Sevenstring Pickup Guide

[Drache713]

Dimarzio Blaze Bridge

Installed in bridge of Ibanez RG7321

I switched out my blaze custom for this pickup. The blaze custom is a great pickup, it's just it wasn't what I was looking for as far as rhythm tone goes. There were just too much mids, it didn't really make the rhythms articulate or defined enough, everything just kinda seemed to mush together or "roll" together so to say, still a great pickup for leads though. So in went the blaze bridge, problem solved. Yes, it's scooped, but it's not a death metal extreme scoop, you still got mids in there. It's moderately bright, but not ear-piercing bright or harsh, and DEFINENTLY warm, has a lot of impact and oomph. Great pickup for rhythm. Clean it sounds really clean, glassy and warm, not too fat. It's not as hot as my previous blaze custom, so because of the lowered gain and less mids i had to raise my gain back up some as my amp was not being driven as hard. Harmonics are still there, no loss of those. The blaze custom could work for rhythm by all means, but for intricate and metal inspired riffing, it just didn't do the trick. The blaze bridge does. My fav rhythm pickup.

 

[Drache713]

Air Norton 7

Installed in neck of Rg7321

I put this one in along with the blaze bridge. Holy cow this thing rocks. One word to describe it would be smooth. Leads really sing and are smooth, creamy, warm and fat. It's not a bright pickup per say, but it's got enough treble to not sound muffled or to lose definition. I was very suprised as this pickup also handles rhythm work pretty darn well, and has some sweet harmonics! Clean, it gives you a really nice warm and fat jazz tone, i love playing this thing clean. Coil tapped along with my blaze bridge is godly, the most beautiful single coil esque clean I have ever heard. Coil tapped i can get some slap bass sounds that sound very genuine. The ultimate neck pickup i'd say.

 

[7StringofAblicK]

Blaze Custom-

Installed RG7321
Color-White
Tone-Initial sound smacked the stocks in the face. Clean was cleaner and brighter, tone was more thick. However (though it may be the guitar, since the stocks were the same way), the gain on this guitar is slightly mild. All my other guitars had a gain advantage, but it is so subtle that the untrained ear might not hear it.

Goods-Off the bat the mids were present, no doubt about that. The highs were rolled off and the bass was solid and clear. This is the perfect lead pickup, especially on a nice tube amp. nice hot and clear tone, and the cleans were spectacularly clear and punchy.

Bads-Almost too much midrange for a serious rhythm player. again, i think the gain thing may be guitar related, but none the less it is apparent.

Outcome-One sexy ass guitar, with a good tone. Nice cutting sound, but slightly heavy on the mids (for me at least). Would LOVE to hear it in mahogany, as it will probably react like an EVO i think. Very similar to the EVO, with some rolled off highs (which lessens it's brisk attack). I would send it to a lead player, but would tell a rhythm player to check out a JB or Blaze.

 

[giannifive]

Blaze Custom in bridge position:

I'll basically echo everything that's been said here: slightly warm, very balanced, kind of hot. Good lead tone, maybe too middy for rhythm. Sounds boring clean, but really sweet with high gain. Has high enough output to slam the front end of your amp. Using the neck-side coil of the Blaze Custom with the neck-side coil of the Air Norton 7 gives an interesting clean tone.

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else, but I will mention it since it was an issue for me: this pickup is physically very tall. To get it to fit in my RG7420 with my existing bridge height I had to file the floor of the pickup cavity near the channel to the control cavity, in order to accomodate the little bit of pickup cable under the pickup. Perhaps this wouldn't be an issue on a 7620, which comes with Dimarzios stock.

