Auferstanden
New member
Hello everyone! I have a bit of a dilemma: I recently invested in an old Dean 7-string just to challenge myself. I have a deep fondness for players like Steve Vai and John Petrucci and I decided to try out the new dimension for myself. In a matter of weeks my curiosity for the instrument turned into a bit of an obsession, and I am looking to give the instrument a bit of an update. Here's the low-down:
What I'm considering:
-Nazgul/Sentient pickup combo
-Pegasus/Sentient pickup combo
-Crunch Lab/Liquifire pickup combo (Dimarzio)
What you should probably know:
The guitar is an old Dean Avalanche 7. The body and neck are both made of basswood, and the fingerboard is rosewood. The guitar does have a Floyd Rose, but I'm not sure if 7-string pickups come in F-spacing. The guitar does seem to lack brightness, but this could just be due to the low quality of the stock pickups, which are directly mounted to the guitar. I always play in standard tuning, with the low string tuned to B. I play a Line 6 Spider IV 75W amplifier, if that matters.
What I'm looking for:
-A little more articulation in the bridge pickup.
-Although the pickups are absolute trash, they do exhibit a cool little trick that I would like my next pickups to be able to perform. When you go from the neck pickup to the bridge pickup, an increase in gain (and a little drive) can be heard without too much change in tone. I'm not sure what this is due to, but I believe it has to do with the massive difference in output levels between the two pickups. I love this aspect of the guitar.
-The neck has an excellent clean tone; it isn't super round like the SD Jazz I keep in one of my other guitars, but it has a lot of depth and fullness. I would like the next neck pickup to retain this quality.
-I'm a shredder, but I also value a lot of laid back progressive music and a little bit of jazz. I don't ever grind or get too intense with my metal; thrash and a tiny bit of death metal is as far as my musical tastes go in that direction. Also, country is a big no-no. I often have to balance both lead and rhythm parts when I play, and I want my guitars to be versatile to handle both.
So that's it. Which of those three pickup sets would work best for me? Or is there an unorthodox combination that would work best? Thank you in advance for replies!
What I'm considering:
-Nazgul/Sentient pickup combo
-Pegasus/Sentient pickup combo
-Crunch Lab/Liquifire pickup combo (Dimarzio)
What you should probably know:
The guitar is an old Dean Avalanche 7. The body and neck are both made of basswood, and the fingerboard is rosewood. The guitar does have a Floyd Rose, but I'm not sure if 7-string pickups come in F-spacing. The guitar does seem to lack brightness, but this could just be due to the low quality of the stock pickups, which are directly mounted to the guitar. I always play in standard tuning, with the low string tuned to B. I play a Line 6 Spider IV 75W amplifier, if that matters.
What I'm looking for:
-A little more articulation in the bridge pickup.
-Although the pickups are absolute trash, they do exhibit a cool little trick that I would like my next pickups to be able to perform. When you go from the neck pickup to the bridge pickup, an increase in gain (and a little drive) can be heard without too much change in tone. I'm not sure what this is due to, but I believe it has to do with the massive difference in output levels between the two pickups. I love this aspect of the guitar.
-The neck has an excellent clean tone; it isn't super round like the SD Jazz I keep in one of my other guitars, but it has a lot of depth and fullness. I would like the next neck pickup to retain this quality.
-I'm a shredder, but I also value a lot of laid back progressive music and a little bit of jazz. I don't ever grind or get too intense with my metal; thrash and a tiny bit of death metal is as far as my musical tastes go in that direction. Also, country is a big no-no. I often have to balance both lead and rhythm parts when I play, and I want my guitars to be versatile to handle both.
So that's it. Which of those three pickup sets would work best for me? Or is there an unorthodox combination that would work best? Thank you in advance for replies!
