DiMarzio D Sonic

This review is for the Dimarzio D Sonic Humbucking pickup.
I'm not going to bother listing the tech specs on here. You can find those at www.dimarzio.com
The D Sonic is a 4 conductor humbucker, which, of course, means that it is capable of humbucking, single coil, series/parallel and in and out of phase switching. While I have not tested the parallel option, I have tested everything else in a working music environment. As one might expect, the single coil tone is a bit less output than dual coil. However, it's not much lower. It's more like a high output single coil than a traditional single coil. While I'm at it, I should mention that there is a bit of a difference between the coils (I have my guitar wired with a phase switch ahead of the single coil switch enabling coil selection). It's not huge, but significant.
The series connection in dual coil mode (standard humbucking operation) is fantastic. It has a lot of power and punch. It's akin to the Seymour Duncan Dimebucker. Perhaps a little more bass than the Dimebucker. Fantastic overdrive sounds too! I would not recommend this pickup for "pretty" clean sounds. It's a rather rude clean tone actually. Quite distinct, but not for the faint of heart. The distorted tone is not quite as distorted as an EMG 81, but both clean and dirty tones are far more dynamic in my assessment than the EMG 81. High powered sound without the loss of feel.
It is a passive pickup by the way (so, no batteries to replace).

I installed this pickup into a modified Parker PM-20 in the bridge position. It's replacing the stock Parker Stinger pickup.
It's coupled with a Dimarzio PAF (Pro?) in the Neck. Together they make a nice pair. Although the D Sonic tends to overpower the PAF when both are on together, the PAF is a nice counterpoint to the D Sonic's power and punch.
A lot of other artists use this pickup. See www.dimarzio.com for more info on that.
I switched to this pickup to get better distortion out of my Peavey Valveking. It was a good choice! I get much improved tone all around and much tighter gain from the amp with the D Sonic.

The D Sonic's output level is high. High Gain and fairly high volume as well relative to the neck pickup (while not completely unbalancing the pickup to pickup volume balance).
I use various effects with this pickup. It does just fine getting through. As I said before, I use the Peavey Valveking amp with this pickup. Perhaps not the absolute best amp, but it matches up well with my guitar and pickups.
Overall tone is generally well balanced in the bridge position while being just a bit on the trebly side. Nice bass response when palm-muted though.
I play a lot of different styles of music. While I wouldn't recommend this pickup for lighter styles, it's great for heavier styles. That's not hard and fast though. If you like a distinct clean sound, this could be for you even if you play Jazz or the like.
This pickup is fantastic in the bridge. I can't comment on any other positions as I haven't tried them. You would need a rather high output bridge pickup to counter point this in the neck though.

I would definitely replace this pickup with the same thing if something happened to it.
I have been playing about 9 years now and I own various other sorts of equipment. Seeing as I'm lazy, I'm not going to list it all here.
I love the tone and the output of this pickup. I probably wouldn't want it for a single pickup guitar though as I like a lot of versatility of tones. For a two pickup guitar though, it's great!
I compared this to several other pickups, most notably, the Dimebucker. I prefer the Mid-range response of this pickup to the Dimebucker.
I think if Dimarzio offered this pickup with an option for gold polepieces, I'd be on that like a fat kid on cake!
I am satisfied with this pickup and am not looking to replace it.
Fantastic pickup for heavier styles or to counterpoint a deeper, cleaner neck pickup!

The D-sonic is a high output, passive bridge humbucker (no batteries requried unlike EMGs) designed for tight low-end playing. It comes as a 6 and 7 string version (6string version reviewed by me)
It features the standard polepieces as well as a solid metal bar, and the sound changes according to which way round you fit it:
Polepieces away from bridge: Tight and aggressive.
Polepieces towards bridge: Warmer and melodic, though still fine for metal playing.

I fitted the pickup in the bridge position of my Maverick F-1 guitar with the polepieces facing towards the bridge. The pickup I replaced it with was the standard Maverick bridge humbucker which came with the guitar.
The D-sonic is used by John Petrucci from Dream Theater as the 6 and 7 string version, as well as Brad Delson from Linkin Park.
What I wanted from a new pickup was increased sustain and a much clearer sound when soloing.

The output level was fine - perhaps a little louder than the Maverick pickup. I'm going through a Boss MT-2 pedal into a 100w Marshall amp. To my surprise the tone of the pickup was actually a little more trebly than my old pickup which made it good for rhythm, but a little over the top for lead playing,
My main influences are Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Opeth etc and the D-sonic definitely is designed for this style of music. Since Dimarzio claimed it is unsuitable for the bridge position, I would take their word for it, and just stick to the bridge.