 

[7-string Sixpounder]

Blaze Bridge (black)
Air Norton Neck (black/creme)
Installed in my Schecter c-7 classic (most likely basswood not too sure)

Okay dudes after finally getting these little bastards installed in my schecter my initial impression was a bit of a dissapointment. Honestly they didn't sound as badass as everyone here had previously stated. At least not to my ears. I mean, they LOOKED great, but still. Screw looks. However I wasn't satisfied with these light ass strings on my guitar so before being quick to blame the pickups I went out and bought a 10-60 guage set of strings (GHS) and slapped those suckers on...and I must say my "newfound" impression while playing through my little peavey rage amp was.....WELL SHIT THE BED SALLY!!! I didn't no that shitty little amp could rock that hard...then I plugged them into my Randall Rg-100es and my G-Flex 2x12. HUGE SOUND!! No joke these sound literally 10x better than my duncan designed. More tonefull and clear, epecially clear, which I am extremely anal about on a seven string. If its muddy and undefined, then the seventh string simply isn't working as good as the other six. The blaze is as articulate as I could ask for, even under extreme gain. Yes it does have a slightly scooped sound which worried me a little since, well mids have always been my good friend, however the best way I can describe it is an "adds to the CHUNK and articulation" kind of mid scoop, NOT the kind of "weenie tone/get lost in the mix" kind of extreme mid scoop. I am very happy and impressed with this pickup. On to the air norton. I'm not by any means an expert in neck pickups (or bridges for that matter) however I can say this pickup absolutely sings. The treble fequences are indeed slightly rolled back, while the mids are very warm and pleseant, and the bass is not muddy or overly boomy. It sounds a lot like a beefy single coil without hum or noise. Overall I would deffinately recommed these pickups. I'm extremely satisfied with this purchase. However I would though look elsewhere if you wanted a bridge pickup for more of a classic rock and vintage application, but you all probably could have figured that one out. I do however believe the air norton is a wonderfull pickup for anything from clean jazz to dirty blues to classic rock and especially metal. Sorry for the long post dudes but I really wanted to try and describe my impressions a little more than, I bought them.....they're in my guitar......they're really cool durr ...... (although that works too) Again thank all you guys for helping me decide on these two badass pickups for my guitar.

Chris

 

[Drew]

I just realized I still haven't posted a Blaze Bridge review...


Well, before I say anything, let me just say that I use a lot of midrange and play a Mesa Nomad, a VERY mid-heavy amp (it can do Recto, but it's more at home in Mark-esq territory). I'm SURE this is a factor in my perception of pickups - as a strat guy from way back in the day, I like bright guitars into dark amps.

This is, to date, my favorite seven string bridge pickup I've played. It's clear, it's deep, and it's tight. It sounds exactly like I expect the bridge position of a seven string guitar to sound like in a basswood guitar. There's probably a good reason for this - 70% of recorded 7-string work was probably done with a stock UV - but it's just a very GOOD tone, equally at home for heavy rhythm and Lynch-y screams.

The mid scoop is something that always comes up a lot, and while to me I don't hear a heavily pronounced midrange (like the Tone Zone, for instance), it feels pretty balanced. Like I said, I run a setup with a lot of mids, but going between my old 7620 and this, I didn't feel like there was an absense of midrange when I switched guitars - it was just more even.

It's less organic than a TZ, so if you're looking for a good blues/rock pickup or something for old school rock (Van Halen, for instance), I'd look elsewhere. The clean's pretty bright, but useable, it splits well for a strat-y in between sound, this is the pickup that prettymuch invented high gain low B chunk, and it's still VERY similar to what Petrucci's using, so copping that soaring G3 tone of his with a moderately distorted Mesa is a cinch. In fact, that's where this one really comes into it's own, I feel - as a lead pickup, saturated but still clear, in a smooth, liquid, compressed, and round amp setting. There may very well be something better out there, but it's a sound where I plug in and feel immediately at home.

-D

 

[Drew]

While I'm at it...

Blaze Single.

I LOVE singlecoil tones. Absolutely love 'em. I'm a big fan of bluesy, edge of breakup stuff, think SRV doing Little Wing, and while you can get good sounds like that from humbuckers, a single coil is really the way to go. So, I was pretty excited to have a true single coil on my seven when I got my UV.

