The Air ClassicTM goes beyond vintage to create the ultimate PAF sound. Instead of simply copying the design of 50's humbuckers by using Alnico II or aged Alnico V magnets, the patent-applied-for magnet structure not only reduces string-pull but increases harmonic overtones and sensitivity to pick attack. This means there is more control over the musical subtleties that allow good players to create their own individual sounds.

Tech Talk: 50's humbucker sound with patented low-pull magnet structure for richer harmonics and greater sustain. The DP190 is clean and tight in the neck position, sparkling in the bridge. The DP191 is a little rounder and hotter. Either can be used as a bridge pickup in combination with single-coils, where their relatively low output will balance with the neck & middle positions. The DP191 can also be used a neck pickup in combination with a hotter bridge pickup like the Norton, Air Zone and Tone Zone.

Air Norton

This is the neck pickup that breaks all the rules. It's fat and warm, but not muddy. It's hot, but not distorted. It's even got cool harmonics. The patent -applied-for magnetic structure reduces string-pull, so sustain is improved, and pick attack and dynamics are tremendously controllable and expressive. Combine the Air NortonTM with a Tone Zone® in the bridge position for a perfect blend of power and tone.

Recommended For: Solidbody and semihollowbody guitars.

Tech Talk: When the Air NortonTM is in the neck position, it's a warm, open-sounding pickup with enough power to balance with all bridge humbuckers. Try it with 500K pots for maximum treble and harmonic presence. In the bridge position, the sound is medium output with solid lows and biting harmonics. You can try it here with 250K controls, or a 500 K volume & 250K tone to fatten the highs up a little. Combines well with Air Classic in neck, and also with Cruiser, Chopper and Blue Velvet single-coils.

The best way to describe the Air ZoneTM is a vintage version of the Air ZoneTM. It's got the same low string-pull as our other Airbuckers for more sustain, plus it's got the big bass response and cool harmonics of the Air ZoneTM. There's a little less power than the Tone ZoneAir ZoneTM, but more sensitivity and control. It's a great match for very hot amps, allowing the player to take full advantage of the amps' massive gain structure without turning the sound to mud or fuzzy noise.

Recommended For: Bridge position primarily (see above for neck position application) in solid body & semihollowbody guitars.

Tech Talk: Ultra-fat PAF® sound with more output. The dynamic range from soft to hard picking is very wide, and the combination of dual-resonance coils with the Airbucker magnetic field allows sustained notes to hang on to harmonic overtones longer, instead of becoming muddy as they fade. Will also work as a very warm, full neck pickup for jazz sound, and combine with Tone ZoneTM, Super Distortion and Super 3 in bridge position.

For 2 years DiMarzio has had increasing requests for a high-output 7-string bridge pickup, and this is it. More power and midrange punch means heavier chords and hotter solos, and the seventh string really kicks!

Recommended For: Bridge position.

Tech Talk: This is designed to be a soloists' pickup. We brought the power up a little from the BlazeTM bridge model, rounded the high end off and increased the mids. We did this with fully-cranked amps and overdrive pedals in mind, but you can also get clean chord sounds with the 4-conductor parallel and splitting options.

Seven-string guitars are hard to amplify. Most players tune the seventh string to a low B (or even A), and it's a real trick to get a big, solid tone from the other strings without the seventh turning to mud. BlazeTM humbuckers solve the problem by tuning the two coils to different frequencies. Low notes are fat, and highs are bright and clean.

Recommended For: All positions

Tech Talk: The trend of the last several years has been to play 7-strings with massive overdrive. Taking the extreme low end of the seventh string into account, we've been recommending the BlazeTM neck model for the bridge position as well, where the lower output and tighter lows create better chord definition. The latest 7-strings Ibanez has built for Korn have been equipped this way.

If you've seen Steve Vai perform in the last few years, you may have seen him playing a Jem guitar with the word Pogo taped on the face. Steve wanted one of his instruments to have a fat, classic humbucker sound to contrast with the hotter, screaming Evolution-equipped guitars. This is the neck pickup we developed for him.

Recommended For: Neck position on bolt-on trem guitars, bridge position on set-neck fixed-bridge instruments.

Tech Talk: The BreedTM is a bit louder and fatter-sounding than the PAF Pros® that Steve used on his earliest Jems. As a neck pickup, it has more than enough power to balance with high-output bridge pickups: it will work the the Tone Zone®, Super Distortion® and Evo as well as the Breed bridge model. In the bridge position, it has a very warm, hot PAF® tone - really smooth, with nice harmonics.