Ive seen the D-sonic retailed at prices ranging from ??59 - ??90. I paid the latter and I do think it was worth it. Were it obducted by aliens, I might try another one, but according to the spec, this is the one for me really. It has a very good tone, though the sustain could be a little better - I guess that probably requires a Mesa Road King! I compared it with other hi-output pickups from Dimarzio such as Steve's Special, Evolution and the Tone Zone, but this one sounded right for me. Although I am happy with the pickup, I still am searching for 'that' sound, but it probably takes a better amp.

Passive humbucking pickup

This pickup has replaced stock bridge position pickups in a Steinberger Spirit double neck, an Epiphone LP Special and now it's going into a Mexican Fender Strat.

I got this new at auction on ebay cheap and wanted, originally, to change the dull sounding EMG Select in my double neck.

Don't let DiMarzio's Downtuning, Nu-Metal marketing fool you. This is a much more versatile pickup than advertised. (Why else would Petrucci play it?)

I play in a black metal band in standard tuning with 12 gauge strings. I have my H&K Matrix's 3 distortion channels plus two pedal distortions I use off and on (Boss Metal Zone & Metal Core). So I LIKE distortion! As tempted as I am to get an X2N or Invader I don't want my guitar to come screaming out of the gate. This pickup does well at making my powerchords sound big & doomy and is also quite articulate.

I don't know why but it has a certain "twang" to it that I really like when it's driven.

If this pickup dies on me I might try a D Activator.

I've been playing since I was 15. Bass for 23 years and I started playing guitar in the last 2 so I'm playing catch-up as far as learning what I like in guitar pickups. The first pickup I bought for guitar was a Super Distortion that I put in my Jackson. I like that pickup but the D Sonic seems to have a bit more personality.

I feel this pickup is a good compromise between the all out power I want and the articulation I need. Not perfect, but good.

Great high-power passive bridge humbucker. Impedance is about normal for a bridge hummer, slightly lower treble response than most bridge pickups, but with its power, it sounds more like a boosted bass & mid than a weaker treble.

I installed this into a home-made strat, along with Hot Rails (mini) in the mid and an Air Norton in the neck.
I've wired the whole thing up my own little way, allowing me to have all three pickups running in series if I want, expecting very good rhythm through a metal pedal. It seems now though, that the Dropsonic by itself does a better job though!
As everyone else has mentioned, petrucci used the 7-string version of this pickup - I think it was originally designed for 7-strings, hence its extended bass end.
I chose it because I like his rhythm tone, I figured I could get some Bodom and pink floyd tones out of it too with the right EQ, and could easily wire it in such a way, that I can short out one coil if I want to, getting pretty close to a single-coil sound from it for playing older stuff and clean stuff.
I'd recommend this to anyone who uses a lot of varied tunings - it handles chords in open C very nicely, unlike my old coils, where some strings suddenly started dominating the others.

As I said before... very good, consistent, strong sound - and various other sounds besides the norm, if you're willing to wire it for hummer, phasing, single, etc.
Very good for rhythm, and solos - I was slightly worried that DiMarzio said "single-note solos", and I like soloing in 3rds, but its been no problem at all!

Keep it at the bridge position... unless you've got plenty of money to spend and are tone-deaf.

I've been playing for around 4-6 years, used an Encore strat originally (nasty piece of ****), and added improvements over the years - this new strat with the new pickups (particulally the DSonic) is almost perfect for me (apart from bad woodwork :(), so if it got stolen, I'd probably buy an Ibanez and fit a DSonic into it... or maybe an ESP AX-400.

I compared this to most other pickups that my friends had in their guitars - DiMarzios, Seymoures, EMG Select etc. The DSonic was by far the best bridge one I heard.

Humbucking passive pickup used for bridge. high output.

Was installed by previous owner of an LTD Dave Mustaine Axxion(Beware of buying on an auction! This happens!!!). Used by Dream Theater' John Petrucci. The original Seymour Duncan Jazz is in the neck.

I use a Fender Blues Junior, with an Uber metal pedal.

The tone was very balanced, actually. On allmy settings on the Uber Metal, the PU was very responsive and clear; the main attraction of this PU by DiMarzio is that it's used for drop-tuning, but as the people before me have said, this PU is very clear in standard tuning as well. I was very worried that the D Sonic would sound terrible clean, but it was very full and clear. I agree that this is a bridge PU only. In the neck, the sound would be overpowering for leads... probably too thick. With the super-clear Jazz, it's a great match for my Metal Machine, stoner style, with melody LOL!

