« Refined X2N for the bridge position. »

Dimarzio is a modern pickup maker making pickups for modern music. The D Activator-X is a super modern pickup but it is based on a nearly 30 year old design. The pickup is a more refined version of the old X2N. This pickup has two huge ceramic rail magnets that pick up every signal from here to Calcutta. It has four conductor wiring so you can split the coils on this pickup. I have never tired this but I hear that the split tones on these big rail pickups are pretty decent. Because of the rail design you do not have to worry about if the pickup is F spaced or not these rails are everything spaced. The X2N was designed to be the bottom line when it came to passive pickup output. It doesnt clean up well and it has a trebly sound but it can push and amp into overdrive. With this new pickup you get a more refined sound but still retain a lot of that raw aggression that the X2N had. This pickup has a slightly dialed back output. The old X2N had like a 16K output while this one is about 14K. The EQ on the pickup has been changed which is the biggest difference. While the X2N was slanted towards having a high end sound this new pickup has the mids boosted on the sound and the treble dialed back. This lets the pickup clean up better due to having less harsh high end in the sound. There is also a neck version of this pickups which I think is crazy. I never imaged they would make an X2N for the neck position. I guess modern knowledge has given the makers ability to tame some of their crazy old pickups from back in the day. If you are a fan of the old X2N monster but want a slightly more refined pickup Dimarzio is making it now.