The neck pickup is a little too bottom heavy and not enough mid, so I'm wondering if there is a way to alter the frequencies using some kind of electrical gadgetry (resistors, capacitors, etc...)

Lowering the pickup isn't an option as it's already as low as possible. *Exchanging the pickup isn't an option as they only make 7 string pickups on a per-order basis. *If I were to have a custom made pickup it still may not sound the way I'd like (plus it's expensive).

Am I stuck with eq'ing my amp?

Thanks for any help!

I'm no engineer, but I think it's possible to use caps as hi/lo pass filters.
I've got a cap wired to my both guitars' vol pot (I guess) so that when I turn the vol down the highs stay but bass is cut off. Using an Air Norton, which can get a bit muddy, I'm able to get a nice lead sound w/the vol at about 8. It cuts off a bit of bass , but there's enough vol to get a hi-gain sound.
Less "hi-tech" way might be trying to balance the bridge & neck pickups (height adjustment), and then eq'ing the amp. *

You can use low / high pass filters to shape your sound, but you do need to design them properly...

If you create a filter using just passive components (capacitors/resistors/inductors) you will be able to shape the output response of your pickup, the only tricky part is figuring out which frequencies to boost and to cut. The other thing with just using passive components is that you need to know what the frequency response curve should look like, because there really isn't much variance in components, and once the circuit is made you can't really change it easily. The other thing to remember is that adding components to your guitar will increase the amount of noise you get in your signal, but probably not too much. So you can do a couple of things:

1)get an active filter board from someone like EMG and install it on that pickup (should fit in the control cavity, runs of a battery) that should allow you to boost as well as cut frequencies and to twiddle about a bit (which is good, can't really do that with just passive components)
http://www.emginc.com/


2)use resistors/capacitors/inductors that are tunable (they normally have some kind of screw on them that will allow you to tweak the value) and build a circuit. You must however remember that a pickup is an inductor, and that that will also shape the response of your circuit. If you take this route then it might be an idea to run your guitar into some clean source thru an eq unit, so you can get an idea of which frequencies to boost/cut. Then when you've got an approximate curve you can set about designing your filter. If you want some help on this, then I am sure I can give it a pop (i supposedly did an electronic engineering degree)

Best way in my opinion is to get that active filter board, at least that way you can change and tweak it quite easily if you are not happy later down the line, but then again, you do end up wondering where your sound has gone every once in a while when the battery runs dead...

just my thoughts... Hope you find a solution to the problem!


James

Why not just buy a pickup with the specific frequency contours you like? Dimarzio's site has basic graphs depicting their models' eq characteristics, Duncan does something similar. It might be a tad easier than installing various preamp modules in your guitar. OR external eq-ing is an option, yes?
My *view.
Bamm

Got to go with Bamm here. Changing the pickups is the easiest and possibly cheapest solution. You can get a dealer to order a pickup at a discount.

If you don't want to take the easy way out, you can check out http://www.emginc.com/Accy.html or
http://www.guitarelectronics.com/electricpreamps.html.

BTW,
What pickup are you using? Is this the CST pickup?

I should have mentioned this in the original post; the guitar is an RG-2027 (solid mahogony body 7 string). *I replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan JB-7 and the neck with a Seymour Duncan '59. *The bridge pickup sounds great! *I highly recommend it in the RG-2027. *To my ears, the '59 has too much bass and not enough mid (thus the reason for this post). *It doesn't sound horrible, just not as I'd prefer. *Seymour Duncan does have an exchange policy, but, unbeknownst (sp?) to me, they make '59 model 7 string pickups only when they are ordered. *So, I'm stuck with it. *They could make me a custom pickup for more than twice the price of a new one, but then I may not like that sound either. *So I'm trying to work with what I have.

While I agree that an active circuit would probably be the best solution, there's already enough electronics stuffed in this guitar (piezo bridge). *It seems I'll need to try some experimenting.

The amp I'm using does have an eq that can be switched in or out, but having to switch it whenever I want to use the neck pickup gets old really quick.

Thanks for your help!

What about digging up a Blaze II P/up from Ebay or something? I have seen a few for sale off and on. I like the Pups that came with my 7620, a good balance of low end thump with the high end articulation needed when soloing. ( Not bad for a stock p/up)
Bamm

I just guessing here but what about trying a 1mg pot? Would that brighten up the sound?

That is true, I like the blazeII neck p/up, so you could try that... Replacing the pot will change the sound of all your pickups, as their signal path pretty much will go through it after the selector switch, and as you pointed out, you like the sound of the bridge p/u, so It's probably not a good idea...(don't know about the piezo, is that wired via the same volume pot?)...

Get a 25mF capacitor and put it in series with the pickup. It should tame it a bit. If it's not enough, put a second in series, or use a smaller value and replace the first.
I'm surprised a '59 isn't to your likeing. Did you get a NECK '59 or a bridge '59?