# Dimarzio Ionizer clips/review



## 7 Strings of Hate (Jan 21, 2013)

So since Dimarzio was cool enough to send me a set of pups to review, I would....review them.

So I'v had these in for a couple weeks or so. I wanted to play with them for a while to get an honest opinion. 

Basically, I can say I'm very happy with them. I cant say a bad thing about them. And I'm not just saying that to kiss butt, this set is incredibly versatile.
I dont have the middle single coil slot routed out on my Carvin, so unfortunately didn't get a chance to use the one that comes with the set. 

With the bridge, the lows and mids are a little more emphsized that the treble, but that makes it more balanced sounding to me. It sounds awesome for prog rock type stuff. Since they are a little lower output, you get a bit more clarity in the high gain stuff. It does pretty good for death metal as well. Personally, I go for high output pups, but these really suprized me. I wasnt sure they would have enough grit for something that heavy, but it sounded great for distorted stuff. 

The neck is really beautiful when your playing clean stuff. Its got great clean, jangly sounds. Single coil-ish, but still full sounding. I could see someone using this for jazz easily, and as i mentioned, ambient type stuff. Of course it would be great for prog rock type stuff as well.
I dont really use the neck pup for distortion often. I usually play only soft ambient type stuff on my neck, so I'm not the best guy to tell you about distorted neck tone, but I'd say it was fairly fluid on the runs and sweeps.

I slapped together a few clips, but I have been so busy lately. I just kinda jammed a few licks and tried to do a little movement with low, mid and high strings to give you a rough idea of how they sound. Granted, clips on the internet are hard to rely on. But something is better than nothing, right?

My set up be : Dual recto, red channel, mesa 2x12 with v30's. The mic was an SM57. I didnt do anything to the clips other than mess with the levels a bit and on the clean stuff there is a Boss RV5 for the reverb.

Heres the clips.
Dimarzio Ionizer clips - YouTube


----------



## HOKENSTYFE (Jan 21, 2013)

Lucky 56K dog! I spent all night, last night hoping to find them on sale. Haven't heard when they may be released to the public. Figured with NAMM this week, now as good a time as any.

Well, good deal man. Got some plans to try them out this year. They sound good.


----------



## filin_groove (Jan 22, 2013)

They are SO bad at distortion or it's just quality that suck so much?


----------



## 7 Strings of Hate (Jan 22, 2013)

filin_groove said:


> They are SO bad at distortion or it's just quality that suck so much?



Thanks for the kind words  
I'm not sure what your asking. Clips are really not the best way to show how a pup sounds due to setups being different and a ton of variables. But it's a badass amp with a badass cab, with the industry standard mic on a badass guitar being used here. 
It might not sound amazing by its self, but if you put this in a mix, it would sound right.


----------



## toiletstand (Jan 22, 2013)

gonna check this out when i get home later. thanks dude!


----------



## MF_Kitten (Jan 22, 2013)

Have you tried the D Activator 8? I'd love to know how they compare. Have a custom 8 coming up that i was thinking about going D Activator 8 + Ionizer Neck on...


----------



## Electric Wizard (Jan 22, 2013)

I have yet to break out the good headphones and really listen to these critically, but my initial reaction to your clip and the video by Dimarzio is that the Ionizers sound like the Dimarzio take on Lace xbars. I think they sound cool, but can see how people wouldn't be on board. Anyways, great clips.


----------



## Whammy (Jan 22, 2013)

These pickups really seem to shine in split coil mode.
Not super impressed with the humbucker tone but if you were to use split coil mode more often than humbucker mode I can see the advantages of these pickups.


----------



## Valennic (Jan 22, 2013)

Do like a lot. When I get an 8 I'm gonna have to give these a look, I did not like the d-activator 8s at all in the Ibby I tried out.


----------



## celticelk (Jan 22, 2013)

Electric Wizard said:


> I have yet to break out the good headphones and really listen to these critically, but my initial reaction to your clip and the video by Dimarzio is that the Ionizers sound like the Dimarzio take on Lace xbars. I think they sound cool, but can see how people wouldn't be on board. Anyways, great clips.



Which then makes one wonder about the possibilities of the Ionizer single-coil middle pickup combined with a pair of Alumitones wired for coil-splitting....


----------



## glassmoon0fo (Jan 22, 2013)

Got a set coming very soon, I'll demo them versus the DA 8s. 

