DiMarzio

The DiMarzio Area ‘61 is a new evolution of the Virtual Vintage series. It’s a single coil pickup that features an Alnico 2 magnet, staggered pole pieces and four conductor wiring. The Area ’61 is a noiseless single coil that’s meant to replicate the very old school single coil tones of yesteryear. It does this by utilizing DiMarzio’s Virtual Vintage technology to keep everything quiet but also allowing it to sound fairly natural. DiMarzio describes this pickup as sounding “woody,” and I agree. If you’ve ever listened to Stevie Ray Vaughan, you know what sound they’re referring to, and this pickup does that tone in spades. The treble is crisp, but not harsh. The midrange is creamy without being obnoxious, and the bass is slightly pushed back to allow for the natural sound of the single coil to really shine. I always describe this tone as “vowely,” but I’m sure you guys who have heard single coils will know what I’m referring to. The DiMarzio Area ’61 is a low to medium output pickup, so it can really be used in any position of the guitar. I love this pickup in the neck, but it also is a great bridge pickup as well. It all depends on what you’re looking to get out of the guitar. If you put it in the neck, you get that awesome SRV lead tone in spades. If you put it in the bridge, it’s almost like that Hendrix-esque Strat tone. I have a feeling that this was made for alder bodied guitars, but it should be able to be used in nearly any body wood without much of an issue. I’d just be a bit weary when it comes to putting it into solid maple bodies. If you’re looking for a fairly vintage sounding single coil pickup that is quiet but still sounds natural, I highly recommend checking out the Area ’61. This pickup pairs nicely with the other Area series to help create the ultimate sounding Strat.

The Liquifire is the ideal neck pickup to go with a very hot bridge pickup. It takes care of the problems many 24 fret guitars experience on their neck pickups. Because of the 24 frets the neck pickup is placed farther back then it would be on traditional guitars like a Les Paul or Fender Stratocaster. This means the neck pickup picks up more high end frequencies than it would in the more traditional guitars. This means your neck pickup sound may not be as smooth as it should be. The Liquifire fixes this difficulty. John Petrucci of Dream Theater helped to develop this pickup with Ernie Ball MusicMan guitars. When looking at a pickup designed by an artist you should look at what kind of guitar the artist would put it in and what kind of wood that guitar is made out of. In this case the pickup was designed for a guitar with an alder body. Because of this pickups voicing it should work well in most woods some heavy woods may make the sound a little muddy though. This pickup is like a modified Dimarzio Air Norton or PAF pro. The Air Norton was also designed with Petrucci and was intended to be a fat neck pickup with dialed back high end, the Liquifire is an evolution of this concept. It can be used in the bridge but it is ideally suited for the neck position and for lead playing. The Liquifire produces a full and round sound and there is no unwanted high end on the neck pickup. This reduced high end may make clean passages a little undefined. So if you are looking for a modern sounding neck pickup to go on your modern guitar, and plan on playing modern heavy music this could be your pickup of choice.

The DiMarzio PAF Joe is an evolution of the original PAF Pro that Joe Satriani used throughout most of his career. DiMarzio says it uses some special technology to achieve a new sound, and I’m not exactly sure what they’re doing. Either way, it has all the same features as the PAF Pro does. Satch was looking for a new tone for his Ibanez guitars. He’s always used the PAF Pro in the neck, but he recently wanting something a bit more vintage sounding. This pickup has a little less output, extended treble and a little less bass than the original PAF Pro. That allows it to be clearer than the PAF Pro and actually a touch bitey. Because this pickup is modeled after the more vintage sounding PAFs out there, it has this real cool “vowely” quality to it. It has this real cool voicing going on that many of the older PAFs from yesteryear had. It has more note definition than the PAF Pro, and although DiMarzio says the treble is warm, the top end has a crisp bite to it that isn’t too harsh. Satch uses this in the neck, but you can really use this pickup in any position. The neck and the bridge both yield great tones. Personally, I prefer this pickup in the neck as I find it to be a bit too open in the bridge. Some people love that open quality, but I like a little compression going on to help kick the amp into overdrive easier. The pickup works in all kinds of woods, so there should be no issues there. If you’re looking for a different take on the PAF Pro, you should check this pickup out. It has some real cool characteristics going on, and it should work in nearly any setup you may have.

The DiMarzio Pro Track is a sound for those looking for that oldschool PAF sound but with a little more power. It features two blade rails like many other single coil humbucker DiMarzios have, four conductor wiring and a ceramic magnet. The Pro Track is a pickup that sounds like the old school PAFs. It’s not like the PAF Pro that they offer, but it does have some similarities. Instead, it’s more like the old PAF they used to offer. It has an awesome vowely quality, the low end is boosted just a tad, along with the midrange, and the treble is pushed back ever so slightly. This helps make it sound huge, and it works quite nicely for jazz, rock and even metal. The pickup is a very medium output pickup. If you’re looking for something hotter, you’ll probably want to try the Fast Track 2. The pickup can be split for a nice single coil sound or run in parallel for a more telecaster kinda sound. The pickup is very versatile and works in pretty much any position. If you put it in the neck, it’ll be a transparent sounding PAF; if you put it in the bridge, it’ll sound big without sounding overly compressed. The best thing about this is that it works in any wood combination out there. None of the frequencies are too overbearing, so it really lets the wood show off their natural characteristics without enhancing unwanted frequencies. If you’re looking for a more traditional style sounding humbucker to throw in your strat, you should try out this pickup. Adding a push/pull pot or mini toggle switch helps make this pickup even more versatile. If you put it in the bridge, try using a Cruiser Neck. If you put it in the neck, try something hotter like a Tone Zone S, Super Distortion S, Fast Track 2, etc.

After listening to the accoustic clips of Larry Dimarzio's actual /59 les paul, I was astonished how closely it sounded to my Gibson Historic & Custom Shop 1958 Chambered Reissue Les Paul. Perhaps it's the chambering - I've heard that mentioned before how some of these sound more like a real burst than the solid ones, oddly enough. So anyway, I called Dimarzio, and ordered a set with "vintage aged" nickel silver covers, and put them in my guitar. I actually had some small difficulty as the covers were square cornered, but I called dimarzio and got some help. The result was pretty dang amazing, all I can say folks is you owe it to yourself to try them for yourself. They sounded more legit in this guitar than the original burstbuckers, wolftones, marshallheads, and throbaks. I didn't compare them to my set of True 60's ($450 pickups wound by Fralin for RS Guitarworks), but I did not want to yank those out of my other lester. However, I will say this guitar does sound better. So here's some finer analysis: The burstbuckers have that scrambled eggs sound (don't know what else to call it, that mid scramble sound)... these don't. Wolfs and Marshalls... TOO HAIRY. Great sounding pickups, but real PAFs don't have hair, at least not the good ones. Throbaks - they are exceptional, but they lack some of the woody-warmth on the neck pickup of the real ones I have played. The bridge was as good or better, but didn't pair well balance wise with the dimarzio neck, the output was louder. I do find an odd artifact in the lower mids on the throbaks, it sounds good, but I hear it every time I do low bends getting a vowel sound on my rig. Nothing bad though.. to be honest I like it, they deserve the reputation of more PAF than PAF. The Dimarzios. Oh yes, oh yes. How do they make these so cheap? Turned down they clean up wonderfully, without losing that balanced tone or getting muddy, but cranked up through a cranked plexi, they sing, with the trade mark midrange tone, wonderful harmonic overtones. Not as open sounding as the wolfs or marshalls, but no hair... - the originals have a slight compression when pushed, and these nail it. The neck pickup deserves praise above and beyond the set itself - probably the best PAF neck pickup made since 1960, it just spills over in woodiness, the bass does not become muddy or overwhelming, just a perfect balance. The value for price is ridiculous - making these pickups a no-brainer. When I first heard that dimarzio was going to compete with boutique pickup makers I laughed. I guess the value of the many years of experience of this company cannot be understated. What is impressive is they did not follow the sheeple, and replicate all the additional inflated-aspects of the PAF that have become the bread and butter of most boutique winders, they did a tone reset right back to '59, with the benefit of having real unmodified 59s in an exceptional example burst, to compare to. Bottom line: If you want the tone, here it is.

The guitar is a J&D Les Paul copy. Made in taiwan, mahogany back/maple top, bolt on maple/rosewood neck. The guitar is acoustically loud, and brighter than typical les paul. I have owned duncan TB 4,5,6,12,15. Dimarzio Evo, Evo2, TZ, Super 3, Paf Pro, FRED. The AT-1 is so far the best of them all. The sound is fat but not dark, it's very balanced. Tight compact bass, thick syrupy low mids. The high notes scream, but in very musical way compared to dimarzio EVO (more complexity and depth). Perhaps due to AT's Alnico 5 magnet as opposed to EVO's ceramic. Solo playing is a joy with this pickup. It is laden with harmonics. Great sustain. It responds well to dynamics in pick attack. Compared to dimarzio Tone Zone (a highly popular model from dimarzio), the AT-1 does not sound exaggerated in the mids. The sound is classic, with a touch of fatness. Much more natural, much more versatile. Better lead tones, and better harmonics. For heavy rhythm playing it sounds really brutal. In my experience it can get a bit flabby with dropped tunings. The guitar, being 24.75' scale might be to blame on this. But for normal tuning, it's really thick and brutal. I find it a bit strange Mr.Andy Timmons use this pickup with normal output single coils. Because in my experience it has plenty of power. It kinda overpower my neck pickup (stock pickup, vintage PAF output level, gonna replace soon). Honestly I'm thinking of loading all my future humbucker guitars with the AT-1. It's that good.

