DiMarzio is an American company that specializes in producing a wide range of guitar pickups. The models listed here are factory-installed on Ibanez guitars. This list does not represent the full range of DiMarzio pickups.
Vintage output. The Air Classic™ has the same sweet sound as a classic humbucker, but Airbucker™ technology permits us to use a more reliable full-strength Alnico 5 magnet and still reduce string-pull to increase sustain and sensitivity. The result is an almost vocal, three-dimensional sound that jumps off the string faster and stays true as it sustains. The sense of touch and control this provides will offer you an unequalled ability to create your own sound.[1]
Vintage output. The Air Classic™ has the same sweet sound as a classic humbucker, but Airbucker™ technology permits us to use a more reliable full-strength Alnico 5 magnet and still reduce string-pull to increase sustain and sensitivity. The result is an almost vocal, three-dimensional sound that jumps off the string faster and stays true as it sustains. The sense of touch and control this provides will offer you an unequalled ability to create your own sound.[2]
Warm, open-sounding pickup. The tone is deep and warm, but not muddy. It’s hot, but not distorted. It’s even got cool harmonics, which are really unusual for a neck humbucker. The patented Air Norton™ magnetic structure reduces string-pull, so sustain is improved; and pick attack and dynamics are tremendously controllable and expressive.[3]
This pickup is relatively common on Ibanez Prestige and J Custom models; usually installed in the neck position combined with Tone Zone in bridge position.
Medium output "warm sounding, very well balanced, and has the same unique tonal characteristics as the original." Despite the name it does not have the air gap between the magnet and the pole pieces that is typical of DiMarzio's "Air Bucker" pickups.[4]
In the neck position, the sound is warm and well-defined — equally useful with clean or overdriven amps. In the bridge position, the sound is very solid and harmonically rich. In overdrive mode, it has a very distinctive voice that has both vintage and modern qualities.[5]
Ibanez generally uses this pickup in the neck position, paired with a Tone Zone 7 in the bridge position.
DiMarzio has been working on serious vintage single-coil design with no hum for twelve years. Their goal has always been to capture the best qualities of pickups from the 1950s and early 60s. They’ve played several pickups from the early 60s that had a unique tonality: they were steely, yet woody-sounding. They wanted to nail this sound, and to do it with no hum and less magnet-pull. The Area '61 does it. It’s good in all three positions. It’s the perfect bridge pickup with a pair of Area 58 pickups if you want to go all the way from Nashville to Texas in one guitar.
DiMarzio set out to mimic the Texas blues sound. This sound is centered on single-coils from the early 1960s, but it’s also based on heavy strings and strong hands. We can’t change your strings or your hands, but the Area '61 captures the tonal bedrock this sound is based on. Like the Area 58, the Area '61 really responds to different pick attacks: played hard, it sounds louder and tougher than you’d expect from a vintage pickup, but it cleans up immediately by picking softer or rolling down the volume control. And like the Area 58, its ability to cancel hum is superior to full-size humbuckers.[7]
Strat pickups in the late 1960s used full-strength Alnico 5 magnets. The patented magnetic field of the Area models is more efficient and focused than it is on “true” single-coils, which allows the use of Alnico 2 magnets instead. There's much less magnet pull, but no loss of output. This is a major advantage in the neck and middle positions, where sustain and intonation can both suffer if the strings are exposed to strong magnetic fields. In the bridge position, the patented technology of the Area '67 produces a sound that's very bright but not brittle.
The Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 was a watershed event in American music. When it was over, the world had heard and felt the sound of a Strat in the hands of a master. Single-coils in 1967 were bright and very clean. And, of course, they hummed. DiMarzio has captured the classic bright and clean sound but totally eliminated the hum with their patented Area technology. They've also reduced magnet pull by 40% for improved sustain and clarity. The Area '67 has the chime of 60s pickups, and the 2 and 4 positions are light, bright and quack-happy.[8]
The outstanding characteristics of the AT-1 are balance, warmth, and clarity. It achieves this blend with the same patented technology as the PAF 36th Anniversary, but the sound is hotter and the focus is rock.
