[afireinside]

Ok background, been playing old Ibanez 6's (rg550-rg770's) for 13 years on and off.

Bought a RG7420 on a whim and loved it stock non-dimarzio pups and all, had a killer FM neck. Sounded sooooo good but of course reading more and beliving the japan made lo-trs7 was crap I found a hella cheap dead mint RG7620 with UV case for $400.00 shipped from a shop. I wanted the dimarzios and the lo-pro7. I sold my 7420 before my 7620 came in. Initially I hated the way the 7620 sounded, mud mud mud..... Couldent belive it, no way even a low end dimarzio sounded like crap compared to a stock ibby pup. Then I threw a air norton in the nex and a x2n in the bridge. Still muddy on the low B most of the time, no where near as pronounced as the 7420.

Now my setup is real basic (has been for awhile, the way I like it) It is a Vox 30 watt clean with all effects off, cheapo cable's (will replace here soon) and for effects I just use a OLLLLLD ZOOM 505-II I know they are pretty low quality.

Is the effect processor where I am breaking my signal? Is it able to properly get the low B to carry through?

Can I "flip" my pups? I just installed them where the lead wires go through the body holes with the shortest distance.

Should I get a POD for effects? Any recomendations?

[Desecrated]

go for a pod or v-amp, digitech or boss.

[TripleFan]

I know it´s silly but have you checked the 7620´s tone knob?
I remember 7DT complained about his 2027 sounding muddy litteraly for years and was about to build a replacement body only to find out by coincidence the tone knob was wired the wrong way...

[7 Dying Trees]

yeah, i was really dissapointed for ages, then discovered the tone was wired the wrong way. Simple experiment, turn the tone knob the opposite way you'd expect (ie, to make it darker), and if that makes it brighter, then someone's done a bad wiring job.

But, a few questions:

1) How much bass have you eq'd in? Too much bass will just make the low B sound bad, you are looking for mids and low mids, really wind that bass down to keep it punchy

2) How much gain? I'd advise less, just because lower notes get less defined when you whack loads of gain on

3) How big is the speaker in the vox? I've found 8" and 10" speakers in smaller combos really don't handle low tunings very well at all

Also, crap leads won't help, but certainly won't make the low-B muddy, but you could definately do with improving them.

As for flipping the neck pickup, general rule is that the bridge pickup you take the shortest path, on the neck side, you flip the pickup the other way round (If you want to do split coil wirings etc, otherwise if you are just running bridge/bridge+neck/neck ala gibson, well, it really doesn't matter that much), but if it's ibanez 5-way, then you want to flip that biatch! (neck)

Also don't run the x2n7 too close to the strings, back it off a fair bit, you'll lose some gain, but gain clarity and punch. The x2n is a great pickup, but is ridiculously hot, and backing it away should reduce the gain a tad (but still keep it fairly insane )