So, I've been playing a UV with a Blaze II in the bridge and a 7620 with a Tone Zone in the bridge for a month or so now, and here's what I've decided:

-I still vastly prefer the Blaze to the Tone Zone, and if I had to play only one of them, the Blaze'd be it. However, while I'd grown fairly sick of the Tone Zone prior to grabbing this UV, I've developed a new fondness for it of late - I don't like it as much as the Blaze, but I think it compliments the Blaze well. They're two very different sounding pickups, but that's a good thing.

-I currently own three guitars, a strat (three pickguard-mounted single coils), a 7620 (two direct mounted humbuckers), and a UV (H-S-H on a pickguard). Of the three, the Strat and the UV sound closest when played unplugged - louder and more resonant with vibrant bass but a slightly "quacky" high end, while the 7620 is brighter but weaker in the bass and quieter. This carries over on the clean channel, where the bridge pickup of my 7620 actually sounds brighter than the (substantially brighter by nature) Blaze II in my UV. My experience with guitars is still fairly limited, of course, but for the sake of discussion let's say that this trait is typical to pickguard-mounted and direct-mounted guitars in general.

In light of that, and in light of the fact that it's comparatively weak bass, overpronounced mids, and slightly stingy highs was what I disliked about it in the first place, I'm guessing the Tone Zone would really come into it's own on a pickguard-mounted basswood guitar, where its highs would smooth out and bass would fill out nicely, giving you a controlled, chunky, singing bridge pickup with ample output and plenty of warmth. It wouldn't have a lot of acoustic snap or ring to it, but that's sorta the point.

Am I out on a limb here, or has anyone else noticed this about these pickups? This could make for an interesting discussion.

Also, does anyone know of a 7-string pickup with similar highs but more bass than a tone zone?

-D

I've got 3 guitars with a ToneZone in the bridge position, and all three sound pretty different. (I'm strictly talking about high gain sounds here.) RG8670, RG3120, and Jackson RR1. Probably the 3120 has the sound I like best of the three, then the 8670, and last the Jackson. The Jackson's bridge pickup sounds too much like a neck pickup, seems to lack the high end crackle, and have that.... neck-pickupy-sound. Don't know how else to explain it. I find myself wanting to turn the tone knob beyond max treble.

Not sure how to characterize the difference in sound between the 8670 and the 3120, they're closer to each other than to the Jackson (makes sense, both mahogany bodies with maple tops.) The 3120 is a bit more distinct and articulate, and the 8670 is a bit muddier. I get the feeling I might be able to duplicate the 3120 sound on the 8670 by turning down the volume pot a bit, though I haven't really tried A/B-ing them side by side.

Not familiar with the 8670, but the 3120's direct mount, while the RR's pickguard-mounted, correct?

-D

Drew, if the strat and UV sound similar to eachother and the RG quieter than those two, when unplugged, and this trait is carried over into the plugged in sounds, would this not indicate that the pickup mounting is irrelevant, and that it is the combination of woods, etc that gives them their different sounds? It seems a bit strange to be saying that the pickup mounting type is causing the differences, when that difference is there with them unplugged - surely different pickups and mounting type is not going to make a difference to the acoustic sound and volume of the guitars? Just some thoughts
And the tonezone is very bass heavy - I have one in the bridge of my ash UV, and although ash tends to be very bright, the guitar still has a much bassier tone than my blaze/basswood UV - I'm actually just about to replace the body on my other UV with mahogany to try to add a bit more bass to the sound (blaze/mahog instead of blaze/basswood). At the moment I love the tonezone/ash combo - the blazes sound much thinner. (I also think that each individual guitar/player/amp combo is different, I've heard other people sound very different to me when playing through my gear, Anyway, I'm rambling ).
cheers for now,
Rich

Actually, I'd find the reverse to be true - if both the strat and UV have pickguard-mounted pickups and sound similar unplugged while the RG has direct mounted pickups and is easily the brightest but least resonant of the three, and if the Strat is alder and both the UV and RG are basswood, then my guess is that the pickguard has more of an effect on the unplugged tone than the bodywood does, as two guitars with different body woods and pickguards sound more alike than two guitars with the same body wood, one with a pickguard and one without.

