[Emiliano]

EVOLUTION7
i installed my evo7 one week ago in my rg1527 i had to route slightly the pickup cavity because the evo is as tall as the cavity, so if you want to install it in your axe you have to screw it to the wood!!!!!!! and the cable underneath is very clumsy!

first of all i want to say that i play with a medium action ( not too low )
the reason i say this is:

i immediatly noticed how the sound was much more clear but it wasn't the high gain monster i was expecting i played with the pole piece for a day or two and came to this conclusion

using this pickup very near the string lead to a very powerful but trebley
sound, while if you put it a little back the sound reamain clear but balanced
i use now the polepiece to individually set the string
so i have the right amount of output and clarity for each string

the good:
clear hot output, nice in clean ( with medium space between pickup and string ) and crispy split, crunchy and very rock on distortion

the bad:
maybe in ibanez guitar is a bit unconfortable to install and set up properly, need a bit of routing, on some setting clean channel go into crunch

the verdict:
i learned how to live with this beast, since the day one i lowered my action a bit, i set the polepiece and found a very nice suond, i'm very happy
(and it was a present too! )

[simon]

DiMarzio Air Norton 7

my guitar is an rg1527 with stock PU's, 10-56 strings, running through a mid-heavy mesa/boogie setup where i either need an ultra-clean or a heavy distorted sound. weird enough i play most high-gain chord-work with the neck-pickup, which produces an extremely rough and hard to handle sound. since the stock PU's really disappointed me in comparison with the stock new7's of my RG7621/0, i started reading through these forums and finally bought an Air Norton 7.

many reviews mentioned the "slight" lack of brightness of the Air Norton. its quite an underexageration. the air norton really lacks brightness and when using both, bridge and neck-pickup during solo's then its impossible to correct it with your amp. the pickup made it impossible for me to play chords in neck positions and the lead lacked presence, clarity and punch for palm-muted solo picking. in short: i was heavily disappointed by the air norton. last week i replaced it by a blaze neck and i couldnt be more happy!

[vintagevibeguitars]

Hello.

Pete Biltoft, Vintage Vibe Guitars here.

I am very new to this forum.

Jim Soloway suggested I register & let people know I can offer custom 7 string pickups. I made the blade pickups shown in Jim's post dated 11/12/05:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/sh...highlight=blade

In addition to blade pickups I have made 7-string HB pickups and 7-string strat style single coils. I am interested in building P-90 style pickups too.

I make all the custom pickups I offer myself in my shop in California.

Reviews of my pickups are posted on harmony Central (no 7-string reviews yet):

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guit...e_Vibe_Guitars/

Reviews of my P-90 pickups are posted on All Things Guitar:

http://www.allthingsguitar.com/2005...ageVibe/P90.htm

And reviews of my SP-90 (strat-size P-90 style) pickups are posted on All Things Guitar:

http://www.allthingsguitar.com/2004...e%20Vibe/vv.htm


Pete Biltoft
Vintage Vibe Guitars

[Emperoff]

Here I go: Tonezone 7 / Air Norton 7 combo in Alder guitar with maple neck, rosewood fingerboard and 5-way switch with positions 2 & 4 with coils in parallel (no tone pot).

Dimarzio Air Norton 7

I suppose there's nothing more to add to what is already said, a sweeeet sounding pickup with great clarity, ideal for that legato stuff. The cleans aren't wonderful, but they're not bad either. In single coil mode has an "acoustic-like" sound that I love.
I'm sure this pickup will sound great in any kind of wood, really a must for any 7-stringer

Dimarzio Tonezone 7

Well, the Tonezone is a pickup with a great character, I would say; It's VERY sensitive and reacts amazingly to your picking, with a very smooth and fluid sound when shredding, but it screams like a bitch when you pick it hard or when doing pinch harmonics. And of course, it works damn well for rhythm too, with a bone-crushing bass response. I've read some reviewes saying that the TZ becomes muddy when riffing, well, do what I did (disconnect the tone pot, or get a 1k volume pot for the TZ) and you'll enjoy a very rich and full sound.
The clean sound... In serial I never use it, but when splitted it just sounds incredible, It's the clean sound that I was after for a long time.
If you have an alder seven (which is rare, I guess) put this baby on it, you won't regret!

[Digital Black]

From Jim Soloway:



I've been using DiMarzios in all my 7-strings for years. I still like them but I decided to try to push the envelope a bit with some custom boutique pickups from Lollar and Vintage Vibe. I've been just thrilled with both of these pickups and I highly recommend both. These are both available direct from the manufacturers for anyone who's interested.

