Tonal options for Ibanez Iron Label 7 String

[Mattallica]

Hi Team,

Iv'e had this for a year or two now and i'm looking to breathe a bit of life into it:

http://www.musicworks.co.nz/7-8-and-9-s ... -7-string/

I wanted a 7 string and it was on sale for $1300ish, and it was one of the two options in store at the time. It was cool for a while but i began to find the lack of control annoying and the 707's to be a bit meh.

I recently replaced the volume pot with a concentric vol/tone and that's been a good step forward, but i want to take it further. I particularly want to add a switchabe DPDT 18v mod to give the 707's a fair go. I rarely use the kill switch but i'd prefer to keep it, ya know, just in case.

I'm pondering over the following options and i can't seem to make my mind up:

.Replace the kill switch with another vol/tone, permanant 18v mod
.Replace the kill switch with a DPDT switch for 18v mod
.Whack another hole in between the two current and add another vol/tone, keep the killswitch. permanant 18v mod
.Whack another hole in between the two current and add another vol/tone, replace the killswitch for DPDT switch 18v mod
.Whack another hole in between the two current, remove the killswitch, and add two push/pull tones for DPDT and killswitch
.Yank the 707's and replace with SD Blackouts, forget about the 18v mod and some combination of pot addition from above
.Yank everything and replace with passive pickups and circuitry, some sort of pot combo from above
.Flog the guitar all together and start fresh

If you could throw out the pro's & con's, your experiences, or your preferences for the above that would be cool. Or another option i haven't considered?

[jeremyb]

It's a pretty quick change to wire it for 18V, you can buy 3 9V battery snaps from jaycar and wire them so you can plug one of them into the existing battery snap in the guitar, then you can see if you like it and if it's worth perservering with

[godgrinder]

The 18V mod can improve actives slightly. But if you don't like the basic tonal characteristics of the 707, a 18V mod and a tone knob aren't going to change much.

I'd say get some good passives.

And for metal guitars I find that 2 separate volume knobs are a lot more useful than the usual 1 vol + 1 tone combination. I'd avoid drilling extra holes on a guitar you're not 100% sure of keeping. If it's not done tidily you'll have a hard time when selling it.

[shafter]

I have played this Guitar at work and its great.. fantastic quality
However I didn't like the emg's , if it was mine id ditch them in favour of your favourite pups
One of the guy's I work with is a guitarist in the Ninja's hes of the same opinion..
Just my two cents..

[hamo]

Blackout fanboi here, although I don't actually have them in any of my guitars

Also, what JB said. I reckon if you're going to go 18v, go permanent. It looks like you could do that without changing your current config, so you could keep the kill switch?

[Mattallica]

Thanks for your responses guys. I'll give the battery snaps a go first as Jeremy suggests, think i might have been getting ahead of myself. I'll hold off drilling the extra hole too. I'm not too familiar with the different 7 string passsive pickup options but i'll start looking. I mention the Blackouts because Music Planet have them on sale and they would be a direct swap for the 707's. The trouble is one doesn't always sound better than the other in the vidoes i've watched (to my ear anyway).

As an aside, the guitar itself is actually very nice. So at least i can rule out the flogging option. Phew!

So at this stage for potential pot configuration i think i'm down to stacked vol/vol and a master tone push/pull with the killswitch wiring to it. Whether it ends up passive or active.

[jeremyb]

Yeah, theres not much in it really between the two, I'd go with some D'Activators or Gravity Storms if you wanna go passive

[godgrinder]

If you don't like the 707 chances are you won't like the Blackouts either.

The 707 is in a special "active mount/soapbar" size so your choices for passives are relatively limited. Dimarzio doesn't do 7 string pickups in that size.
You can get all Duncan and Bareknuckle 7 string passive models in that size though. And most of the Lace Sensor ones.

[hamo]

I believe somebody here's had good things to say about the SD Sentient/Nazgul combo in terms of passives. No real idea myself, apart from finding the idea of having a pup called Nazgul in my guitar very appealing... /nerd

[Mattallica]

I'm having a hard time tracking them down! MP have a Pegasus in the right size but that's it for kiwi retailers. If i could sniff out a Sentient to go with it then i'd be set. Does anyone know of any overseas retailer with reasonable prices for the Sentient/Nazgul/Pegasus? Andertons seem a bit pricey even with the low exchange rate atm.

[HackSaw]

I'm having a hard time tracking them down! MP have a Pegasus in the right size but that's it for kiwi retailers. If i could sniff out a Sentient to go with it then i'd be set. Does anyone know of any overseas retailer with reasonable prices for the Sentient/Nazgul/Pegasus? Andertons seem a bit pricey even with the low exchange rate atm.

You've probably done this, but don't forget to take 20% off the Andertons price. (You don't pay their VAT). Makes their prices look a bit better!

[Mattallica]

I actually totally forgot about the VAT (Doh). You're right it does bring them back into line. However, they don't have them in stock. Back to the drawing board.

[godgrinder]

What type of stuff do you play and what amp do you use? A proper pickup choice depends a lot on these. Chances are what works for other people might not work for you at all.

[Mattallica]

My main amp is a Laney IRT Studio. Never above bedroom volume. Playing wise it's a bit all over the place, nothing that's particularly in the 7 string range.

Tool, Deftones, AIC, Mastodon... Gojira & LOG if i practiced more. Mostly rhythm, working on lead.

Sound wise i'm liking some of the Djent-y stuff that's been coming through the last few years. Monuments come to mind. Those Djent guys are on another level of gear usage.

[godgrinder]

If you want to get a more djent-y sound maybe look into the Lace Deathbar 3.5 (and a X-Bar 3.5 for neck position).

These have a slight dip in the lower mids and a bump in the higher mids, which helps getting into the djent field when your amp isn't quite djent-y enough. Very decent cleans too.