Frankly, I was disappointed. The thing I've always loved about singles is their airy high end and sparkle, and this pickup is almost totally lacking in this regard. It's cold, it's sterile, and while it does an acceptable job of copping the strat-y in-between sound in position 4, that's really about all I use it for. Clean, it's just very dry sounding, and distorted, it doesn't have the explosiveness to it that I look for in a single. Hell, if I want a strat sound clean, I've had better luck coping a Jimi vibe with the neck humbucker.

It might sound better in a different bodywood or in the neck of a 22-fret guitar, and as I said it's nice for the option of an in-between strat sound, but it's just not a terribly inspiring pickup otherwise. Sadly, it's the only Dimarzio single seven in production, but word on the street is they're working on a few more, so we'll see.

-D

 

[bobthemerciful]

Bridge position.

Had this in a couple of months now. Previously had a DiMarzio Blaze in there, which was good but lacked output to my ears, and the mid scoop was particularly pronounced in this (alder) body. Also tried the Evo 7 in my friends Ibanez Universe. I nearly got one until he got the 6 string War Pig for his SG, and just HAD to get one. What I like about it most is the clarity across all strings. To my ears it has just the right balance of mids, treble and bass. I am afraid I've never been a good as some at describing sounds. Harmonics are now ridiculously easy to pull out of what I had thought was an inherently muddy guitar. Output is in EMG 81 territory for sure, but with more tone to my ears anyhow.(I have one in another guitar). It has solid but defined bass response, and much as I love the Evo 7, this is EXACTLY the sound I was after.Also the guy at BareKnuckle will wind you pretty much anything you want, if you ring and discuss it with him. Shouldn't think you'd get to chat with Larry Dimarzio or Seymour very easily!!
I have a clip of it I made for my friend to hear. It's at http://media.putfile.com/BKP
There is only one thing I'm dissapointed with, I couldn't have the distressed covers that the 6 string comes with .Sadly he's not tooled up to make 7-string covers. I personally cannot think of a better pickup to have put in it!!Just need a Universe to put round it now!!!
Manufacturers page www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk

PS they come with a lifetime warranty to the original owner as well

PPS I know the playing sucks, was a bit drunk after long day!!!!!!!!!!

 

[7slinger]

EMG-707

I use a pair of these in my LTD M307, and the bass is ridiculous. I'm playing a dual rec head through 2 recto 4x12's, 1 with vintage 30's and 1 with celestion custom 90's. My amp is set up with the diodes on, in hundred watt mode, channel 3 with modern selected. I keep the bass knob at about 2.5 to 3, and I need no more bass than that. I actually got the second cab because the 4x12 with the 90's in it couldn't handle the bass enough by itself to turn it up, the bass turned to mud = me pissed off! The guitar is all mahogany body and neck and neck-through to boot. The room we are playing in may also be affecting this, but we do have some foam up and bass traps in the corners. I'm interested in trying an 81-7 to just have more control over the bass.

 

[7StringofAblicK]

Blaze Custom-

Installed RG7321
Color-White
Tone-Initial sound smacked the stocks in the face. Clean was cleaner and brighter, tone was more thick. However (though it may be the guitar, since the stocks were the same way), the gain on this guitar is slightly mild. All my other guitars had a gain advantage, but it is so subtle that the untrained ear might not hear it.

Goods-Off the bat the mids were present, no doubt about that. The highs were rolled off and the bass was solid and clear. This is the perfect lead pickup, especially on a nice tube amp. nice hot and clear tone, and the cleans were spectacularly clear and punchy.

Bads-Almost too much midrange for a serious rhythm player. again, i think the gain thing may be guitar related, but none the less it is apparent.

Outcome-One sexy ass guitar, with a good tone. Nice cutting sound, but slightly heavy on the mids (for me at least). Would LOVE to hear it in mahogany, as it will probably react like an EVO i think. Very similar to the EVO, with some rolled off highs (which lessens it's brisk attack). I would send it to a lead player, but would tell a rhythm player to check out a JB or Blaze.