The original single-coil soapbar design had a unique sonic character. Some players consider it to be the best-sounding pickup ever made. Low notes were solid and not tubby; they had an almost piano tone quality. High notes were incredibly fat, all the way up the neck. We've always thought this was a devastating combination, but we thought it would be even cooler if it were humbucking. Much research and a patent application later, here it is, with the added ability to adjust the patented dual resonance coils for bass and treble balance, and 4-conductor cable for coil-splitting and parallel sounds.

Recommended For: Neck and bridge positions.

Tech Talk: This is a very "even-tempered" pickup, with a fairly uniform frequency response, so it has a very round tone in the neck position and more biting bridge sound. Some of the very oldest single-coil soapbars had a very smooth treble rolloff over 2500 cycles - that's why harmonics sounded so fat coming off of these pickups, and it's one of the things we built into the DLX-90TM.

If you need a hot soapbar or a mini-humbucker replacement, look no further. Low notes are tight and punchy, high notes strong and defined. The mids are clean and open, so--although the DLX PlusTM has power--it's not very distorted. The neck model has almost as much power as the bridge model, with a leaner bass response. Both come with 4-conductor cable for coil-splitting and parallel options.

Recommended For: Bridge position in solidbody guitars.

Tech Talk: The DLX PlusTM was not designed to duplicate the sound of a standard soapbar. The sound is more like that of a modern full-size humbucker, most similar to a Steve's Special. Turning up an amp's midrange control, even with high gain, will produce a fat, punchy sound that retains a lot of definition.

The Evolution® humbucker is the result of years of research to come up with the right sound for a very demanding player -- Steve Vai. This pickup is designed for maximum impact and power. The sound is tight, aggressive and loud. The design incorporates our patented dual-resonance coil configuration that senses more harmonic overtones than ordinary humbuckers.

Recommended For: The Evo neck model will work in almost all solid-bodies and most semi-hollow bodies as well.

Tech Talk: Obviously, the Evolution® was designed for Steve's Ibanez Jems, but it can add a lot of punch and definition to Les Pauls and similar set-neck guitars - even the lowest bass notes really jump out of the amp, and feedback occurs easily with a wide range of harmonic overtones.

FRED® humbuckers take the PAF Pro® up a notch with more gain, mid EQ and overtones. It's a sound with more crank and growl. FRED®'s wide, fat tone fills up a lot of space in the mix : a great pickup with combined lead / rhythm styles and power trio gigs. FRED® is really sensitive to changes in pick attack. Digging in hard pushes the tone from crunch to overdrive without running back to the rig to change the gain settings. Rolling back the volume knob on the guitar warms up the sound without losing snarl and bite. With the tone control backed off, the round, vintage sweet tone steps out, recreating the tubular singing tone of the 60's.

For straight-into-the-amp burning, FRED® lets you make all the changes happen right from the guitar. A short time spent exploring pick attack and the guitar's volume and tone controls reveals the wide variety of tones available from FRED® with just a little work.

Recommended For: Neck and bridge positions in all solidbody, hollow and semi-hollowbody guitars.

Tech Talk: The FRED® started out as a prototype designed to add a little midrange to the PAF Pro®. When we sent one of the the first ones to Joe Satriani, he discovered and exploited a unique tonal characteristic - the FRED®'s ability to emphasize upper midrange and treble harmonics through an overdriven and distorted amp. Many standard humbuckers have a tendency to fatten up with distortion. The FRED® does the opposite; it gets tighter and brighter, much like a single-coil. Joe uses the FRED® strictly as a bridge pickup, but it's also a distinctive neck pickup - works really well with a NortonTM, Tone ZoneTM or Evolution® bridge model.

Want the single-coil sound with the output and quiet operation of a standard humbucker? The Humbucker From Hell® goes where no humbucker has gone before. It has the glassy, open sound of a great single-coil, with bright pick attack and warm depth of tone. Because the Humbucker From Hell® is a full size humbucker, its output and noise specs match perfectly with other humbuckers-now your guitar will sound absolutely balanced in all positions. To get a bigger single-coil tone from your rig, use the Humbucker From Hell® in the neck or bridge position. It will drive your system harder, while maintaining the springy, transparent sound you expect only from a single-coil pickup.

Recommended For: Neck position in solidbody guitars.

Tech Talk: Okay, we admit it - it's a strange name for a pickup that's not a megavoltage monster (but try it in the bridge position with a really bright amp & you'll get it). What we really wanted was a super-clean neck pickup, because we've heard years of complaints about muddy-sounding buckers. This pickup is the cure. With some guitar/amp combinations, it can sound almost acoustic, with others, it's real Strat®-like. Aside from cancelling 60-cycle hum, it bears very little resemblance to standard humbucking sound.

