About two months ago I got a hankerin' for a 7-string guitar. Not for my main instrument, but for something fun to play around with and expand my horizons. Luck had it that one of the guys in our CD duplication department was selling one. We struck a deal and I was the proud owner of an Ibanez RG7431 solid-body guitar.

As I dug into the guitar (I literally disassembled it completely, cleaned it, and set it back up to factory specs), I found one thing, the pickups didn't quite give me what I wanted. Right then I started the search for the pickups to make this guitar truly sing. After surfing the net for hours upon hours I decided on DiMarzio pickups. I figure if Steve Vai, one of the best known 7-string slingers ever, uses them I can too. Now it comes down to which one.

I emailed customer support hoping they could help solve my dilemma, after a few days I heard back from them. Actually I got a call from pickup-guru Steve Blucher. He methodically and thoroughly led me down the path of enlightenment. He asked all the right questions and came to the final conclusion of the DiMarzio PAF 7 and the Tone Zone 7. I wanted a versatile sound that would cover all aspects from jazz to classic rock, to metal, this setup is great.

As our conversation progressed and we discussed the evolution and new sounds of rock/metal, Steve told me about a new pickup, the X2N-7 DP705. He said that it was the loudest pickup they currently offer, it was so over the top it was almost funny. (A note from Steve: We've made hotter pickups, but the advantages of more power tend to be lost above a certain point, and this pickup is pretty close to the edge. Considering the amount of gain available from most modern amps, it's probably over the edge, but the original 6-string X2N was designed before the current generation of amps existed.) I was intrigued (I was living in Washington State during the early 90s, so many of my roots are "Heavy" based, ok I loved the rock/grunge scene...there, I said it). He told me he would send one for me to check out and get a few chuckles from, but that it wasn't what I was looking for tone wise. I patiently waited as the days ticked away until the new pickups arrived.

They finally arrived and, like a little kid at Christmas, I ran back to our shipping department and rip the box open to survey my sonic delights. As I inspected each pickup, one caught my eye, it had two large poles in it, one for each coil. They were the biggest pole pieces I had ever seen in a pickup. It looked very cool. As soon as work was done, I rushed home to install my future tone ponies. I swapped them out and strung up my new toy. I plugged in and started playing the PAF 7 I had installed in the neck, I wanted to savor the destruction that was due to come from the X2N-7, located in the bridge.

I found a great fat bluesy tone (as well as a great rock, jazz and clean tone) for the PAF 7, then decided it was time for the beast. As I switched pickups the big fat tone turned to a decent overdrive that I really dug (keep in mind I did not touch my amps settings). Yes, the gain difference was big enough to overdrive a mostly clean setting, and let me tell you, I really love when it does that, it is great just to flip to the bridge pickup for a little driven fill or riff without having to tweak my amp, or hit a stomp box. I have actually found a very cool Stones/Dire Straits tone by using a hot clean sound that also sounds big and fat on the neck setting.

So enough messing around, I hooked up to a Behringer modeling head I have down stairs and hooked it up to two Leonardo Custom Cabinets (a Leonardo 8 and a Leonardo 12) and I called up a great 5150-esque preset. The X2N-7 took that tone to entirely new levels of over the edge distortion than I had ever achieved! I was amazed and delighted. Every setting I tried was much more 'edgier' and 'gainier' then they had ever been, it was like owning an entirely new amp. The one thing that always made me smile more was the fact that the X2N-7, no matter what amp (solid-state or tube) or setting I used, never, let me repeat, never lost its clarity.

The clarity of this pickup and all the DiMarzio pickups I have installed in this 7-string have phenomenal clarity of sound. I have played quite a few 7-strings and many of them have flabby and muddy sounds when playing the 7^th string, be it tuned to an A or B. When I originally spoke with Steve Blucher we had discussed this problem. He told me that he redesigned every pickup from the ground up for 7-strings to ensure that the low string would pickup well and have the same clarity as the other strings. I'm sure some of the other manufacturers just throw in an extra pole piece and call it good, but this doesn't give a good response. DiMarzio has this nailed.

After hording my new found friends for a few days I decided to share. I brought the guitar into work and loaned it to two of our resident 7-stringers, both who play very heavy music. Each came back to me awe struck and in love with the DiMarzio X2N-7. My pal back in shipping, Kent Ream said, "The X2N-7 is so hot you'll need an oven mitt, yet it still has perfect clarity." Nathan, the other guy I let borrow the guitar used it on a string of gigs and even just took it to Chicago to record with his band.

The X2N-7 has great balance and amazing string clarity on the 7^th string. The gain of this pickup is endless, it rages like a fire in a dry forest. Ok, so this pickup is a one trick pony, "Play Heavy or Die!", but I liked the tones it could coax from a hot, clean amp setting. For what it is I give the X2N-7 a 5 out of 5 stars and the editor's choice award. If gain is your game, run out and get this pickup today!

Special thanks to Steve Blucher for the recommendation and to Kent and Nathan who helped me test the pickup.