Bass pickups in 7 string and 7 string single coil demo

[juiceofvenus]

Hi, i have a 7 string all mahogany neck through Carvin guitar, and i don't really like the PU's on it.

On the other hand, Carvin pickups are a bit narrower than say "normal" pickups, so i can't fit a direct replacement pickup without cutting the guitar.

I don't want to cut the guitar, so i came up with 2 options:

1. Use a J style bass pickup, like Ultra Jazz from Dimarzio or Hot Stack Jazz from Duncan.

But how will they sound? the output is 200-250 mv and 12-14 dc resistance

2. Use a single coil 7 string ( Blaze or Evolution exist in single coil 7 as far as i know ) again, how will it sound?

Here i want to ask any of you if u have one installed ( single coil 7 string pickup ) and could make a mini demo (clean&distortion) mp3 format no more than 1.5 mb big and send it to studiovoices@yahoo.com

Thank you

[UVmanMike]

I think the bass pickup in a 7 string idea is very interesting....IMO I don't think it would sound good, maybe OK in the neck position but that's even pushing it.

[juiceofvenus]

I did this little experiment:

I have a Yamaha BBG5S 5 string bass with active pickups.

I plugged it in, put in on the couch and then struck a string or more strings on the Carvin and put it against the Yamaha like the two intruments were having sex missionary position.

I was very surprised to hear a very clear full sound.

I was expecting it to sound good, but not that good ( both clean and disorted ), so as long as a pickup is a pickup it will amplify and it's got extra frequency range because it's a bass pickup.

It could've sounded that good because there are active pickups in my Yamaha bass; but the Carvin also has the active system ( that is an active/passive sistem that carvin uses in their guitar and works with any passive pickup ) and that might compensate if the passive J style's should have too weak output.

Has any1 tryed this?

[UVmanMike]

That's exactly what I was thinking about last night- an active EMG Jazz Bass set on my RG7620 (routed for 707's). I think they would still be relatively low-output pickups for a guitar, but they may sound great. Honestly if I had the money I might check it out, but I'm sure it's been done. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for a response to this one....

[juiceofvenus]

Theoretically it should work just fine, it would even have a wider frequency range, if there will be any problems they will probably be in the higher registers. I'd like to try it too, but i live in Romania and there are no dealers here and everything costs more than it should especially equipment wise, the easiest way to get a pick-up is to ask some1 to bring one from Germany and that too will be like 100 euros.

But since you're in the USA u might find one on Ebay i saw an old Dimarzio J pikcup for 7 dollars last night