NGD- Ibanez and Laser edition!

[RevDrucifer]

With fuckin' lasers!



I had initially reached out to the seller via FB Marketplace as he had a UV777BK for sale for $1200 in near mint condition. I almost shit myself and couldn't get to him fast enough.....thankfully, I didn't shit myself, unfortunately, I didn't get to him fast enough. A few days later he sent me a message saying he was going to list this for $500. I told him I'd take it as I haven't seen a 90's MIJ for under $800 in quite a while, never mind an RG7620.

There's a couple dings in the body, but aside from that it's in great condition. Neck is flawless and it doesn't even have any neck joint cracks! Frets are surprisingly not bad, can use some fret erasers and maybe a crown, I'll have to get it all set up before I can really tell.

I've got some PAF7's I'm going to slap in this thing once the Terminator kit from Mad Hatter shows up. There's some pretty cool split options available with it that you wouldn't normally get and since I fucking HATE soldering pickups, I'll get them in and out in 10 minutes. Might have a little gap from the EMG route, but I don't think I can keep an EMG in this thing. Maybe I'll crank out some Fear Factory covers first.

This is what the Terminator system will do with the pickups-

Position 1 - Bridge Pickup Full Humbucker
Position 2 - Bridge & Neck Pickup Single Coils Towards Bridge (hum-cancelling)
Position 3 - Bridge & Neck Pickups Full Humbucker
Position 4 - Bridge & Neck Pickup Single Coils Towards Neck (hum-cancelling)
Position 5 - Neck Pickup Full Humbucker

In Transformed Mode (250K) with the 4/25 P/P Pot engaged the switch positions will be as follows:

Position 1 - Bridge Pickup Split
Position 2 - Bridge & Neck Pickup Single Coils Towards Bridge (hum-cancelling)
Position 3 - Bridge & Neck Pickups Split Inner Coils
Position 4 - Bridge & Neck Pickup Single Coils Towards Neck (hum-cancelling)
Position 5 - Neck Pickup Split

[Budda]

Noice.

[Chris]

Fuck yeah! The RG550 of sevens. Score!

[RevDrucifer]

Shit, I don't even have to set this thing up! The strings are pretty old and shitty but it's already set up with 10-59's and I wouldn't change a thing about the action. I need to get the trem angle a little better than it is, but that'll take 5 minutes. It's been years since I've played a 7-string for longer than 5 minutes and I'm surprised at how well I'm getting around the neck on this thing. I just blasted through some Fear Factory and Korn using the Virtual Capo in the AxeFX to get down to A and it's pretty crazy how well that thing tracks.

And damn it's fun to play Korn songs. The only Fear Factory song I know is "Descent" because we used to play it in high school.....drop-tuning our 6 strings all the way down to ADGCFA with 10's I've always wanted to learn "A Change Of Seasons"......but my fucking ex ruined it by walking down the aisle to the intro!

[DonBot]

Badass. Absolutely cannot go wrong with one of those.

[desertdweller]

Fuck yeah! The RG550 of sevens. Score!

Yeah the 7620, 1527, and even the 7420 to a similar extent are emblematic of the late 90s / early 2000s to me. Somedays I miss the 7620 I sold to Drew back in the day, awesome guitars.

[Bloody_Inferno]

Nice one!

I've actually got the same Terminator kits getting installed on my 2 RG1527s. Great systems.

[Naren]

Awesome score. I always find it weird when I see a guitar where one pickup is an EMG and the other is a passive. It just looks off balance and I want to either change both pickups to EMGs or both pickups to passives. It sounds like you'll be changing both to passives (never heard of this Terminator company before).

Yeah the 7620, 1527, and even the 7420 to a similar extent are emblematic of the late 90s / early 2000s to me. Somedays I miss the 7620 I sold to Drew back in the day, awesome guitars.

Those are all great guitars. My favorite guitar I've ever owned is probably my old RG1527. It was my best playing guitar I've ever owned. I like it better than guitars I've owned that were a lot more expensive (like my Gibson LP or Ibanez J Custom). The RG752FX-GK I have now is basically the same as my RG1527, same color, woods, and so on too, but just without a tremolo (and with some minor changes such as this guitar having locking tuners, which the RG1527 did not have, and this one having bigger fret dot inlays, not to mention the RG1527 coming stock with super shitty pickups, while the RG752FX-GK came stock with one of my favorite pickups: the DiMarzio PAF7, though I changed it out for BKPs).

