There are two major differences between a great vintage Strat(r) pickup and an average one: treble response and dynamics. A great pickup is clear and bright, but not thin-sounding. A great one makes the sound jump out of the amp when you pick hard and drop way down when you play softly, and the tone varies when the string is picked at different spots. The best pickup DiMarzio has ever heard like this was from 1958, and that's what inspired the Area '58(tm), with two major differences. DiMarzio's pickup has way less magnet pull, and virtually no hum.

Recommended For: neck and middle, can also be used in bridge

Tech Talk: The Area '58 has obvious similarities to the Virtual Vintage(r) 2.1 it replaces, but there are several non-visible performance factors that have changed. Dynamic range and string definition are greatly increased, leading to improvements in both clean chord-playing and overdriven soloing. The '58 is very sensitive to small height adjustment differences: close to the strings produces a fatter, slightly compressed blues tone and further away yields crystal clean sounds. The final improvement is in noise reduction. All of the Virtual Vintage pickups have better hum cancellation than full-size humbuckers. Area '58 and Area '61(TM) are even quieter.