The following content is related to the July 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.

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.

As a professor of mechatronics at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand, Olaf Diegel has used 3-D printers for more than 15 years to prototype new product ideas.