In 2017, the YouTube channel Music is Win posted a video featuring “Some of the best guitarists on YouTube (and Earth)” taking turns on a nearly eight-minute long jam. With some of the most prolific guitarists in the online music scene on deck, the sheer amount of collective talent—and the total amount of notes played—was off the charts. But based on the video’s comments, one guitarist’s solo turned the most heads without much competition.

Since then, the Brazilian guitarist’s virtuosic playing and sonic explorations have earned her even more praise. In just a handful of years as a solo artist—after graduating law school, no less—Basilio gained fans like Joe Satriani (who is also featured on one of her songs), headlined Satriani’s 2019 G4 Experience alongside Neal Schon and Rick Nielsen, among others, and even recorded her 2019 LP Far More at the legendary Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Basilio’s musical breadth is more evident than ever on her latest album Your Love, a sprawling record packed with elements of seemingly every guitar-prominent genre in the book.

Enter the LB-1

Versatility has been the through-line across Basilio’s discography, and that’s especially true on Your Love. Now more than ever, Basilio needed the right instrument—and pickups— to support her eclectic playing style and help bring her music to life. In 2021, Basilio worked with Ibanez to create the LB1, a robust T-style guitar made to Basilio’s exact specifications—including the on-brand violet finish.

Featuring a bird’s eye maple neck with a 228-305mm compound radius fretboard, Gotoh Magnum Lock tuners, and a dyna-MIX9 Alter Switch for a whopping nine unique pickup configurations, the LB1 is perfect for Basilio and any guitarist looking for a reliable axe that does a lot, and does it all well. In fact, the LB1 is already one of Ibanez’s best selling signatures, on par with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s respective models. This trend is not only reflective of the recent demand for more signature models by female and non-binary guitarists, but it also speaks to the universal appeal of an instrument capable of a wide range of tones.

Of course, a guitar’s sound and adaptability starts at the pickups—the part of the instrument that transforms vibrating metal into a creative extension of the player’s voice. For Basilio, finding well-rounded pickups that could jump between clean, crunchy and distorted on a whim was crucial for her creative process.

“As guitar players, we are always seeking new sounds, new tones, and trying to put out the sounds that we have in our heads. And for me it’s no different,” Basilio told us. “The whole idea for these pickups was for it to be very versatile. And not only the set—the pickups individually, they sound amazing, and I think the set will serve so many musicians in so many different styles.”

The Seymour Duncan Lari Basilio Signature Pickups

A longtime Seymour Duncan artist since 2018—she told us that her first electric guitar had our Hot Rails in the bridge—Basilio turned to the Seymour Duncan engineering team to help her turn the LB1 into a powerful all-rounder. After months of discussion, prototyping and testing, the Seymour Duncan Lari Basilio Signature SSH Pickups were born. Just like its namesake, this set is right at home in any musical situation, including jangly rhythms, edge-of-breakup leads, heavy-gain drop chords and more.

Make no mistake, this is not your typical SSH set. Each pickup is a meticulous and unique mix of classic components and modern design that perfectly support Basilio’s (and any player’s) technical and melodic skills.

THE NECK: Turbo-Powered Twang

The Lari Basilio neck pickup is a Tele-style design loaded with half Alnico 5 magnets for the low strings and half Alnico 4s for the trebles.

This mix of magnets—one of many combinations Basilio and the Seymour Duncan team tried out—balances classic Tele-neck bite with extra body and presence that suits modern players’ preferences. The result is a tone in the vein of the iconic “souped-up Tele” sound of a vintage PAF that still retains single-coil sparkle and definition.

“I simply love the tone and feel of a Tele-style neck pickup,” says Basilio. “I wanted my signature pickup to have a lot of body with a vintage tone and a tight attack without losing the dynamics that I think are very important to my sound.”

Basilio used the LB1 all over Your Love (it’s even on the album cover), and the album’s title track is a particularly great example of the neck pickup in action. Playing a lead melody harkening back to 70s FM rock ballads, Basilio uses the neck pickup to achieve a warm and smooth tone that cuts through the mix and responds well to dynamics.

THE MIDDLE: Tonal Wild Card

Perhaps the most unique pickup of the trio, the middle sports a striking black-on-gold design and offers traditional Strat-style voicings in a Tele-sized enclosure. This pickup uses a mix of Alnico 5 and 2 magnets for an ideal balance of low-end punch, twangy mids and a tamed high end that still jangles. This pickup adds a plethora of tonal possibilities when combined with the neck or bridge, from quacky leads to souped-up neck tones, but it also offers plenty of attack and body when flying solo.

“I think it’s a very interesting combination,” Basilio says of the neck and middle pickups. “I think it’s a perfect balance for the set and it opens up so many tone possibilities.”

On Your Love’s fiery second single “Alive and Living,” Basilio deftly stands out from the rhythm section’s king-sized metal chords using the LB1’s second and fourth positions. The former gives the song’s fingerpicked main melody ample clarity even within layers of delay, while the latter brings in the bridge pickup for a glassy, pushed-amp lead tone.

THE BRIDGE: No-Fuss ‘Buck

Speaking of the bridge: complementing the single-coil chime is a classic, Alnico 5-loaded humbucker in the bridge position. This pickup will feel right at home if you’re looking for a 10% overwound ‘59 Model since it offers scooped mids between evenly balanced bass and treble for a tonal profile full of attack and clarity, even in the most high-gain scenarios. Whether used solo or combined with the neck or middle, this pickup is great for bringing out every note within complex chord voicings or sprawling lead melodies.

“A humbucker—to me—has to have attack, clarity, definition and the right amount of brightness, and my signature humbucker has it all,” says Basilio. “I love using the humbucker for the heavier stuff that I like to play, like the leads, the rhythm parts and of course lots of riffs.”

Unsurprisingly, the bridge pickup can be heard on many of Basilio’s solos on Your Love, but a great example of its abilities is actually in a song by the album’s keyboardist, Ester Na. “Free” features Basilio playing a soaring bridge-position melody over a dreamy bed of synths and piano, giving the right balance of drive and clarity to sit perfectly in the mix.

Abundant Tonal Options

These pickups’ tonal prowess doesn’t stop at just five positions, because this set was designed with a wide array of configurations and mods in mind. This point brings us back to the LB1’s aforementioned dyna-MIX9 system, which unlocks a completely new way to utilize the Lari Basilio Signature SSH Pickups—literally at the flip of a switch.

Along with your standard 5-way pickup configuration, the alter switch gives you access to an in-series neck and middle pairing for humbucker neck tones, a single-coil bridge for extra bright leads, a neck and coil-tapped bridge for a Tele-style middle position, and even a bridge plus the in-series neck and middle for a thick humbucker middle tone.

Dexterity was the guiding star behind these pickups, which means that they’re super mod-friendly. You can count on them for anything from coil taps and phase switching to mid boost and treble bleed.

Ready for Anything

Like Lari Basilio herself, these signature pickups excel with just about any playing style: clean funk shuffle, gentle fingerpicking, crunchy blues jams, screaming rock chords, intricate fretboard-crossing melodies…the list goes on.

Better yet, with the set available in both gold and chrome hardware—as well as an option for a T-style bridge humbucker—these pickups are ready to meet the needs and bring out the best of any guitarist.

Ready to perfect your creative voice? Learn more about the Lari Basilio Signature SSH Pickups here, and check out the rest of our blog for tips and tricks on finding your sound.