Not impressed by the CrunchLab pickup. Suggestions for something different?

[DeathByGuitar]

I'm playing an Ibanez SZ520 with a mahogany body, mahogany neck, and maple top. I just put a DiMarzio Crunch Lab in the bridge and I'm seriously underwhelmed by it. Regardless of if I have the bar facing the neck or bridge, it still sounds pretty muddy and gross. Also, the ammount of output and gain this thing has is absolutely ridiculous, and not in a good way.

 

Are these pickups only good in basswood guitars?

 

I should also mention that I'm playing in DGCFAD, so low-tuned clarity is of the utmost importance. What other pickups should I look at? If I were playing in standard I'd reach for a Duncan JB but it's really lacking clarity-wise for low-tunings and has floppy bass.

[Spike Li]

You tried lowering it?

[DeathByGuitar]

Tried lowering it and raising it. Still sucks.

[Spike Li]

Maybe try changing the pots to higher value ones? That might help get rid of the mud, or maybe you hjust have a dark sounding guitar

[GilmourD]

That's definitely strange considering that's the John Petrucci pickup, and he's far from muddy and indistinct sounding...

 

What amp and effects are you using? Could it possibly be an issue of impedance loading? Sometimes some pedals and amp inputs don't like really hot pickups and load down the circuit. A lot of pedals, even newer designs, are modeled after vintage pedals which were originally designed with P-90s, PAFs, and vintage Fender pickups in mind. Same thing with amps (although with older tube amps this isn't a difficult fix if you can handle a soldering iron and swapping out a resistor on the input jack of the amp).