« A Dimarzio for modern metal tones »

The Dimarzio Crunchlab is an updated version of the D-Sonic pickup. John Petrucci of Dream Theater got together with Dimarzio to change some things he disliked about the D-Sonic pickup which he had been using. The Crunchlab is a bridge position pickup that features a unique asymmetrical design. One end of the pickup has normal construction with pole piece magnets the other end has a bar or rail magnet like you would find an a Dimarzio X2N. The rated output is 11k with it voiced more progressively towards the low end. The pickup is a bit noisy because of its high output. It may pick up some radio signals or interference from nearby electronics. Because this pickup has an asymmetrical construction the tone you get will greatly depend on how you have the pickup orientated in your guitar. Petrucci designed the pickup to be orientated with the bar magnet towards the neck. This gives more low end response. Since Petrucci likes to use basswood guitars this pickup is geared for more low end response to balance out the brightness of that wood. In heavier wood guitars like mahogany this pickup may produce a sound that is too bassy or muddy. The pickup will produce tight low end and comfortable high end in guitars with a suitable wood. This pickup could make an all maple guitar sound dark. The pickup sounds just like its name, it is very crunchy. The lead tones the Crunchlab produces are also good. Because the pickup has a lot of the high end dialed out you can get a very smooth and modern sounding lead tone out of it, or as smooth a lead tone as you can get with a bridge pickup. This pickup is geared towards high gain playing through modern metal amps such as Mesa Boogie Rectifiers or ENGL amps. I would recommend this pickup to anyone looking for a smooth modern metal or progressive sounding bridge pickup.