As every experienced Strat player knows, magnet pull is both a problem and a fact of life. Alnico 5 rod magnets exert a strong influence on guitar strings. If they get too close, you'll lose sustain and have tuning problems. Even so, Alnico 5 is part of the essential Strat sound of the 50s and 60s. We wanted to retain the sound and reduce the problem, and the VirtuAL 2® series is the result. All VirtuAL 2® models use a special precision-ground Alnico 2 alloy with 45% less magnet pull than Alnico 5 magnets and Virtual Vintage® technology to eliminate noise.

The VirtuAL 2® middle pickup has a round, musical tonality. It's very sensitive to variations in pick attack and right-hand string length positioning, making it capable of producing a wide range of sound and interacting effectively with neck & bridge positions.

Recommended for:

Maple fingerboards, swamp ash, alder or basswood bodies. Highly recommended with light strings.

Tech Talk:

Although you can see that the VirtuAL 2® Middle has higher resistance than the neck model, the neck model is actually a little louder and more aggressive. We did it this way because many players are using the neck pickup extensively for overdriven soloing, and are reserving the middle pickup more exclusively for clean tones, a la Eric Johnson. With that in mind, the middle pickup was designed to have a very even frequency response to better reproduce full chords and arpeggios. It's also a good neck pickup if you need a warm, clean tone in front.

Specifications: