Ok so I need help finding the right neck PU for my guitar. Its a 7 string basswood body I have a D Activator in the bridge and I now want a nice neck PU I think I want a dimarzio but if something better comes up I might change my mind. OK so I want it to be a little bassy but overwhelming and it needs to be very clear in tone so I can do solos lead work and add some bassy tapping to my music. any help is apperciated thanks

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Why don't you get the D Activator neck pickup? They're supposed to go together.

IDK I play it in one of those Ibanez V's I liked it and it sounds really good played with the bridge but I never play both pick ups at the same time and the neck version didnt realy do it for me

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PAF Pro is the one that comes to mind. Not insanely bassy but you really don't want a lot of bass in a neck pickup because it'll turn to mud.

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The Air Norton is a pretty cool neck pickup if you want to stick with Dimarzio.

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I don't think it has enough output to be paired with a d activator though, the difference in output would be quite drastic, maybe a similar pup with more output, though I can't name any ones in particular.

Edit: Oh wait I just realized this is for a 7 string. Hmm how about an old dimarzio Blaze?

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The problem with sticking with DiMarzio and 7 string is that you don't have much to choose from for neck pickups. It's either going to be Air Norton, Blaze, or D Activator.

Then if not dimarzio than is there any other PU's like seymour's or any other (passive) brands?

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I think the blaze is your best bet man, excluding the Dactivator neck pup it's the hottest one they have for neck positions on 7 strings. The rest are either too low output or designed to be used as bridge pickups. It has good bass response . But it's very clear and naturally awesome for leads(I have all blazes in my UV7).

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thanks man yeah I looked at it after you mentioned it and it looks and sounds the closest to what im looking for

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I like the PAF Pro.

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^Not available for 7 strings.

Yw man good luck with that.

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When it comes to output, you have to have a SERIOUSLY underwound neck pickup to not have enough output. The bridge pickup in my PRS is 14.4K and my neck pickup is 7.9K. Any neck pickup between 7-9K will be fine with just about any output bridge pickup. Unless its an old school PAF around 6k.

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We aren't talking about DC resistance here(K), we're talking about the pickup's output, as in loudness/gain/sensitivity of the pickups. The Air norton has 260mV of output while the dactivator has 460mV. The matching d-activator for the neck pos. is rated at 360 or 380mV, way more than the air norton. The difference is huge, switching to the neck pickup for a lead would be one excessive drop in volume and gain, like going from Suffocation to SRV just by switching pickups in the middle of a song. If you were to stomp some OD or clean boost at the same time it would be less noticeable but I'd just get a hotter neck pickup that is enough to match it.

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^ very ture very true

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Actually sorry to say, its not. Measuring a pickup in mV is bit of a joke. If you notice, Dimarzio is the only company that uses mV as an output measurment. Its just marketing, something to seperate them from the pack. Ohms and mV's in terms of pickup output are very similar but neither one will completely tell you how hot or how loud a pickup will be. You can have two pickup that sound worlds different as well as different volumes that measure the same ohms. There is a WB pickup set that matches a 20K bridge pickup (almost as hot as an EMG 81) with an 8k neck pickup. The higher the output of the bridge pickup, the more it will tend to compress so a 20K bridge pickup will not be that much louder than a 12K pickup.

Im not trying to bust anyones balls here, I just do want there to be any misinformation. Basically im just trying to say that matching pickups based on Dimarzio's output numbers is not the best way to go.

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Wait I was saying true to the volume drops because I ve had that happen matching wrong output one up but I only really use dimarzio so thats all I really know cuz the only seymours I have came with the guitar so I didnt have to match them so I wasnt trying to argue so Valtiel is there a neck pick up you would recommend any brand thats passive thanks

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Not at all man, in my experience mV is the only method for measuring pickup's output that has worked for me. A 375mV tonezone is way louder and distorts harder than a 300mV PAF pro, both of which are surpassed by a 425mV super distortion, and a 510mv X2N is more sensitive and distorts harder than any other dimarzio pickup(I have had all of these pickups).

