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Hatsubai « Evolution of the D-Sonic 7 »
Published on 03/28/11 at 11:05The DiMarzio Crunch Lab 7 is a new signature pickup that John Petrucci helped create. It’s basically an evolution of the D-Sonic 7 that he started using in the bridge position. This pickup features adjustable pole pieces on one coil, a huge blade like the X2N7 on the other, four conductor wiring and a ceramic magnet.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the D-Sonic 7. It was picky on what wood it liked, and it was noisy. DiMarzio solved half of the issues I had with this pickup. First off, this pickup is hotter, yet it sounds more open. I really enjoyed that. It’s clear, more complex than the original D-Sonic 7 and works in just about any tuning. The original one got different sounds depending on how you ran it, and this one is similar. Despite that, it seems that John Petrucci likes running it with the bar towards the neck for every tuning, for whatever reason. I find that it sounds best that way, but some people prefer it with the bar towards the bridge. You just have to experiment and see which orientation you like it in. Split tones sound nicer than the last one; I haven’t tested this out in parallel.
Now, the biggest problem with this pickup is that it’s still noisy. It’s not quite as noisy as the last one, but it still seems to pickup some RF. I have a noise gate running most of the time, so it’s not a huge problem for me, but just keep that in mind.
If you’re looking for a new pickup to try, I recommend testing this pickup out. It’s hot, but it’s not trying to slam your amp. It’s more open than most high output pickup, and even some of the more boutique guitar builders are starting to offer this as a standard pickup.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the D-Sonic 7. It was picky on what wood it liked, and it was noisy. DiMarzio solved half of the issues I had with this pickup. First off, this pickup is hotter, yet it sounds more open. I really enjoyed that. It’s clear, more complex than the original D-Sonic 7 and works in just about any tuning. The original one got different sounds depending on how you ran it, and this one is similar. Despite that, it seems that John Petrucci likes running it with the bar towards the neck for every tuning, for whatever reason. I find that it sounds best that way, but some people prefer it with the bar towards the bridge. You just have to experiment and see which orientation you like it in. Split tones sound nicer than the last one; I haven’t tested this out in parallel.
Now, the biggest problem with this pickup is that it’s still noisy. It’s not quite as noisy as the last one, but it still seems to pickup some RF. I have a noise gate running most of the time, so it’s not a huge problem for me, but just keep that in mind.
If you’re looking for a new pickup to try, I recommend testing this pickup out. It’s hot, but it’s not trying to slam your amp. It’s more open than most high output pickup, and even some of the more boutique guitar builders are starting to offer this as a standard pickup.