Update...

This review above was in my friends guitar, the 7321. I didn't feel that i gave it enough chance so i decided to order one for myself (having read/heard so many other people saying they loved it). I purchased it along with an AN7 for the neck, in creme (go ahead, laugh).

First off, it and the AN7 look SO bad in my black 7620 now. it has that metal edge loook, but it's classy and subtle (less in your face than the 321 w/the white pup).

Secondly, the New 7's were not that bad, really. They had a nice attack but didn't have as full of a sound...a little thin i guess (i'll probably be selling these as well).

Once i plugged in, the difference was really huge. On the clean, the BC was very clear, warm actually. For some reason the 7321 seemed much colder on the clean. i'm guessing this in part was due to the wood quality (though both are basswood) and the setup. The 7620 sets up much faster than the 321; so i feel more resonance in the actual guitar itself. Distorted it was sweet. It had an awesome lead sound (which i did notice before) but the rhythm was very muscular. It had less highs than the New 7's, but since the mids were spiked it still had a nice clarity and punch...plus, it was much more full...exactly what i was looking for. and the gain issue i had on the 321 was not present on the 7620...plenty of gain. To be honest, I had to turn it down a tad because it was a bit increased.

Yea, it kicks ass. BONUS, it fit right into the guitar...new screws and all. I did not have to do one thing to accomodate the guitar...a direct replacement (i saw above that someone w/a 7420 had a small issue).

AS for the AN7...nothing new here, bad ass. Suprisingly, I have it barely above the body of the guitar, pretty far away from the strings. I thought i could get more clarity by doing this, but feared i'd lose bass response and output...wrong. It seems just as loud as the BC, but with more of a warmth of course. It doesn't have as much bass as one of my other guitars that also sports one in the neck, but it is much closer to the strings; I actually prefer it further away for distortion. it's much clearer, more smooth, and doesn't affect the ouput.

Now I too have one sexy ass guitar that is just full on brutal. It's a very versatile combination...lethal even. Jaw dropping looks and awesome tone.

 

[Emiliano]

EVOLUTION7
i installed my evo7 one week ago in my rg1527 i had to route slightly the pickup cavity because the evo is as tall as the cavity, so if you want to install it in your axe you have to screw it to the wood!!!!!!! and the cable underneath is very clumsy!

first of all i want to say that i play with a medium action ( not too low )
the reason i say this is:

i immediatly noticed how the sound was much more clear but it wasn't the high gain monster i was expecting i played with the pole piece for a day or two and came to this conclusion

using this pickup very near the string lead to a very powerful but trebley
sound, while if you put it a little back the sound reamain clear but balanced
i use now the polepiece to individually set the string
so i have the right amount of output and clarity for each string

the good:
clear hot output, nice in clean ( with medium space between pickup and string ) and crispy split, crunchy and very rock on distortion

the bad:
maybe in ibanez guitar is a bit unconfortable to install and set up properly, need a bit of routing, on some setting clean channel go into crunch

the verdict:
i learned how to live with this beast, since the day one i lowered my action a bit, i set the polepiece and found a very nice suond, i'm very happy
(and it was a present too! )

 

[simon]

DiMarzio Air Norton 7

my guitar is an rg1527 with stock PU's, 10-56 strings, running through a mid-heavy mesa/boogie setup where i either need an ultra-clean or a heavy distorted sound. weird enough i play most high-gain chord-work with the neck-pickup, which produces an extremely rough and hard to handle sound. since the stock PU's really disappointed me in comparison with the stock new7's of my RG7621/0, i started reading through these forums and finally bought an Air Norton 7.

many reviews mentioned the "slight" lack of brightness of the Air Norton. its quite an underexageration. the air norton really lacks brightness and when using both, bridge and neck-pickup during solo's then its impossible to correct it with your amp. the pickup made it impossible for me to play chords in neck positions and the lead lacked presence, clarity and punch for palm-muted solo picking. in short: i was heavily disappointed by the air norton. last week i replaced it by a blaze neck and i couldnt be more happy!

