DIMARZIO DP 419BK AREA 67

Drawing upon the steely, yet woody-sounding tonality of several pickups from the early '60s, DiMarzio has produced a modern version of these vintage gems with no hum and less magnet pull. DiMarzio has been working on serious vintage single-coil design with no hum for eight years, with the goal of capturing the best qualities of guitar pickups from the 1950s and early '60s. The DP416 Area '61 succeeds admirably, is good in all three positions, and is a perfect bridge pickup with a pair of Area '58s if you want to go all the way from Nashville to Texas in one guitar.

Tech Talk: Over the last 10 years DiMarzio received hundreds of requests from guitarists asking for the Texas blues sound. This sound is centered on single-coils from the early 1960s, but it's also based on heavy strings and strong hands. The Area '61 captures the tonal bedrock this sound is based on. Like the Area '58, the Area '61 really responds to different pick attacks: played hard, it sounds louder and tougher than you'd expect from a vintage pickup, but it cleans up immediately by picking softer or rolling down the volume control. And like the Area '58, its ability to cancel hum is superior to full-size humbuckers.