DiMarzio DP422 Injector Neck

Dimarzio is a modern pickup maker supplying all the best guitar player with the pickups they need for a modern sound. Paul Gilbert has been using Dimarzio pickups for years and years. Recently Paul has been using more unique guitars and he started using single coils more and more. Since he was using single coils more and more Dimarzio decided to make one for him. Dimarzio aren't really known for their single coil vintage style pickups. Most of their single coils are really just small humbuckers. Companies like Seymour Duncan are more known for their vintage style single coil pickups. This pickup is Dimarzio trying to prove to the world that they can do a good vintage style single coil. This is that pickup the Injector. Before they made the Injector for him he was using Dimarzios Area line of single coils which are some of Dimarzios few vintage sounding pickups. The Injector gives the Area sound a more modern touch which is what Paul Gilbert wanted. The Injector has an Alnico 2 magnet with staggered pole pieces. The pickup comes with four conductor wiring but I don't know why you would want to split a true single coil. Paul Gilbert wanted a fatter more modern sound from the pickups and thats what he got with the Injector. It still has the super sharp single coil high end and attack that you expect but the lows and mids are boosted as well for a fuller sound overall. This pickups is intended for the neck position but since it is a single coil it works well in the bridge if you are looking for a fuller bridge position sound. In the bridge position the sound is full and aggressive like what you want from a single coil. Even with all the fullness and added low end you still retain the single coil quack and twang. If you are looking for a Dimarzio single coil that has retains its vintage feel but has some modern tones to it the Injector is a good pickup.

This is the neck version of the new dimarzio injector pickup! Paul gilbert is currently endorsing these and although I've never been a big fan of his overall tones I'm totally diggin these! I'm not a humbucker guy, I never really was, could never get around the quacky sound that normal single coils sound like. Though after trying a modded tele with a very nice bridge pickup I started to look into higher quality single coil pickups. Single coil pickups are just so well defined and clear on the distortion and are always more dynamic than a humbucker. Also they clean up better than ANY humbucker. This model is no different!

They said this is a hum cancelling strat and most hum-cancelling strats are either not completely quiet or are completely quiet, but stacked single coils put together to be hum-cancelling and thus not sounding like a single coil pickup anymore at all! This is one of the better sounding single coil pickups I've ever heard! Not only is it really clean and bright like a single coil, but also very QUIET. Distortion is smooth too and not too ice-picky. When blended with the '67 in the middle you'll get your basic strat position 2 sound. It's clear, quiet and VERY strat-like. It’s also not too muddy for leads when under high gain and tracks well too. It’s better for me than a neck humbucker as I’ve found some neck humbuckers to be too thick and sometimes won’t properly cut through the mix. With the injector it’s great and cuts through just fine but isn’t thinned out either, it’s thick enough to sound like a neck pickup and it’s clear. One can most likely use the neck pickup for rhythms under clean and high gain for certain situations. Something like that distorted indie-rhythm-like sound.

I love this pickup and do not plan on changing it anytime soon. I will review the bridge pickup also it's just as great!

The DiMarzio Injector Neck is the neck model (obviously) of the signature pickups that were made for Paul Gilbert. Paul used the Area pickups for his last few albums, and he decided he wanted to tweak them a bit. In a way, you could say these are the latest evolution of the Area/Virtual Vintage series pickups. It features staggered pole pieces for that vintage look, four conductor wiring and an Alnico 2 magnet.

The Injector Neck is a louder, more modern sounding version of the standard Area series. The treble is still fairly crisp, but the low end and midrange have been bumped up to help make it sound very powerful and much fatter than the previous pickups. However, that doesn’t mean this pickup is a flubby, overly compressed mess. It’s still very clear like the other Area pickups, and it also actually works better for those really fast shred licks, belive it or not.

DiMarzio says that this pickup is a neck pickup, but it works great in the bridge if you have some of the other Area pickups like the ’58 or ’61 in the neck. This helps keep everything balanced, but it also gives the bridge position a really fat, aggressive sound. The pickup will work in any wood you throw at it from alder to basswood to even maple. This pickup just seems to sound great in anything. Although this has four conductor wiring, I don’t recommend splitting these pickups as they just tend to sound overly thin and lose their power.

If you’re looking for a more modern sounding Virtual Vintage/Area pickup in the DiMarzio line, I highly recommend checking these pickups out. They still have that vintage quality to them, but the specs are bumped up for the more modern world, especially for those who are more adept at playing guitar.