EMG 707

Pickup features: active humbucker
Impedence or other specs: N/A

Model of guitar or bass: Shecter Hellraiser C7
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock
Other pickups on guitar: Emg707
Artists using this pickup: Jeff Loomis of Nevermore the guy from Fear Factory
You musical style(s): Extreme metal
Reason for pickup change: Though these were stock, one of the main reasons I got the guitar is the fact that it came with 707's. I wasn't happy with the tonal qualities of passive 7-string pickups even though I prefer them on 6 string guitars. 7 strings generally dont sound as tight at high gain.

Perceived output level: Pretty high output. A little more than my Blaze.
Tone: Pretty good balance though the mids are scooped a bit to my ear. Sterile sounding
Sonic evaluation: I run my Hellraiser into a digitech gsp2101 into a qsc power amp and finally into my peavey cabinet.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This is the ultimate metal pickup for 7 strings hands down. Im sure it's good for other genres like rock and whatnot.

Comments: These pickups are incredible. This is coming from someone who's had the biggest grudge against EMG for years. I can't deny the sound these give and I was just plain dissatisfied with the other 7-string pickups on the market. These are the best period. Super in your face heaviness with insane clarity. What more could a metalhead ask for.

Pickup features: active humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez RG 7420
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): deathcore
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level:
Tone:
Sonic evaluation: This an upgrade to my first review.
I changed my setup. I purchased a Mesa Strategy 500 poweramp and a Rectocab.
Now the EMG sounds better than the SH6-7. The sound is perfect.
Plugged into ENGL Savage 60 and Thunder 50 the Seymour Duncan SH6-7 sounds better. The EMG sounds thin and sterile.
If your amplifier sounds articulate and bright don't use the EMG.
This pickup sounds best with huge bold amplifiers.
Combined with Mesa stuff especially Rectos the EMG 707 shines!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: I gave 5 points before. Now 10!

Pickup features: active 7 string humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez RG 7420
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Fear Factory
You musical style(s): Brutal Deathcore www.kobold666.de
Reason for pickup change: I thought this was the best PU available

Perceived output level: more than stock PU's but not too hot
Tone: this thing is trebly balanced, very thin and sterile sounding bucleart very articulate and clear
Sonic evaluation: I have another Ibanez RG 7620 with Seymour Duncan SH6-7 and it sounds so much better: richer, fuller, more organic with every amp i used.
Engl Savage, Engl Thunder, Marshall JCM900 SLX, Marshall VS 8100, ADA MP1, Rocktron Chameleon, Zoom 2020. Maybe the EMG sounds better with a Recto...
The EMG sounds better than stock Blaze 7 but the sound will never change 180?! You can't hardly hear diferences without AB switching.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play Deathcore. I recomment the SH6-7 for all heavy stuff.

Comments:
It isn't worth the money! It's all hype about the active EMG!

Pickup features: humbucking, active
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: BC Rich Warlock Platinum Series 7 string
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock BC Rich
Other pickups on guitar: In active neck(didn't put another in the neck, so passive doesn't work)
Artists using this pickup: Check out the site. www.emgpickups.com
You musical style(s): Hard Rock/Metal
Reason for pickup change: BC Rich pickups are like the hair between your ass and balls. So annoying that you wish they were gone forever. Fortunately, EMG allowed me to rid myself if this burden.

Perceived output level: Lets just say I had my amp on 8, now its on 5.
Tone: Very Clean cut, very VERY bright, good balanced tone.
Sonic evaluation: I have multiple seven string guitars, this one the only one with the 707. I go from guitar to digidelay, chorus/flange,phaser, mt2, ds7,fz7,(Sometimes my boss phase shifter), morley wah to my Peavey Special 212 with extended 412 cab, pushing about 200 watts. Some people hate solid state, I don't mind it. I like tube amps don't get me wrong. But I got my amp because it was affordable and now I have a good amount of power and a pretty solid effect line and a clear tone that I have mastered and established over the past couple of years.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This goes very well with the music I play. Heavy metal needs good clear tone, because anything muddy sounds like shit. This incorporates solid clear tone, and mixes it with outrageous output, making your guitar a mass-murdering machine.

