# Seymour Duncan Nazgul/Sentient review



## MetalGuitarGuy (Aug 12, 2014)

Hi there folks  Just got these bad boys in the mail, bought them of a friend of mine  They look absolutely menacing and they will replace the EMG's in my Schecter Hellraiser C-7. Will put on a little review as soon as they are dropped in and got some play time with them


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## MetalGuitarGuy (Aug 20, 2014)

Finally, here comes the review 

For starters are some crappy phone pics ( sorry about the lighting, it doesn´t do the finish justice  ) 






Anyway, decided to swap out the EMG 707 tw´s because they weren´t cutting it for me. They sounded good but there was something missing from my tone and I didn´t had much of a clue. Until I dropped in these monsters 

This and my other Epi LP only had actives before. But the Blackouts in the LP have more of everything vs EMG. So I´ve never REALLY played with passives before and excpected nothing from these. Had read upon them through forums and listened to sound clips, they sounded awesome , and finally got a chance last week to buy them second hand  

Got the guitar back from the tech yesterday and had some fun dialing in a mean rythm tone for the Nazgul and a clean and lead tone for the Sentient and boy, do these pickups rip!!! They have a clarity and punch that I never seemed to get close to with the EMG´s. The dynamics and the openiness of these passives are a whole new thing for me and I was really suprised by the sounds I could get from both the NG and ST  

So for the details: 

Name:Hellraiser C-7
Body Material:Mahogany
Neck Material:Mahogany 3-pc
Fretboard Material:Rosewood
Scale:26.5 (673mm)
Nut:Graph Tech XL Black Tusq
Pickups:SD Nazgul and Sentient with active sopbar covers
Controls:Volume 500k/Volume 500k/Tone 250k, Push-Pull/3-Way Switch
Bridge:TonePros 7-String TOM w/ String Thru Body

Chain signal:

Hellraiser C-7 - Line 6 Spider Valve MKII HD100 - controlled by a Line 6 FBV Shortboard MKII
Clean: Twang Amber with slight pitch shift, chorus, tape echo and vint plate
Rythm and Lead: Insane Amber, dry

Bridge pickup:

This is my first encounter with the Nazgul and the spontanious reaction i got from the first hours of playing it was; holy s**t it´s tight!! Perfect for At The Gates, Meshuggah, Feared-stuff!!  The articulation and clarity of it, despite it`s high output, really opens up the sound of the low notes but the bottom end still remains bold and in-your-face so when you crank the amp and strum a chord, it really hits you in the chest  The midrange of this pickup is unlike anything I´ve ever heard before  I was worried from the start that the huge midrange would sound a bit honky ( think GnR Appetite For Destruction-esque midrange, so nasal and honky it´s almost unbearable, just my humble opinion ) but it didn´t. It´s really thick and meaty, with an upper midrange peak to give definition to the low notes so djent stuff is no problem with the Nazgul  Cleans are surprisingly good for a ceramic but i still rather stick to the neck pickup for cleans. The string seperation is incredible, you can really hear every single note you play when you strum huge chords with good amounts of gain. Overall an incredible pickup that suits metal extremely well but with a little tweaking can sound quite decent for softer styles like rock, blues etc.

Neck pickup:
The Sentient, as with the Nazgul, has an incredible clarity and articulation that let´s you hear every sinlge note you pick when doing fast runs. Great attack that doesn´t sound harsh but also meaty and fat. As for cleans, the string seperation is out of this world  threw a s**tload of the built-in Line 6-effects on it for really Periphery-style cleans and I could still hear all the notes I played  With the coil-split it really gave sparkling clean tones a name for itself and with some tweaking with the tone control, jazz cleans are dead easy  Surprised that it sounds so clean for quite a hot neck pickup ( 9.2 k DC ) 

Overall, these pickups has put me through a revelation  Never thought passives could deliver such great tones and from now on, these pickups will always sit in the back of my head when it´s time for another NPD


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## Alex Kenivel (Aug 20, 2014)

Great review!


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## Randy D (Aug 20, 2014)

First of all welcome to the realm of bad ass passives!!!!!
Great review I have the prototypes of both of these in 8 string form and they do rip. I would also advise you give dimarzio dactivator and ionizer a chance if you feel these passives are cutting it for you. I think you will be impressed. I am not partial to any brand as i mainly use Dactivators but have some Duncans and Bare knuckles. I could never go back to the head aches of actives with the sweet shreddy sounds and crystal cleans i get from quality passive pups. It is a no brainer, no batteries no extra wires and a more organic sound. Thanks again for a thoughtful analytical review.



Cheers 

-Randy D


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## feraledge (Aug 20, 2014)

Thanks for this. I was an EMG die hard for years, but just realized that passives, while being far more particular about PUPs to tone woods, can just sound incredible. 
This review is particular useful for those of us coming off the EMG train since SD has some awesome PUPs and OPTIONS. 
I've been between a black winter set or Nazgul or Pegasus with Sentient neck combo for my DK1. I think I'm going Nazgul/Pegasus. 
So thank you!


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## MetalGuitarGuy (Aug 21, 2014)

Thanks all of you  Bare in mind also that the Hellraiser tonewise is very dark so the amount of treble, and the ceramic magnet of the Nazgul, gives a much more articulate and bold bottom end as opposed to fat and boomy. Don't have any experience of it in other guitars but I think it will sound awesome in slightly brighter guitars as well


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## dorablrums (Aug 21, 2014)

yes,The dynamics and the openiness of these passives are a whole new thing for me and I was really suprised by the sounds I could get from both the NG and ST


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## MetalGuitarGuy (Aug 23, 2014)

Oh, a few details I left out;

Cab:Line 6 Spider 4x12 angled with Celestion V30's
Tuning:Standard, with a low B, 10-56 D-Tuned Gallistrings 
Pickunlop Tortex Jazz III 1.0 mm


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