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8K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  nosdrahcir 
#1 ·
Hey, I just had a few questions. I have a 7621 with two EMG 707's installed, one in the neck and one in the bridge. I think that the bridge pickup sounds absolutely amazing with distortion, it's the most clear, defined, non-muddy, edgy, heavy tone you can get out there (unless someone can convince me of a passive that can otherwise do this, all of the one's I've tried don't do it for me distortion wise :wink: ), but the neck on clean doesn't sound good at all! I mainly use my bridge pickup for rhythm playing and my neck pickup for clean or to fatten up solo's, and it wasn't until I plugged in my old stock 7620 and played with it's neck 'bucker on clean that I realized that the EMG sounded severly harsh, dry, sterile, and ear piercing compared to the passive on my 7620 (it shouldn't really be a suprise to me, the 707 is basically a 7 string 81, and most people don't play an 81 in the neck for clean, they use an 85/60 for the neck. I don't see many people with a 707 anywhere but the bridge anyways, and the one's that do have it in more places than just the bridge don't play clean that much anyways. Now if they could only make a 7 string version of the 85/60/89...). I'd like to have a full, open, nice, warm, clean, sweet, shimmering, bright (pleasing, defined, clarity bright, not painful bright like the EMG, and NO MUDDINESS), and I was thinking about taking the EMG out of the neck and putting in either a Seymour Duncan '59 7 or Jazz 7, or a DiMarzio Blaze neck or PAF 7 (this way I could also coil tap the neck for those single coil tones I sometimes crave, although this would leave gaps in the sides from the EMG routing. Shoot, that means I may have to get a body and/or neck from Mr. Kolesar someday when I can afford it :wink: ), but can you even have both active and passive pickups on the same guitar and have them both work? And if you can, are there any downsides or compromises to it? What do you people suggest? Keep the EMG in the neck, and mess with the tone knob on my guitar or the EQ settings on my amp? Could my Marshall Valvestate running through an Ampeg 4x12 with GT-75's also be the culprit behind the horrid clean sound? If I do change the pickup in the neck, what do you suggest? One of my ideas or something else? Anybody else experience the situation I'm going through right now? Any help and opinions is very appreciated.
 
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#2 ·
the valvestate in my honest opinion isnt exactly the best clean amp in the world, but it will work. Your basically right in your assumption that the 707 is an 81, you may be able to contact emg about building you one like an 85 or 87 89 60 whatever. Your not going to be able to wire the emg with the passive on your own so just forget that. Take it to the best tech you can find and drop in a blaze 2 or air norton 7. That will be the tone your looking for
 
#11 · (Edited)
the valvestate in my honest opinion isnt exactly the best clean amp in the world, but it will work. Your basically right in your assumption that the 707 is an 81, you may be able to contact emg about building you one like an 85 or 87 89 60 whatever.
Sorry dude, 707 is based off the EMG 85. EMG have an 81-7 which is essentially a seven string version of the 81. ;)

Info on the 707 -->http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Guitar&categoryid=36

EMG have also started making a 60-7 and a few people have received both. Apparently the 81-7 slays the 707 for a bridge pickup and the 60-7 is a very sweet neck pickup.
 
#3 ·
I guess I'll just have to play a Triple Recto at the new Guitar Center opening up around here :wink: . I don't think you can contact EMG on building custom pickups for you, not unless you're a highly placed endorsee, which I'm not (yet). I do seem to remember reading somewhere that you can wire EMG's and Passive's together, it's just a problem with the volume pots (since emg's use 25k and passive's use 250k or something like that) unless you have seperate volumes for each pickup, which I don't. And if you can't do passive and active together, then what do you mean drop in a blaze 2 or air norton 7? Kind of contradictory, so I'm confused: do you mean replace the emg's with those two pickups (which I really won't want to do, I value my 707 distortion tone highly, and while I do use distortion more than clean, I still want a good clean) or just replace the neck with one of the two pickups?
 
#5 ·
Basically you will have to scacrifice your tone knob or have a routing done for another pot. That way you will have to different pots running for voume of neck and bridge pickups (different impedances). The EMG will run through one, the passive through the other. What you do is wire each one up as if it were a single pickup guitar and then wire the outputs from the pots up onto the selector switch as if they were the pickup leads. The output should then run from the selector switch to the jack.

