BKP Suggestions - 7 String Solost White & Black Limba

[djpharoah]

I have a really special guitar (7 string Soloist) which has a neck composed of white limba, wings of black limba and an ebony board. It's standard 25.5" and has a floyd rose.

I've been trying to find a good set of pickups for it since I got it over 9 months ago. I've recently tried out Rebel Yells and find them to be really harsh, brittle and shrilly and very thin. Probably my mistake but I thought they'd sound good in there - apparently not. I've ordered a 250k pot to see if that helps but not sure if that will help.

The guitar is bright acoustically and after trying the RYs seems to be medium to high bright (lol). I've got other soloists (alder/maple, poplar/maple) and love how the 80s spec JB sounds, the Custom sounds and want something like that type of pickup for this guitar.

Like the tone to be thick and rich but still have the ability to cut, with great harmonics and nice bass definition in the bridge and a sweet paf-ish neck tone (think satriani leads). Almost like a bridge pickup that can do hard rock to modern metal and a neck pickup that can do great bluesy stuff to moderate gain shred.

I'm kind of looking at the Holy Diver and not sure what would go along with it in the neck. Tim suggested a PK calibrated set but I kinda want a nice A5 bridge and neck. I like the tightness from Ceramics but find them sorta dull and lifeless - part of the attraction I had towards the RYs :(

Thanks for the advice.

[schantist]

Tim knows his stuff and sure recommended the PK for a reason;
give it a try at least, sure it won't be dull and lifeless as you expect

[djpharoah]

Tim knows his stuff and sure recommended the PK for a reason;
give it a try at least, sure it won't be dull and lifeless as you expect

Kinda avoiding ceramics just because the "single-coil" attack that high output ceramics have (especially in 7s) just doesn't work for me anymore.

[richard]

I wasn't happy with my RYs when they were first installed but after WEEKS of tinkering I'm really happy with them. First I'd suggest lowering them level with the pickup rings (if you have them) or just as low as possible. You won't lose much output but the tone mellows a lot. Consider knocking back the treble on your amp quite a lot. Amps aren't really used to the top end scatterwound pups can produce. If that gets rid of the shrillness then you're off to a good start. Then you can gradually raise the pickups and play around with the treble and mids on your amp. Maybe RYs aren't for this guitar but don't give up until you've tried everything.

[djpharoah]

I wasn't happy with my RYs when they were first installed but after WEEKS of tinkering I'm really happy with them. First I'd suggest lowering them level with the pickup rings (if you have them) or just as low as possible. You won't lose much output but the tone mellows a lot. Consider knocking back the treble on your amp quite a lot. Amps aren't really used to the top end scatterwound pups can produce. If that gets rid of the shrillness then you're off to a good start. Then you can gradually raise the pickups and play around with the treble and mids on your amp. Maybe RYs aren't for this guitar but don't give up until you've tried everything.

Richard - I've logged quite a lot of hours trying to tweak these pickups. I've even ordered a 250k volume pot to sort of reduce the "hair" on them. They are overly bright pickups no doubt but I think my guitar is also very bright.

[richard]

Let us know how the volume pot change works out. Hope you find what you're looking for.

[Nolly]

Sounds like a good case for the Holy Diver here - it's got a fat midrange that works well in brighter guitars. It's hard to go wrong with the calibrated set, in this case you get an articulate and classic sounding neck pickup that should do exactly the sounds you're after as described in the OP.

[ericsabbath]

if the guitar is bright, I wouldn't expect the diver to tame it down

it is a fat and smooth pickup, but still fairly bright, just not like the rebel yell
the only BKP I had that seems to darken up the natural guitar tone is the black dog

maybe you should consider the crawler