Watch Steve Vai demo his signature DiMarzio Dark Matter guitar pickups
Shred legend also talks new Ibanez JEM and Passion & Warfare
Recently, you may recall seeing a radical new look for Steve Vai's long-favoured JEM guitars with the natural wood-finished JEM77WDP-CNL, which also packs a new pickup variation from DiMarzio, the Dark Matter - and now you can watch the guitar luminary put them through their paces.
In the clip above, Vai runs his new Ibanez and pickups through his rig and explains his rationale in fine-tuning the new single coils and humbuckers.
In between the slick licks, the virtuoso also discusses the Passion & Warfare 25th anniversary release and new Modern Primitive recordings.
DiMarzio's Dark Matter pickups are available now for $199.99 apiece.
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Mike has been Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com since 2019, and an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict for far longer. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and 15 years' experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. His writing also appears in the The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock as Maebe.
