[Soopahmahn]

It all started out so easy. Something other than boring old black.

Little did I know...

that there might just be no turning back from this ledge.

I've done it. I've fr00ted.

I'm scared. Hold me.

Help me out guys, I am afraid I'll be trading all of my black guitars (3/3) for swirls and bengal stripes if I let this disease catch hold of me. I just think this pickup looks damn cool. Swapped out the New7 bridge pickup in my RG7620 for an Evolution 7 (thanks for all the advice, guys). I sound tested it and damn, this guitar is awake. Lots of midrange crunch and snap, and the middle series position has a bit of quacky character now.

I tried to clean up the control cavity wiring a little bit while soldering everything - Ibanez did an even worse job than Gibson laying wires in. The two sets of wires grounded to the pot were all twisted together and soldered in one big nasty jumble, so I separated them and tacked them down in pairs, which will make pickup changes easier if I decide to do the neck or swap the bridge again. Showed a few pictures of my process, as much as I could take pictures while soldering :lol:

Banjomikez even sent me stickers of two of my favorite gearmancers and a fr00t string winder. How did he know?

My Jewish friends always get scared when I circumscribe a wire like this. What gives?

Not the best job with this red wire, but it'll do, pig.

Done! Thanks for reading! :metal:

 

[Soopahmahn]

I have no experience with it, but I've hear the Evo 7 is a beast.

That was really fucking fast. :lol:

And it is. Crunch Lab my ass, this thing slays and has a very thick upper-mid/top-end.

 

[Soopahmahn]

now you just need a yellow blaze neck to match :agreed:

:fawk:

 

[Soopahmahn]

Fr00t resistance... weakening... can't... hold on... I'm slipping...

 

[Soopahmahn]

 

[Soopahmahn]

Instant No Button! Star Wars funnies FTW!

I'm succumbing to the fr00t side.

So, I was really close to ordering a yellow switch tip and yellow speed knobs from Banjomikez, but I think I'd like the guitar to look more like this (with yellow)

than this:

I was contemplating a couple of pinstripes through the axis of the body, similar to the look of a neck-thru. And I was considering a matching yellow Blaze neck, but I think the New7 sounds fine. :shrug:

As it stands it looks pretty cool with just one awesome accent.

In other news, I already drive a fr00t car so I don't know what I'm complaining about :lol::

 

[Soopahmahn]

Looks delicious.

FYI, taht isn't original Ibanez wiring. The FujiGen stuff is much neater than that, so I'm guessing someone has 'had a go' at some point in the past

I frankly would have expected as much. This guitar was abused when I got it, so even though it has the stock pups, I bet the guy had something else in and then swapped the New7's back in. And did a shit job.

I ordered this sight-unseen, used, from Guitar Center Tukwila. When pressed to carefully describe the guitar's condition, the salesman responded - I swear - "this thing is so clean I'd sell it to my brother. And I like my brother" lol.

The guitar was dirty as hell and one of the trem posts was cracked through. It had been sloppily glued together to look functional, but the second I touched it, it fell apart. Ordered 2x new from IbanezRules, cleaned it up and did a major setup operation including neck shim, now it's a great player. :metal:

 

[Soopahmahn]

Also, where in philly are you from? I remember you saying Malvern or something?

Yassir. Is my switch an upgrayd?

 

[Soopahmahn]

I think the yellow on black looks AWESOME.
...
I've tried the Evo7 and I was beyond disappointed. I loaded it in the bridge position of an Ibanez RG7620 and talk about Stratty... The cleans were stellar, however it didnt take well to the gain channel. It was very unclear, weak and muddy.

Thanks dude!

Gotta +1 Drew on this, I've only played through my Peavey Rage practice amp, but this puppy is thick, rich and definitely a bit compressed. The low Bb just grinds away with awesome sustain. The cleans are nice though! But again I wouldn't call them bell-like or too Stratty other than being bright and clear. :2cents:

 

[Soopahmahn]

There is no way you had it wired correctly if you had mud on either an Evo 6 or 7. Those pickups are straight up "icepick in the forhead" clarity with a side of "Sweet Jesu - the output." I've owned a lot of both the 6 and 7 versions, and I am a freak for clarity, especially on 7's.

Black and White get soldered together, red is your hot, green and bare go to your grounds, is usually what I go with. (Obviously you can get creative on which sides of the coils get joined, but if you stay consistant, it is usually safer.)

Yep, standard DiMarzio series wiring. Does anybody know what the "Virtual Vintage" technology is that DiMarzio uses to "round off the highs" on certain pickups? Seems one common strategy for them to copy a popular 6-string design to a 7-string model is to brighten up the sound a bunch so that the low notes are clear, but then use this Virtual Vintage design to keep the high notes from shrieking.

I'd post some clips but all I've got is a Boss Micro-BR and I don't know if that would do any sonic justice. :noway:

 

[Soopahmahn]

I never knew that there was a whole other science to installing pickups. So youre saying that if you combine the wires differently you can get different sounds out of them? o.0

Hell yes! A pickup is basically just a current generator, so depending on how you sum, split and route the outputs you can get different tones, coil combinations with your switch, etc. For example, Brian May has his (middle?) pickup wired out of phase 180 degrees, yielding his classic nasal sounding lead tone.

You can also mess with the system with different capacitors and tone pot impedances.

 

[Soopahmahn]

Actually, in Brian May's case he can change each pickup's phase status, thus why he was able to get so many different tones.

Right, so... what I said

I think he runs the neck humbucker with the middle together in series, and they're out phase. He just has the option to reverse phase on any pickup with the flick of a switch instead of it being hardwired :yesway: