Installing EMG 81-7 in S-7420

[tritheory]

Hello,

In process of putting new pickups in my S-7420 and was looking at the EMG 81-7 and the EMG 707. Wondering what you recommend for neck and bridge and how much modification is necessary? routing?

Advice?

Will be playing heavy power metal....Nevermore, fear factory, etc with guitar...

Thanks,

Steve

[ibanezrocker61]

Originally Posted by tritheory

Hello,

In process of putting new pickups in my S-7420 and was looking at the EMG 81-7 and the EMG 707. Wondering what you recommend for neck and bridge and how much modification is necessary? routing?

Advice?

Will be playing heavy power metal....Nevermore, fear factory, etc with guitar...

Thanks,

Steve

81-7 for the bridge and 707 for the neck... for routing, (this is just how i do it btw, it works) place the pickups on top of the pickup routings (of course it wont fit) and make sure its 'centered' correctly.. u can very lightly with a pencil draw the wood that would need to come off.. it doesnt take much at all to route a 7-string for EMG 7's.

[buddroyce]

There's no right or wrong way to put the pickups. Mind when most people go with the 81/85 combo (or in your case the 81-7/707 combo) they usually have the 81 in the bridge and the 85 in the neck. I've swapped them around on a guitar(85 bridge, 81 neck) and everyone so far seems to love it backwards when I compare it to a standard 81/85 setup.

Basically what you get if you do it backwards is a bridge pickup with more Growl than Bite (ie. More bottom end) and a neck pickup that really cuts through(not as warm sounding, but definitely a lot more note definition). Try it, if it doesn't sound as good as you would like it you can always reverse them back.

(You may have to check to see if both your pickups use the Quick Connect cables. Some of the 81-7's and 707's that I've had to install previously were hard wired.)

[Chud]

I've never seen an EMG81-7 for retrofit. Only on production guitars :S