Dimarzio gravity storm steve vai biography

I recently had the honor of watching Steve Vai during an unaccompanied soundcheck and was surprised by what I heard.

There was something different about his sound, a ballsy low-mid energy that gave his tone the kind of depth and earthy elements it had back in his mid-Eighties Flex-Able/David Lee Roth period.

I later learned that the source of this scorching tone is Vai’s new set of DiMarzio Gravity Storm pickups.

Whereas his Evolution pickups featured cutting attack, in-your-face presentation and extremely dense upper harmonics, the Gravity Storms are warm and fat, with a kicking low-end edge.

Features

DiMarzio used Alnico 5 magnets for the DP253 bridge version of the Gravity Storm, focusing most of its power across a wide section of midrange.

Technically, it’s not as loud as the Evolution, but it sounds hotter and livelier, largely thanks to how its midrange-forward equalization drives the resonant peak