BrandonYancar

The Tone Zone is a lot more of a "well-rounded" pickup. The D Sonic is really aimed towards the drop-tuned, scooped mid sound that a lot of the nu metal guys were going for in the early-mid 2000's. You can get some warmer tones by installing the pickup backwards (with the "bar" facing away from the bridge), John Petrucci is one guy who does this quite a bit, but I personally find the D Sonic tone a bit "sterile" regardless of how you install it (plus it doesn't work well for drop-tuning in the "backwards" configuration), and it's definitely NOT a pickup you'd want to install in the neck position. It's strictly designed to be a high-output bridge pickup. I feel like you can get the same tone you get from the D Sonic with the Tone Zone if you tweak your EQ/gain levels, but the Tone Zone does some stuff you just can't do with the D Sonic.

That helped, thank you.

Yeah, I've had a few people comment on that. I'm pretty sure it's like a 3-note loop on an acoustic guitar, I'm just not sure on the notes yet.

 

The whole deal with the D Sonics was basically just done because of an endorsement with that particular DiMarzio pickup model during the Meteora era. Brad VERY briefly used one on his main red soldier PRS, and they found their way into a couple other guitars too (the orange Ibanez used on With You/Runaway, the red "4-string" PRS used on Figure.09, and at least one of Mike's custom-painted Ibanez RG's). None of those guitars had D Sonics in them by 2005 though. LP still uses other DiMarzio pickups in a lot of their non-PRS guitars...Brad's always been a big Tone Zone/Area 58 user, Chester and Mike use Chopper T's in most of their Green Guitar Project guitars, and a lot of Brad and Mike's Strats (save for the Rory Gallagher tribute models) have Virtual Vintage and/or Virtual Solo pickups. I think Mike's PRS SE One models also have the P90 version of the Tone Zone in them.

That's exactly what I was going to say it was, but I wouldn't say it's a loop because the pattern of notes being played isn't consistent, it sounds like hammering on and off. And I'm looking to buy a Dimarzio pickup, would I rather want a Tone Zone or a D Sonic? Just give me your opinion, if you've got one. I want a good solid heavy-ish I can layer with good mid/low tone, but I want my highs to cut through nicely likes he's got going on in their earlier albums.

great place for those things:

linkinparkguitar.webs.com

Thank you!

Not exactly a question, I doubt many of you will care, but if anyone follows the guitar parts in LP, I think I've found a new guitar part in I'll Be Gone. It comes in halfway through the verses and it sounds like a little random piece they just threw in, you can't hear it unless you listen to the instrumental, even then it's extremely inaudible, I put the track in Audacity and messed with some stuff and got a good listen on it and I think I have it, I'll post a video or something on my YT channel if anyone's interested on giving feedback. I do have a question, though, did Brad use D Sonics in all of his guitars during Meteora or even HT? Does anyone know EXACTLY what pickups he used? Thank you.

I'd like to hear an early version of Somewhere I Belong, at least one of the 40 choruses they wrote, a really early Hybrid Theory demo, a demo of Don't Stay (Sick), Castle Of Glass Demo, and the others I would love new instrumentals.