Hot, clean, and open.

The Steve's Special is a non-traditional approach to high-output bridge humbucking guitar pickup design. Most hot humbuckers concentrate the pickup's 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. 390mV output.

DiMarzio DP161F Steve's Special Guitar Pickup F-Spaced Features:

• 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

Order today and do the thing Steve's way.

DiMarzio DP161F Steve's Special Guitar Pickup F-Spaced Specifications:

• Wiring Standard 4 conductor
• Magnet Ceramic
• Output 390mV
• DC Resistance 17.89K
• Year of introduction 1995
• Patent # 4,501,185

DiMarzio DP161F Steve's Special Guitar Pickup F-Spaced

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Average of 5 User Ratings

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Customer Reviews

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Sonic Bliss!

Posted by MurderThyLamb from Jacksonville, FL on Jan 2, 2009

Experience w/product: I own it

Reviewer's Background: Hobbyist

Reviewer's Play Style: Rock, Metal, Progressive

I've purchased 2 of these so far, and both have blown me away. I was pretty skeptical of the mid-scoop at first, but it evened out pretty well with my EQ settings at both times. When playing through a high-gain amp, I noticed the the notes were coming through with more clarity, and that the sustain was increased. It sounds amazing, and let's face it... it's a Petrucci fan must-have!

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Awsome pick up

Posted by IbanezRGman from Fresno, Ca on Nov 25, 2008

Experience w/product: I own it

Reviewer's Background: Active guitar player

Reviewer's Play Style: spanish rock, metal, hard rock,etc

I must say that before I got this particular pick up, I gave a try to some other dimarzio bridge pickups, I tried Dsonic, Fred, Evolution and even PAF's. Nothing like this baby. This pick up has it all, great sustain, amazing definition, clean and powerful. Very responsive pick up to any stayle of music, excellent for soloing and not to sensitive like the Evolution. In my opinion Evolution is so sensitive that little mistakes can ce heard clearly plus it tends to be way too trebly. SSpecial does the job for me and I love it combined with teh Air Norton an the neck. i play Metal, pop music, blues, ska, reggae, etc. And it fits well in any musical genre.

I highly recomend this pick up to any guitar player outhere.

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Absolutely Special!

Posted by Lifeaintfair from Frisco, TX on Aug 11, 2008

Experience w/product: I own it

Reviewer's Background: Active Musician, 25+ years

Reviewer's Play Style: Rock/Alternative

I've tried tons of different p/u's. A dozen different Duncan's, several EMG's, both active and passive, and nothing compares to the DiMarzio Steve's Special. I have'em paired with Air Nortons in two custom guitars, and paired with a stock Gibson p/u in one of my LP's, all in the bridge position. I play solid, Mahogany-bodied guitars and the scooped-eq of these puppies offsets the middy-tone of the Mahogany beautifully. Hot enough to provide nice response, with unbelievable clarity on the lows and crisp, clean highs. You can hear every note with remarkable precision. P/u selection really comes down to your own particular taste in response and tone, but the Steve's Special is the only bridge p/u I have in several different guitars. The first time I played/heard them, I knew this was the p/u for me.

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Steve's secret weapon

Posted by TheClev from Ohio on Oct 22, 2007

Experience w/product: I own it

Reviewer's Background: Active Musician

Reviewer's Play Style: Heavy Metal, hard rock, grunge and blues

Make no mistake: This pickup will not give you that trademark Dimarzio/Steve Vai sound.

It will, however, give you a cleaner, thicker tone that will undoubtedly enhance your sound. I have this special in the bridge of my Ibanez RG, with an Air Norton in the neck (I love John Petrucci enough to copy his configuration), and I hear angels singing everytime I pluck a string. It has an incredible and completely unique sound that you won't find anywhere else, but it also has thick crunch and pick-attack response to make it worthy of the Dimarzio name.

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Great sounding pickup!

Posted by RGplayr01 from Bay Area, CA on Apr 2, 2005

Experience w/product: I own it

Reviewer's Background: Hobbyist/Active Musician

Reviewer's Play Style: Metal, blues,classical, all types of rock

I have the steve's special in the bridge position teamed up with an air norton in the neck on my RG series Ibanez and I absolutely love it. The steve special sounds great throughout crunchy palm-muting like riffs, and cuts and articulates nicely when soloing. Highly recommended.

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DiMarzio DP161F Steve's Special Guitar Pickup F-Spaced

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