Comments: If It were stolen, I'd like to meet the person that did. It would be kinda hard to steal a damn pickup. Take my pickup, I give you props, kill you, but give you props, then by a new one. Take my guitar, and your life will be over. I've been playing for about 9 years, and like i said, my gear has gradually grown into a self existing machine. I love how this pickup brings clarity into the mix, but it has tons of output that is somewhat hard to control. I love the duncan JB 7 string, passive is unique in its own way that active doesn't have. But the 707 has tone that can't be matched by a passive pickup. I use this for very choppy and digital metal, ie fear factory, where individual tones need to be heard and with courageous force. But, for melodic medal and more all around rock, the JB gives me the versatility to play it all, ie staind/dream theater. I want a big nice expensive amp, tube i suppose, but am satisfied with what i have. i worked for it and none of it was given to me. This pickup gives me what i want and need, but it all depends on what you're looking for. BUY THIS PICKUP!! Get it in one guitar, and put a JB in another, and your life will be made. That is your versatility.

Pickup features: active humbucking pick-up
Impedence or other specs: low

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez RG 7421XL
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Dimarzio Blaze Custom
Other pickups on guitar: Stock ibanez neck pickup
Artists using this pickup: Alot now
You musical style(s): Melodic Hardcore
Reason for pickup change: I had the blaze custom in the bridge and it kicked ass but it was missing something and the 707 added it and then some

Perceived output level: Very hot but not over the top
Tone: Good solid bass balanced mids and bright treble
Sonic evaluation: Im running the ibanez into a boss tuner pedal and then into a boss noise suppressor then into a Marshall JCM 900 2100 into a mesa boogie 4x12 . No effects !!!!!!!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play melodic hardcore and this pickup is the perfect match for my style it responds to how hard you hit the strings very nicely . This pickup would be good in the bridge or neck position .

Comments: This is the best 7 string pickup out there period . If you dont want to deal with routing the body out , which you have to do on most guitars , then go with the blaze custom it is the closest i have heard to a 707 . It cost me about 90 dollars to get it wired and the body routed and 100 dollars for the pickup it self but its worth every cent . Dont try to install this pick-up your self unless you know what you are doing . But now i am satisfied with my sound .

Pickup features: Active, humbucking
Impedence or other specs: Low impedance

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez RG 7620
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Dimarzio Blaze II
Other pickups on guitar: None
Artists using this pickup: Me
You musical style(s): Death, thrash and melodic metal
Reason for pickup change: The stock pickups on Ibanez 7 strings are magnetized pieces of excrement.

Perceived output level: The stock Dimarzios would distort the clean channel somehat, these do it a bit more. Thus, these are pretty hi-gain p/u's
Tone: The tone is quite balanced, but with an emphasis on the low / low midrange.
Sonic evaluation: I am now using emg 707's in the neck and bridge positions on my RG. I don't use any effects, I just run straight into my Randall Warhead which is fitted with the 4x12 and 2x15 cabinets designed for the head unit. I use Monster Cable pro-link instrument cable going to the head, and pro-link speaker cables going from the head to the cabs - the cables make a big difference!
If you are familiar with the stock pickups on Ibanez 7 stringers, you know that they are pretty farty and do not produce a very clean or punchy sound. This is especially true if you are playing at high volumes with other instruments. I was not at all pleased with the stock pickups in this sense: they were decent at playing practice level volumes, but if I played with a bassist or a drummer, I found myself cranking the mids and treble on my amp trying to cut through the mix. Also, the stock pickups have the passive pickup plague: an annoying buzz that plagues you when you are using high gain and trying to keep your guitar quiet for a few seconds.
After swapping the stockers out for these bad boys, boy was I excited. My tone has done a complete 180. At first, I played these at low volume I didn't notice a huge difference, but then I cranked my amp up like a true death metal savage, and I damn near blew my wad. There is NO comparison between these pickups and stock. These are SOOO much better in every way, I cannot begin to describe it.
I can ring out some Opeth-style jazzy chords even with the amp set to 'kill' and I can actually hear the individual strings, not just some muddy garbage that I would be treated to with the Blazes. Additionally, I can hit said chords and quickly silence them and play some palm muted chugs without the pickups will instantly respond - super, super tight sound.
When I am making my snarling war face while playing slow and brutal palm mutes, the pickups sense this and respond by giving me the most insanely wicked chugging riffage i could ever dream of.
When I am playing fast and technical death metal, the pickups articulate every note and squeal that I ask of them.
My lead tone has improved the most. The stock pickups had a sort of rusty saw blade / half dissonant sound to them which was not at all pleasing to the ear. These guys give me nothing but the cleanest, blistering lead tone I could ask for.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Again, I play strictly metal.

