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 😅

TZ: Like

 

My DiMarzio love / hate adventure continues & it's the Tone Zone this time. Perhaps the TZ is the DiMarzio I have tried in many of my guitars over the years with various results. I will avoid the TZ if there are other considerations but in this case, the price for the TZ / Air Norton pair was too good to pass. Also, it's in near-mint condition.

Yes, it's one of those occasions when the TZ sounds good. Maybe it might be due to the shorter scale length of this guitar. It doesn't sound excessively mid-range dominant like the one in my SEW761. It sounds just right. I have no idea why this happened, really. Still couldn't pin-point to any particular contributor which would be a hit with the TZ; wood type / instrument weight / bridge type / pickup height / etc. Most of the time it's a hit / miss. Two hits thusfar - this guitar & an Ibanez S-Series which features the TZ as a default pickup. The rest was a wasted affair.

Ibanez 2023: RG2550 - back

An interesting find - the RG2550 has returned to the fold but in China only. That's right, for some strange reason, it's not made available everywhere. The RG2550 bowed out of the catalog with an Edge Zero bridge & DiMarzio IBZ pickups. Looks like it has gone one up with the Edge bridge & DiMarzio pickups (Air Norton / True Velvet / Tone Zone).  

Pic: Ibanez CN

SD vs D

Same guitar series but not exactly the same model & there's a different pickup combo as well. This is what I resort to on days when I'm bored; indulge in variations. The left guitar (SEW761) sports a trio of DiMarzios, it's counterpart (S771) has Seymour Duncans. I engaged both guitar's bridge pickups only for this session & it's not pitting one against the other; it's never this approach when tone variation is concerned. So it's DiMarzio's Tone Zone at one end & Seymour Duncan's Perpetual Burn at the other. Let's take a look at the EQ charts for both pickups.

This is how the Tone Zone 'sounds' like; it's a bass saturated pickup & it makes itself heard that way. I dislike this pickup since the start & that was way back in 1991. Paul Gilbert was pictured with it in one of those DiMarzio magazine ads & I must say I fell for it. There were no You Tube back then to hear a sample at the very least before making purchase decision. This Tone Zone went into several other guitars along the way & those were bitter episodes. I tried my very best to give this pickup a chance but it's one detestable tone episode after another until I bought this SEW761; the Tone Zone somehow sounds good here. It's less fuzzy & likeable.

The Perpetual Burn, on the other hand, is virtually the complete opposite; it's a trebly pickup but a little scooped sounding. The nature of my music is a reliance on midrange / treble to supplement distortion clarity. The PB does just this but this pickup sounds excessively bright. So for those of us with less dedication to EQ, this one requires some tweaking attention for sure; not for the hasty, definitely. 

It's myopic to embrace a certain brand name at the exclusion of others & I learned this through experience. While I'm firmly in the Seymour Duncan camp, some DiMarzios are really likeable & it's a matter of time I find out what these are. In the mean time, I ran out of guitars to accommodate this adventure & that's not abut to change Lately, I've been having more DiMarzio episodes & it's largely due to the fact that I've about virtually tried whatever Seymour Duncans available out there. OK, the passive ones, at least. 

Holiday zoning

Played this for the entire morning yesterday before taking time off for lunch. This is the Ibanez SEW761FM, one of the standard offerings equipped with DiMarzio pickups from the factory: Tone Zone (b) / True Velvet (m/n).  

I have no issues with the True Velvet when it comes to tone. These are some of the best single coil offerings DiMarzio has in store & would recommend them to those in need of both good cleans & overdriven tones with twang to boot. The Tone Zone is another story. It's a little finicky & does not cascade good performance into various guitars it's fixed into; hits & misses, mostly. I first had it in an RG560 & it sounded awful there - muffled, bass heavy. I tried a friend's RG3120 which had the TZ  & it sounded awesome. This prompted me to move that spare TZ into one of my Les Pauls & it sounded amazing as well. Then I bought the SIR70FD & that TZ dislikes distortion, it prefers overdrive. In this latest episode, the TZ sounds a little grizzly & tends to fuzz out when the amp gain is turned up. I lowered the pickup a little more into the cavity & that helped somewhat. For some strange reason, this TZ isn't bass inclined like its other siblings, it has more top end. 

