What is the Zen D Summer Breeze Set?

The Zen D Summer Breeze Set is a low-output, underwound humbucker pair from Taiwan. It offers mellow neck tones, singing bridge leads, and a dynamic, PAF-style sound suitable for jazz, blues, and expressive clean playing.

What type of magnets do Summer Breeze pickups use?

Both the neck and bridge pickups in the Summer Breeze Set use Alnico II magnets, contributing to their low Gauss, soft, and dynamic tonal character.

Which guitars are ideal for Summer Breeze pickups?

The Summer Breeze Set works best in semi-hollow or hollow-body guitars, such as ES-335 style instruments, but can also bring warmth and clarity to solid-body guitars. They are especially suited for jazz, blues, and clean-toned styles.

How does the Summer Breeze Set handle lead tones and clean playing?

The bridge pickup delivers singing, slightly nasal leads with noticeable mids, while the neck offers a mellow, smooth, and clean tone. Overall, the set preserves dynamic range and allows for expressive, touch-sensitive playing, making it perfect for melodic solos and jazz phrasing.

What are the tonal characteristics of the Summer Breeze neck and bridge pickups?

Neck: mellow, smooth, clean, reminiscent of Alnico II Pro and DiMarzio Air Classic. Best for jazz and blues. Bridge: hotter than the neck, clear and singing, mid-focused, excellent for expressive leads. Not ideal for saturated rock or heavy metal.

Can the Summer Breeze Set fit guitars with tight pickup cavities?

While Zen D offers custom cover options like gold, wood, or leather, guitars with narrow cavities may require removing the covers. Without covers, the pickups maintain their classic zebra coil look and full tonal character.

What genres benefit most from Summer Breeze pickups?

This set is excellent for jazz, blues, classic rock, and clean or slightly overdriven tones. Its expressive dynamics and low Gauss design make it less suited for high-gain metal, but ideal for T-Bone Walker or B.B. King style playing.

How does Summer Breeze compare to Tonerider Rocksong or similar pickups?

Compared to hotter, fatter pickups like the Tonerider Rocksong, Summer Breeze is softer, more dynamic, and mid-forward. While Rocksong is a 'rock beast,' Summer Breeze is more subtle and nuanced, perfect for players seeking vintage, expressive PAF-style tones.

What makes the Zen D Summer Breeze Set unique compared to other humbuckers?

The Summer Breeze Set stands out due to its underwound coils, low-output design, and Alnico II magnets, which create a soft, dynamic, and expressive tone. Unlike hotter, high-output pickups, it emphasizes clarity, smooth mids, and singing highs, making it ideal for jazz, blues, and clean-toned players.

How does Summer Breeze perform in dynamic range and expressiveness?

With its low Gauss magnets and underwound coils, the Summer Breeze Set offers wide dynamic range and touch sensitivity, rewarding nuanced playing. It is especially effective for melodic solos, expressive chord work, and styles where subtle dynamics are essential.

Zen D Summer Breeze Pickups Review

Barış Şahin
1 minute ago
6 min read

Zen D Summer Breeze Pickups Review – Smooth, Mellow & Expressive PAF Tones

Zen D Summer Breeze bridge humbucker close-up 2

One of the things I love most about the world of guitar pickups is how universal it is. There’s a strange and beautiful aura that connects people through this craft. All around the globe, passionate pickup winders are working hard to help guitarists chasing “better tone” reach the sounds they dream of.

One of them is Zen D Pickups from Taiwan. The company sent me their Summer Breeze Set to try out. Honestly, I didn’t quite know what to expect — the only thing I knew about the set came from a short description during my interview with its maker. Now, though, I’ve got a much clearer picture in my mind — and by the end of this article, you will too.

The Test Guitar

Zen D Summer Breeze neck humbucker on Ibanez JS guitar

Zen D Summer Breeze Set sits in my hand-made Ibanez Js/Radius formed guitar that has a lightweight korina body, a Q-sawn one-piece Honduran mahogany neck in a chunky neck profile (very similar to the Gibson R8 necks), Pau Ferro fretboard, Hantug titanium fixed bridge, 25” scale, Jescar 55090 (narrow tall) stainless steel frets, CTS 500K long shaft pots, and Jim Dunlop DESBN1052 Super Bright 10/52 Strings tuned whole step down. Its essence (unplugged) tone ranges from balanced to warm.

Although the shape of the guitar is Ibanez JS, the tonal design aimed for a Gibson LP or SG. Therefore, the guitar has a distinct nasal sound due to both the selected woods and the scale. Anticipating the clarity issues on the neck found in some guitars with 24.5” or 24.75” scales, I envisioned the PRS scale to be more favorable. As a result, the guitar combines the comfort of the Ibanez JS/Radius series with the sound of a Gibson LP/SG.

Evaluation

Let’s read the desciption first, as always;

“A2 P.A.F. They have more pronounced mids than Oldtimers, like the breeze in a summer afternoon, warm, but you still enjoy the clarity when the wind goes by the ears.”.

