All user reviews for the DiMarzio DP701 Blaze Middle

The DiMarzio Blaze Middle is the only single coil that DiMarzio offers for the seven string world. It was made to go along with the Blaze Neck and Blaze Bridge in the Ibanez Universe. Clever names, I know. It’s a true single coil that features adjustable pole pieces, two conductor wiring and a ceramic magnet stuffed inside of it.

First of all, this pickup is average sounding. It’s not that great, but it’s also not bad. It can work for most situations, but the fact that there are so few seven string single coils on the market means your choices are limited to pretty much this or some custom wound pickup. Duncan has a much nicer selection, actually. They’ll make a seven string version of any of their pickups.

This pickup has some decent bite to it like any other single coil, even bass and even mids. It’s fairly clean sounding without getting muddy, and it works for most situations out there. One of my gripes with this pickup is that it has a ceramic magnet, just like all of DiMarzio’s seven string pickups. These ceramic magnets can work great for that super tight sound, but they can hinder the way the pickup blooms. I find singles coils are especially susceptive to this issue. An Alnico 5 magnet in this would be pretty nice, but it still makes for an overall average pickup.

If you’re looking for a single coil pickup for your guitar, you’re not going to find many options. This is a decent choice to run, but I find it’s pretty much strictly a middle string pickup. I find that it doesn’t have enough power to work in the bridge, and the neck tones with this thing are a bit dismal. The good thing is that I don’t use the middle position all that much anyway, so it never really bothered me.