Axis - pickup (more advice please)

[TNT]

TNT do you have the Tone Zone in bridge and neck?

Hey ZW,

Yes, I've had many a pickup in the "bridge" position. The music I personally play guides my direction (almost exclusively) in pickup selection. Which is "bridge" only - no neck pickup (life's too short)!

Van Halen, Journey, Creed, Foreignor, Boston, G & R, in a very aggresive/high gain performance. I run it thru my stock JCM 900 model 2100 Marshall (1992) they only made a few of this model with EL34's.

The Tone Zone is very "powerful", however, to me it did not have very much musical qualities (the "tone" - which I call "scale/key colors"); so it wasn't that colorful.

I chose a Norton in the bridge because although it is a medium level pickup it is still powerful, but very colorful, solid punch, agressive, and fit the tribute bands I was in very well.

Lots of pickups are too sweet/spacey/clean - I like pedal to the metal- down in the dirt, RPM's redlined, and the wheels spinning!!! Yeah baby- bring it on!!!

 

[ily]

I'd put the originals back in.

Also consider a Bill Lawrence L500XL. Loud and tight.

+1 consider come back to the original for my old axis i've PAF 36TH very good
but originals are great

 

[Pott]

It's such a shame that Seymour Duncans don't fit in the Axis. This would be the perfect guitar to receive an SH5 Custom.

I never liked the ToneZone much... very bassy. The AirZone is a little more open. Funny though is that I really do like the Axis SS bridge pickup and I got wind that it's pretty close to a ToneZone? I could have heard wrong too!

 

[OU812]

Van Halen, Journey, Creed, Foreignor, Boston, G & R, in a very aggresive/high gain performance. I run it thru my stock JCM 900 model 2100 Marshall (1992) they only made a few of this model with EL34's.

Van Halen however is not high gain. Go on YT and listen to isolated guitar tracks, such as this one.
EVH Eddie Van Halen - Panama *GUITAR TRACK* - YouTube

 

[ZeeW]

It's such a shame that Seymour Duncans don't fit in the Axis. This would be the perfect guitar to receive an SH5 Custom.

Is this correct that SDs will not fit an Axis?

 

[Pott]

Not without modding, and it's correct indeed at least for Axis Super Sports. The SD tabs are square and much bigger than DiMarzio's, which are smaller humbuckers altogether. So unless you mod the route or cut-off bits of the SD's tabs, it won't fit as far as I know.

 

[ZeeW]

Not without modding, and it's correct indeed at least for Axis Super Sports. The SD tabs are square and much bigger than DiMarzio's, which are smaller humbuckers altogether. So unless you mod the route or cut-off bits of the SD's tabs, it won't fit as far as I know.

Well I've learned something new today - I had no idea about SDs.

 

[TNT]

Van Halen however is not high gain. Go on YT and listen to isolated guitar tracks, such as this one. EVH Eddie Van Halen - Panama *GUITAR TRACK* - YouTube

Yeah, a lot of the time he was just "floatin the valves" (power tubes). For a great recorded look, go to their first album: during the chorus of "feel your love", you can get a real clear look at the Marshall settings - buried. When the high gain amps were really coming to the forefront he instead went to Eventide chorus to get that additional 6L6 slow dark gain.

 

[jadaxis]

+1 on reinstalling the originals if you have them.

 

[Chaka5150]

chaka, Please write a review and outline any modifications (if necessary). Sound clips would be amazing!

well i actually had a tech already install some active EMG's (i know...gasp!) which I regretted. mostly because he needed to route the cavity to accommodate the larger EMG's. so there is no turning back now aesthetically, it will likely always need pickup rings. I'm okay with it..never plan to sell my axis would rather mod it to whatever point i'm happy with. looking back the stocks were pretty amazing. After the EMG's I put in some Seymour Duncan Blackouts, which was easy since i just unplugged the EMG's and slapped in the SD's...better than the EMG's but realized I do not care for active pups at all. Cest la vie. I just ordered my Suhr Doug Aldrich pups and should have them installed mid Jan for sure...I'll post a thread about it after I've had a little time with them.

 

[OU812]

Would appreciate it immensely, thanks

 

[Trem]

I've had the DiMarzio Air Zone, Tone Zone and originals in my Axis. I personally preferred the originals, with the Air Zones a close second. I felt that the Tone Zone was too bottom heavy, way more metal than either the originals or the Air Zone. I'd look at the DiMarzio Breed, Evolution or the Crunch Lab used in the Petrucci model. The pickup you're looking for will be a higher output pickup, as opposed the originals in the Axis, which are more medium output to my knowledge.

Oh, one more thing. If you decide you want to sell the originals, send me a PM, I'd love to buy them from you. Good luck!