 

[vintagevibeguitars]

Hello.

Pete Biltoft, Vintage Vibe Guitars here.

I am very new to this forum.

Jim Soloway suggested I register & let people know I can offer custom 7 string pickups. I made the blade pickups shown in Jim's post dated 11/12/05:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/sh...highlight=blade

In addition to blade pickups I have made 7-string HB pickups and 7-string strat style single coils. I am interested in building P-90 style pickups too.

I make all the custom pickups I offer myself in my shop in California.

Reviews of my pickups are posted on harmony Central (no 7-string reviews yet):

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guit...e_Vibe_Guitars/

Reviews of my P-90 pickups are posted on All Things Guitar:

http://www.allthingsguitar.com/2005...ageVibe/P90.htm

And reviews of my SP-90 (strat-size P-90 style) pickups are posted on All Things Guitar:

http://www.allthingsguitar.com/2004...e Vibe/vv.htm


Pete Biltoft
Vintage Vibe Guitars

 

[Emperoff]

Here I go: Tonezone 7 / Air Norton 7 combo in Alder guitar with maple neck, rosewood fingerboard and 5-way switch with positions 2 & 4 with coils in parallel (no tone pot).

Dimarzio Air Norton 7

I suppose there's nothing more to add to what is already said, a sweeeet sounding pickup with great clarity, ideal for that legato stuff. The cleans aren't wonderful, but they're not bad either. In single coil mode has an "acoustic-like" sound that I love.
I'm sure this pickup will sound great in any kind of wood, really a must for any 7-stringer

Dimarzio Tonezone 7

Well, the Tonezone is a pickup with a great character, I would say; It's VERY sensitive and reacts amazingly to your picking, with a very smooth and fluid sound when shredding, but it screams like a bitch when you pick it hard or when doing pinch harmonics. And of course, it works damn well for rhythm too, with a bone-crushing bass response. I've read some reviewes saying that the TZ becomes muddy when riffing, well, do what I did (disconnect the tone pot, or get a 1k volume pot for the TZ) and you'll enjoy a very rich and full sound.
The clean sound... In serial I never use it, but when splitted it just sounds incredible, It's the clean sound that I was after for a long time.
If you have an alder seven (which is rare, I guess) put this baby on it, you won't regret!

 

[Digital Black]

From Jim Soloway:



I've been using DiMarzios in all my 7-strings for years. I still like them but I decided to try to push the envelope a bit with some custom boutique pickups from Lollar and Vintage Vibe. I've been just thrilled with both of these pickups and I highly recommend both. These are both available direct from the manufacturers for anyone who's interested.

The Vintage Vibes are blades that many of you have seen on the photos I've posted of our recent bubinga 7-string. They're true P90 single coils with blades instead of screws. They're incredibly clear with a great P90 growl. I don't believe there's anything similar. The fit was a little iffy. They were a bit big for the rings although if you're doing a direct mount, they did fit the route with no difficulty. In either the neck or bridge position, they do have the usual single coil hum, but in the middle position running both pickups, they are absolutel drop dead slient. Pete Biltoft ar great at custom winding and he'll do any output level that you request. They are available with black, tortoise, and MOTO fronts. The price is about $160 for the pair.

The Lollars are in my new personal Swan LN7. They are based on his Imperials, which are a high quality PAF style pickup, but they are underwound for a lower output level. That produces a bit more clarity and a tighter low end. Jason is a great pickup maker and these are simply the best 7-string humbuckers that I've ever played. They are balanced, clear, and warm. I never play with distortion, so I can't really tell you what they'd sound like with a lot of gain, but I've always felt that if a pickup can do clean tone well, it can do anything else and thes pickups do clean tone just incredibly well. Jason built these for me with tortoise front to match the binding and I'm sure that he can also do some other fronts as well as the usual black. Like Pete, he can also do a variety of output levels, but I have a feeling that these pickups would get too dark if you wound the much brighter. You'll have to check with Jason Lollar for a price on these pickups, but his standard 6-sting Imperials are $300 for a pair, so expect to pay a pretty hefty premium.

