| Dimarzio PAF-7
This was purchased to go in the neck position of my Ibanez RG7421 seven string as a companion to the Blaze neck in the bridge position. I considered the Air Norton 7 (tried it in the bridge and didn't really care for it's overall tone) and another Blaze neck (would have probably worked fine, but I wanted something new) and decided on the PAF-7. I could have gone with a Duncan I suppose, but I knew more about Dimarzios and it seemed fitting to have them match in this guitar.
The Bad: Nothing I can think of. Perhaps a bit too hot a midrange in series humbucking mode for cleans, but I prefer single coils for cleans so my opinion probably doesn't mean much there.
The Good: As Dimarzio says, low output, sweet sounding pickup. It was actually quite a bit hotter than I was expecting given the description, but I suppose compared to some out there it is quite mild. It definitely has vintage tone. Open, breathy, with some nice 'squonk' in the mids. Distorted leads are smooth and buttery. Coil split it is nice, a clean, low output, but blends wonderfully with one of the coils of the Blaze neck in the bridge. A truly heavenly clean sound, to be honest.
The PAF-7 is quite a nice neck pickup, I dig it quite a bit. But I must also say that I got it more for it's clean sound than for neck pickup soloing.
The Blaze neck in the bridge and the PAF-7 in the neck were my main combination in this guitar, my basswood bodied RG7421, for quite a while. But then one day a deal of a lifetime dropped in my lap, and I got my new Schecter 007 Blackjack. So, as lovely as this RG7421 has been to me (and it has been a wonderful guitar, my main electric for about five years now) it has now been replaced and must be sold to pay for the Schecter.
Which leads me to.................. |