Comments: Come on, no one has ever stoled someone's pickups before. If these were vaporized or something, I would be very upset and would go buy more of them. I am quite satisfied with these pickups, I have a feeling that I will be leaving my amp's knobs alone for quite some time.

Pickup features: humbucking, Active
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez RG7-420
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: stock ibanez 7
Other pickups on guitar: neck V77
Artists using this pickup: Dino , me
You musical style(s): Metal
Reason for pickup change: The ibanez stock pickups are really bad... EMG active PU a the best for metal.

Perceived output level: extremly high
Tone: not muddy, well balanced
Sonic evaluation: so I plug in my GTR into a Boss HM2 heavy metal distortion and into my H&K combo.. nothing great , but it sounds so good !

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Metal ! perfect match for metal, heavy metal, grind, death , etc..

Comments: well if somebody would steal my guitar w/the EMG 707, i would hunt him down and buy lots of emg 707 for backup ! This P/U changed my life ! To all the 7 metal string guys : get the EMG 707 !!!

Pickup features: active humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: 1990 Ibanez UV7 (the old black and green one)
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: the stock DiMarzio Blaze II Bridge
Other pickups on guitar: EMG 91-7 (a custom shop 7 string version of the EMG 91)
Artists using this pickup: me
You musical style(s): mostly rock, but just about anything exept country and rap
Reason for pickup change: I LOVE the EMG 85 tone, and I HATE the DiMarzio Blaze II tone. I also love the benefits of going "active".

Perceived output level: very high compared to passive designs, due to the internal preamp
Tone: clear and full, very balanced & even from low to high
Sonic evaluation: My signal chain is as follows: BOSS CE2B Bass Chorus, BOSS SD1 Super Overdrive, Ibanez TS9DX Turbo Tubescreamer, BOSS CL50 compressor/limiter/noise gate, ADA MB1 tube bass preamp, RANE ME15 eq, Peavey Classic Series 120/120 stereo tube power amp, and an old Ampeg bass cab.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: good for ANY style calling for a humbucker tone, as it is very neutral

Comments: I am a long time EMG freak. I have five basses & two guitars, (a 72' Jazz Bass, a 78' Rick 4001 bass, a mid 90's Robin Medley Custom Bass, an 88' Charvel Model 3B bass, an 80' Kramer XL8 aluminium neck 8 string bass, an 88' Charvel Model 6 guitar, and the aformentioned 90' Ibanez UV7). I have EMG's in everything exept the Rick 4001, as I just couldn't screw with the Ricktone. I've had an EMG 89 "dual mode" in the bridge position of my Charvel Model 6 since about 90', and ever since, I've felt it to be the ultimate guitar pickup, as it is bassically either an EMG 85 (the ultimate humbucker),or an EMG SA (the ultimate Strat style single coil), depending on how it's switched. (note: I had to turn the 89 "backwards" as the single coil "SA" mode is on the same side as the logo, which is normally towards the bridge. With the single coil mode towards the neck, the tone is louder, fuller, warmer, and just plain more musical & pleasing. They now offer the "EMG 89R" with this problem fixed, but you have to special order it.) Anyway, back to the story. When I bought the UV7 back around 92', Ibanez was the ONLY manufacturer of 7-strings, and the ONLY pickup available was the stock DiMarzio Blaze II's, and even though they looked fairly cool, (florescent green you know), I HATED their tone. However the ability to do the "Super Sub Sabbath Grindage" thing notewise, outweighed the tonal shortcomings. I also felt that the 7-string thing was such a great & logical idea, that it would be the next big thing, and that EMG would come out with 7-string pickups in the not to distant future, so it was no big deal. As it turned out, I would have to hate the tone of that guitar for an entire decade before they finally made the pickup that should have been in it in the first place. One blessed thing about it is that it is modeled after the 85 instead of the 81. Even though Zack Wylde, Slayer, Alternica, etc... prefer the 81 at the bridge, I find it to be too annoyingly bright, and lacking in low end nuttage. The 85 is smoother & more pleasing on the high end, and has way more chunkage on the low end. It's got a good natural & neutral response curve with no annoying peaks or dips EQ wise. I also like the low impedence 25k ohm volume and tone controls, as they are very linear tonally & gain wise from "0" to "10". I do have two dissapointments though; The first is that EMG chose to use their "35 series" bass pickup housing instead of a standardised guitar pickup housing & shape, so it is NOT a retrofit part. You have to permanantly alter your instrument to install it, so it's like crossing the Rubicon, there's no going back. All other EMG pickups, and all the 7-string pickups made by Duncan, DiMarzio, etc... ARE retrofit, so instalation is easy, non destructive, & reversable. The second problem is that I would much prefer a "dual mode" version like the 89. I love the 85 humbucker tone AND the SA single coil tone. You have either tone available with the 6-string 89, but with the 707, you're stuck with ONLY the 85 tone, and as awesome sounding as it is, it's just not as versatile without that Strat tone. And as much as I hated the stock DiMarzio's, at least you could split em' to do the Fender thing. Anyway, I also put an EMG custom shop 91-7 pickup that I got off ebay at the neck. It's a 7-string version of their model 91 "F-hole jazz box" pickup. From the top, it looks just like the 707 at the bridge, but from the back you can see that it's only half as deep. The regular 91 is bassically EMG's version of a jazz mini humbucker with a special bracket to mount it to the end of the fingerboard. As far as the 91-7 is concerned, it sounds killer too, either by itself or in combination with the 707 at the bridge. I'll talk about it more in it's own review. Anyway, I would give the 707 a rating of 10, but I have to subtract one point for the nonstandard housing, and subtract one more for not being able to split to a cool single coil tone. (please not