Single coil, 7-string pickup designed to match the Blaze humbuckers in split mode. Bright and even sounding with both lows and highs which are bright and clean.[11]
"A full-bodied, balanced take on the single-coil offering exceptional string balance. The Blue Velvet overcomes the problem of string balance that afflicts most single coils. The vintage magnet stagger wasn't made for light strings with a plain G, so DiMarzio recalibrated it in order to make the strings balance better. The Blue Velvet guitar pickup also features a new winding technique that gives the guitar attack, while keeping that famous single-coil sound. Offers very clean and bright bass strings with relatively warm-sounding treble strings."[13]
The sound of The Chopper is a cross between a single-coil and a full-size humbucker, with more body than the single and more clarity than the humbucker. Excellent choice to fatten tone and increase power of Strat bridge position. More power is concentrated in the mids and low end for a bigger sound with more crunch. It features side-by-side coils and twin-blade construction, so there are no misaligned poles or string-pull problems.[16]
If you’re a serious traditional Strat player, you probably won’t want to know about pickups with side-by-side coils. But if you’re the player who’s up for something more modern with no 60-cycle hum, string drop-outs or sustain-killing magnet pull, DiMarzio designed The Cruiser for you. Harmonic overtones are right where you expect them to be from a “true” single-coil, and the mid-range is open and vocal-sounding. It’s hotter than the traditional single-coil, and the bass strings have a bit more chunk; this is an excellent pickup to combine with medium-output humbuckers, and it maintains its tonal identity with high-gain amps and multiple effects.
The obvious question about The Cruiser is “How does it compare to a single-coil sound?” DiMarzio's feeling is that the unwound strings (“E”, “B”, and “G”) are very close, and the wound strings (“D”, “A”, and low “E”) are a little fatter-sounding than a true single-coil. This is really effective for getting open-sounding chords, because high and low strings sound more spread out from each other. Having a total magnet pull that's about 40% less than standard single-coils also means The Cruiser can be adjusted much closer to the strings for more power than stock pickups can achieve.[17]
The Cruiser Bridge "is hotter than the traditional single-coil, and the bass strings have a bit more chunk; this is an excellent pickup to combine with medium-output humbuckers, and it maintains its tonal identity with high-gain amps and multiple effects."[18]
Trebly with high output. "The sound is powerful, clean, and open, with excellent harmonic overtones and very tight lows. The best way to describe the D Activator™ Neck pickup is that it is big, bright, and open sounding with surprising string - to - string balance."[19]
Balanced sound with high output. The D Activator Bridge "is passive with a lot of headroom, and it responds quickly and accurately to changes in pick attack. A hard pick attack doesn't cause the signal to flatten out, and picking more softly or rolling the volume control down lets the sound clean up naturally."[20]
Seven string version of the D Activator. It "has both power and clarity — the low “B” string stays solid and doesn’t sound like mud with extreme overdrive, and the high strings sing all the way up the neck."[21]
Seven string version of the D Activator. It "has the same loud yet clean sound as the best active humbuckers, and killer harmonics. The low “B” string is all about attack, not mud. It responds instantly to hard or light picking. In a word: it rocks."[22]
Eight string version of the D Activator. It "is open, clear and very responsive. It maintains its sound character even with massive amounts of gain, and it’s also bright and articulate with clean amp settings."[23]
Powerful wide open sound; designed to produce a highly focussed attack centered on the upper mid range. It "is designed to produce a highly focused attack centered on the upper mid range, with less magnet pull and output in order to balance perfectly with the Bridge model."[25]
Powerful wide open sound with strong lows and mids; slightly lower output than the classic X2N. It offers "a powerful sound wide open with a surprisingly clean sound when the volume control is rolled down, even with extreme metal and high-gain amps."[26]
High output humbucking pickup developed with Steve Vai specifically for the JEM Woody. It offers a more organic tone with softer highs and less raw power compared to earlier Vai-influenced models.
It features a laser-cut pickup cover with interlocking gear patterns.[27]
Specially designed for Steve Vai's Ibanez JEM models. Dual-resonance configuration to reproduce more harmonic overtones than conventional humbucking pickups. It "is fat, punchy and loud."[31]
Specially designed for Steve Vai's Ibanez JEM models, introduced in 1993. Dual-resonance configuration to reproduce more harmonic overtones than conventional humbucking pickups. It is "is tight, aggressive and louder."[32]
Compared to the Evolution it has "the same basic tone with increased headroom and dynamics, so that the sound kills on 10 and cleans up when the volume is rolled down."[33]
"The Fast Track 1 is hotter and more muscular than The Cruiser, but it’s still very bright and clean sounding — not at all like a full-size humbucker. The dual-blade continuous magnetic field creates an even string balance with very little magnet-pull, eliminating the “out-of-tuneness” common to rod-magnet designs.[34]
"It’s not any bigger than a single-coil pickup, but the sound of the Fast Track 2 puts it right in the wide open, 'everything-on-11' school. It’s got three times the output of an average single-coil, with a huge mid-range and bass punch."[35]
Similar to the PAF Pro with added mid-range.[36] Used by Joe Satriani in bridge position for his JS signature guitar models until the introduction of the Mo Joe.
