DiMarzio D Activator 7 Bridge

This is actually a follow up review to the one I wrote before which was almost a year ago. Since then my opinion about this pick up has changed given the time I've put in using it.

As I said in my earlier review of this pickup, I installed it in a Schecter 007 Elite which is a mahogany/maple top body with a set mahogany neck and rosewood finger board. Has an EMG pa2 gain booster installed(a point which I'll bring up later) and it has a feel sort of like a lighter Les Paul. The neck is not as thin as an Ibanez but not as thick as an old Gibson. Plays relatively fast. Has a Hum(bridge) Sing(neck) set up.

In my earlier review I was very positive about this pickup because I was comparing it to the sound of my other guitars that have EMG's in them. I originally wanted the D Activator because it was supposed to have the power of an active pickup without the over-compressed dynamics. And at first glance this seemed to be true.

This pickup is very good at tight, chunky speed riffing and maintaining clarity at very high gain levels. If you plan on using it for really intense metal rhythms or thrashy shredding it will work fairly well. And the dynamics are not compressed like you find with active pickups which is the improvement over my EMG-equipped guitars that I was so excited about.

However, after a year of using this pickup I've noticed it has some flaws. First of all, the power in the attack is so intense that it can become harmful to some of your equipment. I have an effects unit with a meter that senses when the signal is peaking and the D-Activator almost always peaks when I play hard on the low strings, especially when I have my gain boost on. This is bad for your amp and will burn out tubes faster and could possibly damage circuitry. Some sort of limiter/compressor is necessary to solve this problem.

Also I've noticed that the D Activator doesn't have as much sustain as I need unless I have the gain cranked. I don't usually like an over saturated sound so I find myself really having to fight my guitar to get notes to sustain. This is especially true on the clean channel of my amp. I always have to grip the strings really hard which causes harmful strain to my hand. Nothing that I can adjust on my amp really helps with this problem besides cranking the gain up on my OD channel so the notes will sustain. And this causes a lot of other problems with noise and feedback despite the fact that I have a noise gate.

In conclusion, after taking a decent amount of time to use this pickup, I have to say it is not for me. It is definitely better than my EMGs but has its own drawbacks that I find unacceptable as a performance oriented musician. I have recently replaced it with a Duncan JB 7 string and my issues are solved. The JB is high output with all the sustain I've been missing, while still staying punchy and tight. The attack is rounder than the D Activator which gives it a really sweet, organic feel and there are way more overtones present. It seems much more open and a bit louder too but I don't have the problem of signal peaking anymore at all, even with the gain boost on. And the noise issues are pretty much all but gone now too. The JB has much better shielding and any feedback at high gain is completely controllable even with directly facing my amp.

It isn't that the D Activator is a bad pickup, its just not for my style of playing. It's really only good for super saturated, gain-crazy death/thrash/shred - probably better at that genre than EMG's are. But if you play clean at all or on moderate gain settings you may want to look elsewhere.

dactivator 7 humbuckers for neck and bridge. I think mpedance is about 14k. jb is higher at 16.

replacing paf7 humbuckers in my ibanez k7. the paf7s did not have enough gain nor were tight enough to get a clear chug on the low strings for heavy metaaal! they were weak and had no character in my opinion. I wanted heavy tight passives and these have met expectations.

output level is in between an emg hz and a duncan jb. not as much sustain as my jb which was surprising. the tone is vey well balanced for metal, I was worried that the high notes would be too shrill but its just right. I really like the level off bass and grit it provides especially for dropped c tuning- the best humbucker I have tried in order to achieve bodom, kilswitch and 'deathy tones' like job for a cowboy and arch enemy. the bass is tight and articulate but without the awful overtones that u get with active pickups with high gain. to get the best out of them they need to be optimally close to the strings, its worth the time to adjust your guitar. sounds great in my mahogany body k7. the neck pickup could gave more character but is ok, less bassy version of a duncan 59. I dont think highly of the middle pickup position. im tempted to try an air norton 7 in the neck because it sounds more silky, but it's still early days and I have not tried it with my proper rig yet - engl fireball and screamer, so ill give it a chance.

Im definitely satisfied with the bridge tone, its transformed my k7 in to a shred machine! you can get pinch harmonics on the low A string. as I said I will experiment more with the neck pickup and will not be changing it in anhurry because it matches the bridge well, no volume drop at all. first pair of dimarzios I have bought and am very happy with the new tones. less middy than emg 81 and much beter clean tone - is very clear and has a sparkly character. the lead tone is much smoother and oranic than the duncan blackout which I think has an artificial compresed sound. I have loads of gear which u can check on my youtube channel 'asianaxeman' where ill put a video clips of my k7 sounds very soon. I can't wait to play the k7 with my engl fireball.

Passive humbucker that is suppose to react like an active humbucker.

I installed a set of these into a Carvin DC727, neck and body was made of mahogany, ebony fretboard and a maple quilt top. The original Pickups sounded like complete crap. Arpeggios sounded like mud, everything was mud.