The Vintage Vibes are blades that many of you have seen on the photos I've posted of our recent bubinga 7-string. They're true P90 single coils with blades instead of screws. They're incredibly clear with a great P90 growl. I don't believe there's anything similar. The fit was a little iffy. They were a bit big for the rings although if you're doing a direct mount, they did fit the route with no difficulty. In either the neck or bridge position, they do have the usual single coil hum, but in the middle position running both pickups, they are absolutel drop dead slient. Pete Biltoft ar great at custom winding and he'll do any output level that you request. They are available with black, tortoise, and MOTO fronts. The price is about $160 for the pair.

The Lollars are in my new personal Swan LN7. They are based on his Imperials, which are a high quality PAF style pickup, but they are underwound for a lower output level. That produces a bit more clarity and a tighter low end. Jason is a great pickup maker and these are simply the best 7-string humbuckers that I've ever played. They are balanced, clear, and warm. I never play with distortion, so I can't really tell you what they'd sound like with a lot of gain, but I've always felt that if a pickup can do clean tone well, it can do anything else and thes pickups do clean tone just incredibly well. Jason built these for me with tortoise front to match the binding and I'm sure that he can also do some other fronts as well as the usual black. Like Pete, he can also do a variety of output levels, but I have a feeling that these pickups would get too dark if you wound the much brighter. You'll have to check with Jason Lollar for a price on these pickups, but his standard 6-sting Imperials are $300 for a pair, so expect to pay a pretty hefty premium.

Here are links to both companies sites for anyone who's interested.

http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/

http://www.lollarguitars.com/

[emux2]

I posted the following at the carvin musuem forums. It is sort of a review of both the Tone Zone 7 and the carvin C26T bridge pickup and compares the two. This is in my carvin home built alder neck through alder body guitar with the carvin active/passive eq modual.

Here it is:
For a while now I have been contemplating a bridge pickup change on my NT7 home built guitar. I studied the C26T sound for some time because there was something I did not like but could not put my finger on. I finally figured it out. The C26T sounds alright from the E string to the low E string but when you get to the low B there seems to be some high end roll off. When I would adjust the actives to compensate it made the rest of the strings too trebly. So that is it, the C26T just doesnt balance well with the Low B.

I am not saying this is the case in all instances. Now the spec of my guitar are:

Alder neck through alder body with the active/passive module.

I ordered a dimarzio tone zone and installed it yesterday. I can not comment on how it compares to anything other than the C26T as that is all I have had on this guitar. It took a little filing of the base plate to get it in. I did not feel inclinded to reroute the guitar. I like the looks of the C26T better but the sound is more important to me.

The tone zone sounds more even accross all 7 strings to me. It has a little more midrange and pinch harmonics are easily attained. In passive mode it sounds nice and open. In active mode there is slightly more bass with the eq set flat and is slightly compressed. I can back off the bass and up the treble on the guitar and it sounds good across all 7 strings. It sounds good clean as well. It is not muddy at all in my guitar

I don't know if there is another dimarzio that sounds better. I was considering trying the blaze custom but I am satisfied with the tone zone 7.

[Emperoff]

Here I go again, this time with a review of the Blaze Pickups (Installed in a Basswood Baritone Agile Interceptor)

Dimarzio Blaze (neck):

If I have to name something that has impressed me about this pickup, it's his clarity and definition. It's very good for fast legato runs, and has some Vai kinda sound playing leads, omeway agressive. For rythm, it can't find something special on it. I prefer the Air Norton for that.
Playing clean, it has a better sound than the Air Norton IMO, more bright, but that can simply be my preferences. Anyway, when tapped sounds too bright for my tastes. It's a nice pickup, but is overall below the Air Norton.

Dimarzio Blaze (bridge):

Well, I must say that the Blaze semt to be the pickup that I was looking for for a long time, but, now that I got it, It's not that great at all.
Let me explain, the Blaze bridge is an AWESOME rythm pickup. It's tight, it's defined, and has punch and growl with total clarity. But for leads, I really missed that mids, you can crank them up with your amp, but It's not the same. I'm not saying that it sounds bad, it has a ver nice fluid tone and som serious scream on it, but compared to my tonezone installed on an alder guitar with no tone knob, I must say that the tonezone literally DESTROYS the Blaze for playing leads, it's just amazing. The tonezone is an amazing pickup if installed in a correct wood. But the Blaze is an all-around bitch than sounds much better for rythms that any other Dimarzio I've tried. I don't have much to say about it playing clean, just too treebly for liking the sound, but overall, a damn great pickup.