Here are links to both companies sites for anyone who's interested.

http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/

http://www.lollarguitars.com/

 

[emux2]

I posted the following at the carvin musuem forums. It is sort of a review of both the Tone Zone 7 and the carvin C26T bridge pickup and compares the two. This is in my carvin home built alder neck through alder body guitar with the carvin active/passive eq modual.

Here it is:
For a while now I have been contemplating a bridge pickup change on my NT7 home built guitar. I studied the C26T sound for some time because there was something I did not like but could not put my finger on. I finally figured it out. The C26T sounds alright from the E string to the low E string but when you get to the low B there seems to be some high end roll off. When I would adjust the actives to compensate it made the rest of the strings too trebly. So that is it, the C26T just doesnt balance well with the Low B.

I am not saying this is the case in all instances. Now the spec of my guitar are:

Alder neck through alder body with the active/passive module.

I ordered a dimarzio tone zone and installed it yesterday. I can not comment on how it compares to anything other than the C26T as that is all I have had on this guitar. It took a little filing of the base plate to get it in. I did not feel inclinded to reroute the guitar. I like the looks of the C26T better but the sound is more important to me.

The tone zone sounds more even accross all 7 strings to me. It has a little more midrange and pinch harmonics are easily attained. In passive mode it sounds nice and open. In active mode there is slightly more bass with the eq set flat and is slightly compressed. I can back off the bass and up the treble on the guitar and it sounds good across all 7 strings. It sounds good clean as well. It is not muddy at all in my guitar

I don't know if there is another dimarzio that sounds better. I was considering trying the blaze custom but I am satisfied with the tone zone 7.

 

[Emperoff]

Here I go again, this time with a review of the Blaze Pickups (Installed in a Basswood Baritone Agile Interceptor)

Dimarzio Blaze (neck):

If I have to name something that has impressed me about this pickup, it's his clarity and definition. It's very good for fast legato runs, and has some Vai kinda sound playing leads, omeway agressive. For rythm, it can't find something special on it. I prefer the Air Norton for that.
Playing clean, it has a better sound than the Air Norton IMO, more bright, but that can simply be my preferences. Anyway, when tapped sounds too bright for my tastes. It's a nice pickup, but is overall below the Air Norton.

Dimarzio Blaze (bridge):

Well, I must say that the Blaze semt to be the pickup that I was looking for for a long time, but, now that I got it, It's not that great at all.
Let me explain, the Blaze bridge is an AWESOME rythm pickup. It's tight, it's defined, and has punch and growl with total clarity. But for leads, I really missed that mids, you can crank them up with your amp, but It's not the same. I'm not saying that it sounds bad, it has a ver nice fluid tone and som serious scream on it, but compared to my tonezone installed on an alder guitar with no tone knob, I must say that the tonezone literally DESTROYS the Blaze for playing leads, it's just amazing. The tonezone is an amazing pickup if installed in a correct wood. But the Blaze is an all-around bitch than sounds much better for rythms that any other Dimarzio I've tried. I don't have much to say about it playing clean, just too treebly for liking the sound, but overall, a damn great pickup.

 

[Roland777]

Here I go again, this time with a review of the Blaze Pickups (Installed in a Basswood Baritone Agile Interceptor)

Dimarzio Blaze (neck):

If I have to name something that has impressed me about this pickup, it's his clarity and definition. It's very good for fast legato runs, and has some Vai kinda sound playing leads, omeway agressive. For rythm, it can't find something special on it. I prefer the Air Norton for that.
Playing clean, it has a better sound than the Air Norton IMO, more bright, but that can simply be my preferences. Anyway, when tapped sounds too bright for my tastes. It's a nice pickup, but is overall below the Air Norton.

