DiMarzio has been working on serious vintage single-coil design with no hum for eight years. DiMarzio's goal has always been to capture the best qualities of pickups DiMarzio heard from the 1950s and early '60s. DiMarzio has played several pickups from the early '60s that had a unique tonality: they were steely, yet woody-sounding. Naturally, DiMarzio wanted to nail this sound, and DiMarzio wanted to do it with no hum and less magnet-pull. This is it. It's good in all three positions, and it's a perfect bridge pickup with a pair of Area '58s if you want to go all the way from Nashville to Texas in one guitar.

Over the last 10 years DiMarzio has gotten literally hundreds of requests from guitarists asking for the Texas blues sound. This sound is centered on single-coils from the early 1960's, but it's also based on heavy strings and strong hands. DiMarzio can't change your strings or your hands, but the Area '61(tm) captures the tonal bedrock this sound is based on. Like the Area '58, the Area '61 really responds to different pick attacks: played hard, it sounds louder and tougher than you'd expect from a vintage pickup, but it cleans up immediately by picking softer or rolling down the volume control. And like the Area '58, its ability to cancel hum is superior to full-size humbuckers.