AIR ZONE review

[RG550BW]

I just put Air Zone into my Ibanez RG..
I was tempted by Norton and Paf Joe but I had to pick one.. I still have to spend some time with pickup to give good opinion but for curious people about this pickup..
AIR ZONE: Easily described it is a pickup that make basswood Ibanez Rg sound pretty much like Les Paul!!! Very crazy thing and I had to hear it to believe it! My guitar was like a bit thin,middle soundind,bit harsh,dirty sound,ok for single notes screams but chords sounded just dirty. Now with AZ it got FAT,really defined chords with strenght,power,and single notes are well defined,pretty much give a sound that you make by your fingers..without dirt but with POWER. It's like when I do Smoke On The Water..its as hard rock and powerfull as it can be. Van Halen Panama also sound pretty much like original. On high distorsion it gets like that rough Zakk Wylde tone. Pretty good defined hard rock thing..not a screaming devil like Evolutions..but can scream too. Overall I am satisfied..tone is MUCH better than with V2 Ibanez pickup. One thing that I wish for still is to have tone with less bass,bit more treble that would not sound rough..more kind sounding,refined like those sounds of Macalpine or like in some cleaner songs from Vai(For the love of God,Lotus Feet,Touching Tounges) or Always with you,always with me(Satriani)..I would describe it like "kind" tone.
But you can't have all in just one pickup so I am pretty satisfied with AZ. Any suggestions for "nice and kind" tone for neck pickup or single middle? :-)
THANKS FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS..HOPE I HELPED SOMEONE DECIDE FOR AIR ZONE IF THAT SOUND IS WHAT YOU'RE AFTER ;-)

[S-man]

Yeah...I might try an air norton sometime. The tonezone can be over top at times for me. I've heard people complain about the lack of pinch harmonics with the tonezone...that's my expieriance as well. It's not that you can't get them, but not as easy as say...my IBZ/USA/Dimarzio equipped guitars. It's alot better, overall, than the QM it replaced.

I've heard the Air Norton goes well with the Air Zone.

[Jeff - CRO]

Originally Posted by S-man

I've heard people complain about the lack of pinch harmonics with the tonezone...that's my expieriance as well.

I do not want to interrupt the stream of discussion,but that's something to say.NHF.
I get the wildest screams and harmonics with tonezone,more than with EVOs or anything that's usually regarded as "wild screaming" sound.
And personally,I really think that's the domain of player,not a tehnical hardware issue.If you nail the string in a way zakk wylde does(for example),even those stock PSND's on cheap ibanez would scream as hell...

I've tried almost all dimarzio medium to high output pickups,in various of combinations as I am very eager to experiment.Tonezone eats them all in a bridge spot.IMHO,of course.Never came across the pickup that can be so damn fat sounding and by doing that,it retains all the harmonic characteristics.
I've tried this Air Zone as well.It's a good,kinda "brown" sound which is great if you are looking for the sound to be that way.
For the neck,my all time favorite is Air Norton.I would reccomend it to anyone.
That pickup is just outstanding.

To make it simple,TZ + AN is a very very good way to go...

[Roadstar]

Originally Posted by S-man

Yeah...I've heard people complain about the lack of pinch harmonics with the tonezone...e.

OMG! lack of pinch harmonics? who says that?
the TZ has better pinch harmonics than the emg 81 or the duncan JB
and both of those get really good pick pinch harmonics
the TZ is a seriously aggressive pup but has that cool les paul tone to it as well

[Roadstar]

Originally Posted by Jeff - CRO

I've tried this Air Zone as well.It's a good,kinda "brown" sound which is great if you are looking for the sound to be that way.
.

yeah i like the air version but the TZ is just more of that sound
the tone zone is very,very close to the "right here right now live" tone EVH gets on that DVD
with my 5150 stack i get that tone no prob
the air zone is a bit too rounded in the highs to do the EVH tone
eddies pups always screamed more and the tone zone screams bloody murder!
wired too since it is such a fat toned pup it has beef and scream

[crevis]

Originally Posted by Roadstar

OMG! lack of pinch harmonics? who says that?
the TZ has better pinch harmonics than the emg 81 or the duncan JB
and both of those get really good pick pinch harmonics
the TZ is a seriously aggressive pup but has that cool les paul tone to it as well

+1

Tone Zones are definately the most versatile pup ive ever used, cut the bass on your eq and it gets aggressive, put in more bass and its smooth, heaps of fun with a fuzz pedal too.
Im very tempted to try the Air Zone with the raps its been getting of late.

[Roadstar]

Originally Posted by crevis

+1

Tone Zones are definately the most versatile pup ive ever used, cut the bass on your eq and it gets aggressive, put in more bass and its smooth, heaps of fun with a fuzz pedal too.
Im very tempted to try the Air Zone with the raps its been getting of late.

dimarzio is telling the truth when they say the air zone is the vintage version of the TZ
it has the big bass and great harmonics of a TZ but has a lower output and is more open
it is more versitle than the TZ and will cover more styles l but the TZ has a burn and sear i like