Di Marzio DP165 / The Breed Neck (black/cream)

If you're a fan of Steve Vai, you've probably seen him playing an Ibanez 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. These are the pickups we developed for him. The neck pickup is a bit louder and fatter-sounding than the PAF Pro pickups that Steve used on his earliest Jems. The bridge pickup is not as hot as the Evolution, but it's got a warm and punchy mid-range coupled with a fat low end that rolls off before it can get muddy. Harmonics are easy to get, and the 4-conductor wiring enables cool "notch tone" coil-splitting. The Breed is a bit louder and fatter-sounding than the PAF Pro pickups 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 with The Tone Zone, Super Distortion, and Evolution as well as The Breed Bridge Model. In the bridge position, it has a very warm, hot PAF tone - really smooth, with nice harmonics.