Very hot output, not as hot as my X2N, but very Hot.

I have played it through a POD XT Live, Digitech GPS1101 and a Tech 21 power engine 60.

It is very balanced.

It is an ideal match for any kind of Metal especially the extreme kind!
Arpeggios fly out of these pickups better then any set of pickups I had previously played through. Every note is clear as a bell, tons of definition. Before I switched to this 7 string guitar, I had been playing a 6 string loaded with a Dimarzio X2N and a Super 2 and had thought I could not find any thing better, I was very wrong. It has been 2 months now and I still love these pickups and am considering putting a set into my 6 string guitar.

Although these things sound like GOD for death metal and thrash and various styles of metal I was really shocked when I turned over to the clean channel and found that they actually sound very good clean and the coil taps also have a very noticeable different tone to them. I was also happy with the tone of the pickups while having them both on at once, which I never like. There is also no volume drop when switching between the 2 and they both sound great for solos. I do not have any complaints about them I am really very satisfied. I originally was going to put an X2N into this guitar as that is what I have in my 6 string but I thought I would try something new with this guitar, I am really glad I did.

I would buy them again and may buy another set for my other guitar very soon.

I have been playing for 20 years. I am rarely satisfied but plugging this guitar with this set-up into a Digitech GSP1101 is just plain GOD!

Passive humbucking pickup for the bridge position. Designed to give you the benefits of active pickups without the down sides. Highest output pickup that DiMarzio makes.
Ceramic magnet.

I installed this pickup in my new Schecter 007 Elite at the bridge position. It replaced the stock Duncan Designed humbucker which is supposedly made very much like a JB pickup, although I didn't see the relationship. I first heard of the D Activators when I watched an interview with Muhammad from Necrophagist in which he was talking about his new custom model Ibanez that had these pickups in it. It was supposed to be like having the power of active pickups without having to sacrifice tonal qualities. So I checked the DiMarzio website to see if they made it in a 7 string version and luckily for me, they do.

Let me just say, these pickups are friggin awesome. I own 2 other 7 strings that both have active EMG 81-7(br) and 707(nk) set ups. Those pickups are really great sounding compared to most other pickups I'd heard before but they have problems in that they seem to over-compress the sound when you play harder which sucks if you're trying to get a class A driven sound out of a clean amp(which I do from time to time). I play progressive metal in my band with lots of different sounding parts and I need to be as versatile as possible. If a part calls for tight, fast speed-picked chords then the EMG's are great, but if I want a more organic, driven clean sound or varying dynamic range they fall a bit short in their ability. Another thing about the EMG's is that there is a very obvious change in volume level when switching from the bridge to the neck pickup(gets a lot louder) while playing clean. Apparently this is another inherent flaw in active pickups that I never new about occurring especially in an H+H setup.
Anyway, I figured that if these problems could be solved with the D Activators then I'd go for it. My 007 has a H+S set up so I only put one D Activator in the bridge and a Blaze middle in the neck. The sound I get now is awesome. Sounds better than the EMG 81-7 in my opinion, especially for the low B which always sounded muddy on my EMG equipped guitars. I've managed to get a clear, versatile tone from this pick up that sounds perfectly balanced. You can really hear every string perfectly even at high gain levels. It does the tight fast stuff with no problem and still has a great warm clean sound on the clean channel of my amp which can be pushed since the passive dynamics respond much better to pick attack. They are also great pickups to use with a coil tap which I have on my guitar. I would say that on my guitar the sound I get at high gain settings is similar to Micheal Amott's sound in Arch Enemy(of course taking into account the difference between live and recorded guitar sound and processing, etc...). Very smooth and with great attack.

I would recommend this pickup for 7 string players who need versatility and power from their guitar. If your stock pickups are shitty you should really look into these things. I've been playing for about 13 years now and I can safely say the D Activator 7 is the best pickup I've used. Nothing bad I can say about these really. You should be careful though to know what is best for your guitar. My 007 has a mahogany body and neck with maple top and rosewood finger board with makes it a naturally warm sounding guitar. The D Activators emphasize mids and highs which makes them a good match for this guitar. And for another example, my other guitars are basswood which might not do as well with this type of pickup. I've read some reviews that say they lack any warmth but you really need to take into account they guitar you play as well as the EQ on your amp when switching pickups. Comparing these with my EMG on a flat EQ'd amp, I've found the DiMarzios to be a bit warmer than the 81-7... but that could also have something to do with the wood.
Also for 7 string players, you should remember that EMG 7 string models don't replace stock open coil pickups because they have extended casings and won't fit in normal slots on the guitar. Big mod is required by a professional in that case.
The only thing EMG's have over the D Activators is that they make a lot less noise especially around computer screens and TV's. This being the downside to passive pickups i guess.
Anyway, I am satisfied by these overall and would recommend them to anyone.