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James... « Yes...you too can turn your wimpy guitar into a les paul! »
Published on 08/15/11 at 19:13Okay, I say that aforementioned tagline with a disclaimer. The Air Zone is basically a really bassy overwound PAF with a kick in the midrange. What this means in tech terms is that it can make a thin sounding guitar sound like a big Les Paul. A lot of people will laugh at the notion that this is possible. But I promise you it's true.
I've been a dimarzio fan for a while, but I'll admit that in the past I bought into the popular myth that they were only for metal and only for ibanez guitars. This was fine by me because I was playing prog metal and using Ibanez RG's exclusively. But I digress. I'm getting older and it isn't all breakdowns and solos anymore. I actually like to have my classic sounds now and then. Only thing is I still like the feel of RG's a lot. That's where the Air Zone comes in. The problem with putting a PAF in an RG guitar design is its lack of thickness and mids that a les paul brings to the table. The Air Zone is very aggressively voiced to have huge bass and mids. Basically it's a tone zone with a lot less gain and compression. I used to be a big tone zone fan but like a lot of guys, I found it to be "too much" for lack of a better term. Too much gain and too much of a processed sound. The Air Zone sounds much more vintage. Honestly, the TZ is really more of a heavy metal pickup despite what people may tell you. That's not to say the Air Zone is a low output pickup. It's really not. If you are looking for vintage PAF tone, this isn't it. It's overwound PAF tone. More in the Van Halen camp than the Townsend camp if you know what I mean. It will send an amp into overdrive fairly easily. It cleans up quite well though. For me it's the perfect balance of vintage tone and modern output. I swear if I close my eyes this pickup makes a super strat sound like a Les Paul. Take that to the bank.
Obviously the Air Zone isn't for everyone. It can be disaster in certain guitars. It's a very specific application, but for what it's supposed to do it does it extremely well. Amazingly well in fact.
I've been a dimarzio fan for a while, but I'll admit that in the past I bought into the popular myth that they were only for metal and only for ibanez guitars. This was fine by me because I was playing prog metal and using Ibanez RG's exclusively. But I digress. I'm getting older and it isn't all breakdowns and solos anymore. I actually like to have my classic sounds now and then. Only thing is I still like the feel of RG's a lot. That's where the Air Zone comes in. The problem with putting a PAF in an RG guitar design is its lack of thickness and mids that a les paul brings to the table. The Air Zone is very aggressively voiced to have huge bass and mids. Basically it's a tone zone with a lot less gain and compression. I used to be a big tone zone fan but like a lot of guys, I found it to be "too much" for lack of a better term. Too much gain and too much of a processed sound. The Air Zone sounds much more vintage. Honestly, the TZ is really more of a heavy metal pickup despite what people may tell you. That's not to say the Air Zone is a low output pickup. It's really not. If you are looking for vintage PAF tone, this isn't it. It's overwound PAF tone. More in the Van Halen camp than the Townsend camp if you know what I mean. It will send an amp into overdrive fairly easily. It cleans up quite well though. For me it's the perfect balance of vintage tone and modern output. I swear if I close my eyes this pickup makes a super strat sound like a Les Paul. Take that to the bank.
Obviously the Air Zone isn't for everyone. It can be disaster in certain guitars. It's a very specific application, but for what it's supposed to do it does it extremely well. Amazingly well in fact.