My 1994 Ibanez Jem7V has long been my main guitar, but I've always found myself not being massively impressed by the sound of the bridge and neck Dimarzio Evolution pickups (weirdly I love the middle single coil). My 2 other guitars are strats with seymour duncan pickups, in particular one has a JB Jr in the bridge and the other with a floyd trem has a Full Shred, I've always loved the sound of both of those pickups.
However, the other guitarist in my band has a japanese made lefty Ibanez RG (probably near 10 years old) with a bareknuckle painkiller, and its a beautiful sounding guitar, the pickup sounds awesome. Traditionally I played in a metal band, running through a 5150 head and Marshall cab, and while I was happy with the sound, there was always something itching at me, especially when at times I prefered the sound of my much less expensive guitars with their Seymour Duncan pickups, I just don't think the Dimarzio Evolutions are for me.
Nowadays I play more along the lines of rock and progressive electronic music with a few metal aspects but also pulled back close on pop rock elements (A medium between sting/the police up to underoath, devin townsend, back down to paramore, but probably nothing like any of those artists, just an idea of the spectrum). I'm playing through a Cornford Hellcat now too.
First impressions on the website I went through a bunch of pickups before listening to the VHII hair metal clip, which pretty much melted my face off with its awesomeness, being a massive Van Halen fan it was what I instantly got attracted to, even if one of the more high output pickups may be more for me (bridge pickup) I'm still leaning towards the VHII.
If it helps, my bands music is at
www.soundcloud.com/bluelightride or
www.youtube.com/bluelightridetv . Though It should be mentioned that while I'm using a Cornford Hellcat now, only one of the recordings has that amp on it, and a large ammount of the guitar recordings are the other guitarists Bareknuckle painkiller equiped Ibanez RG.
The Jem is generally (and has been for years) tuned in CGCFAD (drop C) and running 11-52 daddario strings, the harmonics don't appear to jump out quite so excitedly as my strats (though strats are currently in standard tuning with 10-46s) and while beautiful tones are available it feels like the Evos tend to compress and box in the mids too much which makes it hard for the guitar to breath, I want the guitar to sound more open and clear, more articulate and perhaps more dynamic, something that will allow it to come alive more, and especially to sit better in the slightly lower gain sounds of not being in a metal band anymore.
Will the VHII be the pickup for me, or do you recommend something different?