Pickup features: Active
Impedence or other specs: hot as anything else!

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez AX 7521
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Ibanez V-8
Other pickups on guitar: Ibanez V-7
Artists using this pickup: Fear Factory, Cannibal Corpse, Chimaria
You musical style(s): metal
Reason for pickup change: Wanted the best metal humbucker, actually best humbucker period!

Perceived output level: As hot as the 81, but the tonality of the 85. Awesome.
Tone: Extremely well balanced, drives beautifully.
Sonic evaluation: Line 6 Pod Pro/Peavey Classic 50/50 into Mesa/Boogie Rectifier cab. Most brutal sound I have ever heard.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play in a really oddball metal band, which combines black/thrash/groove/progressive, death, man, a lotta stuff. Needed the hottest, most dangerous pickup. This is it. It works great for funk/R&B, it breaks up very smoothly and nicely, even on most clean channels somewhat, so this may be wrong for a country player, but I doubt a country player is gonna be looking at this....

Comments: Top if the line. Enough said. Best seven string pickup, one of the best pickups I have used period.

Pickup features: active humbucker
Impedence or other specs: i have no idea

Model of guitar or bass: 1999 Ibanez AX 7
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Ibanez V8
Other pickups on guitar: Ibanez V7
Artists using this pickup: Dino Cazares, Chimaria, Cannibal Corpse
You musical style(s): oddball/black metal
Reason for pickup change: needed the ultimate metal pickup, the V8 kicks ass, but the EMG is 10X better

Perceived output level: extremely high, like an 81
Tone: very well balanced, kinda 85ish
Sonic evaluation: I am using a big mahogany AX from the late 1990's with a POD pro as a pre-amp. If you need extreme gain, clarity, and punch, this is the best pickup available! It also blends beautifully with the V7.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I am using this for heavy playing, and the V7 for my clean. Together, they also rock (make sure they are wired right, or the passive will never come though). My band is really weird.....mixes influences like Pantera, Slayer, Meshuggah, Fear Factory, Emporer, Sabbath, Dimmu Borgir, BLS, and Primus, jsut to name a few. This thing is perfect for me. It also works awesome for funk. It's so high output though, that it breaks up even on clean channels, which actually rules, cause it gets sick overdrive sounds!

Comments: I would kill someone if they stole it. It rules. Get the guitar routed. They took maybe an 1/8 inch from mine on each side. It is a 81/85 hybrid, so it's kinda best of both worlds. It also looks cool as hell! Rocks the DiMarzio blaze too.