It's not difficult to make a vintage single-coil pickup that's clean and bright, but not so easy if you also want the high strings to sound sweet above the 12th fret. The True Velvet neck model was designed to make this happen by tuning the coil to a frequency range that's bright but not thin. DiMarzio has combined this with a magnet stagger specifically designed to enhance string balance, which produces great clarity, even with full chords. The True Velvet neck model comes standard with hand-ground magnets and vintage cloth covered wire.

Tech Talk: The True Velvet is a further development of DiMarzio's Blue Velvet line. They've retuned the basic frequency response to hone in on the strongest aspects of vintage single-coil tone. The best vintage single-coils emphasized a "sweet spot" where the sound is bright but not piercing. The True Velvet is tuned to this spot, making it equally effective for many playing styles, from the clarity of country music to the grit of Texas blues.