| Let's forget about "better" or "how much better" for a minute. The main contributor here is that these Blackouts would be built by the same engineer(s) who designed them in the first place, and they break from their day to accomodate these requests. They are also the same guys who made Dino Cazares' 8-string Blackouts. So it's pretty cool when you think of it that way. The blades have to be machined by hand, and when you include the circuit board and the like, it's easily double the effort of a Custom Shop passive pickup.
That being said, would I pay that price for 8-string pickups? Probably not. I would be so excited to have an 8-string that I would spend most of my time just glad that any sound was coming out of it at all. Then, I would probably want to make my own passive pickups for it, possibly feeding an internal preamp in the electronics cavity.
Another possibility is a passive 8-string humbucker epoxied into one of those covers. But then your sonic options are different. I would probably go for an 8-string Full Shred neck and bridge set, epoxied into those covers. Also one of my favorite Custom Shop 7-stringers are the PATB's. An 8-string PATB set under those covers would probably be cool too. But with any passive, like the Lundgrens, you'd have to do a full install. The Blackouts would offer the quick swap.
The other thing to think about is, keep the EMG's around, and if you ever got tired of the 8-string game, sell the guitar with EMG's and you'd probably get a pretty penny for the Custom Shop Blackout 8's. |