My general rule of thumb for Harmony Central is that 75% of the reviewers are probably idiots.
I touched on this briefly in your other thread, but again: The Blaze single coil is a piece of crap. It's sterile, it's cold, it's inorganic, and it just doesn't have the "clang" of a good single coil. I'm running a custom-would Frank Falbo in its place these days, and it destroys it. A bit brighter, with much better attack and the same scooped lower mids, strong upper mids and bass you hear in a good Strat.
The Blaze neck is decent - if you like Vai's "Love of God"
neck pickup tone, well, this is it. Great for
alternate picking, and it sounds quite good clean, too.
The bridge, meanwhile... Well, you need an amp with a good amount of midrange for this pickup, really. Anything "modern" sounding with a scooped mids setting on the amp, and it'll sound fairly bad. However, I play a Mesa Nomad set for a Mark-IV-like lead tone, and this thing just kills in my UV through this rig. Articulate, clear, powerful, but still with plenty of midrange.
Keep in mind that this is the pickup that Petrucci liked so much he requested a sixc string version from dimarzio (which hit production as the Steve's Special), and that he's aother guy who played through an amp with rather a lot of midrange. I've always felt that the secret to great tone is contrast, and this is a fairly bright pickup without a lot of mids that absolutely kills through a dark, middy amp. However, if you use it with an already scooped amp, it just won't sound good. If that's the case, a Tone Zone of Blaze Custom might be a better option, but if you run plenty of mids anyway, this pickup is phenominal.
