Guitar legend Steve Vai has played DiMarzios in his guitars for decades. So when he came to DiMarzio for a sweeter tone to complement his high-output Evolution pups, DiMarzio was happy to sit down with him and develop one. 

The result was The Breed DP165. This pickup adds PAF Pro-like versatility to any guitar. Sweetwater guitarists recommend pairing the DP165 with DiMarzio Super Distortion, Evolution, and Tone Zone bridge pickups.

          If you’re a fan of Steve Vai, you’ve probably seen him playing an Ibanez® Jem guitar with the word “Pogo” taped on the face. Steve wanted one of his instruments to have a fat, classic humbucker sound to contrast with the hotter, screaming Evolution®-equipped guitars. These are the pickups we developed for him. The neck pickup is a bit louder and fatter-sounding than the PAF Pro® pickups that Steve used on his earliest Jems. The bridge pickup is not as hot as the Evolution®, but it’s got a warm and punchy mid-range coupled with a fat low end that rolls off before it can get muddy. Harmonics are easy to get, and the 4-conductor wiring enables cool “notch tone” coil-splitting.

Neck position in bolt-on trem guitars, bridge position in set-neck fixed-bridge instruments.

          The Breed™ is a bit louder and fatter-sounding than the PAF Pro® pickups that Steve used on his earliest Jems. As a neck pickup, it has more than enough power to balance with high-output bridge pickups: it will work with The Tone Zone®, Super Distortion®, and Evolution® as well as The Breed™ Bridge Model. In the bridge position, it has a very warm, hot PAF® tone — really smooth, with nice harmonics.