This is mostly my experience with DiMarzio in general - unpredictability. When it comes to Seymour Duncan, I do not encounter this headache. The JB for instance, will sound like the JB in any guitar so I know what to expect & have not been proven wrong thusfar. I'm not dissing DiMarzio in any way, in fact, I really like what some of them have to offer for the music genre I peddle - extreme distortion. 

Ironed

Re-string adventure continues- Ibanez SIR70FD. Pickups on board are DiMarzios: Tone Zone (b)/ True Velvet (m)/ Air Norton (n).

I'm somehow thankful that Ibanez has the Iron Label range albeit my gripe with it in terms of purpose. The guitars in this range were given the alternative treatment without ending up as costly proto-customs. I was particularly drawn to this model due to its blank fretboard. That's my quirk- I have more confidence playing an unmarked fretboard. The SIR70FD is part of the pioneer Iron Label releases. The RGs at this point in time, featured EMG pickups while the S-Series were given the passive, gain friendly DiMarzios instead. 

The S-Series in this range had evolved to feature a reverse headstock & some fancy body caps but the DiMarzio & fixed bridge features stay put. I sincerely hope the Iron Label series won't go out of hand because as it is, it's a little fuzzy when it comes to being identified as a definite tier in terms of offering. Then again, this year the Axion Label became the branch-off which threatens to push the Iron Label into extinction.

Unlocking

Got my Ibanez S-Series out early in the morning: S420 (t) & SIR70FD.

The S420 is equipped with a pair of Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates while the SIR70FD has a default set of DiMarzio Tone Zone/ True Velvet/ Air Norton. 

The S420 is so much heavier due to the ZR bridge in there but the overall tone is crunchy without excessive treble. I'm saying this because the PG is associated with raunchy Texan sizzle but if you could manage your set up well, it'll give you that modern heavy metal tone which is suitable for prog as well.

The SIR on the other hand is a light guitar with that smooth top end response, instant Dream Theater tone on call here thanks to the DiMarzios on board. I'm not a fan of this pickup brand but there are some models that I fancy. The Tone Zone is not one of them but previously mentioned, it's something that's appealing once you figure out your set up in its entirety and not just banking on pickup performance for your tone ideals. 

Anyway, I like both guitars for their blank fretboards; ironically, I make less mistakes when dealing with chromatics & legato.

As you can see here, this episode was conceived at CBTL in the late morning as I was waiting for my daughter to finish her morning supplementary class. Despite its early operations, the air-conditioning here will only function at 10.00am, so it's sauna mode offset by a serving of sparkling ice tea. 

Have a great weekend, everyone. ☮

New Year Eve

Good Sunday morning, guitar-verse! It's the holiday eve but the weather turned rather early in the morning. After an emphatic clap of thunder in the wee hours of the morning, I couldn't sleep.

Spent time with this Gibson & let me share some stuff: 1) This is the first guitar I ever bought online. I am totally against buying instruments I cannot handle in person before trying but I decided to jump into unknown territory. If I received a lemon, it'd be a very costly affair but I could say I tried & it turned out foul. One of the reasons I was enticed to buy this piece of very not-my-type instrument was because of a very deep price slash; it's a mere USD300+ but the shipping cost really killed it. Fortunately, it was shared between myself & a friend (who managed to secure his first ever lefty Gibson SG at a bargain price, of course) so the rot was kept in check. Why is it not my type?

• it's a Les Paul
• it has limited upper access
• no belly cut, no elbow slope
• Gibson pickups are not my thing
• that's not a rosewood fretboard in there (it's my first encounter with baked maple)

2) It's my only Gibson with DiMarzios. Not everybody's discourse, I know. Between the default Gibson humbuckers & DiMarzio, I'd rather settle with the latter. Don't get me wrong, I do not harbour discontent with all things DiMarzio but, save for some models, they don't give me what I want to hear. Both DiMarzios you see here were purchased from the annual Swee Lee sale which is now defunct. They were no more than SGD80 each after the price cuts. Bridge: Tone Zone, Neck: Humbucker from Hell. I had my beef with the Tone Zone because it sounded rather bad in my Ibanez RG but that was history. I gave it a chance here & it fared better, not that it really appealed to me but after dialing in gobs of distortion, it's a pretty decent pickup for what it's for.

