Gearank

Gearank High Notes

• 2022.10: Equal Highest Rated Neck Single Coil Pickup
  Tied With:
  Seymour Duncan SSL-5
  

Gearank Recommended

The DiMarzio Injector DP422 first appeared on our recommended list for Budget Guitar Pickups in October 2022 where it remains today.

The DiMarzio Injector DP422 is the bridge and neck pickup in Paul Gilbert's signature electric guitar, the Ibanez Fireman. It is a hum-canceling single-coil pickup that lives up to the guitar virtuoso's bite and clarity requirements. To be a single-coil sized humbucker pickup, it has a dummy coil stacked with the regular coil.

This pickup is a good response to the "single coil vs humbucker" debate. It combines the best of both worlds, so to speak. It lets you fit a humbucker pickup into a single coil guitar.

Given the artist that approved this humbucker pickup, don't expect this to sound vintage. Rather, this has a modern balanced sound that does away with unwanted noise. It won't sound thin or muddy when cranked. Being a humbucker pickup, it has more output, which means higher volume and better response, without going overboard. Paul is very particular with how well pickups respond to fast playing picking attack. Ibanez catered to this by reducing the magnet pull of this pickup by about 40%.

Note that Paul uses a vintage voiced middle pickup, which fuses familiar Fender position 2 and 4 voicings. This allows him to have heavy sounds in the neck, while still having more traditional sonic options when blended with the middle pickup. This is an interesting configuration, to say the least, great for guitarists who play in the same styles that PG does.

Paul has used these humbucker pickups with heavier high-gain amps and fuzz. This makes them the best pick ups for metal if you lean more toward a trebly voicing.

When used in the bridge position, it's also one of the best humbucker for strat type electric guitars that aren't routed for a full-size humbucker.

If you're looking to beef up your electric guitar sound and reduce the dreaded 60-cycle hum noise, then this is a great pick.

Specifications

• Position: Neck
• Magnet Material: Alnico 2
• Dimensions: Standard Single-coil
• Available Colors/Covers: Aged White, Black

Demo