[Kronpox]

So right on schedule I've had my Agile for two days and already I'm thinking of how to mod it

The idea of this guitar is that I want it to be the passive counterpart of my 607b- So I want both guitars to be sick in their own right, but one with active pickups and one with passives. The plan since before I got the guitar was to go for broke and put Lundgrens in it, purely on the Meshuggah fanboy instinct that I'd love their sound, but now I'm having second thoughts.

Putting Lundgrens in an Agile would almost double the price of the instrument, and as much as I don't want to admit it this isn't going to be my last 7- I plan on getting a KxK someday, and I could consider THAT my end-all passive guitar, done up to the tits with Lundgrens and such. And I could keep this guitar a bit on the cheap side and put Dimarzios in it.

I absolutely love the Air Norton- I have it in my NJ Warlock and it's the best neck pickup I've ever heard. Even if I got Lundgrens I'd probably swap the neck for an Air Norton. The question is about bridge pickups. I'm leaning on the Drop Sonic 7, but with no personal experience with either of these pickups I don't know how similar they are or if a DS7 can do what I want it to do. I'm looking for a fairly typical Meshuggah-type tone, djenty but with a lot of mids so big chords can ring clearly and so single string riffs have that 'gnarr gnarr gnarr' sound that everybody hates. I have an X2N in the same NJ and it sounds pretty good, but I don't think it would do well in a mahogany 7 in Ab.

Okay enough ranting. You have a mahogany guitar with a 27" maple neck in Ab and you play heavy prog metal ala Meshuggah meets Gojira meets Nile. You'd probably like Lundgrens but don't want to waste money on a guitar that wouldn't really make them sing. You like Dimarzios but haven't played DS7. You have seven seconds to make a split-decision: WHAT DO YOU DO???

[Dendroaspis]

Dave- I would still get the M7, keep the original pickups, and then just swap the M7 to your KxK when you get that in. That way, you still get to groove with it...the other pickup that sounds the closest (to me) to an M7 is the EVO7, if you don't want to spend that much. Trust me, you know I know the type of sound you're after...birds of a feather.

[zimbloth]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Air Norton 7 is very different sounding than the Air Norton 6. All DiMarzio 7-strings that were based off 6-strings use ceramic magnets and employ a noticibly different character and dynamic. For example the Tone Zone and Air Norton are some of my all-time favorite 6-string pickups, while the 7-string models are among my least favorite. It's a shame. I just felt you should know this before making a purchase.

On top of that the DS7 isn't really that great, fairly bland. For the bridge position I think you'd like the Evolution 7-string model. The Evo 7 has a much improved tone over the Evo 6, and really responds fabulously in mahgaony 7s as about 99% of users here will attest to. Your description of what you're looking for in a bridge pickup fits the Evolution 7 to a complete freaking T my man.

I'm not experienced with Lundgrens much, but I'd think it would be wise to go the Duncan/DiMarzio route first and if you're not pleased, then you can delve into the Lundgrens and Bare Knuckle Pickups of the world.

Good luck.

[Kronpox]

Allen I was thinking of doing that, especially considering the KxK is seriously a "someday" plan. I think half of my problem with pulling the trigger on M7s is that as I have no personal experience with them, every time someone says anything bad about them it makes me shake in my boots, especially with their price tag.

I've never even considered the Evo because everything I've heard about them in regards to rhythm playing is that the piles of overtones results in nothing but mush. But this was in regards to the Evo 6, not the 7... Maybe I'll investigate that further.

Bareknuckles are also interesting me. Again another pickup that I have no experience with, am hearing mixed reviews, and come with a pretty hefty price tag

I'll do some more investigating and more research. In the meantime if anyone feels like posting soundclips of various pickups they think might suit me I'm all ears!

[B36arin]

I agree with what somebody else said. Get the Lundgrens, you'll have an awesome sounding guitar, and if you get a better 7 string guitar in the future you can just take the Lundgrens out of the Agile and put them in your new guitar.

[Dendroaspis]

Dave - anytime you want to try out an M7 (or M8), let me know, and I'll bring down one of mine for you to check out on your rig. Soundclips are, at best, just an inkling of what they sound like, playing through their rig - not you playing through yours, which will most likely differ to a good degree. Like Zim always says, much of anyones tone is in their fingers and technique. 100% true.