Dimarzio Sonic Ecstacy Vs Illuminator and Air Zone

So, I finally picked up a DiMarzio Sonic Ecstasy. Turns out, out of all the John Petrucci signature pickups, these are the hardest to track down. They originally came stock on the Music Man JP16 and Majesty Monarchy. The official story goes: when designing the Floyd-equipped JP16, Steve Blucher at DiMarzio wound a pickup to compensate for the natural brightness of a Floyd Rose. Petrucci liked it so much that it carried over to the Majesty. The only one I could find was an F-spaced version with a nickel cover. I didn't need a cover for a superstrat, but I figured if I liked the pickup, I could always take it off. It also gave me a good excuse to record an A/B comparison of the same pickup with and without the cover. So, what are the results? Despite the intimidating EQ chart on DiMarzio's site that makes the Sonic Ecstasy look like some super dark, overly hot pickup, it actually sounds very balanced. It is a richer, juicier version of the DiMarzio Illuminator. They are very similar. At first, I even thought my ears were fatigued after a long workday, so I double-checked and re-listened to the clips the next morning. The Illuminator is always intentionally dry and bright. The Sonic Ecstasy has more low-end—in the vein of a Tone Zone or Super Distortion—but it’s tighter and cleaner. The high-end on the Illuminators can sometimes feel a bit harsh or abrasive; here, it’s smoother. In the recordings, there isn't a massive difference, and it's not radically different in the room either. Structurally, they are also very similar: same thick ceramic magnet and nickel-silver baseplate. Inside the bobbins, additional iron slugs increase inductance without changing the DC resistance using DiMarzio's Virtual Vintage tech. Both coils are asymmetrically wound, which you can tell by the amount of wire used for their Dual Resonance design. Overall, I liked the pickup. It’s essentially an Illuminator without that characteristic dryness, which might not be for everyone. It’s a real shame this pickup went under the radar. It sounds like the perfect version of the Crunch Lab: SE is tight but has the chunk, the body, more lively and dynamic. The Crunch Lab always annoyed me because it felt stiff, sluggish, and quickly turned to mud as soon as the strings started to die. I think it's a huge mistake for DiMarzio to sell the Sonic Ecstasy on their site with that weird custom grill-cover, as default which jacks up the price. If they marketed it as a standard black humbucker, it would make way more sense. Bottom line: if you want a juicier Illuminator, grab a Sonic Ecstasy, provided you can manage to buy one. DiMarzio really nailed the balance between a tight low-end and a sweet top-end here. P.S. Regarding the cover: I recorded two clips of the Sonic Ecstasy with and without it. Specifically with the nickel cover, the difference is minimal. You lose a tiny bit of high-end, but barely noticeable unless you really AB it. Usually, the transparency scale goes like this: Uncovered ➡️ Nickel (barely noticeable) ➡️ Chrome (noticeable) ➡️ Gold (very noticeable, and often it ruins the pickup for me). 00:00 1 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel 00:18 1 Illuminator 00:34 1 Sonic Ecstasy 00:50 1 Air Zone 01:10 2 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel 01:24 2 Illuminator 01:40 2 Sonic Ecstasy 01:56 2 Air Zone 02:12 2 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel Mix 02:27 2 Illuminator Mix 02:43 2 Sonic Ecstasy Mix 03:00 2 Air Zone Mix 03:17 3 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel 03:35 3 Illuminator 03:54 3 Sonic Ecstasy 04:12 3 Air Zone 04:30 3 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel Mix 04:48 3 Illuminator Mix 05:07 3 Sonic Ecstasy Mix 05:25 3 Air Zone Mix 05:45 4 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel 05:56 4 Illuminator 06:08 4 Sonic Ecstasy 06:20 4 Air Zone 06:31 4 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel Mix 06:43 4 Illuminator Mix 06:54 4 Sonic Ecstasy Mix 07:06 4 Air Zone Mix 07:19 5 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel 07:32 5 Illuminator 07:45 5 Sonic Ecstasy 07:58 5 Air Zone 08:12 5 Sonic Ecstasy Nickel Mix 08:25 5 Illuminator Mix 08:38 5 Sonic Ecstasy Mix 08:51 5 Air Zone Mix