Malkav
Recently I upgraded my prized Japanese RG and I exchanged the Tone Zone (bridge) and PAF Pro (neck) combination that was originally in the guitar with a D-Sonic (bridge) and Air Norton (neck) and I have never been happier with my tone, they sound articulate and full and huge. They have the exact responsive characteristics I've always wanted and I was rather surprised to find that even as a neck pickup the Air Norton has some very nice harmonic response and though it's warm sounding and full it still gets very good articulation. I've always wanted an air norton ever since my younger days of listening to Cradle Of Filth and finding out that their guitarists use em, of course I grew up and now listen to decent music but still it stands that the air norton is proving to be an amazing pickup for my style of playing and it has one of the most versatile tonal pallets I have ever experienced ?
The D-Sonic however screams like nothing else I have ever played on, I had to route out some wood in my pickup cavity to get it to sit low enough seeing as it has a ridiculous output but it was worth it. It sounds huge like nothing else I have ever heard, it has super fat highs which is why I wanted it but still retains some massive bite and one can't even begin to describe all the harmonics that the thing gives you when playing chords or single notes, it's got layers upon layers of harmonics that just jump out of the damn thing with minimal effort. It's also got incredible dynamic range and cleans up beautifully when you turn down the gain or switch to a clean channel. The D-Sonic has ceramic magnets in it which to me normally translated to brittle tone but when I saw that John Petrucci uses one I just had to be a sheep like noob and try it and was pleasantly surprised to find out that instead it just sounds thick and full and downright yummy ?
So a massive thank you to Gareth (vintage vibes) for putting in the effort to make sure mine were put on the order form and for keeping them aside for me ? now I just gotta wait till the end of the month and I'll be putting the same set in my seven-string ? and then proceed to enter into a state of comatosed bliss as I will finally have the sound and response I've always wanted from my guitars.
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inflames
Congrats Chad, that is the most ? I have ever seen in a post!
I'm upgrading to Dimarzio Super Distortion bridge and Breed Neck pickups next month.
Should sound great!
_-L-_
Explorerlover
Chad Adam Browne wrote:
I'll be putting the same set in my seven-string
Is that a RG1527? Please let me know what that sounds like, I need to get the V8 & V7 out of mine
andrewjbryson
I cant wait for the day ibanez come out with dimarzio pups stock. And not the ibanezdimarzio stock p ups.
FatBoy
Congrats man, good to see a man find his mojo 8)
andrewjbryson
Petrucci also uses air norton on certain tracks on suspended animation. What an album.
AlanRatcliffe
Congrats Chad - Gareth told me this morning you had them. I agree with you on the Air Norton - it is a cool pickup, full, strong midrange voice, but very cool harmonics. Splits very well too (have you tried that?) - better than most.
Too thick a sound for me though - I've always preferred a bright neck pickup.
andrewjbryson wrote:
I cant wait for the day ibanez come out with dimarzio pups stock. And not the ibanezdimarzio stock p ups.
I dunno - most people are going to change pickups anyway, regardless of what's in there. Rather let IBZ put the cheaper ones in and keep the prices down.
Explorerlover
Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
Rather let IBZ put the cheaper ones in and keep the prices down.
Amen to that Brother. It seems the moons have aligned and I'll be picking up my DN500 tomorrow.
Malkav
@Alan & Andrew - If you look at Ibanez's new catalogue they are in fact putting real dimarzios in their prestiges now, all of them are getting Air Norton + Tone Zone combos but I think it only counts for the highest end models in their prestige line, and they've created a new type of active pickup for their RGA and ART series guitars, there's also a rather nifty looking new Paul Gilbert signature and another model for him called the Fireman (reverse Iceman). One thing that Ibanez fans will be happy about is that it seems they're moving all their prestige production back into Japan, including S series and SDG basses. They've also released the old RG550 super wizard neck (the one we'd all kill for) on the prestige models again ? go check out their new toys they look like a whole world of fun, they've even released a 27 fret Xiphos model ?.
@Alan - Of course I've tried the split, I run my gutiars H-H on a 5-way. The air norton in the out of phase position 4 is just gorgeous, like a tele with less woofy low end, and the D-sonic & Air Norton in position 2 is still nice a think but super quacky like a strat.
@Explorerlover - What's a DN500? I have to say the one off putting thing about the RG1527 (yes I have one too) is the pickups, they're muddy and so weak it's just wrong for a seven-string, I have tried one with the Air Norton & Tone Zone combo and it was gorgeous but the Tone Zone is a little bit too thin sounding a pickup for my liking and that's why the D-Sonic makes me sooooo happy! ? Its sounds super fat and bity ? just right for me.
AlanRatcliffe
the Tone Zone is a little bit too thin sounding a pickup for my liking
? Just how bright is that guitar? Or how much low end do you like? IME Tone Zones are plenty chunky.
Explorerlover
@CHAD: It's the Ibanez Darkstone. A new guitar for 2009.
Malkav
@ Alan - oh it's bright...very bright...it's just a little less bright than my NZS-1 which if you've seen the specs for you should know is VERY bright, I like the fact that the brightness is there even though it's not my thing it can be eq'd out and as for low end my tone zone might have been about 14 years old and it wasn't quite as focused in the lows as I wanted it to be ?
AlanRatcliffe
Yeah, I like brighter guitars with darker pickups. ?
