Huge difference between kinda similar guitars with Mark V 25

[p3netru]

Hello there everyone!

I recently got myself a nice minimark which I'm enjoying a lot! I have 2 guitars:

- Ibanez RG2550 with D-Sonic and Air Norton pickups (the middle one is the stock one). Stardard D tunning
- Ibanez RG1527 (7 string) with Crunch Lab and Liquifire pickups (no middle pickup). Standard E (B) tunning.

I have always found the second one easier to play in terms on finding my sound, although I could play both of them liking them a lot. But after getting this amp I found that:

- The RG 2550 was pretty much plug and play with every single channel/mode/setting. Tight rhythms, smooth leads, all kind of wonderful cleans, kinda-dirty gainy sounds...
- The RG 1527 sounds really nice in channel 1 clean modes, but sucks in every gain setup. I've tried to tweak it for hours but I can't find anything worth playing, even with the standard full gain-trebble:2-mids:9-bass:9 it lacks gain by a lot.

I'm not sure what I sould do. Maybe get some DS7/AN7? I'm afraid it won't be the problem, since the diference is really huge.

Thanks in advance, folks.

 

[screamingdaisy]

Have you tried adjusting the pickup height on the 7 string?

 

[p3netru]

The 7S pup is actually way closer than the other, I should try to make it further from the strings to avoid some noise IMO. In that case it should have more gain instead of less, shouldn't it?

 

[screamingdaisy]

The 7S pup is actually way closer than the other, I should try to make it further from the strings to avoid some noise IMO. In that case it should have more gain instead of less, shouldn't it?

According to the Dimarzio site the Crunch Lab should be higher output than the Drop Sonic... and if the Crunch Lab is closer to the strings the difference should be even more substantial. If it's too close then lowering it may improve the tonality, but it won't fix the lack of output.

If the 7 string/Crunch Lab lacks output it makes me wonder if there's something wrong with the pickup or controls.

 

[barryswanson]

Old strings?

 

[p3netru]

The 7S pup is actually way closer than the other, I should try to make it further from the strings to avoid some noise IMO. In that case it should have more gain instead of less, shouldn't it?

According to the Dimarzio site the Crunch Lab should be higher output than the Drop Sonic... and if the Crunch Lab is closer to the strings the difference should be even more substantial. If it's too close then lowering it may improve the tonality, but it won't fix the lack of output.

If the 7 string/Crunch Lab lacks output it makes me wonder if there's something wrong with the pickup or controls.

If that is the case, I haven't noticed before. As I told you before, I usually prefered Crunch Lab tone rather than D-Sonic's.

And no, strings aren't particulary old.

:S