I have a tonezone in the bridge of one of my guitars and the other pickup is a 160-180mV and the drop in volume and output is huge, mV is a reasonable way to measure a pickup's output.

The TZ is suggested to be paired with paf pro, the Evolution and d-activator matched sets are also really close in mV of output. Find me a suggested/calibrated set that has such a huge gap in mV as the air norton and d-activator.

I'll never understand why seymour duncan doesn't specify output voltages on their website, I might've bought a SD at some point if I had more information about their pickups other than their EQ curve.

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I was just wondering if an EMG HZ H4 would work at the bridge with a SHR-1 at the neck. They are both high output pickups. It may seem like an odd combination but yeah. I was just wondering. Would one drown out the other or?
help pleaseeeee

Im mostly talking about neck pickups. Output makes a much bigger difference in the bridge position due to the decreased string travel and you will notice volume drops with different pickups. But in the neck position, this is almost a non issue unless you go to the extremes. Andy Timmons' signature guitar has a pair of Cruiser hum cancelling singles and a Breed Humbucker in the bridge. According to Dimarzio, the breed is approximately "356mv" whereas the Cruiser's are 140. Ive played the guitar and have heard Andy Timmons play it multiple times, hardly any difference in output when he switches pickups, only difference in tone.

The fact is that there isnt a single pickup winder besides Dimarzio that uses mV as a guide for pickup output. And ive checked Bareknuckle, Wolfetone, Lollar, Lindy Fralin, WCR, Seymour Duncan, Gibson, Fender, and WB. If it were more than a marketing strategy, other people would be doing it. DC resistence tells you the approximate number of winds, more winds = more resistence which will equal more mids, less highs, and more output. Generally speaking of course.

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Then how can a Dimarzio Super distortion, an extremely bassy pickup have a DC resistance of 13.8k, while a far hotter pickup and extremely brighter pickup like the X2N, have a DC resistance of 15.8k?

Or for something that makes even less sense: a MUCH lower output pickup: the Tonezone, have a resistance of 17.3k, or a Duncan JB have 16.4 k?? Both MORE than either the super distortion or x2n, which are obviously worlds ahead in terms of output?

The list of inconsistencies goes on. For something that varies this much how can anyone use it to accurately evaluate the output of a pickup? A high voltage signal drives the preamp section, not ohmage(resistance). Wikipedia says that to get a higher voltage signal out of a pickup you need to wind it more and increase it's DC resistance, which makes sense, but I've already demonstrated that this proportion does not remain true on loads of different pickups.

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DC Resistence can and does vary with the style of wind you use on a pickup. I agree that Dimarzio's DC resistence figures are really bizzare and id like to take some apart and figure out wtf is going on inside some of them.

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Maybe Dimarzio just know what they're doing and the rest of the pickup manufacturers are just n00bs.

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the reason for the change in DC resistance is the gauge and type of wire.
For example, taking dimarzio into consideration, note the ouput of a Super Distortion, and a Super 2. Both are at 425mV. But then note their DC resistance. 8.7 for the 2, and 13.68 for the distortion. I dont know why specifically, but contributing reasons could be that the super II has different gauge wire, or differently mixed magnets.

if we kept all variables the same (type/size/number of magnet(s), wire material, size/type/material of poles) the following rule applies: More winds = more mids, bass, output at sacrifice of highs. Less winds = more highs at sacrifice of mids, bass and output.

As to solve the resistance/output argument... i cant because i dont work for dimarzio hahahha. But basically, more resistance means more winds, but resistance can be lowered with higher gauge or different metal wires (like using silver instead of copper...). Output also increases with the winds to a point where the resistance begins to decrease the output. I do not know how wire gauge or material effects output, but i would love to learn. Maybe when i start up my own pickup company hahahahhaha.

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Im gonna dig a little deeper on this topic so we can get some definitive answers on the whole concept of mV. I am packing up to move up north to work for a pickup winder pretty soon so im sure ill be able to dig up some answers there.

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Cool.

I don't think Dimarzio would use silver instead of copper on some of their pickupsd, their pickups would probably be a good 6 times more expensive!

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