DiMarzio Steve's Special

Pickup features: Humbucker
Impedence or other specs: /

Model of guitar or bass: Epiphone Les Paul classic birdeye
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Original pickup on the guitar
Other pickups on guitar: Original pickup
Artists using this pickup: Steve Vai
You musical style(s): Alternative Rock
Reason for pickup change: With good bass line. Allow me to play powerful Riffs. It's much more better than the original guitar's pickup. DiMarzio really makes nice pickups.

Perceived output level: loud
Tone: It produce a clear bassy tone.
Sonic evaluation: Well, I got Boss Turbo Overdrive, Vox Distortion booster, Boss distortion, Boss Fuzz and a DOD analog echo FX. The setting seems give out a quite distorted sound. But the overdrive and analog echo FX make the sound smoother. My setting a bit similar to 3 eye blind and SP.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play pop rock/alternative rock, replacing the pickup with bridge position is the best conbination.

Comments: I will but it again and again with this model. But may be I will place it in my future's strat. I got a Fernandes strat ( go and see my other comment ). The reason I choose this brand is : The official site let me know the feature and info about the pickups. There is another good model "FRED". Go to WWW.DIMARZIO.COM to get more info

Pickup features: Passive Humbucking
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Custom Jackson
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock Jackson P.O.S.
Other pickups on guitar: Dimarzio Air Norton
Artists using this pickup: Petrucci,
You musical style(s): Rock, Blues Metal
Reason for pickup change: Old P/U sounded like junk

Perceived output level: Moderately hot. Great for high gain amps if you want to play loud, crisp and full tube overdriven type sounds
Tone: The tone is very well balanced. Just enough bass to shake your bones, with an butt kicking percussive attack and treble string clarity to die for.
Sonic evaluation: I use this guitar P/u combo through a 5150 or JCM 800 stack. In both cases, the sound cuts thru the room like a knife, with a well balanced yet hard hitting sound that suits players of hard thru soft rock very well. If clarity and seething distortion together seem like an impossibility to you, try this P/U. Rapid fire alternate picking, Malmsteen or Gambale monster sweep patterns and full power 6 string chords ring out like bells. This P/U is not for wimpy or sloppy players....It will expose your mediocrity for all to hear. It is not a good tool for clean sounds, unless you have a fat chorus and EQ to mellow out and back off its' blistering midrange punch. This pickup belongs on quality instruments played by articulate players to reap all of its rewards, but would also be a fantastic accesory for any self critical player. You have to try pretty hard to get this thing to feed back uncontrollably...It only happened to me when I had 2 full stacks cranked to full rage in a moderately sized room. I friggen love this P/U. If someone stole it, I'd probably take thier mother hostage to get it back.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This is a Bridge P/U, although it would be interesting to slap it in a neck slot just to hear it. My bet is it will sound great, but since I'm so happy with the Air Norton thats already there....screw it.

Comments: This thing smokes the Tone Zone in its clarity and fries the Evolution in its lack of brassiness, yet retains plenty of clang, and zip where it counts. YEAH. I tip my hat to the people at DiMarzio for this one

Pickup features: passive humbucking
Impedence or other specs: dunno

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez JPM100
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: -
Other pickups on guitar: Air Norton in bridge pos
Artists using this pickup: John Petrucci
You musical style(s): Prog, Jazz etc.
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level: Not VERY hot. Good for clean sounds too
Tone: Lacks mids so if you want twang, forget this one. It's not muddy and bass & treble are nicely balanced.
Sonic evaluation: Works well with Ibanez RG bodied guitars (this is where I use it). I run my JPM through a Roctron VooduValve preamp to get great results.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I use this mainly for prog and it's great for distorted rhythm sounds since it doesn't muddy even full chords (unless you use too close voicings). In splitted coil mode with an Air Norton in neck it is perfect! NNNNice semi-clean richly chorused sounds, yyammm! With this pickup I can't get that Strat-like crispy twang, though.

Comments: This is an ultimate pickup in bridge position with Air Norton in neck. However I would propably try something different next time. I would like more mids and less treble in bridge. Works well in my JPM however and that is where I use it.
I'm still searching that Strat-like sound for my RG550.

Pickup features: Humbucking, passive
Impedence or other specs: ?

Model of guitar or bass: Gibson Les Paul Standard
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: DiMarzio PAF Pro
Other pickups on guitar: Gibson 57? Classic
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): Hard Rock
Reason for pickup change: Looking for the ultimate sound

Perceived output level: Sounds to me like it has got the same output like a DiMarzio PAF Pro although according to specs it should be a "little" louder
Tone: Bass 7 Middle 4 Treble 7 The bass is not muddy and the treble not too bright
Sonic evaluation: A good sounding, traditional humbucker sound. Compared to the PAF Pro it's a bit softer sounding with a little more bass and not the "chunk" you can get from a PAF Pro.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play hard rock with roots from KISS, Van Halen, Sabbath and so forth.. And to me it was a good sounding pickup but it didn't have that clean, distinct and present tone. I want a clean tone with attitude. I expected it to sound like the PAF Pro just a bit louder with a little more bass. But it didn't. More bass? Yes, without being muddy. Louder? Not to my ears. But then again 17 years of standing infront of a Marshall has paid it's dues. Too nice sounding, you could say.

Comments: I brought it back. I've tried several DiMarziopickups. I want a clean, aggresive tone with lot of harmonics. I don't want a high output pickup since I want to let the amplifier do the work. Of all the pickups I've tried, I always end up with a DiMarzio PAF Pro. And it lacks bass. What should I do to solve my problems? Start playing the harmonica instead?

Pickup features: Humbucking passive
Impedence or other specs: 390 mv

Model of guitar or bass: self made Tele guitar, mahogoney body with two humbucking pickups
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: none, the guitar was built from scratched by me
Other pickups on guitar: Dimarzio Air Norton
Artists using this pickup: John Petrucci
You musical style(s): Blues, Rock
Reason for pickup change: No reason it is a homemade guitar

Perceived output level: Somewhat hotter than Gibson PAF, PAF Pro and Duncan 59
Tone: This pickup has considerable bass as well as a lot of treble for a humbucker. What is so interesting about this pickup is that the midrange is extremely low(which I found useful since the guitar body is already on the midrangey side.
Sonic evaluation: Currently I am using a Marshall JCM 900 Dual Reverb 100watt 1x12 combo. With this guitar/pickup/amp combonation the overall tone is fat but not overbearingly dark. This pickup allows for brightness to come though and a nice bass punch while the mids are at a moderate level. Dont forget that Marshall amps in themselves carry a very Midrangey sound. Buying pickups that further enhace this midrange most of the time result in a very muddy distortion and clean sound. For the guitarist seeking a high ouput pickup with low levels of midrange, a very open sound I would recommend this pickup. If you are looking for a crunching midrange buy a Super Distortion. When played clean the Steve's special has almost a humbucker twang to it, when overdriven it still retains harmonics that remind me of a single coil but the bigness of a humbucker

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Blues-It offers a certain degree of humbucker twang, but also a biting penetrating tone

Comments: I have never been disatisfied with Dimarzio pickups. If you read their catalog descriptions of their pickups they are fairly accurate considering no two guitars sound the same. Their tone is consistent, and non compromising. I have tried many pickups such as Duncans and Bardens but I keep going to Dimarzio. If you are new a the pickup replacing hobby I recommend saying yourself the stress on what what pickups to buy for your guitar. Just buy Dimarzio's you wont be disappointedc