A special version the the FRED pickup with a lower magnetic field to minimize string pull and eliminate "warbling".[37] These pickups were designed to Frank Gambale's specs for his signature model guitars and it's believed they were not offered anywhere else. It's believed they incorporate an early version of DiMarzio's air gap design that was later employed on pickups such as the Air Norton.[38]
Designed for Steve Vai. The flavor of The Gravity Storm Neck model is sweet and warm, but the texture has an edge to it. It has the depth of a humbucker with some of the bite of a single-coil.
It has a throaty quality that sounds like a cross between a humbucker and a single-coil.[40]
Designed for Steve Vai. Steve described the sound he wanted from his new Gravity Storm Bridge Model pickup as “a thundering cloud of ice cream”.
The Gravity Storm tone is about depth and warm highs and mids. It's very much a plug and play pickup — it doesn't require a lot of tweaking to get a great sound. Because the highs are very fat, it's possible to increase treble response on your amp without losing tone and sustain on the high frets.[41]
"In humbucking mode, it’s got a solid, natural sound that’s cleaner and brighter than a conventional humbucker, while single-coil mode creates one of the best vintage tones around."[42]
The Humbucker From Hell was designed to eliminate the muddiness that some humbuckers can exhibit to produce a sound that is "brighter and cleaner: almost glassy-sounding." It "has an almost acoustic quality in the neck spot of a bolt-on guitar." It can also be used in the bridge position for a much meaner sound[44]
Scott LePage wanted a bridge pickup that had the power to dig in when needed. Alnico 8 was used to increase the output. The IGNO features DiMarzio’s dual resonance design with both coils scatter wound to produce a warm response yet not too high in the mids. This keeps the clarity and separation between the treble and bass.[45]
The Injector is a signature pickup produced by DiMarzio for Paul Gilbert.
The Injector neck model has a modern rather than a vintage sound. It’s warmer and louder (160mV output) than a typical vintage single-coil and — of course — it’s hum-canceling. It’s also faster. The Injector neck model tracks high-speed solos at high gain without becoming either thin or muddy, and has a very full, well-balanced, clean sound. It has about 40% less magnet-pull than standard single-coils, and this is essential for the superior speed and dynamic range with which this pickup responds to pick attack.[46]
The Injector is a signature pickup produced by DiMarzio for Paul Gilbert.
The Injector bridge model is one of DiMarzio's hottest hum-canceling models (185mV output) with six individual Alnico magnets. The sound is not like a vintage single-coil: highs are bright but not glassy, and lows are solid and defined. It was designed to work equally well with rapid single-note arpeggios and power chords without becoming muddy or compressed. It has about 40% less magnet-pull than standard single-coils, and this is essential for the superior speed and dynamic range with which this pickup responds to pick attack.[47]
These pickups were designed for Tosin Abasi. "It’s warm and open like a vintage humbucker, solid and tight like a modern metal pickup, and performs like a classic single-coil in split mode."[48]
"The Ionizer 8 Bridge Model has a low resonant peak that warms [up the sound of the unwound strings], and the high “E” doesn't sound thin, even at the upper frets."[50]
"The sound of a Norton is right between FRED and The Tone Zone. It’s got some FRED-like harmonic overtones that can only be described as nasty, with more of the power and mid-range of the heavyweight Tone Zone. The same patented dual-resonance design used in FRED and The Tone Zone delivers a sound that’s hotter and “bigger” than any vintage model, but not as loud as a distortion-class humbucker." DiMarzio says the Norton "might be [their] most versatile bridge pickup".[51]
Tim Henson likes the clarity and focus of a vintage single coil in a 21-fret guitar. He wanted to capture the same response and tone in his 24-fret signature guitar. The Notorious™ Neck and Middle single coils are voiced to roll off some treble to make up for the brighter location. Calibrated, degaussed Alnico 5 magnets capture the dynamics of vintage single coils. Tim says the Notorious™ Neck “is great for chords and ringing notes that hold through each other”.
The Notorious™ Neck is a splendid choice when you are searching for the dynamics of a vintage pickup but prefer a smoother top end to even out some harshness in a bright guitar.
