Ace Flibble
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+1 on that. When you start with a 7-string it seems like pumping the bass up on your amp is the right thing to do, but you're almost always better off dialing bass back and pushing the mids up. The further into the standard chuggy-chuggy 7-string playing you get, the more the bass needs to go down and the mids up. My E Standard classic blues tone and my Drop A 7-string goth metal tone have almost the same EQ, just with the gain in different places!
I've been using 7-strings for many years now and I've gotten to the point where I've incorporated it into my regular rock, pop and blues playing, as well as the obvious metal. I'll say that low output pickups do work, and in fact are ideal—high output pickups lose too much clarity, hence why active pickups are based on low output winds—but you do need an appropriate amplifier and you have to set everything up in a way which seems a bit counterintuitive.
You're using an Axe FX, right? Brilliant. Solid state/modelling solves many problems for low tunings and extended scale guitars. Your pickup output basically doesn't matter and the low end through to the mids is all naturally that bit more controlled. The Line 6 HD147 and Vetta II, a decade old each and from a much-maligned brand, are still considered to be top-class amps when it comes to 7- and 8-strings because solid state modelling amps sort everything out for you.
If your Axe FX is the first version, try the JCM900 patch. If it's the second version, try the JVM410 Orange patch. JVM orange is basically a JCM800 with a built-in clean boost on the second or third gain stage, and to say it is tight and has more distortion than you'll ever need would be an understatement. JCM900 is much the same case, just very slightly lower in gain. Either way, try setting the bass at half, mids about two thirds or three quarters—depends on your speakers—and treble to taste. If you're using virtual speakers, try going for the kind of curve a T75 has; slack off the mids a touch, extend the lowest and highest extremes. Keep things like resonance, depth and presence around the halfway mark. Set gain to wherever it gets you the level of distortion you want. Remember that the lower you tune, the less gain you actually need; it takes a lot less for a 7-string to sound heavy than a 6-string. On my modelling system as well as my real JVM, I have the gain set just a tiny, tiny fraction beyond 5 for metal and roll it back to about 3.5 for rock/pop, and my 7-strings' pickups have output about on par with an overwound PAF humbucker.
If you find that's still not giving you a very clear 7th string with distortion, I'd lower the pickup a tiny bit, consider using a very slightly heavier 7th string and simply reduce the bass by a notch again. Putting an virtual/graphic EQ in front of the amp, with a treble boost, can also help, though obviously this can make your 1st and 2nd strings a bit piercing, too. If you go that route then you should actually raise the pickup very slightly on the side of the highest strings. It's very common for 7- and 8-string players to have their pickups set high on the high string side and low on the side of the lower strings.
If you do ever want to go the common scooped mids route, just use the graphic EQ options to add a mid scoop after the power amp section. This is the joy of using a modelling system, most of them have these options and the Axe FX's is a very good one. Keeping the mids up on the amp section and scooping the mids later gives you better-defined distortion with a low tuning or extended range guitar than just scooping the mids out at the amp section.
Remember, you've got the most powerful and flexible tone-shaping tool in your hands, and the PAF7 pickups are about as even as you can get for 7-string without going to active pickups. You just have to throw away everything you thought you knew about EQing an amp and choosing speakers.
The only other tip is consider replacing the screw poles in the bridge PAF7 with hex poles, at least under the wound strings. Hex poles give a slightly 'sharper' response. This is especially handy if you do, for whatever reason, end up raising the pickup. It's why most high-output 7-string pickups come with two rows of hex pole as standard.
I've been using 7-strings for many years now and I've gotten to the point where I've incorporated it into my regular rock, pop and blues playing, as well as the obvious metal. I'll say that low output pickups do work, and in fact are ideal—high output pickups lose too much clarity, hence why active pickups are based on low output winds—but you do need an appropriate amplifier and you have to set everything up in a way which seems a bit counterintuitive.
You're using an Axe FX, right? Brilliant. Solid state/modelling solves many problems for low tunings and extended scale guitars. Your pickup output basically doesn't matter and the low end through to the mids is all naturally that bit more controlled. The Line 6 HD147 and Vetta II, a decade old each and from a much-maligned brand, are still considered to be top-class amps when it comes to 7- and 8-strings because solid state modelling amps sort everything out for you.
If your Axe FX is the first version, try the JCM900 patch. If it's the second version, try the JVM410 Orange patch. JVM orange is basically a JCM800 with a built-in clean boost on the second or third gain stage, and to say it is tight and has more distortion than you'll ever need would be an understatement. JCM900 is much the same case, just very slightly lower in gain. Either way, try setting the bass at half, mids about two thirds or three quarters—depends on your speakers—and treble to taste. If you're using virtual speakers, try going for the kind of curve a T75 has; slack off the mids a touch, extend the lowest and highest extremes. Keep things like resonance, depth and presence around the halfway mark. Set gain to wherever it gets you the level of distortion you want. Remember that the lower you tune, the less gain you actually need; it takes a lot less for a 7-string to sound heavy than a 6-string. On my modelling system as well as my real JVM, I have the gain set just a tiny, tiny fraction beyond 5 for metal and roll it back to about 3.5 for rock/pop, and my 7-strings' pickups have output about on par with an overwound PAF humbucker.
If you find that's still not giving you a very clear 7th string with distortion, I'd lower the pickup a tiny bit, consider using a very slightly heavier 7th string and simply reduce the bass by a notch again. Putting an virtual/graphic EQ in front of the amp, with a treble boost, can also help, though obviously this can make your 1st and 2nd strings a bit piercing, too. If you go that route then you should actually raise the pickup very slightly on the side of the highest strings. It's very common for 7- and 8-string players to have their pickups set high on the high string side and low on the side of the lower strings.
If you do ever want to go the common scooped mids route, just use the graphic EQ options to add a mid scoop after the power amp section. This is the joy of using a modelling system, most of them have these options and the Axe FX's is a very good one. Keeping the mids up on the amp section and scooping the mids later gives you better-defined distortion with a low tuning or extended range guitar than just scooping the mids out at the amp section.
Remember, you've got the most powerful and flexible tone-shaping tool in your hands, and the PAF7 pickups are about as even as you can get for 7-string without going to active pickups. You just have to throw away everything you thought you knew about EQing an amp and choosing speakers.
The only other tip is consider replacing the screw poles in the bridge PAF7 with hex poles, at least under the wound strings. Hex poles give a slightly 'sharper' response. This is especially handy if you do, for whatever reason, end up raising the pickup. It's why most high-output 7-string pickups come with two rows of hex pole as standard.
ccasion14:
