View other reviews for this product:
Hatsubai « Aggressive neck pickup »
Published on 03/23/11 at 16:25The Evolution Neck pickup was a humucker created for Steve Vai and his Ibanez Jem guitars. The pickup is aimed towards being a medium to high output, clear and punchy PAF. To be honest, this is somewhat of an evolution (get it :D ) of the PAF Pro. Like nearly all DiMarzio pickups, this comes standard with four conductor wiring, allen head bolts on both coils and a ceramic magnet. The ceramic magnet is part of this pickup’s secret. I’ll get to that later.
The DiMarzio Evolution Neck is aimed towards the player that wants a clear, powerful and harmonically rich neck pickup. If you’re a sloppy player, this pickup will definitely show. Note clarity is big thing with this pickup. However, it’s also compressed a bit more than most normal PAFs out there. Imagine taking the PAF Pro, evening it out a little bit and making it more powerful with more mids.
Steve Vai and DiMarzio recommend this pickup for guitars with alder bodies. I can’t say I agree as this can get pretty bright. The neck version isn’t as bright as the bridge version is, but it’s still up there. Those with more neutral to darker tone woods like basswood and mahogany will probably prefer this pickup a little more. It all depends on the kind of tone you’re going for. If you’re looking for an open pickup, this probably won’t be the pickup you’re looking for. However, those that want a searing, punchy and harmonically rich sound will love this. I actually recommend the Evo 2 to go with this in the bridge rather than the Evolution Bridge. The Evo 2 tends to be a better match for most people. Other good pickups to pair up with this are the ToneZone, Super Distortion, Breed Bridge, Steve’s Special and so on.
The DiMarzio Evolution Neck is aimed towards the player that wants a clear, powerful and harmonically rich neck pickup. If you’re a sloppy player, this pickup will definitely show. Note clarity is big thing with this pickup. However, it’s also compressed a bit more than most normal PAFs out there. Imagine taking the PAF Pro, evening it out a little bit and making it more powerful with more mids.
Steve Vai and DiMarzio recommend this pickup for guitars with alder bodies. I can’t say I agree as this can get pretty bright. The neck version isn’t as bright as the bridge version is, but it’s still up there. Those with more neutral to darker tone woods like basswood and mahogany will probably prefer this pickup a little more. It all depends on the kind of tone you’re going for. If you’re looking for an open pickup, this probably won’t be the pickup you’re looking for. However, those that want a searing, punchy and harmonically rich sound will love this. I actually recommend the Evo 2 to go with this in the bridge rather than the Evolution Bridge. The Evo 2 tends to be a better match for most people. Other good pickups to pair up with this are the ToneZone, Super Distortion, Breed Bridge, Steve’s Special and so on.