Tim shares that most of the time he’s on the fourth position which is with the neck and middle pickups together. “I like to play Hendrixian-type riffs with it”.[52]
Tim Henson likes the clarity and focus of a vintage single coil in a 21-fret guitar. He wanted to capture the same response and tone in his 24-fret signature guitar. The Notorious™ Neck and Middle single coils are voiced to roll off some treble to make up for the brighter location. Calibrated, degaussed Alnico 5 magnets capture the dynamics of vintage single coils. Tim says the Notorious™ Middle “is great for chords and ringing notes that hold through each other”.
The Notorious™ Middle is a splendid choice when you are searching for the dynamics of a vintage pickup but prefer a smoother top end to even out some harshness in a bright guitar.
Tim shares that most of the time he’s on the fourth position which is with the neck and middle pickups together. “I like to play Hendrixian-type riffs with it”.[53]
Tim Henson wanted the Notorious™ Minibucker Bridge to have moderate output in order to balance with his Notorious™ single coils in the neck and middle. This Bridge pickup needed to have shimmering clarity and focus to capture his playing style. The Notorious™ Minibucker Bridge is the one that Tim likes to shred on.[54]
The last few years have seen Joe develop a new signature tube amp and start using heavier-gauge strings more often. Both developments emphasized the importance of the Mo’ Joe having a high degree of string separation without sounding sterile or processed. We got this by slightly increasing the distance between the center frequencies that the coils are tuned to, without increasing DC resistance. The result is a pickup that’s both hotter and more articulate.[55]
This pickup offers a soft magnetic field, sweet tone, perfect balance between warmth and clarity and the ability to go from clean to distorted by pick attack alone.
The PAF 36th Anniversary was designed to mimic the tone of an original 1959 Gibson Les Paul. The result is a pickup that is smooth but not muddy. It performs equally well in the neck or bridge, just as the best humbuckers from the 50s did.[56]
This pickup offers a soft magnetic field, sweet tone, perfect balance between warmth and clarity and the ability to go from clean to distorted by pick attack alone.
The PAF 36th Anniversary was designed to mimic the tone of an original 1959 Gibson Les Paul. The result is a pickup that is smooth but not muddy. It performs equally well in the neck or bridge, just as the best humbuckers from the 50s did.
The PAF 36th Anniversary Bridge is hotter than the Neck. It is not only for set neck 24¾” scale guitars, but it’s also an excellent bridge pickup for trem-equipped bolt-ons.
The PAF 36th Anniversary Bridge model has the best qualities of the Virtual PAF bridge and Virtual Hot PAF pickups and then some. It’s as loud as the Virtual Hot PAF, but has as much low-end and midrange definition as the Virtual PAF Bridge Model. The highs are actually bigger and smoother than either model. The 4-conductor version also splits very well. Single-coil mode is bright, but not at all sterile-sounding.[57]
Eight-string version of the classic PAF pickups. "The extended frequency response of 8-string guitars works very well with a pickup that is neither very bright nor very bassy. The EQ of the PAF 8 was specifically tuned to match this response. It has a sparkling clean sound, and maintains clarity and picking dynamics with a heavy, overdriven sound as well."[59]
The PAF Joe is a pickup DiMarzio developed for Joe Satriani. Satriani wanted a neck position humbucker that combined the best qualities of the PAF Pro with those of a late 50s Gibson humbucker. He describes this tone as being “tubular”.
What does “tubular” mean? In this case, it means making low notes “speak” more clearly while giving high notes a rounder voicing. This accomplishes two goals: chords have better definition, and single notes at higher fret positions remain warm-sounding rather than getting thinner. The PAF Joe has slightly less power than the PAF Pro.
