dimarzio neck pickup there as a clear, non-muddy, higher powered, noiseless single-coil, because the only viable options would be a Chopper , Mirage or Satch Track Neck and that wasn't the tone I was aiming for... My inspiration was a mix of Andy LaRocque, John Norum, George Lynch and Warren DeMartini.
Neither was the Injector, since I feared it may be too low powered.
So, I had my sights set on the Duncan Custom Stack Plus, finally found one used locally (no way I'm paying European new prices for pickups these days...) and in it went.

 

[DanTravis62]

Well, tried that, didn't work.
People were claiming 'oh, the Dimarzio Chopper ain't anything special. Just get any Chinese, run of the mill 9k DCR dual-rail pickup and you'll have that tone at a low price point'.
Nope. Nuh-uh.

Bought the $15 pickup from Aliexpress, installed it. Sure, it did what it's supposed to do, but boy, was it a bland, vanilla limp stick.
Sold it locally, got an actual Dimarzio Chopper and it's still in my Kramer SM-1, together with a FT-1 in the middle and a Duncan JB bridge (was stock in that guitar). Whatever magic Dimarzio instills in the Choppers, it's working.

Hell...I'll turn this Dimarzio bashing around; if you can't get good tone out of a Dimarzio of your choice and think you need BKP's or other $200-300 a pup boutique humbuckers to get the best tone, the Dimarzio wasn't really the problem...

But, horses for courses, and recently, when I upgraded my shredstick ESP-like Horizon Custom H-S guitar, I specifically did NOT want a Dimarzio neck pickup there as higher powered, noiseless single-coil, because the only viable options would be a Chopper or Mirage, and that wasn't the tone I was aiming for... My inspiration was a mix of Andy LaRocque, John Norum, George Lynch and Warren DeMartini.
Neither was the Injector, since I feared it may be too low powered.
So, I had my sights set on the Duncan Custom Stack Plus, finally found one used locally (no way I'm paying European new prices for pickups these days...) and in it went.

Dimarzios are overpriced for the quality of the products they put out The problem isn't that you "need" a boutique pickup, it's that duncans cost the same and sound way better.

 

[Speeddemon]

Dimarzios are overpriced for the quality of the products they put out The problem isn't that you "need" a boutique pickup, it's that duncans cost the same and sound way better.

I'm not arguing build quality with you (also, they're typically cheaper here than Duncans), but Dimarzio has a few in their stable, where Duncan doesn't have an answer to.

And vice versa.
Hence I use both.

 

[DanTravis62]

I'm not arguing build quality with you (also, they're typically cheaper here than Duncans), but Dimarzio has a few in their stable, where Duncan doesn't have an answer to.

And vice versa.
Hence I use both.

You know what's really funny, is that there's always a youtube video going viral every couple of weeks about how pickups are sooooo overpriced and it's like 38 cents worth of parts and blah blah blah

And yet..... no one takes advantage of this to make super rad amazing pickups for stupidly cheap?

There are a very, very small number of small companies making pickups for low prices that are any good - and none of them are chinese companies.

If you want to actually try a cheap pickup that isn't shitty, try Bootstrap pickups out of Ohio. I've tried the PAFs and the Tele pickups and they are both excellent. He also does custom stuff.

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

Well, tried that, didn't work.
People were claiming 'oh, the Dimarzio Chopper ain't anything special. Just get any Chinese, run of the mill 9k DCR dual-rail pickup and you'll have that tone at a low price point'.
Nope. Nuh-uh.

Bought the $15 pickup from Aliexpress, installed it. Sure, it did what it's supposed to do, but boy, was it a bland, vanilla limp stick.
Sold it locally, got an actual Dimarzio Chopper and it's still in my Kramer SM-1, together with a FT-1 in the middle and a Duncan JB bridge (was stock in that guitar). Whatever magic Dimarzio instills in the Choppers, it's working.

Hell...I'll turn this Dimarzio bashing around; if you can't get good tone out of a Dimarzio of your choice and think you need BKP's or other $200-300 a pup boutique humbuckers to get the best tone, the Dimarzio wasn't really the problem...

But, horses for courses, and recently, when I upgraded my shredstick ESP-like Horizon Custom H-S guitar, I specifically did NOT want a Dimarzio neck pickup there as a clear, non-muddy, higher powered, noiseless single-coil, because the only viable options would be a Chopper , Mirage or Satch Track Neck and that wasn't the tone I was aiming for... My inspiration was a mix of Andy LaRocque, John Norum, George Lynch and Warren DeMartini.
Neither was the Injector, since I feared it may be too low powered.
So, I had my sights set on the Duncan Custom Stack Plus, finally found one used locally (no way I'm paying European new prices for pickups these days...) and in it went.

The Duncan Custom Stack Plus is my favorite of that type (true single tone + warmth), and is found in my Andy LaRocque sig.

I think DiMarzio tends to be more successful with rail singles having single coilish tone than Duncan for sure. Duncan rails occupy a weird in between space....

 

[Mike Oxhuge]

I've had a few guitars where Dimarzio SD or Breed sounded good but generally I use Duncan or EMG if I want active. EMG quality control is no longer good as I have had 3 new production 81/85 sets and swapped them through the same guitar to get one set that sounded like the old ones. I've never had any other inconsistencies with Duncan so that is all I buy now, as they just work.

 

[DanTravis62]

I've had a few guitars where Dimarzio SD or Breed sounded good but generally I use Duncan or EMG if I want active. EMG quality control is no longer good as I have had 3 new production 81/85 sets and swapped them through the same guitar to get one set that sounded like the old ones. I've never had any other inconsistencies with Duncan so that is all I buy now, as they just work.

That's my experience as well

I know if I buy a duncan, whether it's an SH6, Custom 5, Phat cat, whatever It's going to sound exactly the same whether I find it in someone's junk drawer, I buy it new at guitar center, I order it off reverb, or it's already in a guitar.

That hasn't been my experience with dimarzio at all, although there have been a handful of pickups that I didn't think were bad, they varied a lot more from pickup to pickup. Same with EMG, Lace, and a few other big brands.