The DiMarzio D Activator 7-String Humbucker Bridge Pickup. Active humbuckers have a distinctive sound: powerful, clean, open-sounding, with excellent harmonic overtones and very tight lows. This also fits the description of a great 7-string pickup, if the problems associated with active pickups — sterile sound and limited headroom — could be eliminated. The D Activator 7™ Bridge pickup does just that. The D Activator 7™ Bridge has the same loud yet clean sound as the best active humbuckers, and killer harmonics. The low "B" string is all about attack, not mud. It responds instantly to hard or light picking. In a word: it rocks. No batteries required.
Like the 6-string version, the D Activator 7™ Bridge pickup has a very focused attack that hits the amp hard and makes it "feel" more powerful than it actually specs out to be. DiMarzio also wanted to avoid the limiting effect that can occur with active pickups when they are played hard. The D Activator 7 pickup is passive with a lot of headroom, and it responds quickly and accurately to changes in pick attack. A hard pick attack doesn't cause the signal to flatten out, and picking more softly or rolling the volume control down lets the sound clean up naturally. Like all passive pickups, D Activators™ require controls with a minimum value of 250Kohms. 500K is the standard all around value, and the DiMarzio 1 Megohm tone control is best for long cable runs.
