« Active sounding passive neck pickup »

Dimarzio is one of the most popular after market pickup makers around. They are known for their modern sounding pickups built for modern guitar players. Players like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci have been using their pickups for years and these are your definition of modern guitar players. The D-Activator line of pickups is their attempt to make a passive pickup that sounds like an active pickup. This is aimed more towards the metal audience. This is the 7 string model so it has an even more specialized audience. There are a lot less 7 string pickups out on the market and the best ones being active limits the options you have if you do not want to get an active pickup. Also all the 7 string active pickups come in sizes that do not let you put them in guitars that did not come with them originally. This pickup is made for the neck position and thats the main problem with it. It seems like they have modeled this passive pickup after the EMG 81 7 string version. This is a good pickup but the problem is that the pickup is meant for the bridge position. The 81 and the D-Activator have super bright high end gain sounds. This means they are super clear when you are riffing away in the bridge position. The seccond you put one in the neck position you get a pretty much unusable sound. The sound is not smooth at all. Some people with really muddy guitars make like this but I do not. When I switch to the neck position I want a smooth sound for lead playing. If you try and play leads with this pickup in the neck position you will have a harsh super bright sound. If you have a super muddy 7 strin guitar or are planning on tuning down very very low this is the pickup for you. If you are not doing these things I would recommend something else.