The PAF Pro was created when chops-intensive playing was first starting to happen, and high-gain amps and rack systems were getting popular. A pickup was needed that combined a lot of presence and “cut” with an open-sounding PAF vibe. The transparency of its sound lets the PAF Pro slice through heav...
This pickup started a sound revolution. Replacement pickups simply didn’t exist before the invention of the Super Distortion in the early Seventies. The Super Distortion® (and its original 3-conductor version, the Dual Sound®) was the first pickup specifically designed to kick a tube amp into total ...
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, an...
The X2N is a “take-no-prisoners, in-your-face” humbucker. Twin, wide-bar pole pieces give the X2N a nasty, dangerous look - and rightly so. Our highest gain pickup was created to push tube amps into total overdrive. Put one in the bridge position for a powerful jolt to the voltage the amp sees from ...
The Air Norton started out simply to be the Airbucker version of the Norton. We thought it would make a distinctive-sounding bridge pickup with high-gain amps, but we soon discovered that it’s a radically neat neck pickup, too. The tone is deep and warm, but not muddy. It’s hot, but not distorted. I...
The D Activator Bridge has an enriched harmonic quality and the notes want to sing. Both the D Activator Neck and Bridge pickups were designed to eliminate the sterile edginess commonly associated with active pickups. The D Activator Bridge pickup is about 25% louder than the D Activator Neck. Since...
The Evolution Neck and Bridge humbuckers are the result of two years of research to come up with the right sound for a very demanding player: Steve Vai and his Ibanez Jems. Both pickups are designed for maximum impact and power. The neck pickup is fat, punchy and loud. The bridge pickup is tight, ag...
The Evolution Neck and Bridge humbuckers are the result of two years of research to come up with the right sound for a very demanding player: Steve Vai and his Ibanez Jems. Both pickups are designed for maximum impact and power. The neck pickup is fat, punchy and loud. The bridge pickup is tight, ag...
Because a conventional humbucker senses the string at two different places, it cancels some frequencies along with the hum. What if there was a humbucker that cancelled fewer frequencies? It would be brighter and cleaner: almost glassy-sounding. In other words, it would sound a lot like a Strat pick...
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...