[mnemonic]

hello, i recently bought a schecter 007 elite. pics





plays great, i love it.

but i am having some clarity issues with the low B, especially when i tune it to drop A.

my amp is a vox valvetronix ad30vt, and i run an arion tubulator overdrive pedal infront of it as a clean boost (dist. knob at 0, level at 3 o'clock) and it really tightens things up and adds alot of deffinition. i know some people might cringe at the thought of an overdrive infront of a digital amp, but it seems to work pretty well.

i really dig my tone with my six string, which is usually in either E standard, drop D, or D standard. clear, and pretty tight, but not djenty, just a nice big chug (think nevermore style tone) my six string is a dean vendetta 1.0 (mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood board) with an x2n in the bridge, and elixir nanoweb 10's.

my problem with the seven, is it sounds a bit undefined, and kinda loose, especially when i'm in drop A. i've tweaked the eq on my amp a bit, added mids and treble, cut down some of the bass, and it sounds better, but still not good enough.

the schecter is all mahogany, with the 'duncan designed' version of the SD JB in the bridge, and is set up with some d'attario XL 10-60's (the 60 feels fine in B standard, but seems a bit loose in drop A, i think that might be the source of some of the problem)


so here is my question, what do you guys think i can do about this? perhaps a thicker guage low B string, and a new, hotter more lively pickup? (was thinking either D-activator or D-sonic, some input on these pickups would be great, or reccomendations of other pickups)

i figured i'd ask for help from people who know what they're doing before i start throwing money at it.

tl;dr - help me make my seven sound tighter and more defined

thanks in advance!

[TomAwesome]

Is that Vox amp pretty much running the same technology as the Tonelab pedals? In my experience with the Tonelab pedals, it's hard to get a tight sound out of low strings on that thing. If your amp is different and you have other 7-strings that sound fine, then nevermind.

The JB should be plenty clear and defined. Maybe it's the mahogany? Old strings? Switching over to DR strings might help a little bit, though you should be able to do well enough with the D'Addarios.

[nyck]

It's that darn duncan designed pickup mostly, along with your amp.

[D-EJ915]

I have the same pickup, it sounds fine in B but gets loose once you get to A, swap it out for something else and it should be fine.

[mnemonic]

i doubt i'll get a new amp any time soon (i just bought this one about a month back, haha)

i also have a podxt live with metal shop, but i really dont like it. i used it and tweaked it for about 6 months, but still never found any tones that i was really happy with. great for recording though.

any recommendations for pickups, or opinions on the aforementioned?

[Lankles]

The Vox ADxxVT's are hilariously bassy in my experience. During practice my bass tone knob had to be set to 0. Definitely a new pup will help. X2N7, maybe Drop Sonic or something biting and clear. I love my JB as well, but it isn't very midrangey.

[Battousai]

Those Duncan Design pickups are pure shit.. nothing like real Duncans... getb etter pickups.. your tone will completely change

[TomAwesome]

Originally Posted by TomAwesome

The JB should be plenty clear and defined.

Somehow I missed that you said "Duncan Designed". Get rid of that thing

[zimbloth]

I recommend the DiMarzio Evo 7, very tight and crisp attack, loads of balls and crunch, great for rhythm or lead. Great match for your guitar. The X2N and DS7 won't be as clear or articulate on the low B as the Evo. Your guitar is mahogany/rosewood which have very warm, mellow chracteristics. My recommendation would be an Evo 7. Secondly would be the PAF7 which is awesome in mahogany, then perhaps the D Activator or Blaze next.

For Duncan, I don't know, I don't like Duncans in mahogany/rosewood too much. I guess the JB or Custom.

[mnemonic]

ah, so the duncan designed ones aren't even close to the real JB. haha, darn.

ok, so a new pickup should help then, cool.

now i just have to decide between the evo, x2n, d-activator, or d-sonic. i've heard the d-sonic has a really big bottom end to it (true?) so that might not be the best decision for a pickup as the guitar is all mahogany.

right now i'm kinda leaning toward the d-activator, because the specs look pretty desirable, and the x2n because i have one in my dean.

Originally Posted by Lankles

The Vox ADxxVT's are hilariously bassy in my experience. During practice my bass tone knob had to be set to 0. Definitely a new pup will help. X2N7, maybe Drop Sonic or something biting and clear. I love my JB as well, but it isn't very midrangey.

thats why i got the 30 (10" speaker). my friend has the 50 (12" speaker) and it isn't as clear and the bottom end is alot flabbier.

the overdrive pedal i'm using works well to get rid of the flabby bottom end too, for the most part