7-string pickups similar to Gretsch baritone pickups?

[jnsrdlch]

Hi, first time posting on here!

I have been thinking about swapping the EMGs in my E-II TB7 for passives for a while now. Yesterday Ive come across this video which pretty much nails the tone im looking for (around the 4:17 mark).
I love how open and articulate the chords sound. However Im struggling to find much information about the pickups in that Gretsch apart from them being mini humbuckers. In fact, most people seem to dislike them and swap them out for something else. Since its a Gretsch, I guess theyre low to medium output?

Which pickups do you think will get me close to the tone in the video? Will any passives do the job or is there something specific about these mini humbuckers?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Zhysick]

I would say talk to some pickups winders... I don't remember which country is whose from since I won't getting any but normally people here talk about avedisian(?), elysian... Probably more people will chime in and tell about those BUT if you want to go cheap and try something go for DiMarzio PAF7. You can get them cheap used since most of the people who get new Ibanez sell them immediately and those are open, low output, clear pickups... Not gonna sound similar to a gretsch pickup but at least will have some characteristics that with some EQing can get you there.

Also, remember Rabea is a beast and makes everything sound brutal and massive so postproduction... Just remember that raw guitar is not sounding the same for sure.

 

[akinari]

I think the biggest part of that guitars tone really comes down to the scale length, along with the pickups. I would probably try using a relatively low to medium output passive humbucker in parallel, or if that wasn't doing it for me, I would contact someone about getting custom pickup that uses a design similar to the DiMarzio bluesbucker, with only one of the coils doing any lifting at all, and the other strictly there to cancel noise. Good luck, and keep this thread updated if you find anything particularly useful for this application. I would be interested.

 

[ElRay]

... Also, remember Rabea is a beast and makes everything sound brutal and massive so postproduction... Just remember that raw guitar is not sounding the same for sure.

Yeah. It's kind like saying "Lance Armstrong's bike climbs really well. I think I'l get one." - It's a start, but it will still take effort on your part.

 

[Hoss632]

As mentioned, some of that tone is the scale length and also the guitar has mini-humbuckers vs regular sized ones. So the tone is going to be brighter than your typical passive. Plus the post production being used is influencing what you are hearing quite a bit as well. That said, that guitar has relatively low output pups as well so I'd say start there and find a 7 string set that is medium-ish out put and go from there. If Dimarzio had 7 string bridge pup similar to the Fortitude 6 string I think it would sound killer.