DiMarzio DP166BK The Breed Bridge Model Humbucker, Black

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.

Recommended For: Bridge position for solid body guitars.

The Breed? was designed to warm up and smooth out the sound of 25½” scale trem guitars. It's got a lot more power than a PAF®, but it also has a finer "touch" than high-output models. Picking hard will generate a lot of voltage, but a softer attack will clean up the sound of an overdriven amp.