Hi Henric,

The DiMarzio Air Norton S pickups is a great pickup for Stratocaster and for any guitar with a single coil slot. It will retain the look of a single coil while eliminating the hum as it is a humbucker.

If you go for the lower end guitars, I would pick the Jackson over the Ibanez. The Jackson licensed Floyd Rose is patterned after the original whereas the Ibanez has a different design Floyd Rose licensed tremolo. If you ever decide to upgrade the tremolo to an original Floyd Rose, you can drop it in a Jackson but you might do some wood routing on an  Ibanez. I have done it a lot of times on my customer’s guitar.

Thanks for the comments,

Den

Hi Constantinos,

The Dimarzio Air Norton S is a great drop in replacement for guitars with single coil slots. This single coil sized humbucker share the same characteristic as the full sized Air Norton. Thank you, yes I am very passionate about guitars.

Thanks for the comments,

Den

This was a very informative and detailed article! Thank you for sharing the wonders of the DiMarzio Air Norton S! 🙂 You seem very passionate about guitars. Perhaps you’ve tempted me enough to buy one in the future. I wish you all the best! God Speed!!!

Constantinos Roussos

I’ve always been looking to add a Floyd Rose equipped guitar to my tiny collection and it’s been hard to decide wether buy a Jackson or an Ibanez. I’ve been leaning towards Ibanez and Jacksons mostly, but with a limited budget, making a decision is hard!

What would you recommend if I told you I had to pick between either an Ibanez or a Jackson? As I play mostly rock, I’m mostly in for the Floyd Rose whammy bar to screw around with, 

Loved the review overall

Henric

Hi Robert,

The Air Norton S pickup is not good for coil splitting, and it does not sound like a single coil. Coil splitting and coil tapping are two different things. Coils splitting is when you ground one coil of a humbucker, thereby disabling that coil and have the one remaining coil to function as a single coil pickup.

Single coil pickups found in electric guitars can be coil tapped to reduce the number of windings around the magnet. A tapped single-coil pickup typically contains three wires: ground, output, and a tapped output – with the two outputs wired to a switch on the guitar. The guitar player can then choose between the louder, punchy, midrange-heavy sound of the entire coil, or coil tap into the inner coil for a quieter, yet brighter tone with a more clear and detailed high end.

To summarize the subject, coil splitting is for humbuckers while coil tapping is for single coil pickups.

Thanks for the comments,

Den

Hi Juan,

Even though this pickup is a humbucker, this is still a medium output pickup. This is good from classic rock to progressive rock. Higher output pickups are the choice of those bands you mentioned.

Thanks for the comments,

Den

What kind of music is the DiMarzio Air Norton S most suitable for? From my few years playing guitar I usually associate humbuckers with a heavier rock sound. Is that the case with this? Does this humbucker pickup do some justice to bands like Metallica, Disturbed, Megadeth, and the like?

Juan

Hi Rick,

Thank you! The DiMarzio Air Norton S is a good option to install a single coil sized humbucker in a single coil pickup slot. This pickup is a drop in replacement.

Thanks for the comments,

Den

Wow! I bought a Carvin and I am looking for ways to make it sound better. I’m not a guitar modifier but should be. It is nice to know that there is a single coil size version of the DiMarzio Air Norton. Your advise here is very pertinent to doing quality studio work – which is what I’m dedicated to.

Thank you fellow musician!