Tone Zone Pickup - Sounding thin? - Broken Coil - Rewind?

[jcmjmp]

Is it just me or is the Dimarzio Tone Zone a little thin sounding and piercing in the high end. I tried this pickup (again) and it just seems to lack the bass response of the Super Distortion and the high end seems to be a little thin. NO meat.

I tried the pickup with a crunchy sound through a JCM800 with not too much gain. A cleanish crunch. Maybe the tone zone only sounds good with a lot of distortion?

Any recommendations for a good alternative? I love the sound of a Gibson T-Top but would like more output. I've been considering the 36th anniv but not sure that it will be the tone I want and that the output will be enough.

[fillmore nyc]

Is it just me or is the Dimarzio Tone Zone a little thin sounding and piercing in the high end. I tried this pickup (again) and it just seems to lack the bass response of the Super Distortion and the high end seems to be a little thin. NO meat.

I tried the pickup with a crunchy sound through a JCM800 with not too much gain. A cleanish crunch. Maybe the tone zone only sounds good with a lot of distortion?

Any recommendations for a good alternative? I love the sound of a Gibson T-Top but would like more output.

Thats a REAL strange occurrence with a Tone Zone. I had one in a "stunt guitar" (Strat body, single HB'er, Floyd). It was in there a very short time for the exact opposite reasons you stated... it had too much bottom, not enough top and not enough note to note definition.
It shouldnt be the amp, cause a properly working JCM800 has good bottom end.
Piercing in the high end would be the LAST thing I woulda called the one I had... it was muddy if anything.

Maybe its the pickup itself?? Did you mod it in any way, or was it a used pickup and possibly modded by someone else? Unless your amp has an issue, my guess is that the pickup is out of phase with itself... possibly wired incorrectly. Are the coils wired in series? If they're wired in parallel it would cause a thin sound. Possibly a reversed magnet? Maybe you tied the wrong wires to couple the coils and you're only hearing 1/2 the pickup, like it was coil tapped?
That would be my guess, unless DiMarzio let a bum pickup out. Check the resistance on a volt meter... it should read high, at least 16k-17k wired in the guitar.

I've said it a bunch of times, but a great pickup (IMO) is a Gibson 498T. Lots of output, definition AND bottom. It would be the answer to a Gibson T top with more of everything, but not shrill on the top end

[jcmjmp]

OK - I double checked the coils on the pickup and one of them is toast. I tried redoing the connections but the thing is dead.

Not sure how that happened but I'm not happy.

That's a great tip regarding the 498T. I'll be on the lookout for them on eBay.

[jcmjmp]

Anyone else have this happen to them (one coil going dead)? Maybe that's why I yanked this pickup out 2 years ago.

[jcmjmp]

I'd like to have the broken coil re-wound. Does anyone here know of people that do this? With all the custom pickup winders out there, there must be someone that does this.

[fillmore nyc]

I'd like to have the broken coil re-wound. Does anyone here know of people that do this? With all the custom pickup winders out there, there must be someone that does this.

You know what might be a pretty cool idea with that pickup? Try using a coil from another pickup altogether. I thought I read somewhere that EVH tried that and was able to come up with something cool. Even original PAF's often had out of balance coils, and supposedly thats the reason for some of them being "magic". Might be worth a try. I believe there are some pickup winders doing this intentionally these days to get different responses from pickups.
The relative same coil from any scrap DiMarzio humbucker (especially a DiMarzio PAF, or something similar) might sound unique.
If you DO try it, just put a light wipe of silicone sealant between the mag and the new coil. It'll work like potting to stop any microphonic squealing.

[mayrandp]

I'd like to have the broken coil re-wound. Does anyone here know of people that do this? With all the custom pickup winders out there, there must be someone that does this.

I see you're from QC. Maybe you can contact Micros Lauzon: http://www.lauzonpickups.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone else have this happen to them (one coil going dead)? Maybe that's why I yanked this pickup out 2 years ago.

It happened at least 2 times to me to have brand new DiMarzio pickups (Virtual Vintage Noiseless strat pickups to be more precise) that had a dead coil right out of the box.

[jcmjmp]

The relative same coil from any scrap DiMarzio humbucker (especially a DiMarzio PAF, or something similar) might sound unique.
If you DO try it, just put a light wipe of silicone sealant between the mag and the new coil. It'll work like potting to stop any microphonic squealing.

Sounds like a great idea... but do I get another coil from a broken pickup?

[jcmjmp]

I'd like to have the broken coil re-wound. Does anyone here know of people that do this? With all the custom pickup winders out there, there must be someone that does this.

I see you're from QC. Maybe you can contact Micros Lauzon: http://www.lauzonpickups.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone else have this happen to them (one coil going dead)? Maybe that's why I yanked this pickup out 2 years ago.

It happened at least 2 times to me to have brand new DiMarzio pickups (Virtual Vintage Noiseless strat pickups to be more precise) that had a dead coil right out of the box.

Thanks. I'll give lauzon a try. This pickup actually worked at some point. It stopped working. Never had that happen before. Perhaps it wasn't handled properly.

[fillmore nyc]

The relative same coil from any scrap DiMarzio humbucker (especially a DiMarzio PAF, or something similar) might sound unique.
If you DO try it, just put a light wipe of silicone sealant between the mag and the new coil. It'll work like potting to stop any microphonic squealing.

Sounds like a great idea... but do I get another coil from a broken pickup?

If you have a broken pickup, that would be the place to get a coil, obviously as long as you know the coil you're gonna use is working. I think you'd probably have to use the matching coil from another DiMarzio pickup (meaning, if the blown coil on your TZ is the one with the adjustable screws, you're gonna have to use the adjustable screw coil from the donor pickup).
If you try to use a different pickup mfr's coil, its gonna be a real crap shoot as to whether its gonna be in phase with the good coil on the TZ, not to mention something as simple as the coil mounting screws lining up correctly, the bobbins being the same height, etc.

I realize that having another blown DiMarzio sitting around with the correct coil still being operable is a real long shot, but I figured I'd throw the idea out there. You might even try calling DiMarzio and ask them if they'll just fix your pickup, but dont expect too much cooperation from them... they're not real "people friendly".

[NY Chief]

Search the forum. I rememebr a lengthy thead about doing excatly that, using a coil from another pickup as an intentional mis match. I printed it out to try at some point 'cuz it sounded like an interseting idea.