The ESP Guitar Company

I have tried one briefly in a top of the line Ibanez a few years ago. From memory it had a very high gain, thick sound. I'd say if you like the SD Distortion or Invader you would probably like the Tone zone.

Its a realllly hot pickup. It sounds great, but its preety bassey.

I have one. It sounds similar to a Duncan JB. I use it for pretty heavy stuff, but it's not everyone's thing.

In my experience, it does. The JB is a bit clearer, the Tone Zone has a bit of that "compression" everyone talks about with DiMarzio pickups (which is difficult to explain until you hear it for yourself).

Tone Zone/Air Norton clip
JB/59 clip

I wasn't doubting you, I was just making a crack at KH. ;)

Those clips sound awesome! What amp are you using?

^+1billion one of the best dimarzio pups IMHO.

from what ive heard the tone zone is like the PAF pro..but on steroids

dont put a tz in a rg550. i just made that mistake. gona switch to super3 or x2n

I had an Ibanez 3120 with maple top and mahogany body, and the TZ sounded horrible in it. Muddy with no definition. I swapped it with a Lawrence L-500. Much nicer!

I put an Evo in my RG550 (1991 DY). A Kent Armstrong custom hotrail in the middle and a Humbucker from Hell in the neck.

The other two pups sounD o.k but the Evolution sounds great. Its nowhere near as hot as an EMG 81 but thats not always a bad thing. The midrange and high mids are amazing and you hardly even need to switch for leads. Everything holds up perfectly.

So I'd suggest a DiMarzio Evolution. Probably two, come to think of it as it would sound nice in the neck too. It works in Jems and you dont have to worry about that tone killing stupid monkey grip either. :)