hard choise: Blaze Neck in bridge vs. Blaze Bridge in bridge...

[MF_Kitten]

ok, so this is a really weird question really... but it all boils down to this: if i´m gunna tune really low on my 7 string, like lower than A low, then if you HAD to choose either the Blaze Neck, or the Blaze Bridge to put in the bridge position of the guitar, which one would it be? and also, remark that i don´t play solos much, i´m worried about the thickest strings... tuning to, as i have said before on this forum ( :P ) a low G...

the defining factors are: clarity/muddiness, low-end tightness...
i don´t want too much bass so it gets all boomy and messy... and i want it to be bright and clean...

i want people who have the Blaze bridge to tell me their feelings on the subject, and the people who put blaze neck pickups in the bridge position as well!

AND, do you think i should just sod off with those two and go for the blaze custom? remember, i´m not playing solos with this thing, think of the thickest strings! and remember i´m tuning looow :P

[RSVampire]

with tunings that low I would maybe recommend using EMG's for their far superior clarity and frequency response. They might be considered "sterile" by some but they sound great and they'll handle the lower tunings better than most passive pickups.

[MF_Kitten]

nah, i don´t want actives... i could go for the dimarzio d-activators though, but they´re not quite what i want from a 7-string... i want something really clean, and while EMGs ARE clean, they´re quite loud, and i do think they sound really sterile and plastic-ish... and i need a good clean-sound...

i´m going to be using both heavy distortion and no distortion, and it has to be non-muddy and clear in both situations, all the way down to G...

anyone have suggestions other than dimarzio too maybe? like seymour duncan? although i have a hard time imagining duncans that can handle that job properly, Duncans were always too vintage-ish to me...

[buddroyce]

Blaze neck is probably what you want if you don't plan on soloing much. It just has that extra umph that the blaze bridge cleans up.

A duncan Jb-7 or distortion-7 is probably what you'd want from the Duncan camp. The Distortion 7 may be your #1 choice out of all of them.

[Demiurge]

Ever consider an Evolution-7? At one point I had a 7 with Blazes, and a 7 with an Evo and I had to say that the Evo has that little bit extra clarity (and better lead tone IMO) and handled low-G tuning very well.

[MF_Kitten]

nah, i don´t think the evos are for me, it´s so razor-ish from what i´ve heard...

i´m mostly thinking about the blaze neck, but the extra brightness of the blaze bridge would be nice... but the blaze bridge is waaay too bassy...

the blaze custom woul be awesome IF it weren´t so hot, and if it didn´t have the high end rolled of...

the ultimate combo would be a Blaze neck, with the added mids of the custom, and then the added ´´hi-fi-ish´´ brightness of the blaze bridge...

must order a custom dimarzio when i´m rich and famous one day :P

[Nordhauser]

no EMGs. use Blaze bridge for... the bridge. I recommend the Blaze custom.

[RSVampire]

Originally Posted by MF_Kitten

the ultimate combo would be a Blaze neck, with the added mids of the custom, and then the added ´´hi-fi-ish´´ brightness of the blaze bridge...

why not just do it the cheap way and buy a Blaze Custom and then use a 1Meg pot or no pots at all. That'll allow a ton more brightness through the signal to the amp.

or use a Blaze Neck and use some kind of small 5-10 band eq pedal or a tube screamer to bump the mids a bit more.

[MF_Kitten]

but do i need the mids to have a nice rhythm sound though? KoRn has used the blaze neck in the bridge position, and Meshuggah uses bright and scooped pickups, and none of them sound at all lacky in the mids...

but if i were to go with 1 meg pots on the blaze custom, where would i get 1 meg pots? i don´t think that´s a typical thing you can get anywhere...

[Hellraizer]

messhugah = Lundgren
I say get a Lundgren

[RSVampire]

yeah, maybe you should just get a Lundgren M 7

[MF_Kitten]

naw, it´s way too expencive for me, especially with the shipping... i just want something that´s gunna be nice and articulate when distorted, even when playing chords, and it needs to be as un-muddy as possible, plus it has to sound good clean as well...

ok, so what if we looked away from blazes but stayed within dimarzio? any suggestions?

[crevis]

It's better to go with low output + less distortion than high output and high distortion. High output pups need alot more distortion than low or mid output to sound decent.

[MF_Kitten]

i find it to be the other way around... high output pickups are hotter and louder, and push your amp harder, so you have to dial the distortion down quite a bit to avoid mutilating feedback and sludge-like sound...

lower output pickups tend to sound cleaner with distortion, and need more gain... good thing with this though, is that it sounds alot clearer coming in, so it´s more articulate sounding