Description
Born out of DiMarzio’s ongoing collaboration with Steve Vai, the Dark Matter 2 Neck (DP266F) was voiced for the newer JEM Woody guitar and represents a shift in direction for Vai’s tone: still plenty of output, but with the harsh upper-register edge dialed back in favor of something rounder and more organic.
High output neck pickups can get brittle or spiky up top, especially under gain. DiMarzio engineered this one specifically to avoid that — the top end is intentionally softened, giving you a modern voice that stays composed whether you’re running a clean amp or piling on heavy overdrive. It’s a balanced-sounding pickup rather than a one-trick screamer.
This F-spaced version is built for guitars with a floating bridge/wider string spacing near the bridge, and it wears DiMarzio’s laser-cut grill with an interlocking gear pattern — a nod to its Dark Matter 2 lineage. It ships stock in the Ibanez JEM Woody and is also sold separately for anyone retrofitting their own guitar.
- Wiring: 4-conductor
- Magnet: Ceramic
- Output: 275 mV
- DC Resistance: 8.29 kOhm
- Year of Introduction: 2016
- Patent: 5,908,998
If you want a neck pickup with real muscle but none of the fizz, this is the one Vai turned to for a smoother, more grown-up version of his signature aggression.
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