| Dimarzio Blaze Custom
Installed in bridge postion of Ibanez RG7321
One word to describe this pickup is middy. Not so much mids to make it muddy or mushy, but enough to make it thicker/fuller and stand out in the mix. It has a good amount of low end so it is warm and has good thump to it, and yet the high end is bright and clear and yet not the "icepick in the ear" sound, not harsh and is actually somewhat smooth. In all actuallity it's a very balanced pickup tone wise. The high output helps it work great for distortion, i actually had to lower my gain a lot and my mids as well on my amp. The mids and high output help with harmonics too. Sounds great coil split, only thing is that it doesn't sound that great clean; too high of output and too much mids for my taste clean wise. Distorts the clean channel fairly easily. To me it's kinda like a middle-ground pickup between the tone zone and evo, warmer and less harsh/smoother than an evo, and yet tighter and brighter/edgier than a tone zone. If you're into the scooped metal pickup sound this pickup isn't for you (although having this pickup and scooping the mids on your amp DOES work quite well). If you're into a middier metal sound ala newer dream theater, killswitch engage, shadows fall or anything like that, this pickup would work really well. I actually e-mailed dimarzio and they said the blaze custom is basiclly the pickup that is being used in the bridge of the EBMM Petrucci guitars (or the D Sonic for the 6-strings) so for those looking for a tone similar to newer dream theater/petrucci (once he got his EBMM guitars), look no further. A great high output metal pickup I say, my personal favorite! |