Heavy zone

I have a love-hate affair with DiMarzio's Tone Zone. In some guitars it sounds downright nasal with a semi-useless bass response. That fuzzed-out sound... I hate it. In others, it can really give a good punch to heavy distortion. Depicted above is the Tone Zone in my Ibanez SEW761. It sounds awful most of the time (in this guitar).

Today, I decided to pair it up with the Digital Metalizer (MZ-2). Outcome:

• the TZ has an excessive bass response so the MZ-2's EQ was set past midway to enhance treble
• overall tone was more usable in chorus modes. It seems that the TZ needs some kind of a top end booster to make the overall tone less nasal / fuzzy
• tone sounds more palatable when the drive was set to about 3/4 way. Implication - the TZ might be better for crunchy stuff rather than all out metal

Verdict: Nothing changes. The TZ is more of a miss than a hit for me. Strangely, I would want to hear it in action every now & then 😅