Norton® is the name, and nasty is the game. Following in the footsteps of FRED, Norton has the kind of rich harmonics you thought you could only get from a single-coil. It also has more volume, mid-range and bass than a vintage humbucker . We achieved this through our patented "dual-resonance" design. It's the only way to get a bridge humbucker to sound so solid, or a neck pickup to sound so big.

Recommended For: Bridge position. Can also be used in neck position with hotter humbuckers like Tone Zone, Super Distortion, Super 3. All solidbody guitars.

Tech Talk: Norton was originally designed to extend the tonal range and power of standard output humbuckers without going over the top. It's more modern than a PAF sound: the benchmark Les Paul®/Marshall® combination yields more midrange crunch and high frequency pick harmonics than vintage-style pickups were capable of putting out. Really good for opening up the sound of mahogany set-neck guitars.

Classic vintage tone - a smooth, almost voice-like quality - the PAF® has that intangible swell to the notes after attack. It possesses vintage output, and breathes freely with an open, warm character. Played flat-out through non-master volume tube amps, the PAF® recreates the deep character of the great plug-in, turn-up and wail school of tone.

Modern potting techniques and tight, consistent winding eliminate squeal and microphonics common to the originals. Here is solid tone for both neck and bridge positions. Balances well in the neck with hotter bridge humbuckers.

Recommended For: Neck and bridge positions in all solid, semisolid and hollowbody guitars.

Tech Talk: There are two basic types of vintage humbuckers: those that have a hotter, like new tone and those that have a softer, aged sound. The Air ClassicTM has the softer sound, and the PAF® is a little tighter and tougher - very useful for cleaning up muddy-sounding neck positions. Its also good as a bridge pickup combined with neck & middle single-coils: not loud enough to overwhelm them, and bright enough to blend well.

The PAF Pro® humbucker has the most transparent sound of the group of Modern Classic Humbuckers. Thats not to say there isnt plenty of aggressive chunk in the bottom-end, because there is a spike in the mid - range that gives the pickup a subtle aw vowel sound , like a wah-wah pedal stopped in the middle. It adds drive to the high note bends and grind to notes on the low E string. The transparency of its sound lets the PAF Pro® cut through heavy processing. Other pickups get lost in the mud of the effects chain. The PAF Pro® is EQ'd to enhance, not fight, all the gain and processing it's sent through. The high-end is tweaked in a way that lets the pickup's character stand out regardless of how intense the situation gets.

The sound of a PAF Pro® combined with a single-coil pickup in the middle position adds the versatility of the traditional glassy twang to any guitar . Using a five-way pickup switch and backing off on the guitar's volume control gives you a range of tone from over the top to slashing funk rhythm.

Recommended For: The PAF Pro® is a dependable choice right across the board - neck and bridge positions, solid-body, semi-hollow and hollowbody guitars are equally effective uses.

Tech Talk: This is a great building block pickup, because it's effective in many different situations. Try it in the neck position with a hotter bridge pickup - anything from a Norton® to a Super Distortion® will create a calibrated 2-humbucker matchup. As a bridge pickup, it's really effective with single-coils, because it won't drown them out with too much power, and it's bright enough to blend in tone-wise.

Pickup covers are back! They protect pickups from damage and they provide extra shielding against noise. There is one drawback: since all metal covers cause a loss of presence, some of the attack is gone. Using our patented Airbucker technology, we've created a pickup that sounds like the best humbuckers of the 50s' without any compromise in sound. Like the Air ClassicTM, the tone is subtle and complex. We wax-dip the PAF Classic® twice (the second time with the cover installed) to eliminate microphonic noise, and 4-conductor cable allows parallel and coil-splitting options.

Recommended For: Neck and bridge positions in all solidbody, hollow and semihollowbody guitars.

Tech Talk: Neck and bridge are slightly arbitrary designations for these pickups. The bridge model is slightly louder and fatter then the neck model, and works very well in the neck position of a brighter-sounding guitar, especially in combination with a hotter bridge pickup like the Air ZoneTM, NortonTM or Tone ZoneTM.

The Steve's Special is a non-traditional approach to high-output bridge humbucking pickup design. Most hot humbuckers concentrate the pickups power in a narrow frequency range for maximum impact. The Special spreads the sound over a broader range so bass and treble tones are boosted, and midrange is lowered. The result is a sound that's hot, clean and open at the same time.

Recommended For: Bridge position

Tech Talk: Clean overdrive with high-gain amps. Very effective in dual sound and coil splitting clean modes. For soloing, this is a very good pickup to play with a midrange-heavy amp: the mid-scoop in the pickups' sound keeps the initial pick attack clean, and the notes don't run together as much with legato playing, even with heavy overdrive.