I can't give a PERFECT rating overall for any pickup: there are always improvements needed. I have gone through sooo many axes and pickups, it's insane. I was looking for an axe to change PUs to my specifications, and it turns out that this PU was a welcome( if not very unexpected) surprise. It has the biting, modern metal sound, but tonally it is very satisfying: not too harsh, not muddy, which made me very happy. Worth at least a try....Pick it up!

Adjustable poles and one blade. Got mine in blue, but it comes really in light blue, so be wary.

I installed it in the bridge position of a Jackson DKMG. They say John Petrucci of Dream Theater plays one. I changed to this pickup because out of all the humbucker clips at DiMarzio, the D Sonic had the sonic characteristics I wanted for rhythm and lead.

The output is high, but not terribly overpowering. I'm playing through a Crate MX65R only. I'd say the D Sonic's tone is bright, trebly, and middy. Pretty balanced with cool, bright edginess for rhythm and major high end on the treble strings - good for screaming solos. The clean sound is quite good and heavy.

I play hard rock - Metal with all my strings tuned down one whole step, so obviously one half of any problem is cleared up. Tonewise it does hard rock and Heavy Metal well. I think you have to turn up the gain on this p'up for some Thrash.

I wouldn't even jokingly putting this in the neck position.

I would essentially outfit all my axes with the D Sonic - tuned standard or low. Been playing 13+ years and love it's output and bright edge for pumping rhythms, but I'm still just getting used to it's stout, bright edge - I've only had it for a couple of weeks, but I doubt I'd replace it because it's what I was searching for altogether.

Good for shred and Heavy Metal rhythms.

Passive Humbucker Specs @ Dimarzio.com

Updating the bridge pickup in my MusicMan JP6 to the newer specs. No problem with the old pickup just always looking for something different to try out.

Much higher output than the original bridge pickup. Still very open sounding and more overtones, slightly brighter even with bar towards the neck. Great with every amp I've played it with. Sounds absolutely beautiful throught my Triaxis/2:90 rig. Still trying to even out the volume between the two pickups.

It's more of a modern sound that still feels thicker than standard bridge humbuckers yet it retains a heaviness that is so important to moderately high gain rhythm sounds

Passive Humbucker
390mV

-I Installed this in the bridge of my Ibanez RG.
-This replaces the DiMarzio Mo Joe.
-Other pickups would include the Chopper and Virtual 2.
-The only artist I care about who uses this pickup is Petrucci.
-I changed it because I needed a more aggressive pickup. The Mo Joe is a beautiful pickup, lots of dynamics, harmonics and really great grind. But there wasn't enough sizzle for my taste. I wanted a pickup with balls. If the Mo Joe had a little more oomph than I think it would've stayed.

-The output is very high, but not too much. I's just right! As everyone in the other posts say, it is very balanced. I have it with the pole pieces toward the bridge. I don't do too much alternate tunings so this suits me very well. I like a good amount of mids in my sound and since I have a maple fret board, having the blades face the bridge may be too bright.
-My setup is as follows: Dunlop Crybaby, Behringer chorus, Digitech Bad Monkey, Boss DS-1, Dan Electro equalizer, and Ibanez Delay into a cheap Fender Solidstate.
-The tone is exactly what I had always dreamed of. When I asked for a pickup with balls, I didn't know it was gonna come with a full set of hair. This sucker is mean! It's got all of what the Mo Joe had plus what it didn't have. It's very dynamic, and will also clean up with the volume rolled down. It picks up all you nuances. It's not a one trick pony. Initially I was concerned about the cleans that come out of it. I was pleasantly surprised upon hearing it - it's crisp and crystal clean. I have yet to try the split and parallel options.
-Obviously this is a great pickup for metal and different rock styles. If you mess around with the settings and play with your volume, you can actually get a bluesy sound from it. It wouldn't do vintage very well, but if you got it, you probably didn't get it for that.
-This should only go on the bridge.

-If it were stolen, I would get another one. As long as one of my axes has it, I'll be happy. Then I'll go try something else.
-I've been playing for 11 years and gone trough many guitars and pickups. I've gone through a Duncan JB & 59, Dimarzio Tone Zone, Evolutions, Mo Joe, Virtual Vintage models and a Chopper. This is the best one I've ever tried for the bridge position.
-I'm very satified with this decision. Can't figure out why I didn't try it in the first place. If I was looking for a sound that defines me, this one would be it. But I'm not necessarily trying to do that. I like variety and for that reason, I may never find MY SOUND.
-Don't be shy because of how DiMarzio marketed this is a pickup for drop tunings, that was my mistake. This pickup will do standard tunings too in a very awesome way. Check it out!