well after quite a lot of time having spent on almost 3 pickups I decided to move on cause I'm still quite unhappy with my sound in general (jeez so much money in gear makes me sleepless knowing somethig's just not ok)
taking a close look at what I had in my 7string in the last 3-4 months I can tell that the holydiver 7 was really an improvement but, as I wanted something tighter I tried a NB7 A5
I think that the biggest factor affecting my sound is the ebony plated pao fero neck with an ebony board whcih causes extended lows, but a scoop in healthy mids leaving me with wiry mids and an upper treble spike in most occasion (just cant get rid of the damn presence damn i shouldn't have gone with so much ebony, its like pulling teeth :) )
Painkiller - overall it sounded OK with most amplifiers like 5150, rectos and marshalls (very tight and articulate string separation which I liked) except for my own - boogie mark 5 which is quite trebly and scratchy in this combination (if i set the amp with less trebles i loose juice, if i set these high the sound gets thin/piercing and shrill), the ceramic magnet even underlined the presence of my guitar which caused piercing saw-like tones.. I liked it's tightness and modern tight firm sound in the low deparment and the amount of mids though. It overpowered the amp input quite a lot and did not create good clean sounds (piercing,thin and crunchy)
Holydiver - almost a perfect match but the low B tended to flub out as the pickup caused the sound to have too much body/bass in the lowest registers (I'd say it was OK on the rest of the string positions but the low B was rounded and undetailed maybe due to the heavy mahog body i dunno) . I liked the fact that it gave my guitar a broader tone and body and it shifted the presence to lower levels which helped but somehow I thought the HD7 suits more to a lighter and more resonant guitar (such as bright PRS guitars with rosewood necks, alder bodied guitars etc.) My guitar weights almost the same as a good LP. I liked that it sounded refined/polished and did not get spikey. but it was still quite hot on the clean channel
Nailbomb A5 - even more bass (bot not body) than with the previously installed HD in my guitar, which was not expected
I have my bass pre EQ at 0 and still, I find it too bass-heavy/ murky (but not a broader and articulate sound), i have to lower the first two GEQ sliders too in order to get a definded sound I have the pickup set really low and if I bring it higher I get more articulation in the upper register but there is even more bass and that certain spike in the presence/trebles. I'd say I get similar wiry mids and shrilly spike as almost with PK but with less detail on chords. I like the fact that is somehow sounds tighter than the HD. It may have sounded a bit too dark on bass strings I'd say. still quite hot on clean channel.. in general it feels like as if I was playing up loud but had to listen more to what i play cause it tends to sink in the band mix
so I wrote to BKP's support and Tim came back with a response I did not quite await:
'' I am going to recommend the Emerald 7 - AV powered, tight with bass response, broad but not spiky mids and sweet highs, plenty of output for rock and metal and will give you a very good range of clean and driven tones. ''
I kinda see his point but having read multiple posts here about the emerald, i'm prone to think it does not suit guitars that tend to get bright or in brights setups in general.. I am quite afraid to go with more 'trebles' you know.. The funny thing is that my guitar sound totally awesome when unplugged but when plugging in, somehow sounds murky in the low deparment but bright and shrilly when moving up to higher positions
Anyone got any ideas if emerald is something you would go for in a 7string format?
