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Hatsubai « ToneZone in single coil size »
Published on 03/25/11 at 11:25The famous Tone Zone has finally been brought to the single coil world via the Tone Zone S. It’s a high output dual blade rail magnet single coil humbucker with four conductor wiring and a ceramic magnet.
If you’ve never used the Tone Zone before, it’s a very bass and midrange heavy pickup. This pickup works great for fattening something up while still giving it some touch sensitivity. Paul Gilbert used the Tone Zone for quite a long time, and it’s featured on a good portion of his solo albums.
The low end is very fat. The wound strings sound huge while the treble strings never thin out. The boosted midrange makes this thing have some really nice harmonics and helps overdrive the amp a bit. It’s a fairly compressed pickup, and it’s very sensitive to both wood choice and pickup height.
The biggest question you’re wondering is whether this thing sounds like the original Tone Zone. Well, it doesn’t sound exactly the same. For one, DiMarzio has this habit of using ceramic magnets in all the “clone” pickups. It creates a different sound and feel. The ceramic magnets make things a bit tighter and crisper. I find it loses some of that signature Tone Zone vibe. Simply put, it doesn’t sound as alive or as big. However, it’s still a cool pickup if you need to fatten up the guitar. Like the original, this pickup has a cocked wah kinda sound going on, so if you have a heavy midrange amp, you might want to watch out; things could get boxy sounding. It’s not bad split, and it’s not bad in parallel, but I find it sounds best in series.
If you’re looking at getting a single coil sized Tone Zone, your choices are pretty much limited to this pickup. If you want to test out a pickup to make your guitar fatter and give it tons of mids, this is probably your best bet. Just be sure to play with pickup height as this is a finicky pickup.
If you’ve never used the Tone Zone before, it’s a very bass and midrange heavy pickup. This pickup works great for fattening something up while still giving it some touch sensitivity. Paul Gilbert used the Tone Zone for quite a long time, and it’s featured on a good portion of his solo albums.
The low end is very fat. The wound strings sound huge while the treble strings never thin out. The boosted midrange makes this thing have some really nice harmonics and helps overdrive the amp a bit. It’s a fairly compressed pickup, and it’s very sensitive to both wood choice and pickup height.
The biggest question you’re wondering is whether this thing sounds like the original Tone Zone. Well, it doesn’t sound exactly the same. For one, DiMarzio has this habit of using ceramic magnets in all the “clone” pickups. It creates a different sound and feel. The ceramic magnets make things a bit tighter and crisper. I find it loses some of that signature Tone Zone vibe. Simply put, it doesn’t sound as alive or as big. However, it’s still a cool pickup if you need to fatten up the guitar. Like the original, this pickup has a cocked wah kinda sound going on, so if you have a heavy midrange amp, you might want to watch out; things could get boxy sounding. It’s not bad split, and it’s not bad in parallel, but I find it sounds best in series.
If you’re looking at getting a single coil sized Tone Zone, your choices are pretty much limited to this pickup. If you want to test out a pickup to make your guitar fatter and give it tons of mids, this is probably your best bet. Just be sure to play with pickup height as this is a finicky pickup.