DiMarzio
DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Blues Strat Pickup DP402
From the manufacturer:
What do you need in order to play blues with a Strat®? The Virtual Vintage® Blues has more power and warmth than a typical single-coil. You can really hear these qualities when you’re playing the Virtual Vintage® Blues. It withstands hard picking and opens up when you’re playing with an overdriven amp. Instead of shrinking away, the sound jumps out of the speakers. These qualities are really useful for getting a fat neck position sound, but they’re outstanding for the bridge position — particularly if you have a thin-sounding guitar or use light gauge strings. It’s a tough sounding bridge pickup with warmer guitars, and makes a good neck and middle choice to match with a full-size bridge humbucker. As the rest of the Virtual Vintage® family, it’s dead quiet; there’s practically no hum at all.
The Virtual Vintage® Blues Model is a more muscular pickup than typical vintage single-coils. Unlike thinner-sounding pickups, it stands up to hard picking — the sound seems to expand through an overdriven amp instead of shrinking away. This quality is really useful for the neck position, if you have a thin-sounding guitar and want to fatten the tone. With warmer-sounding guitars, it's a strong, tough-sounding bridge pickup. We recommend using 500K controls for extended frequency response, although there's no problem using 250K controls if you like the warmer tone they provide.
Primarily recommended for the bridge position, but can be used in all positions.
Ethan's picks for best videos/sound-clips:
When it comes to playing the blues, you really need a bridge pickup with a lot of power and bite. A lot of single coil pickups can sound too weak and tinny at times, especially when you add a lot of gain to the mix. The DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Blues pickups may be the best solution to remedy these issues. When slotted in the bridge position of your axe, this pickup gives you get plenty of power, bite, and twang. Best part is, you don’t lose all of your tone and output when you dial in gain; instead, the tone jumps right out the speakers and screams – without sounding harsh and noisy. With the Virtual Vintage Blues pups, you never have to worry about sounding too shrill in the high end. The lows and mids stay pretty even while the sweetened treble response allows your lead tone to soar and sing. If you want a muscular sounding single coil pickup, the DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Blues is a great choice. Listen from 0:30 – 1:55 to hear the pickup in action. The player demonstrates by playing a killer solo over a bluesy backing track. You can also hear the tone by itself at around 4:40.
The player is Frédéric Puglisi and he is using a Fender SRV Strat through a Marshall MG100 DFX.
Here is a very extensive look at a strat pickup set, which includes a DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Blues pickup in the neck position. You can hear this pup at 1:02, 4:17, and 6:10 (with distortion). For the clean tones, you get a really warm, fat sound for a single coil pickup. There is a lot of power and punch to the tone and the pickup has a very muscular character to it. When you add distortion to the mix, the Virtual Vintage Blues really screams. It has a very smooth sound with a lot of sustain; yet the attack is sharp and has almost a rough quality to it (perfect for those dirty Texas blues tones). And no need to worry about that annoying 60-cycle hum -- this pup is completely noiseless!
The player is Bill Townsend and he is playing a Fender Strat through a Marshall JTM60 amp.
This is a short clip briefly highlighting some of the sweet overdriven tones you can get with a DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Blues in the bridge position. Naturally, it has a very strong, tough sound with a lot of grit and bite to it. The top end gives you a nice sparkle while the lows keep the tone warm and powerful. The Virtual Vintage Blues pickups definitely have a tendency to expand through an overdriven amp instead of sounding weak and thin. This is good for players who want their tone to jump right out of the speakers and sound fat and muscular. If you play blues, this pup is worth a look.
The player is using a Fender Strat into a Boss GT10.