Authentic blues tones with the ability to go from clean to distorted by pick attack alone.
The DiMarzio Heavy Blues Humbucker Set contains 2 well-designed pickups: the PAF 36th Anniversary standard spaced (neck), Tone Zone F-spaced (bridge). Easy to install, they'll bring a collection of blues tones to your guitar while reducing noise.
PAF 36th Anniversary standard spaced (neck)
Here are the characteristics that make a great vintage humbucker: a soft magnetic field, sweet tone, perfect balance between warmth and clarity, the ability to go from clean to distorted by pick attack alone. For diMarzio's PAF 36th Anniversary Neck they wanted to continue in the path of pioneers such as Seth Lover (designer of the original Patent Applied For humbucker) and create pickups that combine all of the characteristics of great vintage humbuckers.
These pickups are not merely clones. DiMarzio re-engineered the PAF using their patented technology and Larry DiMarzio's own 1959 cherry sunburst Les Paul as the reference. Larry's Les Paul has a uniquely amazing sound and it's not only due to the pickups - it's the total fusion of many elements of the guitar itself. Although the pickups have a weak magnetic field, the sound is well defined - almost like a single-coil.
DiMarzio duplicated the weaker magnetic field in order to allow the strings to vibrate longer, as well as focus and articulate the attack and output. They use computer-controlled winders to consistently layer the 42-gauge custom-coated wire, achieving the exact frequency response desired. Then it's dipped in a custom formula to eliminate squeal and microphonics. The cover is made from nickel-silver and our new plating makes it more magnetically transparent than the originals.
The PAF 36th Anniversary Neck is smooth but not muddy. It performs equally well in the neck or bridge, just as the best humbuckers from the 50s did.
Recommended For: All positions
Tech Talk: There is no reference standard for the sound of a humbucker from the 1950s. All of them had variations in output and tone, and these differences could be quite large. Recently, DiMarzio have focused research on making pickups with warm highs and bright lows. This combination is only found in their favorite vintage humbuckers, and it's really good for a pickup intended for both the neck and bridge positions. It allows the bass strings in the neck position to avoid muddiness, and the treble strings in the bridge position to be warm and not brittle.
Tone Zone (bridge)
Have you ever heard a bridge pickup that made a guitar sound like a giant mosquito attack? If you've run into this problem, The Tone Zone is the solution. The Tone Zone is hot enough to qualify as a high-output pickup, but it has a wider dynamic range - hard picking will produce a lot of power, and softer picking will be much cleaner and quieter. It's got tremendous bass and low-mid response to reinforce the bottom end and make the overall sound bigger. The highest single notes have depth, and chords sound huge. Patented dual-resonance coils reproduce more overtones than you'd expect from such a fat-sounding pickup and split-coil mode produces an excellent single-coil sound as well.
Recommended For: Bridge position in all solid body guitars.
Tech Talk: The Tone Zone is hot enough to qualify as a high-output pickup, but it has a wider dynamic range - hard picking will produce a lot of power, and softer picking will be much cleaner and quieter.
