Music man 25th anniversary pickup change

[dean701]

Has anyone tried a Tone Zone in a 25th Anniversary? I am going to swap out the EVH custom dimarzio just to see if it rounds things out. It has a maple board and it is very resonant and is naturally very bright.
I have a Reflex as well with the custom EVH but it is an entirely different animal. Rosewood board and it's naturally just a darker sounding guitar.

Not really looking to get into the EVH vs Tone Zone debate that everyone has heard thousands of times before.

Just wondering from someone who has actually tried it and curious of their thoughts.

 

[Ventanaman]

Are you wanting something different in term of output, or just want to tame the highs? The Tone Zone won't be significantly different than the standard Axis DiMarzio. Is this an Axis or Axis SS?

 

[dibart77]

It is a 25th Anniversary, not an Axis or ASS. Which AFAIK has the Axis pickups which is very close to a Tone Zone. I'm not sure how an EVH brand humbucker will sound. Try it out! If you can, record some clean and heavy stuff in all the 10 pickup positions (5 on the blade x 2 on the parallel/series switch), and then do the same once you swap to EVHs!

 

[Ventanaman]

Oops - sorry for the confusion - I had Axis on the brain. Do we know for sure that the 25th Anniversary pickups are same DiMarzio customs in the Axis?

Have you tried rolling your tone knob back to 7-8?

Other pickups I have tried are BKP Polymaths, Abraxas, and Silos - different flavors, but all sound great. YMMV.

 

[tbonesullivan]

Has anyone tried a Tone Zone in a 25th Anniversary? I am going to swap out the EVH custom dimarzio just to see if it rounds things out. It has a maple board and it is very resonant and is naturally very bright.
I have a Reflex as well with the custom EVH but it is an entirely different animal. Rosewood board and it's naturally just a darker sounding guitar.

Not really looking to get into the EVH vs Tone Zone debate. They are different pickups. Just wondering if someone has tried it and curious of their thoughts.

This is a bit strange, as as far as I know, the Reflex is identical to the 25th Anniversary except for the finish. Fretboard material shouldn't make that much of a difference, IMHO. I think the body construction is the same as well, which was somewhat similar to the axis.

Yes, the Tone Zone and EVH are different pickups. Slightly. During the development of the EVH, they went through many pickups, and had two finalists, which were identical except that one had slightly mismatched coils, the "Dual resonance" design, and one had matched coils. The EVH bridge pickup is the one with matched coils. The Tone zone is the one with mismatched coils, which most thought EVH would choose, but he didn't.

 

[dibart77]

Oh, I thought he meant EVH brand pickups. (The Wolfgang pickups). Not the EBMM EVH pickup. As far as I know, the EBMM EVH pickups are identical to the EBMM Axis pickups, which is what (I am 95% certain) was used in the 25th Anniversary.

If the OP wants to switch to an EVH Wolfgang pickup, that may have a different character. Ed's tastes changed in the 25 years since developing the EBMM EVH and selecting that DiMarzio pickup.

 

[DrKev]

The Tone zone is the one with mismatched coils, which most thought EVH would choose, but he didn't.

That's right he didn;t, Lukather did. EVH couldn't come to decision at all, So Lukather made the decision for him.