[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]

Originally Posted by 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.