What you could also think about doing is combining a passive pickup with an EMG preamp to get everything back onto the same impedances (ie, run the passive through the preamp, then look at the whole as an entire pickup).

Have a look at their website, but it is possible :)
 
#6 ·
7 Dying Trees said:
What you could also think about doing is combining a passive pickup with an EMG preamp to get everything back onto the same impedances (ie, run the passive through the preamp, then look at the whole as an entire pickup).
Yeah, i seem to remember Rusty Cooley selling a guitar here a few months back that had been wired in that manner... You could try to drop him a line about it.

-Drew
 
#7 ·
OK, so it seems I only have a few choices. A. Leave both the EMG's in and try to coax a good clean sound through much knob tweaking (I REALLY need to try an amp beside my sh*tty valvestate, like an all tube amp (cough boogie cough), the distortion on my amp sounds like static and the clean is harsh, I'm HOPING tubes would round and smooth things out...), B. Put in a passive in the neck, and remove the tone pot for two volume pots (risky, you never know when you need that tone knob...) or C. Put in a passive and route the body for two volume pots (but again, would require body routing, and while I'd perfer two volumes over one anyways, still...). Damn, these options SUCK. What do you people PERSONALLY suggest? Try another amp and see if that's the problem? Try to coax a good clean tone through knob tweaking? Put a passive in (and if so, which pickup would you recomend for what I'm looking for)?
 
#8 ·
Yeah, first try a new amp- tubes will warm your sound up a LOT.

then, re-read 7 dying trees and my suggestion about the preamp- you don't need a second volume for that, it's all internal. might take a little bit of internal routing work, but it won't show from the outside, so it's fairly non-invasive...

-Drew
 
#9 ·
OK guy's, I have made a decision. I'm almost for sure I'm going to take out the 707 from the neck and put in a passive (and while I'm at it probably get two volume knobs and two tone knobs and a push-pull switch to tap the neck, so that fixes the problem of whether you can do it or not :wink: ). I did try out some tube amps, and while that helped the sound, I've just figured out now EMG's are made for distortion, not clean. But now, I don't know which passive PU to choose (before I go any further, I was at EMG's site and checked out their 707 endorsee: Rusty Cooley. As a big plug for him, three words: OH MY GOD! It's like DT on steroids (almost, hehe)). What I'm looking for from a neck PU is a nice, warm, defined, open, full, smooth, bright, clean tone (not muddy) and a good fat, full, smoother, but still edgy soloing sound (and again, not muddy). I was considering the DiMarzio Blaze Neck Model or Air Norton 7 as was suggested earlier, but I was also considering the Seymour Duncan Jazz 7. What do you guys think/suggest? This also aroused my curiosity about passive bridge pickups, which incase I would consider a DiMarzio Blaze Bridge or a Seymour Duncan JB 7 or Distortion 7 (key word curiosity, as I have now found out, EMG's are made for and sound good with distortion (not clean!), doubtful I'll sacrifice that from my bridge :wink: ) Thanks for everything guys.
 
#10 · (Edited)
uhh i am not sure where you are coming from when you say you dont like the 707s. BUt you could install a flat out regular pasive single coil or humbucker, you wouldnt get sound on 1 string tho, like i would suggest a strat style single on regular strings and switch/use the 707 when you want to use all 7 strings, but that is kindof pointless. or u could make your own passive outa 2 reg pickups, or u could do what basses do: overlap. like:
(empty)------ Pickup
(empty))------ Pickup
so u can get all 7 strings.
but im not a fan nor an expert of 7 strings, just trying to help as much as possible.
 
#17 ·
or u could do what basses do: overlap. like:
(empty)------ Pickup
(empty))------ Pickup
so u can get all 7 strings.
but im not a fan nor an expert of 7 strings, just trying to help as much as possible.
Doesn't work, as someone who IS both a fan and expert on seven strings - you get a weird volume boost and potential phasing issues where the pickups overlap, and weaker output where they do not. The bass pickups you're thinking of are basically single pickups, but split - they're designed to work this way. Guitar pickups are not.

I've talked to guys who've tried this, and all have concluded it's not an option.
 
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