If you think about it, a pickguard-equipped guitar is really sort of a semi-hollow, with a carved out body and a plastic top. Sure, plastic is hardly anyone's idea od a premier tonewood, but it would certainly explain the increase in "openness" of the sound.

And that's what I was afrad of - I've personally never found the TZ to be terribly bassy, but everyone tells me it is... Ah well.

-D

PS- just want to take another opportunity to tell you that your ash UV is HOT, man. And that's sorta what I'd expect, the TZ to be bassier in a pickguard-equipped guitar. As to how it stacks up to the Blaze when pickguard mounted, honestly I've got no experience to compare it to... What I really need to do here is get that alder body made up for my 7620 I've been meaning to do, and go with a pickguard. (Although, the traditional "strat" tone is more of a product of ash, isn't it? I love how my alder american standard strat sounds, personally, but my dad's ash sunburst japanese strat sounds more like a SRV or Jimi sort of traditional strat tone, bell-like attack and whatnot...)

Well, you could well be right (I've always thought that the wood had more effect than pickup mounting, but maybe not....). I see what you're saying about a guitar with a pickguard being almost semi-hollow, but don't forget that a non-pickguard guitar still has pretty much the same amount of wood routed from it, just from the back rather than the front. What we need is for someone to have a guitar with a pickguard, and then mod it by direct mounting the pickups and removing most of the pickguard (like EVH's original superstrat), and see what difference it makes I've never been able to get my head around different sounds from different guitars anyway - no matter how much you try to analyse it, there always seems to be guitars that are exceptions - haven't I heard things about your white UV being a monster in the tone dept? I was expecting my ash UV to be bright, even with the tonezone, but it is actually quite dark, although not toooo bassy, still lots of tasty mids. Anyway, cathya later,
Rich
PS When I've changed my basswood UV to mahogany I'll let you know what it sounds like.

Well, yeah, there is that, lol - Gresh swears this thing's a genetic freak, and I'm not sure he's not right.

I figure, the only way I can find out for sure is to buy a few more of 'em and see if it really IS an unusually good sounding UV. Ah, the high cost of scientific inquiry...

-D

IF you like the 7 string BLAZE get a STEVE'S SPECIAL
these two sound very alike
here this is from the DIMARZIO site,

"The Blaze™ Bridge Model bears a strong resemblance to the Steve's Special™. The mids are scooped out, and both treble and bass are boosted. The hot bass response gives the seventh string a lot of impact, while opening up the midrange keeps it from getting muddy. This enables the Blaze™ Bridge Model to handle both fast soloing and clean chords, because individual notes won't smear together with heavy overdrive, and clean sounds have an almost "hi-fi" quality."
l

Why the heck would I do that, man? I play 7's almost exclusively.

And the SS basically IS a Blaze - Petrucci loved how the slightly scooped midrange of the Blaze worked with his Mesa rack, so he had Dimarzio wind him a custom 6-string version, which they later marketed.

If you want more bass than a Tone Zone, you should try a mahogany body or a maple body/top guitar. Tone Zones are pretty low heavy.

I disagree completely - my Universe has WAY more bass than my CST, even unplugged. The Tone Zone, and mahogany, for that matter, has a LOT of lower mids, but little true "bass."

Trust me, sometime when I'm back in the bershires you can sit down with my rig and give it a shot - it's like night and day, moving from the UV to the CST. I love how they both sound, but they're VERY different.

Do you use a bass amp or something where the bass frequency is ultra low? :P

You could try like a Duncan Distortion?

Nope, just a Mesa.

SD doesn't, to the best of my knowledge, make a 7-string Duncan Distortion. Anyway, though, I rather like the Blaze I have now.

Oh yes they do!

http://www.**********universe.com/br...eymour_Duncan/

(This is a store link, but only to show people it exists)

*Type in the word instrument