The NZS-1 is a nice guitar for a rockier instrument. If it wasn't for the inlay, the gold and the quilt, I might have bought one.
Clint-Green
Sorry to be playing Necromancer with an old thread again but I'm looking at upgrading my RG's pups pretty soon and have been toying with the idea of this very combo. Chad, just wanted to know how you feel about these pickups just over 3 years later, still digging them? Shot! ?
arjunmenon
Hey Clint, just to chip in. I've had the Air Norton (& Tone Zone) for a little over 3 years now and i couldn't be happier. And the Air Norton splits very very well ?
I haven't had any experience with the D-Sonic. Sorry.
Clint-Green
Arjun Menon wrote:
Hey Clint, just to chip in. I've had the Air Norton (& Tone Zone) for a little over 3 years now and i couldn't be happier. And the Air Norton splits very very well ?
I haven't had any experience with the D-Sonic. Sorry.
Thanks Arjun! I have also been looking at the TZ/AN combo for a long time, I've read a lot of love/hate reviews on the Tone Zone though. Some people absolutely adore it but some have complained that it muddies up pretty quickly (I can't comment from personal experience though as I've never tried one myself). As for the Air Norton, I've yet to hear anyone say a bad word about them but then again as MikeM pointed out to me a while back, neck pickups are much easier to choose than bridge pups.
Malkav
I still have this exact combo in that 6 string, and in another mahogany bodied 6 string fixed bridge and in my 7 string ? If anything I have fallen even further in love with the D-Sonic than ever before, really nice and articulate in the upper mids without sacrificing low end, it's really just my go to bridge pickup ?
The Air Norton I absolutely adore as well, lots of rich harmonics and a great solid fundamental to the tone, still from what I've read the Liquifire apparently sounds like a more mature version of it, could never be happier but I'm going to see if it's not possible to raise the euphoria slightly.
I recently got a new RG7321 as well (another 7 string ?) I'm going to be putting the John Petrucci signature set (Crunchlab & Liquifire) in there, the reviews I've read about them seem to indicate they're slightly darker sounding and in a sense warmer. I'm going to figure out which combo is my favourite and then my prestige 7 string will get that and my RG7321 will get left with the scraps ? It just seems to me that if the opinions of friends and the short time I spent trying them in my friend's RG7321 are any indication I may end up prefering the combination of Liquifire & D-Sonic in my main 7 string ?
Also have the Dimarzio D-Activator 8 string set being put into my RG2228 ? Very excited about that, though pretty bleak that they came out with a PAF 8 about a month ago - would have really loved a D-Activator 8 in the bridge and PAF-8 in the neck ?
arjunmenon
Clint Green wrote:
Thanks Arjun! I have also been looking at the TZ/AN combo for a long time, I've read a lot of love/hate reviews on the Tone Zone though. Some people absolutely adore it but some have complained that it muddies up pretty quickly (I can't comment from personal experience though as I've never tried one myself). As for the Air Norton, I've yet to hear anyone say a bad word about them but then again as MikeM pointed out to me a while back, neck pickups are much easier to choose than bridge pups.
From experience, i love my TZ/AN combo. I suppose with the TZ, it depends what guitar it's in.
I find the Tone Zone quite chime-y and the transient has a strange tubular/vowel like quality, but that's just my experience.
Re the Air Norton coil tapped, i find it puts out a nice bell-like tone. My one complaint though, is that i wish it had more shimmer in the hi-mid to hi area.
Chad Adam Browne wrote:
I recently got a new RG7321 as well (another 7 string ?) I'm going to be putting the John Petrucci signature set (Crunchlab & Liquifire) in there, the reviews I've read about them seem to indicate they're slightly darker sounding and in a sense warmer. I'm going to figure out which combo is my favourite and then my prestige 7 string will get that and my RG7321 will get left with the scraps ? It just seems to me that if the opinions of friends and the short time I spent trying them in my friend's RG7321 are any indication I may end up prefering the combination of Liquifire & D-Sonic in my main 7 string ?
Sod ? Let us know how it goes.
Clint-Green
Thanks guys!
I've also heard that the Crunch Lab is slightly hotter than the D-Sonic but retains clarity nonetheless. Been reading up a bit more and my dilemma is that my RG now has a 4mm maple cap which should in effect make the guitar quite a bit brighter (that it has, too!) than an all-basswood body. Basswood alone is supposed to had stong mids but slightly looser treble and bass so maybe the CrunchLab/Liquifire set will suit my needs a bit better after all since, as you mentioned, they are supposed to sound darker than the D-Sonic/Air Norton. Dammit, why is choosing pickups so hard!? lol
Definitely let us know what you think of the Petrucci set...and fwiw, speaking of 7's, I spotted a 7620 on Gumtree for 4k which is giving me serious GAS since I don't yet have a 7 in my arsenal ? Can't afford it though but my credit card is starting to get that weird, itching, burning sensation...
LooneyAtTheGate
I don't want to mess with ur bank balance but yes, extended range gtrs - always a good idea!
I'm putting an SD Invader in my RGR321 (bridge), spent a lot of time considering over the Dimarzio's and other Seymour Duncans.
I'm hoping the basswood/Invader won't be too muddy, but this will purely be an extreme metal guitar, not really about subtlety 8)
My next step is deciding on a neck pickup, for most of my leads. Anybody got ideas?
I must say choosing a pickup is cause for considerable computer eye strain, i don't know what they did before guitar internet forums. ?
