The Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 was a watershed event in American music. When it was over, the world had heard and felt the sound of a Strat in the hands of a master. Single-coils in 1967 were bright and very clean. And of course, they hummed. DiMarzio has captured the classic bright and clean sound but totally eliminated that hum with their patented Area technology. They've also reduced magnet pull by 40% for improved sustain and clarity. The Area '67 has the chime of '60s pickups, and the 2 and 4 positions are light, bright and quack-happy.

Recommended For: All positions, especially neck and middle

Tech Talk: Strat pickups in the late 1960s used full-strength Alnico 5 magnets. The patented magnetic field of the Area models is more efficient and focused than it is on "true" single-coils, which allows players to use Alnico 2 instead. There's much less magnet pull, but no loss of output. This is a major advantage in the neck and middle positions, where sustain and intonation can both suffer if the strings are exposed to strong magnetic fields. In the bridge position, the patented technology of the Area '67 produces a sound that's very bright but not brittle.