DiMarzio DP165 The Breed Neck

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.

The DiMarzio Breed Neck was designed for Steve Vai when he wanted a different sound than his original Evolution pickups. They’re a lot closer to a normal PAF than the Evolution and not nearly as hot. They feature adjustable allen head bolts on both coils, four conductor wiring and an Alnico 5 magnet.

This pickup is more than just a magnet swap of the Evolution. It’s quite a bit different, which I find to be a really good thing. The Breed Neck is modeled after the PAF Pro. It’s a bit hotter with more midrange and less treble. It’s actually pretty close to the Air Norton, except this is a bit more open and has a bit more treble. The lows are warm and round. It resembles that “vowely” old school PAF sound at times. The mids are fairly pronounced and help keep everything compressed but not too over the top. Treble is pushed back a bit to keep everything real fat and smooth in the neck position. Split coil sounds are pretty cool, and running the pickup in parallel is neat as well.

This pickup really does work in nearly every guitar out there, and it’s my second or third favorite DiMarzio neck pickup to boot. It doesn’t matter if the guitar is alder, mahogany, basswood, maple, ash or what. This pickup just seems to mate with whatever wood it goes in. Magnus Olsson is a big fan of this pickup, and nearly all of his recordings feature this particular pickup. One cool thing you can try is running it in the bridge. Putting this in the bridge brightens it up a little and opens up the guitar a bit. It’s a real cool alternative to the PAF Pro in the bridge. I highly recommend checking this pickup out.

Used on my ibanez rg 350 dx 4 months
I like the sound big enough load but low trs prcis
I had diffrent guitar (Cort, epiphone les paul ...) I had on my les paul emg, instead of before c'tait hot while screaming and it was subsequently the it's great!
a good quality price (thank you ebay!) Nothing to say its a super clean PRCI while loaded as well in low and mdium, only problem: I have a tone zone in bridge and train for serious DRIRE balance moves away all I had to breed my Neek ropes and raprocher my death tone zone! but hey it must be the most powerful micro DiMarzio neck of s'tonner should not, I think a meter evo2 tone instead of the area to ratraper!

- How long have you use it?

I use it for two days only, item on Ibanez Prestige RGT 2020 (body and set neck with sapele, cousin of mahogany, rosewood fingerboard) with an Evolution bridge, mountain at the same time.

- What is the particular feature you like best and least?

It's a microphone that sounds hot on my guitar. With little time to play on, with distortion I would say it is hot, it restores mdiums well as provides the wood with a wide harmonic field (shrunken understand that not ring), it is pr cis and low frequencies do not drool. In the treble, it's not loud at all. It's even enjoyable trs cost. ^ ^

This is what I like and what I wanted.

It combines well with the trs evolution, as if they taient complmentaires.

I think that despite its potential versatile, it's not going to have some equivalent round vintage microphones for pure blues or jazz sound. But I must stress that it may still even venture into the land with ease, at least for the crunch blues. I have not taken the time to test it in the clear.

- Have you tried many other models before acqurir?

Not really: EMG 85 (mountain on my Gibson Explorer), the pickups in my home race and my Ibanez Gibson, a Seymour Duncan (I forget which models).
J'tais a little anxious because of rsultat I had never heard sound before.

- How do you report qualitprix?

Bought at a site known in Germany trs (Tho..) For approx. 75 (counting shipping costs more). As for now I am completely satisfied, I put the maximum.

I would do an edit if necessary my opinion differs over time or that I see other points of dtail.