« Noisy and unrefined »

The Dropsonic was Dimarzios first try at a pickup like this. They now have several half rail half pole piece pickups but I believe this was the first one and it had some growing pains. Its assymetrical design means that depending on how it is oriented in your guitar it will sound quite different. The pickup is like one half x2n and the other half tone zone. It has ceramic magnets and the usual 4 conductor wiring. This pickup did have some growing pains. Being the first pickup of this type it had plenty of problems. It is noted for being super noisy like an old EMG 58 or something. You wouldnt expect a pickup this noisy to be sold nowadays. Even with being noisy it was still pretty popular among guitar players. Petrucci used them when they first came out in his guitars. He now uses a more updated evolution of the same slug and rail design pickup. It really does sound like an x2n mixed with a Tone Zone. The x2n is pretty bright and has decent high end so imagine that mixed with the crazy harmonics of the Tone Zone and you get this pickup. When installing this pickup just imagine the rail part of the pickup the hotter part. If you place the hot end towards the bridge on your guitar you will get a more trebley sound. If you place it towards the neck you get a fatter but also muddier sound. It all depends on what you want. Having an assymetrical design like this kinda makes it two pickups in one. I did not try it in the neck position but I doubt it is any good there. I also did not try the split tones from this pickup. With its design I bet the split tones are either really good or really bad. If you are looking at this pickup I suggest you check out the Crunch Lab also. It is this pickup but more refined and not as noisy.