Looking for some simple info on swapping pickups in an Ibanez rg8

[Vince Caruana]

Plan on buying one of these and want to swap out the stock pickups with either blackouts or dimarzio d activators. They are passive pickups with the look of actives. I plan on having a luthier do all the work so I don't need any info on necessarily how to do it, just how each pickups will fit in place of the stocks and what work will have to be done to install them and how much the work may cost. I'd appreciate the feedback! Also to anyone who has had experience with both of these pickups, how do they differ in characteristics? This guitar has a basswood body and a maple/walnut neck.

 

[vick1000]

I would go Blackouts out of those two, but it depends on how much gain you use and what tone you are looking for. I thought the D'Activator in the bridge spot was little flubby in F flat on a 70 gauge. The Blackouts will have more gain and mid range attack, and be more clear in general, but with less noise (since they are active).

As for what needs to be done to the guitar? The D'Activators are passive with no covers, and fit right in, but will have gaps on each side, you can modify some covers to fit over them to fill the gaps if it bugs you. The Blackouts I am not sure, but my SD Distortions with active covers required squaring the corners of the cavities by removing some material, since the cavities are rounded in the corners.

The Blackouts require chaning the electronics to special rated pots, battery, and a stereo output jack is required (thought the stock Ibanez should be stereo). You can get the Blackouts in a kit with everything needed.

I would put better pots and a Fender selector switch in anyway, to replace the cheapo parts that come in the RG8. I put 500K DiMarzio speed pots in mine, any full size quality pot will require widening the holes in the guitar a little, no big deal there.

You might want to post in the RG8 thread for more opinions...

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/extended-range-guitars/220004-let-rg8-mods-begin.html

 

[Vince Caruana]

Thanks man. Ive always been more of an active guy these dimarzios just spark my interest. I have a set of 808s I really like but find them pretty harsh and muddy at times. Hoping the blackouts do me a little more justice.