Playing an LP standard through Marshall VM w/1960a cab. I've tried the SD Jazz, '59, AlnicoPro2, PearlyGates & Dimarzio Breed, Evolution, AirNorton, PAFPro in the neck position. None of these gave my guitar the beef and dynamics it has now- for both clean and overdriven tone. A truly awesome pickup & the best I've tried. Mine is paired w/an Evolution bridge and they sound fantastic together.

I first bought this pickup about eighteen years ago,and I've been using them since! I've used them in everything from teles to strats to les Pauls. These are very versatile pick-ups for any sound from blues to heavy metal! The only thing I don't like about them other than the warble from the bass strings(typical of Gibson,and similar humbucking pick-ups)is that they have four conductor wires which I never use! I read about Eddie Van Halens' experiments with these back in the eighties and realized I could do the same! Now I DO NOT recommend tearing your brand new pick-ups apart! I do take some of the windings off to create a thinner sound from the bass strings, so that I get a smooth sound in the overdrive channel on my Fender champ 12 without muddy over- tones! I am a luthier ,and have been doing this for eighteen years straight! I'll rewrap the coils,and wax pot everything again,so that it looks the same as before! I can rewind pick-ups,just NOT make them! This saves me a lot of time! I get the pick-up I want,with the sound I want,without spending a lot of time,or money trying to find that"perfect pick-up"!

I realize that Dimarzio tends to generally focus on their higher-output pickups, and that's what people seem to be playing these days, so I feel like part of a dying breed here(maybe not?). I have tried all kinds of pickups in my u.s. strat: seymour duncan pearly gates(too bright and fuzzy, no depth), dimarzio paf pro(not as bright, still no depth, no focus when overdriven), and dimarzio air zone(way too much bass for me, and frankly sounds very processed, really messy sounding when overdriven, especially when chording). Finally I decided to just go old school with my pickup and just let my amp(mesa boogie 50 watt) and, when I'm recording, computer software, take care of the gain and distortion, and I do play with a lot of both. Should've got this pickup years ago. Maybe it could be a tad hotter, but I really like they way the guitar resonates, almost like hearing the wood of the guitar itself vibrating. And maybe that's what I'm liking about this pickup; it really seems to give the true tone of the guitar. It's true what Dimarzio says, the sound is balanced. It's just a solid pickup, man. I don't know if I would really recommend this pickup to an inexperienced player or someone who only cares about completely unintelligible distortion. This pickup is about letting your personal sound and style come through, where I think higher output pickups really homogonize/sterilize people's sound, but hey, they let you play reallyreallyreally fast, right? Oooookay...