Dimarzio Blaze (bridge):

Well, I must say that the Blaze semt to be the pickup that I was looking for for a long time, but, now that I got it, It's not that great at all.
Let me explain, the Blaze bridge is an AWESOME rythm pickup. It's tight, it's defined, and has punch and growl with total clarity. But for leads, I really missed that mids, you can crank them up with your amp, but It's not the same. I'm not saying that it sounds bad, it has a ver nice fluid tone and som serious scream on it, but compared to my tonezone installed on an alder guitar with no tone knob, I must say that the tonezone literally DESTROYS the Blaze for playing leads, it's just amazing. The tonezone is an amazing pickup if installed in a correct wood. But the Blaze is an all-around bitch than sounds much better for rythms that any other Dimarzio I've tried. I don't have much to say about it playing clean, just too treebly for liking the sound, but overall, a damn great pickup.

You ought to test the Blaze Custom, if you haven´t already. The mids on that pickup is what makes it slay.

 

[bostjan]

Swineshead Pickups:

In general:
I got GITD bobbins, and I'm somewhat disappointed with the dim glow. They definately glow, but the light output is only about 20% of what my GITD knobs are doing.
The backplates are huge. Very thick, rectangular, with plenty of unnecessary material. I had to chop the corners off in order to fit the pickup in the cavity, and it's a pretty large cavity. I would have had to have done even more chopping if they were going in my rg7620. The instructions they came with were short and sweet.

CL7N-
I ended up slanting this pickup by accident so that the bass side is slightly closer to the neck than the treble side.
This pickup packs quite a punch for being advertised as a medium-output pickup. It sings very well with plenty of bass and mids. Wired in parallel, it really doesn't seem to lose much output, and gets a very nice nasal tone to it. In series, it sings with a great deal of clarity, it reminds me of the AN7N, only with a tiny bit more bass.

HT7B
This pickup seems to lack the balls I had hoped for. Not quite bright enough for my tastes in bridge pups. The tone is clear and focused, but rather punchy in the mid. This isn't a bad thing, it's just not what I expected. I'd compare it to a TZ7B with some of the mid shifted to lower mid. It cleans up wonderfully.

Overall: You know, for the money, I would think you could do better. I'm very happy with the CL7N and I'm moderately satisfied with the HT7B, but I think my tastes are more in tune with the clarity and power of EMG's, or at least the diversity of the Dimarzio AN7/EVO7. My draw to these pups was purely cosmetic, and I'm not even blown away with that.

IMO- These are good aftermarket pickups at a premium price.

Overall: + 1/2
Price: £125 pr.
Looks: 3/5
Tone: CL7N=5/5, HT7B=3/5
Service: 5/5
Convenience: 2/5

 

[JoryGriffin]

Dimarzio Evo7 Bridge
Korina Epiphone V 7

Due to the fact i was fitting this is korina, not a very popular wood it was sort of a guess, a good one though.

The Evo7 is a great bridge pickup, palm mutes are awesome and is incredibly tight at my rate of distortion (Think Train of Thought - Dream Theater). The lead tone i find is okay but quite harsh, all depends on what you're playing. I normally switch to neck position for a much smoother sound. Overall when distorted it is well balanced

The Clean sound i find is quite clumsy, not much warmth (on it's own that is)
When paired with the neck pick up on the middle setting it sounds alot richer.

I have a Dimarzio Drop Sonic in my Ibby six string which is set ALOT lower, my evo7 is set much closer to the strings but the volume drop between the neck and bridge positions is none existent.

Overall I would say this pickup is fantastic, it sounds alot tighter than my DropSonic6 and with alot less string noise aswell. I know not many people are going to have Korina guitars... but im sure it will sound just as awesome as it does in my V