[Concerto412]

So this is a little while coming, as these guitars have been with for at least a few weeks each. Would have gotten around to it sooner if I still had a decent camera, but I broke my nikon on a hiking trip, so my grainy-as-fuck webcam will dress the game this afternoon. Apologies all around.



First up is an AX7521, found it real cheap (75$ + beater acoustic) and couldnt resist, despite the short scale these things play like butter. Not to mention it seems to be my first positive experience with ANY ibanez stock pickups. they weren't amazing by any means, but the bridge has punch without the high end getting harsh, and the neck, used with the tone+volume can get a great variety of jazzy cleans to dirty blues tones, and though its pretty bright it still gets a decent liquidy higain lead tone.
The fretwork is great, and the neck has some figuring, I was actually planning to do a large mod project on this and keep it. Then I found this :




Walking home across town from paying rent last month, I decided to stop in 'The Hock Shop' as I walked past. I wasn't expecting to find much of anything, most pawn shops around here are a guaranteed lose. At the front of their small assortment of chinese made beginner gear was an S7320, marked $399. I looked it over, it is indeed the initial Korean built model and had had both stock pups swapped for Dimarzios - Evo7 and Blaze neck. Didn't come with a case, so i bartered down to 350, and ended up getting a crummy bass gigbag thrown in for the walk home anyways.
The best thing about these guitars is the ZR, christ it's amazing. it took a little setup, and I'm pretty sure the former owner had lost a rubber bushing for the arm, but a trip to Crappy Tire fixed that and it's stable as can be now.
I'm a little surprised to really like the evo7, it really is a different beast than the sixer. after playing a 6 string Evo in an all mahogany Dean V and hating the way it seemed to squash the low end, I decided firmly against that pairing, but the evo7 seems much more at home.
After playing the Ax7521, the S just doesn't have the same playability. It may be the profile, it may be the fretwork (looks very good, but the frets feel somewhat stale - could be cheap metal. I'll see how quickly they wear)
but overall for the price I couldn't be happier. I have a thin slab of purpleheart in the workshop that, following my current project (walnut-bodied7+kahler), might find it's way onto a new neck for the S.
So there are my latest developments, look for the AX in the classifieds later today, along with a 6 string surprise, that I can't believe I've decided to sell.

*edit* holy fuck they came out even worse than I imagined... and bigger. 56Kers might be bogged down right now waiting to load these horrible shots...

[Sepultorture]

lol "Crappy Tire" truly a Canadian moment lol

[D-EJ915]

lol congrats, I didn't really dig the neck when I played it either but it seemed like a nice guitar

[Sebastian]

Congrats

[guitarplayerone]

Originally Posted by Concerto412

I'm pretty sure the former owner had lost a rubber bushing for the arm, but a trip to Crappy Tire fixed that and it's stable as can be now.

whoa, whoa. did I hear 'rubber bushing'? Can I throw one of those onto an Edge trem?

[Concerto412]

It's just a small rubber ringseal that i threw in under the screw-on collet for the arm. Im not if ZRs come with them or not, but it was pretty loose no matter how I adjusted it, before the ringseal that is. now, with the screwed down tightly, it compresses the rubber ring enough to bind against the trem arm, giving it a stiffer feel. If what I received was a complete, stock ZR then I would be very surprised by the number of raving reviews it gets - despite how awesome it is, no trem can be far above suck with a wonky, floppy arm.
as for the Edge, I dont know for sure but I think those have a straight pop-in arm, so this particular idea wouldn't work, you need the collet. But I also thought their arm had a depression/recess below the elbow to hold a plastic/rubber ring, and shipped with different sizes to accommodate different tension preferences? If i'm way off base, please Edge owners, chime in and correct me.

[ibznorange]

doesnt work on an edge trem, no.

Nice finds dude!
i lurv me some S7s

[LordGrendel]

The only seven string I own is the AX7521 and your description is pretty much spot on. I bought mine in Japan in 2000 because it was the only seven string that wasn't over a grand, it was $500 brand new actually...Those pickups, the V7-71 and V8-71 aren't that bad at all, better than the AH7's in the lower end AX7 model. I have really only heard bad things about the S7320, especially the neck but I think you definitely lucked out with the DiMarzio pickup config, congratulations on some great deals!!!

[7 Dying Trees]

Nice! So bonus all round then?

[Coobanez]

Nice man! I wish I got my 7320 for a price like that I still only have the stock POS pups in mine. Congrats though!