DiMarzio DP102 X2N

When Steve Blucher came to DiMarzio, this was actually the first pickup he made, if I recall correctly. It was a totally revolutionary pickup at the time because nobody had ever really used that dual rail system. These days, you can see single and dual rail options for nearly every pickup manufacturer out there, so he was kind of the leader in that aspect. The pickup was very popular with the heavy metal players at the time. It was, and still is, one of the highest output pickups out there. The unique thing about this, besides the rail aspect, is that the pickup is very even sounding. Before, most people generally tried to push the midrange a lot to help drive the amp into overdrive more. This was because the midrange is where the guitar’s natural frequency lives, and everyone figured that, by boosting midrange, you can get more of that distortion everyone loves. The problem was that the guitar sound would become so mid heavy that it would sound very narrow. Steve decided to take another approach to this and simply increase overall output while leaving the rest of the frequencies fairly even. It was thanks to this dual rail design that he was able to achieve that. The pickup has output for days, and it works great for those who are looking for that somewhat even sound. The problem is that it’s not too dynamic. If you play something other than the heavy stuff, it might be too hard to control, and it doesn’t respond to the volume knob too well. The neat trick with this is to throw a push/pull on the thing, as DiMarzio suggests, so you can get this really neat split coil sound that should work for most genres out there. Still, the pickup is somewhat dated these days, and there are some better pickups out there.

In the late 70s guitar players were looking to push their amps harder than ever before, they wanted as much gain as they could get and DiMarzio rushed to satisfy this need. To help end the madness they created the X2N pickup. The X2N was designed to push the old-school Marshalls to melting point. It was the kick in the face guitar players were looking for back then and it still is now.

The X2N is voiced relatively flat with a little extra high-end for clarity so be careful. If you put one in a bright guitar it will sound extra bright. I would recommend it for Mahogany guitars mostly. The X2N is designed to be used in the bridge of a guitar. It would overpower the neck position. Some people have found the split tones useable but I have never tried. The X2N was the undisputed king of output for many years and still runs with the best of them. This pickup is suited for the heaviest of music where clarity with high gain is demanded. This thing is so hot it may push your clean channel. You may have to roll back on the volume to get your clean tones clean. Another problem is that the dual bar magnets are so powerful they may cause excessive drag on the strings if your pickup is set too high this may slightly lower your sustain. Chuck Shuldiner of the band Death used this pickup through his whole career. If you listen to any Death album you will hear the X2N's trademark bite.

If you are looking for a pickup suited for heavy music you should consider the X2N. Its nearly half the cost of an Active pickup with the same output. With so many people using active pickups if you want to sound distinct the X2N may be the way to go.

I have to say, I was in a huge heavy metal phase before and thought this would be the pickup to get. The absolute highest output pickup available in dimarzio's product line. I installed it with another dimarzio single coil in the neck and was immediately disappointed.

The cleans were nothing to write home about, really bland and had no headroom. Which, wasn't suprising, this was not the intention of this pickup being created. It was meant for high gain distortion. I found it quite disappointing.

It was gainy yes. Was it clear and tight? No. It had a lot of distortion but felt like it didn't know where to go with it and was just all over the place sound-wise. It was literally just pure distortion with no clarity, just blazing...gain. I tried this though a boosted JCM800 and didn't like it whatsoever. the X2N was definitely a 'modern' sound if i had to reference it to something. It just seemed very bland, and not tight. Complex chords are indistuingshable, it was a thick sounding pickup but it still had some highs, sterile-like highs. I did not try it tapped, I gave up on it after a few weeks trying to get it to sound good for me and it did not.

I wouldn't recommend this pickup for anything, maybe some garage-noise band? If you play downtuned guitar I think you'd get nothing but a mess. A lot of metal pickups nowadays have improved, they're clear, yet tight under high gain and still dynamic. And this pickup delivers none of that. Yes metal is generally lots of gain and mad riffage, but there's still dynamics to it, I believe so anyway.

The DiMarzio X2N is a balls to the wall, aggressive pickup that really slams your front end. If you’re looking for a versatile pickup, I would not recommend this. However, if you’re a metal player, it would be worth considering this. It contains two rails instead of pole pieces and four conductor wiring.

The X2N was made in the late 70s in an attempt to really take the pickup world by storm. It was meant to be the most powerful pickup on the market, and it’s still one of the hottest pickups out there. The tone itself is fairly even with a slight top end bite going on. Chuck Schuldiner is a very popular use of this pickup, and if you’ve ever heard any of Death’s albums, you’ve heard this pickup in action. Michael Romeo recently started using this pickup in his Caparison guitars as well.
This is strictly a bridge pickup. I’ve seen some people put it in the neck, but it’s just so powerful that it’s hard to control without lowering it like crazy. The pickup works good in most woods, but I find that it sounds best in mahogany more than anything else. In basswood, it’s alright, but basswood guitars can get thin sounding if they don’t have the correct pickups in them. Putting it in alder gives the guitar a nice bite.

One thing people don’t seem to mention is that this thing sounds awesome split. When you add a push/pull or mini toggle and split it, it’s similar to a powerful, clean single coil kinda tone. Parallel gives a real interesting tone as well, so it’s actually pretty versatile if you have the means to split it. I have a feeling most will simply run it in series, though. After all, that’s’ where you get the most power and aggression.