I bought a used 1527 a while back and I was more than happy with it but (like others) I felt that the stock pickups were a bit uninspiring.
It would have been rude not to check out the Petrucci twins, so after much debating about bobbin colours, an order was placed with Jaden Rose and the pickups arrived at the start of this month. Time to get busy with the soldering iron...
My original plan was to go with all cream but, even as a special order, the Crunchlab 7 is only available in black/colour. Zebra it is, then. Matching knobs and switch tip from the Bay and I'm pretty happy with the results :
Ooh, accidental Heavy Metal reflection shot there.
Also took the opportunity to give the body some attention with the finishing polish and it came out all shiny and nice.
Pickup opinions? Well, I haven't seen a bad review of these yet and I'm not about to disagree. They both have excellent definition even on the low B and, even with stoopidly distorted tones, arpeggiated chords ring through clearly without descending into mush. As is usual with quality pickups, that extra knob you never bother with that says Tone on it actually does something useful, so you can really tweak your sound through a wide range without diving for the EQ on your amp or pedals.
One last thing - is it
really too much to ask for an international standard for pickup wiring colours?