DiMarzio DP420 Virtual Solo

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.

The DiMarzio Virtual Solo is probably my absolute favorite single coil that DiMarzio offers. It’s basically a combination of the Virtual vintage Solo and Virtual Vintage Solo Pro that DiMarzio used to offer. It uses their Virtual Vintage technology that helps cut any hum, so this pickup is very quiet. It has a vintage stagger, four conductor wiring and an Alnico 5 magnet tucked inside of it.

This is a hot, fat and tight single coil pickup, yet it still retains that awesome single coil tone. The problem with a lot of hot single coils is that they tend to not sound like single coils anymore. If I’m going to run a single coil, I want it to actually sound like a single coil. This one has some awesome low end, but it’s still defined enough to where it doesn’t mud out.

DiMarzio recommends this pickup for the bridge position, and while it sounds great in the neck, if you have a hot humbucker in the bridge, this thing makes a killer neck pickup. In fact, it’s probably my favorite single coil neck pickup on the market. The thing is just so fat but so alive. It sounds great in clean, midgain and under high gain, and it works with any wood combination you can throw at it. While this pickup can be split, I don’t recommend it. It just gets real thin sounding for some reason.

Guys who are strictly used to that single coil bite will probably want to run this in the bridge as it’ll most likely be too hot for them in the neck. However, if you’re a fan of pickups like the Air Norton or LiquiFire and need a fat neck pickup that sounds like a single coil, try this pickup out. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.