DiMarzio has always been one of my favorite pickup manufacturers out there for lead tones. Steve Vai’s lead tone was always to die for, so I tried out all of his pickups. While the Evo in the neck wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, this was much more up my alley. The Breed neck seems like it’s a modified PAF Pro more than anything else. However, it’s modified in a good way. You have more power, some more compression but with a nice complex dynamic range that seems to really suit the neck position quite well. The best way to describe this would be to take a PAF Pro and marry it with an Air Norton. You’ll then have the general idea of how this pickup sounds. It’s dark but not overly dark. It still has some nice bite in the treble to help allow you to cut. It has that old school PAF kind of sound going on in the wound strings when you play high up on the neck, but it’s not overbearing like certain other PAF pickups out there. It’s like a modern take on the PAF, really. It works well in pretty much any wood I’ve tried this in. I even tried it in swamp ash, and it really kicked the guitar up a notch. I’ve heard of a few people trying this in the bridge position for a unique PAF kind of sound, and while I think it would sound pretty interesting there, I can’t say I have any first hand knowledge as to how that sounds. I’ve always just used them in the neck positions of my guitar. There are some guitarists out there who only use this pickup, and once you try it, you’ll probably see why. It’s versatile and can do nearly any genre you throw at it.

DiMarzio released the Super Distortion a long time ago. I remember when it first came out and everyone started putting these in their guitars. It was usually a war between this pickup and the Seymour Duncan JB. Both were super high output pickups to help push the older, lesser gain amplifiers into overdrive more. This is pretty much a bridge only pickup. I can’t ever imagine using this in the neck because it would be way too high output. The pickup itself sounds very fat, so if you’re not into those somewhat dark sounding pickups, this might not be for you. The main goal was to help be compatible with old school Marshalls running everything at 10, so the pickup helped balance that naturally bright sound. With today’s amps and guitar tones, it’s not quite as pleasing at times. Iron Maiden was a good example of this pickup’s tone at times, as was Kiss. You have a lot of midrange in this pickup, so you shouldn’t really have any problems cutting. One trick you should do is play with pickup height because it’ll help give you some dynamics back and make the thing a bit more controllable. The pickup doesn’t work too well for modern music because it’s not quite as tight and refined as the newer ones today, but if you have a guitar that has a really bright tone, this could be the ticket to help getting a more pleasing tone without it becoming overly bass heavy in the lower end spectrum. Overall, if you’re looking for something on the vintage side, you can get this. You can also look into the Dual Sound because it’s the exact same pickup but with a push/pull pot for splitting. You can add a push/pull pot to this pickup if yours has four conductor wiring. If you’re more into today’s music, it might be worth looking at the newer stuff DiMarzio has to offer.

I call this pickup a "sleeper" because it preserves the look of the Strat but cranks up the output and tone of the bridge pickup into nice crunch and, with a little help, distortion. The DP420 Virtual Solo is an excellent alternative for anyone who doesn't want to change the look of their Strat but wants more output and a little more "rounded" tone with the highs not as piercing as a standard Strat bridge pickup. They'll never see you coming--no one will know your Strat is modded until you plug in. With a B/M/T EQ curve of of 6.5/7.5/5.5 it more closely resembles a humbucker but still preserves that "Strat" tone. The output of the Virtual Solo is 205 mV which is almost exactly halfway between a standard Strat pickup and a PAF. This gives the pickup a nice crunch and grind quality while keeping the cleans smooth, crisp, and glassy. Like the Dimarzio web site says, if you pick softly, the Virtual Solo cleans up nicely--hit the strings harder and output increases notably. In reality, when I dig into the strings I think the Virtual Solo almost takes on a Telecaster-esque "twang" and compression. I also think the DP420 Virtual Solo has enough of a mid and treble push that it could be a contender as a middle or neck pickup, although I’ve never tried it in either position. All in all, I think the Virtual Solo is the best way to get increased output in the bridge of your Strat without changing the look of the guitar to something like a stack or rail-looking pickup. I’ve used many replacement Strat bridge pickups and usually have to go to a blade design to get the sound I’m looking for, which I’m fundamentally OK with, but still, there’s an understated elegance in being able to maintain the vintage look of your Strat and still have it sound like a modern-day monster. If that’s what you’ve been looking for, the DP420 is definitely worth the investment.

