DiMarzio DP707 LiquiFire 7

As more and more guitar makers make seven string guitars, they need the seven string versions of the pickups they love on their 6 string. Dimarzio has been providing their most popular pickups in 7 string versions. The need for a smooth seven string neck pickup led Dimarzio to convert one of their newest pickups to seven string. The Liquifire is the ideal neck pickup to go with a very hot bridge pickup. It takes care of the problems many 24 fret guitars experience on their neck pickups. Because of the 24 frets the neck pickup is placed farther back then it would be on traditional guitars like a Les Paul or Fender Stratocaster. This means the neck pickup picks up more high end frequencies than it would in the more traditional guitars. This means your neck pickup sound may not be as smooth as it should be. The Liquifire fixes this difficulty. John Petrucci of Dream Theater helped to develop this pickup with his new seven string Ernie Ball MusicMan guitars. When looking at a pickup designed by an artist you should look at what kind of guitar the artist would put it in and what kind of wood that guitar is made out of. In this case the pickup was designed for a seven string guitar with an alder body. Because of this pickups voicing it should work well in most woods some heavy woods may make the sound a little muddy though. This pickup is like a modified Dimarzio Air Norton or PAF pro. The Air Norton was also designed with Petrucci and was intended to be a fat neck pickup with dialed back high end, the Liquifire is an evolution of this concept. It can be used in the bridge but it is ideally suited for the neck position and for lead playing. The Liquifire produces a full and round sound and there is no unwanted high end on the neck pickup. This reduced high end may make clean passages a little undefined. So if you are looking for a modern sounding neck pickup to go on your modern guitar, and plan on playing modern heavy music this could be your pickup of choice.

The DiMarzio LiquiFire 7 is a new signature pickup that John Petrucci helped create. It’s basically an evolution of his Ernie Ball signature neck pickup, which was an evolution of the Air Norton. This pickup features adjustable pole pieces on both coils, four conductor wiring and a ceramic.

This new revision of the Air Norton is hotter and fatter, yet it sounds more alive than the original Air Norton 7. This actually has some of that signature “vowely” quality that a lot of overwound PAFs have, and despite it being fatter, it’s still tight enough to not mud up when playing fast runs. It’s also pretty open, and I feel it really gives the boutique pickups out there a run for their money. Split coil tones sound awesome, and parallel tones sound great as well. The pickup seems to sound great any way you run it.

DiMarzio says this pickup can be used in the bridge, and it can be, but I think it sounds best in the neck position for that super smooth, clear and open lead tone. John developed it around his new Ernie Ball Musicman BFR series guitars that have an alder body, mahogany tone block and maple top, but this pickup will work in any wood. The thing just has tone for days and is probably my new favorite neck pickup. If you want to hear the pickup, check out Dream Theater’s latest albums from “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” and beyond.

If you are looking for a fat, warm, yet clear and tight pickup, this is the pickup you want. It mates with nearly any rig, has tone for days, is quiet, open and just sounds flat out amazing. The note clarity really is improved from the Air Norton, and everything just sounds awesomely complex. I just wish it had an Alnico 5 magnet like its six string counterpart...