[Ryan]

Nice! I've been keeping my eye out for a 7620 for a while now, they're a bit thin on the ground these days.

Edit: This just prompted me to look on ebay, just found one in my town and hit buy it now.

[jacksonplayer]

Very cool!

[Shawn]

Nice. You can't go wrong with a 7620.

[RevDrucifer]

Awesome score. I always find it weird when I see a guitar where one pickup is an EMG and the other is a passive. It just looks off balance and I want to either change both pickups to EMGs or both pickups to passives. It sounds like you'll be changing both to passives (never heard of this Terminator company before).



Those are all great guitars. My favorite guitar I've ever owned is probably my old RG1527. It was my best playing guitar I've ever owned. I like it better than guitars I've owned that were a lot more expensive (like my Gibson LP or Ibanez J Custom). The RG752FX-GK I have now is basically the same as my RG1527, same color, woods, and so on too, but just without a tremolo (and with some minor changes such as this guitar having locking tuners, which the RG1527 did not have, and this one having bigger fret dot inlays, not to mention the RG1527 coming stock with super shitty pickups, while the RG752FX-GK came stock with one of my favorite pickups: the DiMarzio PAF7, though I changed it out for BKPs).

It’s very odd to me, too. They’re not balanced at all and there’s a considerable volume drop when switching to the neck pickup. I don’t mind the sound of the 707, but I’m anxious to get rid of it,. I first heard of the Mad Hatter (they make the Terminator system) from a buddy who I’ve known since the AOL days who ended up working for Vai for a while as a studio hand. He met someone making these solderless pickup harnesses and they got Vai to let them install it in EVO.

https://madhatterguitarproducts.com/

The pots in my JEM were in need of replacing so I figured “Why not?”, since I hate soldering so much. I got the Terminator EVO kit and it took all of 15 minutes from start to finish to get it in the guitar and everything wired up. It’s got a push/pull on the volume knob that retains the top end when rolling the volume down; might sound good some some pickups but it sounds like fucking ass with Evolutions. Those need all the warmth they can get. I’ll probably replace it with another system to allow for more split-coil options.

I’ll end up putting these in most of my guitars just to make pickup swaps that much easier. Not needing to solder/cut the leads will certainly help with flipping them if I don’t dig ‘em. They’ve got options for every setup and I love being able the more variation I can get out of one guitar, the better. So I can pretend that I’ll use it creatively.

I tried an Obsidian solderless harness on a Strat……that was garbage. Took me 3.5 hours to get the fucking leads into the wire jacks and when I finally assembled it all, tightening the nut on the tone knob would make the whole thing short out, no matter what I did. (There’s even spacers to prevent that under the pickguard) I rarely throw shit out like that, but that went right in the garbage.

[RevDrucifer]

Nice! I've been keeping my eye out for a 7620 for a while now, they're a bit thin on the ground these days.

Edit: This just prompted me to look on ebay, just found one in my town and hit buy it now.

Fuck yeah!

[Chris]

On the upside that EMG route looks really clean. I don't get why someone would route just the bridge, especially if they were planning that much finish work.

You could always just slap a UV pickguard on it and have a budget UV that looks 99% as good for 1/4 the price at the expense of pyramids.

[Chris]

It’s very odd to me, too. They’re not balanced at all and there’s a considerable volume drop when switching to the neck pickup. I don’t mind the sound of the 707, but I’m anxious to get rid of it,. I first heard of the Mad Hatter (they make the Terminator system) from a buddy who I’ve known since the AOL days who ended up working for Vai for a while as a studio hand. He met someone making these solderless pickup harnesses and they got Vai to let them install it in EVO.

https://madhatterguitarproducts.com/

I'm sure it makes things easier but...

https://madhatterguitarproducts.com/...inator-svst-6s

Holy fuck, $115 for that? That's like a $20 stewmac order.

Edit: Just checked Stewmac. Jesus, it's been a while since I bought guitar parts apparently.

[Naren]

Huh. Had never heard of this system before. Learned something new today.

[RevDrucifer]

On the upside that EMG route looks really clean. I don't get why someone would route just the bridge, especially if they were planning that much finish work.

You could always just slap a UV pickguard on it and have a budget UV that looks 99% as good for 1/4 the price at the expense of pyramids.