Through the use of Virtual Vintage technology, clear-sounding low frequencies are blended with warm-sounding mids and high frequencies, which makes the PAF Joe equally good for chords and single notes. Satriani first used the PAF Joe prototypes on the 2003 G3 tour.[60]
The PAF Master Neck has a great balance of full, richness with a throaty tone but it’s not too fat and notes still come through nice and clear, with beautiful smooth and creamy highs. It has just the right amount of windings to allow the pickup to sing, sustain and still be articulate.[61]
The PAF Master Bridge is a pickup that is quiet, bright, and very dynamic. It reacts to playing, and sounds good when playing more than one note at the same time. Picked hard, it has a beautiful, snarly, thick, rockin’ tone. While it's not a loud pickup, it feels hot because of its fast and aggressive response to pick attack.[62]
A special version the the PAF Pro pickup with a lower magnetic field to minimize string pull and eliminate "warbling".[37] These pickups were designed to Frank Gambale's specs for his signature model guitars and it's believed they were not offered anywhere else. It's believed they incorporate an early version of DiMarzio's air gap design that was later employed on pickups such as the Air Norton.[38]
The Pandemonium offers a modern take on a classic rock sound. The coils are tuned far enough apart to create clean, open mids with sweet highs and lows. It can go from smooth solos to pristine, dynamic chords. It features a custom pickup grill designed especially for Nita Strauss with the logo design cut all the way through the black metal cover, allowing the double cream bobbins below to show through.[63]
The Pandemonium offers a modern take on a classic rock sound. It has a big voice that covers a lot of ground. The coils are tuned to slightly different frequencies to capture both solid lows and warm highs. It features a custom pickup grill designed especially for Nita Strauss with the logo design cut all the way through the black metal cover, allowing the double cream bobbins below to show through.[64]
"This is a mini humbucker with a big sound. Expect smooth treble response with an even amount of low end to back it up. The coils are individually tuned to capture overtones that resemble a single-coil yet maintain low-end definition. The DP242 Neck model is slightly fatter and creamier than the Bridge model, making it great for Jazz and Blues solos. Its lower output and smaller size help keep it from getting muddy."[65]
"The PG-13 Middle is a powerhouse for a minibucker. It’s clean enough to work in all positions. The magnetic field is pretty hearty, so it will growl as it gets closer to the strings. It does a fine job tracking the tone of the guitar wherever you place it."[66]
"The PG-13 Bridge is wound to produce more bite than the neck version, giving you that extra throttle when needed. For a compressed, sparkly sound, Paul likes to turn off all his distortion pedals and turn on a flanger. Even though it's the bridge pickup, The PG-13 is still warm, and not too trebly.[67]
The Red Velvet has a bottom-loaded Power Plate™, a custom coil winding and the magnet stagger of the True Velvet which combine to give it the sting of a Strat pickup and the punch of a Tele.[69]
"The Satch Track Neck bridges the gap between classic humbucker and single-coil performance. It tracks pick attack and string vibration quickly and accurately like a single-coil, but the voicing is wider and stronger, like a humbucker. The highs are very warm, and clarity is created by keeping the mids and lows tight and focused."[70]
The Satchur8 was designed for Joe Satriani to be "smooth yet bright, with plenty of clarity and distinction. It's loaded with dynamics, and notes have weight and authority. Joe says the Satchur8 is the richest, most complete sounding pickup he's ever used."[71]
Typically paired with a Sustainiac in the neck position.
The Steve's Special is a high-output pickup which spreads sound over a broad frequency range and scooped mids. It was developed by Steve Blucher of Dimarzio.[72] The Steve's Special has also been referred to as Steve's Favorite Pickup or just SFP.
This pickup is punchy and fat sounding, yet can handle multiple layers of effects without getting muddy. It has a balanced blend of highs, mids, and lows, and also works well for smooth, overdriven solos.
It was created for Jake Bowen who says, “When I switch to leads, I go to the neck pickup which gives me more rounded notes and more attack. I also go to the neck pickup for cleans, depending on what my needs are”.[75]
This pickup is bright where it needs to be — on the low end. The highs are warmer, and it has a distinctive voice that doesn’t get lost, even in a dense, three-guitar mix.
It was created for Jake Bowen who wanted a tight bridge pickup that also has good dynamics for right-hand playing yet still keeps the aggressiveness and mid-range that Bowen’s music calls for. The Titan is at home with both standard and dropped tunings. Additionally, Jake shares that “it’s a very tight, aggressive palm-muted sound when I do palm-muting strokes but — when I play open chords — everything rings out very nicely”.[76]
A seven-string version of the original Titan. The Titan 7 neck has a balanced blend of highs, mids, and lows designed to reproduce all three equally effectively. It’s also highly responsive to changes in pick attack and volume control settings, for an extremely expressive sound.
It was developed with Jake Bowen and is used in his signature seven-string.[77]
A seven-string version of the original Titan. The Titan 7 Bridge is dynamic, fast and very tight. It is bright and tight on the low end, so the seventh string never sounds muddy. The highs are rounded and articulate, and it has a distinctive voice that doesn’t get lost, even in a dense, three-guitar mix.
