Seven String Pickup Guide

[Marked Man]

What a cool thread abandoned since 2018!
If life could be explain and choice could be made with figures, everything could be easier. So I tried this dystopia into the following charts during my quest of a pair of 7s for an RG7620 into a Mesa Mark IV.

Here is a personal selection I made considering PU I would be interested in. All apologies for Seymour Duncans, EMGs, Fishmans advocators. Here it is only a Dimarzio selection.

I choose to organise from the lower high put to the higher.

Source : DiMarzio website of course!

Let's start with the bridge pick-ups
View attachment 132511

The comparison chart of the bridge PUs.
View attachment 132512

Let's continue with the quite good neck PU association I am looking for
View attachment 132513

And at last, the comparison chart of the Necks'PUsView attachment 132514


Sorry for PAF addicts or X2N fans, I do not pay attention to these. It's a really personal selection.
For the competition, I removed the Ionizers, Evo7 and Crunchlab.
The Ionizers are frightening me with so much output. I need definition, not too much gain (my amp is made for that).
EVO : I had them in a RG6 and I didn't like them. To much gain, mids, high mids to my ears.
Crunchlab: I didn't appreciate it on a EBMM BFR7. Not clear enough, not a quite clean sound to me and not enough definition on the lowB. Once again: it's personal.

Good luck for your selection. It's always difficult to choose a good pair of PU and boring to install and replace them.

I have the Blaze Custom at the bridge of my UV7 and consider it a major improvement over the Blaze. I found the Evo7 to be the ultimate passive crunch machine I've heard to date (although I must admit I haven't tried a new gen passive 7 pickup lately) but it was not as satisfying for lead work as the B.C. And I dig the original Blaze Neck bigly. I was just playing my UV yesterday through the MkIII clean channel with a Soldano SLO pedal in the home studio, such a vicious sound!! Not sure if the neighbors liked it, but I know they HEARD it.

I know Petrucci bases his pickups on playing at blistering stage volume through Marks (where they grow fangs as you know ), but I generally don't get into pickups with very low treble response, a rating of 3 does not sound inspiring. The D Activator set is my favorite new 6 string combo in many years (treble rating 6.5) and I bet it would SMOKE in 7 string form.

 

[OneTwoThrill]

Thank you for your feedback.
You totally right when you mention the volume these PU are made to be played.
I will try the Dreamcatcher & Rainmaker within a month. Can't wait for the postman.

 

[Marked Man]

Thank you for your feedback.
You totally right when you mention the volume these PU are made to be played.
I will try the Dreamcatcher & Rainmaker within a month. Can't wait for the postman.

I don't think there is any metal player short of Hetfield/Hammett who has toured the world in big venues more than Petrucci over the last 30+ years. John basically LIVES on stage, so there is no doubt he is going to test all of his products on stage at full tilt. I really need to get a Mesa JP-2C at some point! The dual graphic EQ is the kind of thing I would do (actually I already did with the Quad ).

 

[S4M4R1N]

Any moderate output pickup, passive or active, will do. Adjusting compression/gain/tone with pickup swaps is awesome if you're religious about your "direct to amp" tone or stuck rich or both For everybody else, just stick wiith well done pickups from any reputable company and then look for some boost/comp, distortion and EQ pedals. Way more cost effective