…And, my measuremens are here;

Summer Breeze Bridge

Magnet – Alnico 2

Advertised DCR: 8.30 K Ohm (Series)

Measured DCR: 8.40 K Ohm (Series)

Measured DCR: 4.23 K Ohm (Screw Coil)

Measured DCR: 4.24 K Ohm (Slug Coil)

Inductance @100Hz: 4.61 H (Series)

Inductance @100Hz: 1.92 H (Screw Coil)

Inductance @100Hz: 1.98 H (Slug Coil)

Measured C: -33.9 nF (Series)/ -62.3 nF (Screw Coil) / -63.5 nF (Slug Coil)

Output: Vintage

EQ (B/M/T) –

Gauss: 110G screw (measured at top center of D&G pole pieces)

Ambient Measurement Temperature: 22^oC

Summer Breeze Neck

Magnet – Alnico 2

Advertised DCR: 7.30 K Ohm (Series)

Measured DCR: 7.05 K Ohm (Series)

Measured DCR: 3.55 K Ohm (Screw Coil)

Measured DCR: 5.57 K Ohm (Slug Coil)

Inductance @100Hz: 3.46 H (Series)

Inductance @100Hz: 1.47 H (Screw Coil)

Inductance @100Hz: 1.48 H (Slug Coil)

Measured C: -38.7 nF (Series)/ -69.6 nF (Screw Coil) / -71.6 nF (Slug Coil)

Output: Vintage

EQ (B/M/T) –

Gauss: 80G screw (measured at top center of D&G pole pieces)

Zen D Summer Breeze humbuckers new in the box

When the pickups arrived, they came with a really charming custom cover design. The set featured an open-top gold cover with a leather surface, beautifully embossed with the words “Tone Journey.” Zen D offers quite a rich variety of customization options in this area — they’re definitely not lacking when it comes to aesthetics. You can choose from different materials, including various woods or even leather, like the example I received. Unfortunately, the guitar I planned to test them on (a custom-built instrument, as I mentioned earlier) has relatively narrow pickup cavities, so the covered version wouldn’t fit. Since I couldn’t exactly start routing wood late at night, I had no choice but to remove the covers. Even without them, the pickups look fine — a zebra coil style (black screw coil, cream slug coil), which I personally love. With poly-insulated wire, a nickel silver baseplate, matched coils and other familiar details, they’re classic humbuckers through and through.

What really caught my attention, though, was the magnetic flux density. It measured around 100–110 G on the bridge pickup and 70–80 G on the neck — easily the lowest flux density I’ve ever encountered in a humbucker. I have to admit, those readings both shocked and intrigued me. I started wondering — could something along the way have caused a bit of degaussing? Should I maybe recharge the magnet myself? Of course, I had to ask the maker before doing anything, so I reached out to Chin about it. When he assured me that everything was fine, I felt relieved — and went ahead with the installation. Hence i’ve reached their tones.

If I had to describe the tone of the Zen D Summer Breeze (SM) neck, the first words that come to mind are mellow and smooth. Clean — yes, genuinely clean. While testing it, three pickups popped into my head: the Seymour Duncan Seth Lover neck, Alnico 2 Pro neck, and DiMarzio Air Classic neck. Of those, it reminded me most of the A2P and the Air Classic. To be more precise, it sounds like an A2P that shares the rounded, open character of the Air Classic. However, there’s a bit of muddiness on the wound strings in the lower frets. On the other hand, the low strings and the tone above the 12th fret are absolutely delightful.

Honestly, I’d love to try this pickup in a semi-hollow guitar — something like a Heritage H-535. I think it would be perfect for jazz. With its characteristic low Gauss level, underwound design, and clear yet full-bodied tone, it would perform beautifully in a ES-335 with forward, hollow mids.

Zen D Summer Breeze bridge humbucker close-up

The bridge model, on the other hand, struck my ear as being closer to an A2P. The mids are once again easily noticeable, and it’s noticeably hotter than the neck. The lead tones are lovely — singing, a bit nasal, yet still clear like its neck counterpart. If you’re not pushing into really aggressive territory and you enjoy authentic, clear PAF-style clones, you’ll love this one. But if you’re chasing saturated rock tones and need something fatter, it might leave you wanting more.

Overall, I’d describe the set as having slightly pronounced mids but a fairly flat EQ balance. If I were to look at its Bode plot, I doubt I’d see any sharp peaks. Yet, lows are present, but as you’d expect from an underwound PAF with a weak Alnico II magnet, they have a spongy character. The highs are sweet and mellow, which makes playing melodic passages particularly enjoyable.

Now let’s compare it with some familiar models. I think the best starting point would be the Tonerider Rocksong set, which I reviewed most recently. Compared to the Summer Breeze, the Rocksong is noticeably fatter and hotter — a true rock beast. If the Rocksong is Angus Young, then the Summer Breeze is Wes Montgomery, if you know what i mean :)

I have already covered the similarity with A2P and Air Classic above.

In terms of dynamic range and compression, it almost goes without saying — the Zen D Summer Breeze set is a very dynamic humbucker. Naturally, you wouldn’t expect the Tone Zone–style compression from an underwound pickup with degaussed mıknatıs, and that’s exactly the case here.

Because of that, it could easily find a sweet home in Chicago blues territory. Now that I think about it, playing T-Bone Walker or B.B. King licks with this set would sound absolutely delicious.

For the output, i would put Summer Breeze set in the low output category.

Zen D Summer Breeze bridge humbucker close-up on Ibanez JS Guitar

Conclusion

The Zen D Summer Breeze Set feels like a love letter to subtlety. It’s not about brute force, screaming mids, or modern aggression — it’s about feel, touch, and dynamics. Everything about these pickups, from their low Gauss readings to their open, breathing character, invites you to play with nuance rather than power. In a world crowded with overwound, high-output options, the Summer Breeze stands out by whispering instead of shouting. It rewards expressive players — those who live in the space between clean and breakup, who value phrasing and clarity over gain.

For jazz, blues, and expressive clean work, the set offers a rare blend of warmth and articulation. It’s a gentle reminder that tone isn’t always about volume or output — sometimes, it’s about the air between the notes.

If you’re the kind of player who appreciates Seth Lover, A2P, or Air Classic-style voicings but wants something in between them, you know, something delicate and dynamic, this set might just be your next favorite discovery.

Pros