Steve’s Special™

DP161

Steve’s Special™ is a non-traditional approach to high-output bridge humbucking pickup design. Hot humbuckers usually concentrate most of the pickup’s power in a narrow frequency bandwidth for maximum impact. Using our patented dual-resonance design, Steve’s Special™ takes the opposite path, spreading the sound over a broad range. Bass and treble frequencies are boosted while the mids are pulled back, so the pickup’s power doesn’t kick a high-gain amp into overdrive as easily. This makes Steve’s Special™ a good choice for both fast soloing and clean chords, because individual notes won’t smear together with heavy overdrive, and clean sounds have an almost “hi-fi” quality.

Recommended For

Bridge position

Tech Talk

Clean overdrive with high-gain amps. Steve’s Special™ is very effective in Dual Sound® and coil-splitting clean modes. For soloing, this is a very good pickup to play with a midrange-heavy amp: the mid-scoop in the pickup's sound keeps the initial pick attack clean, and the notes don't run together as much with legato playing, even with heavy overdrive.

Download Installation Instructions
Find the right wiring diagram for your guitar

Specs

Wiring: 4 Conductor
Magnet: Ceramic
Output mV: 390
DC Resistance: 18.21 Kohm
Year of Introduction: 1995
Patent: 4,501,185

Pickup Dimensions

Tone Guide

Treble: 6.5

Mid: 4.5

Bass: 7.5

Color Options

Players & Soundbytes

Joe Cefalu
Rob Balducci
Art Rodriguez
Chris Brouelette
Kessier Hsu
Nacho de Andres
Paul Warren

Joe Cefalu

Go to Players Page

Song: 4-Suckerpunch
Album: Fear Itself
Band: Joe Cefalu
Guitar Used: '88 Squier Strat
Pickup Used: Steve’s Special™ -

4-Suckerpunch

Rob Balducci

Go to Players Page

Song: Falling Water
Album: The Color Of Light
Band: Rob Balducci
Guitar Used: Ibanez RG - LA Custom Shop
Pickup Used: Steve’s Special™ - Bridge

Falling Water

Song: R U Divine
Album: The Color Of Light
Band: Rob Balducci
Guitar Used: Ibanez RG - LA Custom Shop
Pickup Used: Air Norton™ - Neck
Pickup Used: Steve’s Special™ - Bridge