Dimarzio Pre B-1 sounds less than stellar w/ new pedal-- what the heck?

[appar111]

I decided to run each of my guitars through a new pedal I picked up (a Menatone Ms. Foxy Brown with toggle switch for voicing), and it's totally kicking my butt with all my guitars, except, oddly enough, with Ol' #1, which has a Dimarzio Pre B-1 in it.

That pickup rips with my setup usually.

For some reason it's almost too bassy but not quite punchy enough, through this pedal. I've adjusted pickup height (tried raising it and lowering it) and it doesn't sound as awesome as it usually does. My other guitars have an assortment of humbuckers in them, and they have a little something to the high end that I'm not getting out of the Dimarzio, at least not pairing it w/ this pedal.

Oddly enough, the Super Distortion T (wired in parallel as opposed to series)that I have in one of my other guitars has THE sound with this pedal. Like a cross between a tele pickup and a low output PAF humbucker. I'm thinking of picking up another Super Distortion T for Ol' #1 as the one in this other guitar used to reside in #1 for a couple years and always sounded great in series.

I don't know if the pedal itself is just a little bassy and this pickup brings out those frequencies or what. I think I'm going to try a fresh set of strings on this guitar and see if that livens things up a bit before I go dropping cash on another pickup though...

[tjalla]

I've used plenty of menatones - one of their strengths is also one of their shortcomings, particularly on their amp-in-a-can models, that being a warm, natural bass response that easily becomes spongey and overloaded or placed in the wrong part of the pedal chain. I had an earlier FB model that too was very picky as to what it was paired up with, but it was great when dialed in with the the right guitar-amp combo. Its the one pedal that really worked with the fixed bright cap on my Tone King Comet... I prob should have kept it!

[appar111]

I suppose I can complain too much-- the Menatone works exceptionally well with my other guitars:

USACG/Warmoth tele with Duncan 59N & Gibson 500T
Squier Bullet Special with Gibson 490T with A8 magnet
Rutters/Allparts tele with Dimarzio PAF
Red Dirt/Warmoth tele with Super Distortion T (in parallel)

And the Pre B-1 doesn't sound bad, per se, just not as great as it usually sounds. I think a string change and some more tweaking for a new sweet spot on the pickup height should hopefully do the trick.

[boneyguy]

I was just recently raving here about my Pre B-1 but it took about three tries to get it in the 'right' guitar. Matching pickups to guitars, pedals, amps etc is a funny buisness. It all seems pretty hit and miss to me. I'd say if you have all those other guitars sounding good through the FB then you should be feeling good about it. The Pre B-1 can have fun elsewhere.