It was developed with Jake Bowen and is used in his signature seven-string.[78]
The Tone Zone is hot enough to qualify as a high-output pickup, but it has a wider dynamic range — hard picking will produce a lot of power, and softer picking will be much cleaner and quieter. It’s got tremendous bass and low-mid response to reinforce the bottom end and make the overall sound bigger.[79]
The Tone Zone is a common pickup for Ibanez Prestige and J Custom models. It is generally used in the bridge position combined with an Air Norton in the neck position.
The Tone Zone 7 is not merely an adaptation of the original Tone Zone, but a new design from the ground up for 7-string guitars. It incorporates lower magnet-pull and coils specifically calibrated to reproduce the full impact of the low “B” string without any loss of tone quality or fidelity.[80]
Ibanez typically pairs the Tone Zone 7 with an Air Norton 7 in the neck position.
Single coil pickup introduced in 2008 and replaced the DiMarzio Blue Velvet as main DiMarzio mid pickup used for Ibanez guitar models.
The True Velvet was designed to produce a clean, bright tone while also allowing the high strings to sound sweet above the 12th fret. It achieves this by tuning to a frequency range that is bright but not thin as well as configuring the magnet stagger to enhance string balance.[81]
"Designed for Steve Vai’s signature Ibanez PIA guitar, the UtoPIA Neck pickup features a custom laser-cut baroque style cover over a gold patterned layer.
Using the Evolution Neck as the basic platform, the UtoPIA Neck was designed to focus more on the low-end response of the guitar while adding thickness and body to the top end. The challenge was to still deliver the harmonics for which the Evolution is known. Upper mid-range frequencies were also dialed back to produce a less aggressive attack and provide more control. The UtoPIA Neck boasts a big, bold low end and thick top end."[82]
"Designed to match the sound and aesthetics of the UtoPIA Neck and Bridge for a modern-looking single coil, the satin gold-plated UtoPIA Middle pickup features the same etched pattern as the laser-cut Neck and Bridge pickups.
The UtoPIA Middle can add some chime to any guitar with a lifeless single coil. Having a healthy amount of treble, the UtoPIA Middle can provide the “quack” in the 2nd and 4th position when placed between the UtoPIA Neck and Bridge humbuckers."[83]
"Designed for Steve Vai’s signature Ibanez PIA guitar, the UtoPIA Bridge pickup features a custom, laser cut baroque style cover over a gold patterned layer.
Using the Evolution Bridge as the basic platform, the UtoPIA Bridge was designed to focus more on the low-end response of the guitar while adding thickness and body to the top end. The challenge was to still deliver the harmonics for which the Evolution is known. Upper midrange frequencies were also dialed back to produce a less aggressive attack and provide more control. The UtoPIA Bridge boasts a big, bold low end, high output, and thick top end."
The Virtual PAF captures the finest qualities of '50s and early '60s humbuckers to create a great sound. Patented technology permits the use of an Alnico 5 magnet to generate the same low string-pull that an Alnico 2 or 3 produces, and combine two of the most sought-after tonal characteristics: low note clarity and high note warmth. The neck model has a pure, bell-tone chime.[85]
This model has been discontinued. DiMarzio recommends the PAF 36th Anniversary as a replacement.[86]
The Virtual PAF captures the finest qualities of '50s and early '60s humbuckers to create a great sound. Patented technology permits the use of an Alnico 5 magnet to generate the same low string-pull that an Alnico 2 or 3 produces, and combine two of the most sought-after tonal characteristics: low note clarity and high note warmth. The bridge model has a thicker, woody sound.[87]
This model has been discontinued. DiMarzio recommends the PAF 36th Anniversary as a replacement.[86]
The Virtual Vintage 2.2 is a great neck and middle pickup itself for a brighter-sounding guitar with a swamp ash body and maple neck. It was designed to work with 250K controls. At the same distance from the strings as you'd normally adjust a pickup with full-strength Alnico 5 magnets, the 2.2 has the same power as a pickup from the early 60s. However, because it uses Alnico 2 magnets with about 40% less pull, you can increase the power by adjusting the 2.2 closer to the strings without affecting string vibration or intonation.[88]
This model has been discontinued. DiMarzio recommends the Area 61 as a replacement.[86]
If you’ve heard the cliché that Alnico 2 means warm, soft sound, prepare to be surprised. This is not a polite pickup, and the closer it’s adjusted to the strings, the more raw it gets. In particular, the Alnico 2 magnetic field opens up all of the attack and definition of the low strings.
The Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2 is a hot pickup with a strong attack in the bridge position, and its Alnico 2 magnets allow it to work very well in the neck position as well, for players who want a very warm, round sound.[89]
