Favored 7-string pickups and why? I need to find some..

[birdie_in_texas]

I made a trade and ended up with a new PRS SE 7-string, but the stock pickups are well, at least to my ears, ball-less and "tinny" if that makes sense, and I was hoping for you guys to chime in with what pickups you like in your 7's and why.

I have tried Blackouts in a Dinky, but they were harsh and brittle, at least to my ears in that guitar, and back in the day I had a Schecter with 707's in it, and hated the guitar so much because of that freaking "table leg" neck that I probably did not give the pickups/tone a chance before I got rid of it.

I have never tried passives in my 7-strings in the past, and am not opposed to trying any now, I just don't know where to start really..

I watched several youtube vids of "big time" 7-string guys, namely Ola, the Periphery Guys, and Tony, although I think he mostly is on 8-strings these days.

I love to try and play "everything" but I suck terribly and end up with the heavier, more progressive stuff where I can hide my awfulness behind lots of gain, I guess one reason I have always favored the ZW setup in my 6-string guitars.

Anything you guys would like to suggest?

Thanks in advance!

Birdie

 

[gforce54]

The Duncan Custom pickup may be what you're after. Definitely has lots of balls. I have a SE 7-string myself, and I was going to put that pickup into it, but then I found out how well it did jazz..... Still might end up putting a Custom in it though. I love that pickup in mahogany, It's kind of like a hotter 500T.

 

[Promit]

I'm using the Carvin Kiesel series in my Carvin they're Lundgren-esque. Very hot but great clarity and 'edge'. The REALLY popular choice is the Duncan Nazgul/Sentient set, effectively the Keith Merrow setup. These are almost universally loved. Then a slightly more prog oriented setup is the Petrucci Crunch Lab/Liquifire 7 string setup.

Between those, there's really no wrong answer. I know a guy on SSO is selling the Kiesel for crazy cheap.

In active pickups, it is all about the EMG 57/66-7 combo.

 

[birdie_in_texas]

thanks for sharing!

I have never tried any Carvin pickups, even when I had Carvin guitars, they always came with EMG's I think..I never had a "new" one..

I think I Will see what the local music store has and maybe I get lucky and they actually have some 7-string pickups..

I know they are Duncan people..

I did not like the Petrucci set in my JP6 Sterling clone guitar and ended up going with a router bit and hogging out enough wood to get EMG's in there..hahahah

 

[darkinners]

Bridge pickups, in Seymour Duncan type of budget.

You can look into
Duncan Distortion
59/Custom hybrid
D-Activator
Blackwinter


They are all very ballsy sounding pickups and very affordable.