DiMarzio DP193 BC Zebra F-Spaced

Normally, I use a Seymour Duncan if I'm not happy with the pickups I've got in a guitar. I wouldn't normally have bought this so it was something of an experiment. Ii have to say I'm really pleased with this PU.
At first I had it wired series/parrallel and I didn't like it, it was just too bright. I changed it to coil split and the humbucker came to life. Fully overdriven it's got a beautifully clear searing lead tone, and a really beefy power chord sound. Much more aggressive than the gibson pickups in my Les Paul.
When split, the lead sound is clearer, brighter and very cutting. Excellent for clean rhythm parts.
I play in a covers band and we do play plenty of classic rock like Purple and Zep, and in contrast, we have a lot of dancy stuff like James Brown and Abba and Stax so I need the coil split.
The downside is a small one- I haven't got used to the tonal character of this pickup; although it's not a bad sound it's just different. When I hear it recorded it's great but when I'm actually playing live I hear an unusual quality in the tone.
I'd buy one again. It's probably the most sturdily constructed humbucker I've had. The brighter half of the zebra is much darker than I expected, I keep thinking I've got it dirty.

For the price you can't expect anything too impressive, but I was still pleasently surprised by the sound. It doesn't really like coil splits: a lot of output is lost. When rolling down the volume it tends to lose quite a bit of trebble, and doesn't clean op too well. It's really good for genres with constant distortion like punk or hardrock, but not for metal or clean playing. If you're looking to upgrad a squier I would recommend this pickup, expecially because the stock ones sound really crappy

I select the Air Norton to replace the stock one on my Hofner Shorty.

It has lower output than stock, but has really great harmonics.

Shorty has only one pickup, at bridge position. It also needs to be F-Spaced.

It sounds great for chords and clean, very crisp sound, but also it does not choke when on distortion. It sounds great on a simple tube amp, and it's very pick-sensitive!

I like it a lot, and planning to replace the INF4 on an Ibanez RG to see how it performs there!

One of the best humbuckers for the neck position in my opinion. There's no mystery to why John Petrucci used these for such a long time. These pickups really come to it's full potential with high gain amplifiers. Smooth and fat lead sounds are possible, four conductor wire makes coil splitting and parallel wiring a possibility which gives a wider palette of sounds. This is a must have for the lead guitarists, I very much prefer this pickup instead of the newer "LiquiFire", I think the "Air Norton" has a clearer sound but still has a dark character and smooth sound.

Quality is top notch as with all Dimarzio products.