[Roland777]

Originally Posted by Emperoff

Here I go again, this time with a review of the Blaze Pickups (Installed in a Basswood Baritone Agile Interceptor)

Dimarzio Blaze (neck):

If I have to name something that has impressed me about this pickup, it's his clarity and definition. It's very good for fast legato runs, and has some Vai kinda sound playing leads, omeway agressive. For rythm, it can't find something special on it. I prefer the Air Norton for that.
Playing clean, it has a better sound than the Air Norton IMO, more bright, but that can simply be my preferences. Anyway, when tapped sounds too bright for my tastes. It's a nice pickup, but is overall below the Air Norton.

Dimarzio Blaze (bridge):

Well, I must say that the Blaze semt to be the pickup that I was looking for for a long time, but, now that I got it, It's not that great at all.
Let me explain, the Blaze bridge is an AWESOME rythm pickup. It's tight, it's defined, and has punch and growl with total clarity. But for leads, I really missed that mids, you can crank them up with your amp, but It's not the same. I'm not saying that it sounds bad, it has a ver nice fluid tone and som serious scream on it, but compared to my tonezone installed on an alder guitar with no tone knob, I must say that the tonezone literally DESTROYS the Blaze for playing leads, it's just amazing. The tonezone is an amazing pickup if installed in a correct wood. But the Blaze is an all-around bitch than sounds much better for rythms that any other Dimarzio I've tried. I don't have much to say about it playing clean, just too treebly for liking the sound, but overall, a damn great pickup.

You ought to test the Blaze Custom, if you haven´t already. The mids on that pickup is what makes it slay.

[bostjan]

Swineshead Pickups:

In general:
I got GITD bobbins, and I'm somewhat disappointed with the dim glow. They definately glow, but the light output is only about 20% of what my GITD knobs are doing.
The backplates are huge. Very thick, rectangular, with plenty of unnecessary material. I had to chop the corners off in order to fit the pickup in the cavity, and it's a pretty large cavity. I would have had to have done even more chopping if they were going in my rg7620. The instructions they came with were short and sweet.

CL7N-
I ended up slanting this pickup by accident so that the bass side is slightly closer to the neck than the treble side.
This pickup packs quite a punch for being advertised as a medium-output pickup. It sings very well with plenty of bass and mids. Wired in parallel, it really doesn't seem to lose much output, and gets a very nice nasal tone to it. In series, it sings with a great deal of clarity, it reminds me of the AN7N, only with a tiny bit more bass.

HT7B
This pickup seems to lack the balls I had hoped for. Not quite bright enough for my tastes in bridge pups. The tone is clear and focused, but rather punchy in the mid. This isn't a bad thing, it's just not what I expected. I'd compare it to a TZ7B with some of the mid shifted to lower mid. It cleans up wonderfully.

Overall: You know, for the money, I would think you could do better. I'm very happy with the CL7N and I'm moderately satisfied with the HT7B, but I think my tastes are more in tune with the clarity and power of EMG's, or at least the diversity of the Dimarzio AN7/EVO7. My draw to these pups was purely cosmetic, and I'm not even blown away with that.

IMO- These are good aftermarket pickups at a premium price.

Overall: + 1/2
Price: £125 pr.
Looks: 3/5
Tone: CL7N=5/5, HT7B=3/5
Service: 5/5
Convenience: 2/5

[JoryGriffin]

Dimarzio Evo7 Bridge
Korina Epiphone V 7

Due to the fact i was fitting this is korina, not a very popular wood it was sort of a guess, a good one though.

The Evo7 is a great bridge pickup, palm mutes are awesome and is incredibly tight at my rate of distortion (Think Train of Thought - Dream Theater). The lead tone i find is okay but quite harsh, all depends on what you're playing. I normally switch to neck position for a much smoother sound. Overall when distorted it is well balanced

The Clean sound i find is quite clumsy, not much warmth (on it's own that is)
When paired with the neck pick up on the middle setting it sounds alot richer.

I have a Dimarzio Drop Sonic in my Ibby six string which is set ALOT lower, my evo7 is set much closer to the strings but the volume drop between the neck and bridge positions is none existent.

Overall I would say this pickup is fantastic, it sounds alot tighter than my DropSonic6 and with alot less string noise aswell. I know not many people are going to have Korina guitars... but im sure it will sound just as awesome as it does in my V