AntonioTsai handcrafted inlaid 7 String

It's actually an amazing guitar; very solidly built (it was handbuilt), best I've tried other than the UV and K-7. It's made of solid alder, has a real flame maple top, 24 fret quarter-sawn maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, frets are perfect (no wear, crookedness, or anything else wrong), real mother of pearl and abalone inlays, has a 16 inch radius neck with scalloped neck joint, contoured heel (very comfortable neck!), Original style Floyd Rose Tremelo(which stays in tune perfectly), I've taken it apart checked everything and there are no flaws, the P/U's are OK but not great, very muddy with neck P/U, but I’m going to replace them with EMG 707’s anyways so I can get Rusty Cooley’s and Francesco Fareri’s tone. Other than the P/U's nothing is wrong with it, I only got it for $400, this guitar could have easily sold well over a $1000.
If you want to see a pic check my profile for it, because I don't know how to upload pics's...

Yeah, I agree with the fact, that a pickup can't save a crappy setup. But well, a Dimarzio or a Duncan can't save it either.

So you really need a good rig first and foremost. Then add the pickups to give you that last missing piece of tone.

And even in my opinion, EMG's work better with tube amps than SS ones.

It's all hard-ass love around here man

lol! the way you arranged the hard-ass love cracked me up.

and yeah, EMG's + tube amp = gold.

So if I continue to use my solidstate(I don't hate tubes, I just can't dish out $ for a tube stack at the moment), Dimarzio's would be the best then? Does this combo sound right (keeping in mind that I am looking for the best P/U's for shred) Dimarzio Air Norton 7 for the neck, and EVO7 for the bridge?

That'd be a good combo. Not so sure on how well it'd work for punchy sound, because I haven't used them much. Best way to know, is to go try them all out, which could be hard since most stores don't carry sevens, haha. Especially if you don't want to reroute your guitar for the EMG's.

I'm using a Carvin TS100 poweramp which is tubes with a Line 6 412 cab. The TS100 was only $500, and it's got some tubeage on it. If you're looking for an excessively over-priced rediculous tube head... yeah those will be expensive. BUT, you can always look into cheaper, more affordable, yet same sound quality power amplifiers that use tubes if you prefer that sound.

Unfortunetly, I cant try them out, cuz I'm stuck in a small town, so I usually end up reading hundreds of reviews. I guess the EMG's were a pretty bad idea, but live and learn, as for amplifiers I usually stick to Marshall, I tried out a JCM 2000 DSL 100 and I'm probably going to buy that, the only other one that came close was a Crate tube stack, it was cheaper but I didn't like the sound as much as the Marshall's.

with Marshall's, you usually end up paying a lot of money for just the fact that it says Marshall on it.

The Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100 has 4 ECC83 preamp tubes, and 4 EL34 power tubes. My Carvin TS100, has 4 12AX7 preamp tubes, 4 EL34's power tubes. In the Carvin, the EL34's, (which are the same as in the Marshall), can be replaced with 6L6, or 5881 tubes. The 6L6's are the in amps such as the Mesa 2:90. One of the people I play with has that same Marshall, and when I emulate the preamp of one on my POD, with the poweramp, it sounds exactly like his... except for the fact that it was $100 cheaper for my whole rig (poweramp, cab, effects board), than it was for just his head.


I'm just being a dick as always, trying to keep the doors open to you. I thought a head was the only way to go, until Shannon enlightened me... in which case I then bought my TS100. Shannon is god.

FWIW, Rusty recorded his debut with a solid-state Fender preamp...

yeah Drew it was called the Fender M-80 a rare find that really sounds good for shred but for chords it's too thin..that made it in Combo and one space rack version....Jason Becker used it alot too...same for marty friedman with his marshalls at the time...

But as far as EMG's you can put them into a Base ball bat and they will sound the same that's why they are A C T I V E!!!..Passive absorb the frequency's of a wooden instrument..I have been working with a Pickup manufacturer for over a year now and it takes alot to make a pickup (in my or your own desire)...i Hope to have a final product by sept 2006... I find that Active pickups work great with Gain-y distortion and with Bass Guitar...but in the tone of things they are very brittle and treble-y...I find that Passive pickups are more reponsive to playing...and Tube amps love passive pickups....

Please remember that this is the Gear Reviews forums guys.