Cant Wait. #BartScott


----------



## 7 Strings of Hate (Jan 23, 2013)

From what iv heard of the alumni tones, it's not too far off from that sound. IMO, the neck is just beautiful. For the bridge, it's excellent for everything. But if I were only going for death metal, I would probably go with a deactivator because I'm a high output guy for that sound personally, but the ionizer can totally do dm and well


----------



## Philligan (Jan 23, 2013)

glassmoon0fo said:


> Got a set coming very soon, I'll demo them versus the DA 8s.
> 
> Cant Wait. #BartScott



I'm looking forward to this 



7 Strings of Hate said:


> From what iv heard of the alumni tones, it's not too far off from that sound. IMO, the neck is just beautiful. For the bridge, it's excellent for everything. But if I were only going for death metal, I would probably go with a deactivator because I'm a high output guy for that sound personally, but the ionizer can totally do dm and well



That's what I was thinking, they seem a hair on the warm side for death metal compared to the D Activator. I'm really stoked about them, though, they seem really beefy and defined. I just got a DA8/PAF8 in my 8 and I wanna change them out to try these 

The single coil is an awesome idea, I just really hate the 60 cycle hum. I wonder if they could do an Area-style noiseless one. That neck sounds killer tapped, though, so that would probably do more than well enough for me


----------



## 7 Strings of Hate (Jan 23, 2013)

Philligan said:


> The single coil is an awesome idea, I just really hate the 60 cycle hum. I wonder if they could do an Area-style noiseless one. That neck sounds killer tapped, though, so that would probably do more than well enough for me



The single coil in this set wasnt really ment to be used as a single coil, but as a way to beef up coil tapping for the bridge and neck, but not to give you the traditional humbucker sound.


----------



## Toxin (Jan 23, 2013)

They're not gonna release the 7string version of those?


----------



## Philligan (Jan 23, 2013)

7 Strings of Hate said:


> The single coil in this set wasnt really ment to be used as a single coil, but as a way to beef up coil tapping for the bridge and neck, but not to give you the traditional humbucker sound.



Yeah, I thought the tones Tosin got were really cool. My first reaction though was to try it in the neck of my RGA8 anyway


----------



## Kryss (Jan 24, 2013)

sounds good to me.


----------



## meambobbo (Jan 31, 2013)

so after salivating over Tosin's demo, I wanted to give my D Activators a good run through on clean tones with my RGA8. I have them wired so you can pull my volume pot for neck parallel and tone pot for bridge parallel.

To be honest, I feel like the D Activators wired as such as perfect for the tones Tosin said he was trying to achieve. I guess it's impossible to make a strong declaration without being able to A/B them, but I think the D Activators are VERY dynamic, clean, warm, and midsy. I'm not doing any out-of-phase tones, but I'm not really interested in that anyway. I just don't see the draw of the Ionizer when the D Activator is IMO perfect for the goals Tosin sets. Although I will say I do occasionally use a high pass filter to drop off some of the extreme low end to tighten up the tone. But IMO it's better to have it and filter it sometimes than to never have it.

What I do find strange is that Tosin is now saying he's been working for 2 years to get a very clean and dynamic pickup when he not that long ago said he mainly liked using the EMG's because of their compression...


----------



## glassmoon0fo (Jan 31, 2013)

You say a lot of things when you're an endorsee.


----------



## MF_Kitten (Feb 1, 2013)

meambobbo said:


> so after salivating over Tosin's demo, I wanted to give my D Activators a good run through on clean tones with my RGA8. I have them wired so you can pull my volume pot for neck parallel and tone pot for bridge parallel.
> 
> To be honest, I feel like the D Activators wired as such as perfect for the tones Tosin said he was trying to achieve. I guess it's impossible to make a strong declaration without being able to A/B them, but I think the D Activators are VERY dynamic, clean, warm, and midsy. I'm not doing any out-of-phase tones, but I'm not really interested in that anyway. I just don't see the draw of the Ionizer when the D Activator is IMO perfect for the goals Tosin sets. Although I will say I do occasionally use a high pass filter to drop off some of the extreme low end to tighten up the tone. But IMO it's better to have it and filter it sometimes than to never have it.
> 
> What I do find strange is that Tosin is now saying he's been working for 2 years to get a very clean and dynamic pickup when he not that long ago said he mainly liked using the EMG's because of their compression...



I'm guessing he's discovered the benefits of a dynamic sounding pickup, and compressing it after the fact instead. It's not like Tosin has kept a single setup or rig for very long, so i'm sure he's still working on figuring out what's perfect for his needs.


----------



## sawtoothscream (Dec 31, 2014)

not really liking mine. guitar sounds very weak and muddy when distorted.

they sound clean clean though, really good


----------

