DiMarzio Crunch Lab DP228F WH

I was long looking for the characteristic sound of Petrucci. Finally, I gave it a go and bought his signature bridge humbucker. Installed in my late 80s Ibanez RG550 and it sound immense.

Fluid and thick for solos, as well as crunchy and precise for rhythm stuff. It really gets you very close to the Petrucci sound!

Great for cleans as well, which I was surprised to find!

Ibanez RG570 1989 - basswood body, rosewood fingerboard
Ibanez LoPro Edge
Dimarzio Crunch Lab F bridge
Dimarzio Fast Track middle (push/push tone pot splits in positions 2/3/4)
Dimarzio Liqifire neck

I bought the Crunch Lab as an experiment, normally I was used to Seymour Duncan or custom wound Dimarzio pickups in my USA Hamers from the late '80s. The pickup arrived fast from Thomann as always, their service is excellent! The RG570 was an original carcass; neck, neck plate and body however I didn't receive anything else with it, I rebuilt the guitar and the amount of flutter/warble from LoPro Edge is crazy, the neck is the original Wizard profile, super slim, a slab of dark rosewood, it was built to shred from the ground up.

The Crunch Lab is a stunning pickup, it's not overly 'in your face', it's very musical, the crushing depths of drop tuning, it handles great. Normally I tend to use it with a Digitech Whammy DT pedal which is connected to an Avid Eleven Rack for recording into Pro Tools. The Crunch Lab picks up everything, subtle nuances through to some techniques I've developed into my playing, it doesn't lose definition and reducing the volume on the guitar, opens up lots more tone out of the pickup. Pound for pound, one of the best pickups I've ever bought, coupled with the Fast Track in the middle and the Liqifire, the guitar has everything, it's a combination worth trying out.

Dimarzio were great for their support, I didn't really want to waste the stacked humbucker in the form of the Fast Track, I was sent a custom wiring diagram which enabled me to coil split the Fast Track in positions 2/3/4 on the five way selector, positions 2 and 4 split the Crunch Lab and Liqifire, splitting the Fast Track just adds to the tones. The Crunch Lab's coil split sounds great, really musical, back the volume control off again and just noodle away.

I shall be shopping for more pickups from Thomann shortly!

I installed the Dimazio Crunch Lab in bridge position on my Ibanez RGA42, which has a solid mahogany body. The pickup is installed in the traditional position with the bridge facing the neck. I

This pickup is really 'hot' and handles high gain really well. The clean sounds from this pickup are also outstanding. However, for modern metal tones I find that it lacks attack and definition/clarity. Especially on a mahogany body guitar where it sounds really dark. I personally think this pickup will better match on a basswood body guitar. Overall this is a quite versatile pickup.

Regarding the quality of the build, Dimarzio did not met my expectations. I was expecting a better build quality from such a renowned company and for the price I paid. The ribbon surrounding the coil of the pickup are loose and threads were hanging.