DiMarzio Tone Zone 7

The Tone Zone 7 is an excellent selection for your 7-string guitars. Why? Let’s take a look!

DiMarzio’s The Tone Zone is a quintessential hot-rod humbucker with an established connection to no other than EVH. With that pedigree, how can it not be awesome? Ha! Yet how does that translate to the expanded-tuning world of a 7-string guitar? Well, some of it has to do with DiMarzio’s Dual Resonance technology.

Dual Resonance Tech

Dual Resonance is basically mis-matched coils. It’s common for several pickup companies to allow about a 5% variance. But Dual Resonance is an intentional mis-matching of the coils to produce a specific “tuning” of the pickup’s voice. According to the patent, it is pretty much about putting a similar number of turns on each coil. But with different wire gauges.

Installation

This humbucker is going into an Ibanez Universe 7-string. That’s a basswood body, 24-fret maple neck, 25-1/2″ scale rosewood board, and Edge 7 locking tremolo system. The guitar has a standard tuning of low B on the 7th, using 09-54 strings. The harness is original.

The Ibby Universe switching that I’ll be covering is as follows:

As you can see, there is an auto-split situation going on in between the bridge and middle position. For giggles, and to approximate a little bit of a Angel Vivaldi vibe, I’m putting the Air Norton 7 in the neck. The stock Blaze single coil remains in the middle.

Evaluation

The Tone Zone 7 is built for players who demand power without sacrificing clarity. Its tight, defined low end ensures your riffs stay punchy and articulate, avoiding the muddy, boomy pitfalls that can plague 7-string high-output pickups—perfect for locking in with a tight rhythm section or nailing classic 80s-style riffage.

On the treble side, high notes cut through with bold presence, adding surprising range to a multi-pickup shred machine. The secret lies in its asymmetrical coil windings, which create a dynamic midrange packed with harmonic complexity—ideal for players who thrive on expressive, nuanced tones. This characteristic is a standout feature of dual-resonance humbuckers, allowing for a more expressive and responsive midrange.

When played clean, the Tone Zone 7 retains its full-bodied character. Even in split-coil mode, it stays lively and responsive, smoothing things out just enough without stripping away its attitude. Your pick attack and amp settings will shape its voice, giving you plenty of room to dial in your perfect sound. To hear it in action, check out Angel Vivaldi’s demo, where he puts the dynamics to the test.

Specs

Demo

Conclusion

In all fairness, the interwebz chatter-box whine-line has years of preparing me to not like The Tone Zone nor The Tone Zone 7. After putting prejudice and preconceived notions aside, this is an excellent example of why it’s good to put your own ears to the test. The Tone Zone 7 is an excellent offering for your 7-string guitar. And since DiMarzio’s approach is to put the tone before all else, you can have assurance that the tone from the 6-string version is what you’re getting on the 7-string variation.

The Tone Zone 7 is going to be good for hard rock, shred, progressive and tech metal, early thrash, 80s metal, death metal, hard rock, garage, punk, fusion, grunge, blues rock, hardcore, classic rock, alt rock, pop, djent, nu-metal, and more. . It is available with 5 solid bobbin colors, 4 zebra colors, and a half-dozen options for covers. As usual, pole piece color choice are nickel, gold, and black.

For reference, this DiMarzio Tone Zone 7 humbucker pickup evaluation was conducted with the following: Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. ADA MP-1 Tube Pre-Amp loaded with Tube Amp Doctor ECC83 Premium Selected tubes, using the ADA MC-1 MIDI Controller. Fryette LX II Stereo Tube Power Amplifier. Physical cabs use are Marshall 1960B, Mojotone British, and Peavey 6505 cabs loaded with Celestion Classic Series Vintage 30s and Classic Series G12M Greenbacks.

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