Petrucci's Majesty guitar pickups

halen5150

halen5150

Member
hi there. I want to use my EBMM majesty as a main guitar though, Imho its illuminator pickups are too dark when I play some chords. so Im considering swapping pickups with dimarzio steves special and air norton.
If the Majesty users are here, what is your impression on illuminator pickups?

 
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Not an EBMM owner (hopefully someday), but I have a guitar with Illuminators and I've played the JPs and Majestys in stores. You're right, I think they're dark sounding. But I think Petrucci likes darker sounds. Just listen to his factory IR or any of his gear demos.

I'll probably swap mine out too. I'm thinking of going a different direction though and turning that guitar into a classic rock guitar with some Thornbuckers or maybe I'll go back to the trusty JB/59. For modern stuff, I love the Nazgul/Sentient combo I've got in my 7 string.
 
I wouldn't call my (non-artisan) Majesty dark necessarily, but the pickups are rather "boomy". I hear the artisans are even darker. Mine sounds fine with amps that have a lot of bass cut before distortion. I.E. the Mesa models, with the bass cranked down as most people do. The cut switch works wonders as well, then the sounds opens up.

Just beware the wiring is quite a bit different than most guitars and the pickups themselves are on a circuit-board. I'm not sure how easy they are is to replace.

Check out the pics in this thread:
can an electric guitar pickup "fail"?
 
Yes these pickups are really boomy sounding pickups! I also had a good experience with the Marshall amps, and sounded really tight and thick. but with my mark v it sounds dark and muddy a bit so I yesterday got the dimarzio steve's special and air norton for swapping.
 
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Had a JP15 for a while, ended returning it for few reasons.
One thing I can say for sure is that the Illuminators over there where not boomy and not dark but way too bright for my taste.
It’s a big matter of neck / fingerboard wood, maple is more brighter than mahogany, it's also a matter of the preset config and above all, your hands and ears.
 
halen5150 said:
but with my mark v it sounds dark and muddy a bit so I yesterday got the dimarzio steve's special and air norton for swapping.
Click to expand...

Let me know how the SS/AN combo works out for you. I'm interested in the results. I have the EBMM custom bridge off the original JP6's and an AN I can swap in.
 
So I swapped the Illuminator bridge in my Majesty for a BKP Miracle Man that I had laying around. Definitely wasn't a simple swap. The corners of the baseplate of the pickup had to be filed and rounded to fit in the cavity. Also, the pickup cavity is very shallow. Right now I have about 2mm clearance from the top of the pickup to the bottom of my strings, not fretted. The Miracle Man sounds very good for metal. I may pull the pickup back out and rout the cavity slightly to get a little more distance between the pickup and strings.
 
I finally had some experimentation between the illuminator and the other Dimarzio pickups.

Illuminator neck / illuminator bridge
Steve's special / Air Norton
D Sonic / JP custom neck

You were right! Imho, the Illuminator pickups are not dark sounding pickups. I was surprised that the Illuminator pickup is rather bright sounding pickup.
it was due to the majesty guitar that the guitar entirely sounded dark I guess.


 
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I have em on my majesty 7 polar noir. I think they suit the modern DT era style just fine. I love SS/AN combo though and I use em on my ibanez guitars. I think they are more versatile.
 
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