In a new official statement, guitar maestro Steve Vai has just announced his signature DiMarzio humbucker pickups, reports Guitar World. This comes after this year’s announcement of Vai’s new signature Ibanez model PIA3761C, bearing the so-called Blue Powder finish. And these pickups, dubbed UtoPIA, will be the heart and soul of the new Ibanez model and will also bear the same finish.
The pickups are wired specifically after Vai’s preferences and his new signature PIA model. These are inspired by DiMarzio’s classic Evolution humbuckers. This goes both for bridge and neck pickups.
However, these come with a slight boost to the bottom ends, giving your tone some “thickness” and “beefiness.” Additionally, the pickups have less pronounced higher mids which softens the attack. At the same time, they keep the dynamic response. Overall, we’re looking at powerful yet somewhat softened pickups.
In addition, these pickups are conceived in such a way to work with coil-splitting options. You’ll get some pretty interesting sonic combinations with such settings. However, at the moment, UtoPIA single-coils are only available on the Ibanez signature model in the middle position. So far, there aren’t any plans to release it as a regular pickup that you can add to the guitar of your choice.
Along with that, we have some fine finishing touches – laser-cut covers with baroque-style motifs. They are pretty similar to the guitar model’s floral inlays on the fretboard. There are also three additional color options for covered pickups aside from the Blue Powder one. These are white, black, and pink. If you prefer uncovered, then you have a plethora of options.
You can check out DiMarzio’s official website at this location for more info. The price per pickup in the covered variant is $159.99. Uncovered come in many different options, with prices ranging from $99.99 to $163.99 per one humbucker.
Photos: DiMarzio
