DiMarzio Virtual Solo Strat Pickup DP420

From the manufacturer:

We've combined the best qualities of the Virtual Vintage® Solo and Virtual Vintage® Solo Pro™ — high output and a full, warm sound — and pushed these qualities even further. Treble response is smoother, the lows are tighter, and there is more pick attack. Play hard, and the sound jumps out of the amp. Play softer, and the sound becomes cleaner and quieter. Naturally, there's no hum.

The Virtual Vintage® Solo and Virtual Vintage® Solo Pro™ both have specific qualities we like a lot, but we felt the sound could be even bigger. Making the highs both fatter and louder without any loss of definition on the lows creates a bridge pickup that can sound both warm and intense, and the Virtual Solo™ performs equally well with clean and heavily overdriven amps.

Recommended for the bridge position.

Ethan's picks for best videos/sound-clips:

The DiMarzio Virtual Solo is a killer pickup for expressive lead tones. Skip to 1:08 to hear this pup in action with a little overdrive. You get such a sweet voicing in the midrange, while the lows stay tight and the highs sing. It’s easy to hear how responsive this pup is too; when you dig hard into the strings you get this huge lead sound that jumps right out the amp. On top of that, the treble response is incredibly smooth and the pick attack is sharp, giving you rich harmonics and overtones for a screaming lead sound. Check it out!

The player is Kenny Shipman and he is using a Fender Strat into a Hughes and Kettner Tube Meister 36 amp with a hint of reverb and delay.

The DiMarzio Virtual Solo pickups work wonders for clean tones. This clip cycles through various pickup positions to show you just how diverse these pups can sound on a clean setting. Here are the timestamps for each pickup position: bridge – 0:04 – 0:09, bridge/middle – 0:10 – 0:17, bridge/neck – 0:18 – 0:27. The player then goes on to play a funk rhythm on the bridge/middle and bridge/neck positions. Overall, these pickups give you really clear and full clean tones; they have the detail and spank of a single coil with the warmth and punch of a humbucker. If you’re into fat clean tones but still want that glassy single coil character, these pups won’t disappoint.

The player is Joel Ortiz and he is using a Fender Strat through a Peavey Classic 30 amp.

This clip demonstrates how the DiMarzio Virtual Solo bridge pickup responds to different gain stages. The action starts at around 0:18. With the volume at 6, you get a clean sound with a little grit. As you dig into the strings, the pickup naturally breaks up a little more; but if you hold back, you get a clean sound with light breakup. Kick up the volume to 10 and you have a beautiful vintage gain tone that is warm and crunchy (0:30). Add a little boost on top of that and you get a nice high output lead tone for those hot bluesy lead tones (0:40). The DiMarzio Virtual Solo responds well to saturation but can clean up very nicely when you need it to, giving you a ton of control over your gain tones.  

The player is Joel Ortiz and he is using a Fender Strat through a Peavey Classic 30 amp.

This clip picks up where previous one left off, demonstrating the DiMarzio Virtual Solo on a high gain setting. As you can hear, these pickups manage to stay clear and crisp with heavy saturation, giving you a thick gain tone that can be used for heavy styles (like Metallica, in this instance). The tone is fairly smooth and the noiseless design of the Virtual Solo allows for an articulate sound with plenty of punch and definition. Through all major gain stages, this pup delivers.

The player is Joel Ortiz and he is using a Fender Strat through a Peavey Classic 30 amp.