DiMarzio: The Tone Zone (DP-155)

Good day, folks. The pickup you see here is DiMarzio's The Tone Zone (DP155). It's my first DiMarzio, my first branded replacement pickup as well. It was chosen to uplift my Ibanez RG when I was still a newbie in guitardom. The tone coming from my RG needed a boost in the bottom end spectrum. The default tone was sharp sounding so those bottom end chugging did not sound thumping enough no matter how I tweaked the amp & pedals. 

Back then, the gullible me was enticed into purchase by DiMarzio ads in magazines, this one here being one of many. Back in 1991, Mr. Big released Lean Into It & I find Paul Gilbert's lead tones impressive; lots of clarity & a punchy bottom end. No Tone Zone was found at Swee Lee back then, it was a very new release & a lack of online exposure at this point in time meant stores were next to clueless when you mention it. A guitar repair store proximate to Hard Rock cafe (it had since relocated) had an incoming DiMarzio shipment with this pickup so I bought one without too much consideration. It was an impulse buy.

Coming back to the pickup concerned, this is its EQ specification; it's a bottom end thumper but rather reserved when it comes to top end responses. After hearing it in a few guitars, I have the following opinion:

• The TZ performs well in warm-sounding guitars. By this I refer to the instrument's body wood. It just sounds more appealing in mahogany. I played an RG3120 with the TZ on board & it simply sounds superb. Also, I've ever fitted one into a Les Paul before & it sounded outstanding as well. 
• It's got nothing to do with the bridge type. Some players I talked to said the TZ fared better in guitars with Floyd Rose bridges or its equivalent. The one in the Les Paul mentioned previously certainly wasn't equipped with such a bridge & I came across two good-sounding Ibanez S-Series fixed bridge guitars with the TZ as default pickups. So the bridge type is independent of the TZ tone performance.
• The TZ thrives on overdrive. Yup, it's overdrive, not distortion. I'm saying this in context of course. The overdrive here is used to push your already distorted amp's front end & not as a primary drive source. 
• It's meant for the bridge position. Ok this will irk the ones who swear by the TZ in the neck as a positive outcome of a non-conventional embrace. If you are looking for that smooth bottom end in the neck position without muddy-ing out, I feel the Air Norton does a better job. 

So did the TZ I bought for my RG work? No. In fact, I hated my guitar after the make-over. It sounded bad compounded by the fact that the store installed a non-F Spaced version. For goodness sake, it's an  Ibanez equipped with an Edge bridge. That showed how much knowledge these people had back then & they worked in guitar-related establishments. Darn. That TZ was migrated into an Ibanez RX which was a lighter guitar & it fared better there.