In the past there were no high-gain amps, no home recording studios, no computer monitors. Single-coil pickups were okay, and so were unpotted humbuckers. Who knew? Times have changed, but the clean, bright-yet-warm tone of the best vintage pickups still sets the standard for electric guitar sound. The Virtual PAF captures the finest qualities of 50s and early 60s humbuckers to create a great sound. Patented AirbuckerTM and Virtual Vintage® technology permit 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 and the bridge model has a thicker, woody sound. The Virtual PAFTM is available with both standard and F-spaced pole pieces and comes in black, creme and zebra (black and creme), as well as with nickel or gold-plated covers, and comes with 4-conductor cable for all coil-access combinations.

Recommended For: All positions

Tech Talk: An obvious question is the differences between the Virtual PAFTM and models like the PAF® and Air Classic. The Virtual Vintage® technology in the Virtual PAFTM adds a subtle, 3-dimensional presence to the overall tonality. It's particularly noticeable in the tonal balance between high and low notes: the high E string doesn't get brittle-sounding on the high frets, and the low E string doesn't 'mud out' on the lowest frets. This characteristic makes the Virtual PAFTM neck model equally effective in both neck and bridge positions where sonic clarity is most important.

Think of the Super 3 as a Super Distortion® with more mid-range grind and chopped treble. If you play your amp with scooped mids and intense overdrive, this is your pickup. The Super 3's smooth highs allow you to turn up your amps treble and presence without fear of thinning out your sound, and the crunchy mids ensure you won't get lost in the mix. It's also a great pickup to use with distortion pedals--it drives them hard and allows full use of their tone controls.

Recommended For: The Super 3 is primarily a bridge position pickup. Specifically designed for solid-bodies: hollow and semi-hollow guitars can be hard to control with warm, high output pickups.

Tech Talk: The Super 3 has been getting the reputation for being a real workhorse for heavy metal. The top end is very dark (especially for a high-output pickup), but the low end isn't real muddy, so you can turn both bass and treble controls up on your amp to get both scream and crunch.

This is the pickup that started it all. Many of the classic Rock guitar sounds of the '70's and '80's were produced by a Super Distortion® and a raging tube amp. But don't confuse classic with outdated. Diverse artists from Al DiMeola, Frank Gambale and Vinnie Moore to Metal veterans Iron Maiden and Ace Frehley have chosen the Super Distortion as an integral part of their personal sound. With plenty of output and mid-boost to boot your amp into overdrive, Super Distortion® humbuckers put out a hot, thick tone with a tight bottom-end : a classic tone when plugged directly into the front-end of any high-gain tube amplifier. Used in the bridge position of a locking-trem equipped guitar, the Super Distortion® puts back low-end the tremolo can bleed off.

Recommended For: The Super is primarily a bridge position pickup, although it can be used in the neck position with a relatively low-gain amp. Specifically designed for solid-bodies: hollow and semi-hollow guitars can be hard to control with warm, high output pickups.

Tech Talk: When we first built the Super, it was a one-conductor pickup. As a 4-conductor pickup, it's extremely versatile. Coil-splitting produces a very Strat®-like option, both in tone and power. Parallel wiring is similar to splitting, but it's still humbucking and a little more hollow-sounding; Paul Gilbert used to use 2 Supers wired in parallel when he was in Racer X.

The Tone Zone® has the most dramatic tone curve of the Modern Classic Humbuckers. The vowel-like open wah-wah feel of the PAF Pro® and FRED® is combined with tremendous mid-range and bass for a sound that really kicks hard.

Because the lows, mids, and highs are all boosted, using a Tone Zone feels like cranking up an extra set of tone controls. It adds further dimension to the sound of your amp - that elusive edge that can make a good-sounding rig into a great-sounding one. Notes seem to get bigger after they're picked, and burn hard as they sustain.

The Tone Zone has the right stuff to wake up your amp. Its ballsy, aggressive tone has plenty of drive in all the right frequencies, abundant gain to push preamps and power amps, and sensitivity to pick attack that gets the most out of any style from Metal to Blues.

Recommended For: Bridge position in all solidbody guitars.

Tech Talk: 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. Many models can be used in the neck position, from the Air Classic to the Air Zone; the PAF Pro and the Fred are also good choices. Higher-output single-coil replacements like the Cruiser and Fast Track 1 are also recommended.

In the past there were no high-gain amps, no home recording studios, no computer monitors. Single-coil pickups were okay, and so were unpotted humbuckers. Who knew? Times have changed, but the clean, bright-yet-warm tone of the best vintage pickups still sets the standard for electric guitar sound. The Virtual PAF captures the finest qualities of 50s and early 60s humbuckers to create a great sound. Patented AirbuckerTM and Virtual Vintage® technology permit 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