Was this a totally deadened affair with nothing to like? Not at all. Firstly, the slim taper neck profile was a joy to play. This is the other shred neck for me, this side of an Ibanez RG Super Wizard profile. It's not even trying to rival an Ibanez, just another manifestation that clicked (with my playing). Secondly, the Tone Zone turned out more appealing than expected for distortion applications & I don't see it departing any time soon. The main take away with this Gibson is that, we should not totally dismiss something that's not tailored for our inclinations. It's an opportunity to adapt, that's how I see it. I have a limited liking for Les Pauls but that does not mean I won't play them at all.

PS: The guitar you see in this entry is a Gibson Les Paul Special, humbucker edition. It was purchased online from Musiciansfriend. Waiting for people to ask me, "Hey, I thought they don't ship stuff to SG?"

Get through it

A through-neck Ibanez RGA for the Summer (RGAT62) with a pair of singing DiMarzios (Air Norton/TZ). That see-through finish is respectable.

Ibanez: SIR70F DiMarzios

The Ibanez Iron Label SIR70F is equipped with a set of DiMarzio pickups right from the start: Air Norton (N)/ True Velvet (M)/ Tone Zone (B). I didn't commit to this purchase because there are DiMarzio pickups in there as I'm not a DiMarzio fan. Yes, they sound impressive, offering more sonic appeal than Ibanez's in-house pickups but they aren't quite my thing. However, I'm not going to do away with these default units because they deliver great distortion & above-average cleans.

Gibson: Les Paul Jr Special... DiMarzio-ed

My Les Paul Jr Special is now housing a pair of DiMarzios: Humbucker from Hell (N) & Tone Zone (B).

Humbucker from Hell- one of my preferred DiMarzios in the neck position, great clarity for both clean & driven tones. It has this crisp upper end that doesn't sound wimpy. That clean- it's a good clean but not leaning towards the vintage type so it's a preferred clean indeed.

The Tone Zone isn't my thing- I've had it in many guitars before, it just doesn't appeal to me. I've decided to just have it here, no matter how repulsive it sounds to me because I acknowledge the fact that the TZ is a worthy pickup for distortion inclined applications, it's just not singing my tune. So it's my job to struggle & make it sound at least acceptable to me, so this way, I learn something new every time :-) A little sado-masochistic but it does me good.

Superb wiring courtesy of Beez!

Ibanez: RG2620

I came across this guitar yesterday at Swee Lee (BB showroom). It's a very fresh offering from the manufacturer, if you refer to the online Ibanez Singapore page, it has yet to be updated there. What interested me particularly was that:

• this year, Ibanez pays more attention to the headstock-body finish matching for selected models
• the pickups equipped in selected Prestige models are DiMarzio units, not the DiMarzio IBZ models. For the above-featured guitar, the Tone Zone (B) & Air Norton (N) take care of tonal proceedings
  

I managed to plug it in to hear the tonal offerings & those DiMarzios in there are quite the works for fans of smooth, driven tones.

What: Ibanez RG2620 (revived with revisions after being removed from the catalogues in 2008)
How much: $2,570 (list)
Where: Swee Lee Co.

The first (Part 9)

The first replacement pickup I ever tried was DiMarzio's Tone Zone humbucker. It was a sheer case of embracing the hype. Back then, Paul Gilbert was seen promoting it, so it was perfect timing- I was very busy checking Paul Gilbert out & replicating aspects of his gear was inevitable.

So I had it in my Ibanez RG560 & was ready to rock but it was disappointment for me when I plugged it in with my set up- I didn't like how it interacted with my amps & effects. The pickup churned out more lower frequencies than I'd prefer & the sheer ignorance of believing a higher output unit would do better for distortion, got the better of me. Elsewhere, people kept putting the TZ in good stead but I somehow failed to connect with any of the claims.

It dawned on me that the TZ was indeed NOT the humbucker for me, regardless of what the rest of the universe had to say about it. It went into some other guitars I own hoping a different guitar wood type & dimensions would somehow had something for me but nothing happened.

It was this episode that educated me to not exalt an item for its name; prior to its possession, I had turned down offers for other pickups which are of lower output & lesser known brand name. However, I do have other DiMarzios in my guitars today; it's not about abominating a particular brand name, the fault was clearly mine...