Wasn't sure what to expect with this one. I usually gravitate towards boutique pick-ups like Suhr and Motor City but this was on sale at Guitar Center so I figured it was worth a try. I put it in a Charvel So Cal and was pleasantly surprised. I have to say the mids are near perfect with this pick up. You get a great mid-range grind like your favorite 80s hair metal song. Great response and articulation of the notes. Harmonics fly off of the fret board, almost the perfect pick up if you like 80s hair metal and even harder stuff. Lead tones are great and it really cuts through in a live mix. Some pick-ups get lost in the rhythm section but not the Tone Zone. Definitely has a bit of a pissed off characteristic to it which I find the most appealing feature. Whatever the mid frequency range is, I wish I could merge that with the bass of something like the suhr Aldrich bridge pick up. The only issue I can see is the bottom is a bit flubby to me. Definitely has the chunk but it is a loose sound. If that could be tightened up somehow, this would be a perfect pick up. That being said it runs pretty good with my Mototrcity Detroiter and Suhr Aldrich to the point where I have not taken it out. I have played this before in a buddy’s Les Paul and I recall feeling the same way, that something on the bottom wasn’t quite working perfectly. Bottom line is that for the price this is a damn good pick up, not perfect but very good and for the price almost can't be beat. I would say as far as stock pickups go, this and the JB do the job pretty well. This seems to be a bit hotter than the JB which I like. Go get one, you won’t be disappointed overall for the price.

Dimarzio is a modern pickup maker most known for this modern humbuckers used by modern guitar players. Players like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani have been using Dimarzios for years and are pretty much the definition of modern guitar players. Being viewed as such a modern pickup maker Dimarzio isnt as well known for their single coils. Most of their single coil pickups are really just humbuckers shrunk down to fit in the space of a single coil. They have a few true single coil pickups and the SDS-1 is one of them. Since this is a true single coil and not a small humbucker you will get all the hum and noise that you typically get with single coil pickups. To get the true real single coil sound you pretty much have to have the noise and the hum unless you completely change the pickup design like they did with Lace Sensors. With this pickup Dimarzio chose to take the true single coil tone in more of a P-90 direction. The pickup still has the twang and clarity of a single coil with just a little more warmth. They used a set of weaker magnets but with adjustable poles. So you can get them closer to the strings without as much string drag. String drag is where the magnetic pull of the pickup magnets actually lesses the sustain of the strings by preventing them from vibrating freely. The eq on these pickups is more for warmth than for single coil twang. The high end is cut back a bunch and there is a bit more low end. This is not really the pickup you want if you want a ultra twangy country sound. This is a more modern sounding true single coil. If you are looking for a true single coil from Dimarzio with a little bit of a warmer tone this fits that perfectly.

The Dimarzio Virtual Vintage series promises various classic vintage Fender tones with low noise due to the stacked coil design. These are humbucking pickups by design rather than single coild, since there are two coils and each coil is on top of one another rather than side by side. Since the coils are on top of one another it still looks like a single coil and fits in a single coil space. Early Dimarzio stacked coil pickups like the HS-3 did not sound too good. They were quiet bu the tone wasnt there. The HS-3's had muted highs and the lacked attack in the mids and low end. Overall the HS-3 did not have the clarity a single coil should. The Virtual Vintage series much more accurately gets the single coil sound out of a stacked coil pickup. They are a lot better compared to the old HS-3. Some of the top-end sparkle is still lacking and there is added low-end typical for a humbucker, but for some people that may have an overly bright Fender amp and want to reduce the noise or possibility of hum/interference, DiMarzio’s Virtual Vintage series does a good job. For the absolute vintage tone connosieur dead-set on getting accurate tones, dealing with the possibility of a little hum and going for a single-coil set would likely be a better bet however. One area where this series seemed to be of help to me was when I ran loads of distortion or fuzz or a good deal of processing. Any hum that would have been transferred by another pickup would have been amplified greatly through a stompbox. In the case of the Virtual Vintage series, that was one issue I was able to avoid. So finally you can get a stacked humbucking single coil that actually sounds like a single coil should. If you are looking for a quiet but vintage sounding pickup that still looks vintage the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage could be right for you.