The route is REALLY clean and tight, I think they even painted it inside. You can definitely tell I didn’t do it!

I’ve tossed the idea around of converting it into a Green Dot, minus the single coil, which I can live without as I’m really starting to enjoy H/H and not hitting that middle pickup all the time. I really wanted a UV777BK so I could put a pearloid pickguard on it with chrome pickups because I think that’d look snazzy as fuck and would consider doing that with this if it had chrome hardware. Maybe I’ll just get a neon green pickguard for it….

It’s fun as hell to play and I totally forgot how much I miss playing a 7-string. It actually makes me slightly bummed it took me so long to get one. There’s a total different sound to them and even though I mainly hang out in drop-C on my other guitars, there’s something so much more beastly about those same notes on a 7-string.

[Chris]

The route is REALLY clean and tight, I think they even painted it inside. You can definitely tell I didn’t do it!

I’ve tossed the idea around of converting it into a Green Dot, minus the single coil, which I can live without as I’m really starting to enjoy H/H and not hitting that middle pickup all the time. I really wanted a UV777BK so I could put a pearloid pickguard on it with chrome pickups because I think that’d look snazzy as fuck and would consider doing that with this if it had chrome hardware. Maybe I’ll just get a neon green pickguard for it….

It’s fun as hell to play and I totally forgot how much I miss playing a 7-string. It actually makes me slightly bummed it took me so long to get one. There’s a total different sound to them and even though I mainly hang out in drop-C on my other guitars, there’s something so much more beastly about those same notes on a 7-string.

Personally I'd go proper oldschool 550 with it.

[RevDrucifer]

I'm sure it makes things easier but...

https://madhatterguitarproducts.com/...inator-svst-6s

Holy fuck, $115 for that? That's like a $20 stewmac order.

Edit: Just checked Stewmac. Jesus, it's been a while since I bought guitar parts apparently.

Hahahahah yeah man, I don’t mind paying for convenience. It’s all great quality shit and you don’t get the idea they cheaped out on anything. Pretty sure it’s just one dude making everything from his house. I can solder cables/jacks all day, but put me in a pickup cavity with a solder iron and I’ll fucking destroy a guitar in 15 seconds.

[RevDrucifer]

Personally I'd go proper oldschool 550 with it.

But neon green is so…..neon.

[man jerk]

What's the difference between a 7620 and a 7621? There is a 7621 for sale near me for $650
https://cosprings.craigslist.org/msg...385072405.html

Edit: drr.... the bridge lol

[Chris]

But neon green is so…..neon.

Also true. Get a set of green blazes for it too.

[Bloody_Inferno]

The pots in my JEM were in need of replacing so I figured “Why not?”, since I hate soldering so much. I got the Terminator EVO kit and it took all of 15 minutes from start to finish to get it in the guitar and everything wired up. It’s got a push/pull on the volume knob that retains the top end when rolling the volume down; might sound good some some pickups but it sounds like fucking ass with Evolutions. Those need all the warmth they can get. I’ll probably replace it with another system to allow for more split-coil options.

I’ll end up putting these in most of my guitars just to make pickup swaps that much easier. Not needing to solder/cut the leads will certainly help with flipping them if I don’t dig ‘em. They’ve got options for every setup and I love being able the more variation I can get out of one guitar, the better. So I can pretend that I’ll use it creatively.

I can't remember when I found out about Mad Hatter, but installing a Terminator EVO on my main RG was the best decision I made. Though I've got Breeds in my RG, so they're great when you're doing the volume knob dynamic controlling. Then I fell deeper into the rabbit hole. Got 3 more right afterwards (a Terminator TEN on another RG, which is awesome, a 6 way toggle on my strat/Talman, and another EVO), and recently bought another 3, 2 for my 7s.

We should apply for endorsements.

[Dominic]

Nice! I've been keeping my eye out for a 7620 for a while now, they're a bit thin on the ground these days.

Edit: This just prompted me to look on ebay, just found one in my town and hit buy it now.

Nicely done, I'd spotted that bargain yesterday and would have snagged it myself but for Brexit/the pandemic making it totally impractical for me to buy guitars back home any more.

[Markus]

Nice score! I had one in grey that was a really cool guitar - if it had been an RG7621 or (old MIJ) RG7421 I'd probably still have it.