[thebearo]

I recently bought an Ibanez RGA 7 (mahogany body, 5 piece maple/walnut bolt on neck) with CrunchLab/LiquiFire combo off craigslist. The CrunchLab was installed with the bar towards the neck and sounded muddy and undefined. I turned the pickup around and it is one of the best pickups I've ever heard. It has bite and saturation for days, and note definition is incredible. Is there something off with the pickup?

[darkbluemurder]

Is there something off with the pickup?

Probably not. Quite a few people have reported on the tonal differences with the bar towards neck or towards bridge.

Glad you like it the way it is now.

Cheers Stephan

[Wannabe]

If my memory serves me correctly, Petrucci spun it around from the way it was initially designed and liked it that way.  I installed my first one with the bar to the bridge and moved the pickup 2mm further away from the bridge than standard and LOVED the sound.
If your deal sounds that good, how could the pickup be wrong??  Sounds like a win/win to me.

[Art Rodriguez]

I recently bought an Ibanez RGA 7 (mahogany body, 5 piece maple/walnut bolt on neck) with CrunchLab/LiquiFire combo off craigslist. The CrunchLab was installed with the bar towards the neck and sounded muddy and undefined. I turned the pickup around and it is one of the best pickups I've ever heard. It has bite and saturation for days, and note definition is incredible. Is there something off with the pickup?

I had the same experience with this guitar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Rdjzp-rYg

Definitely the CL7 in mahogany works better with the bar towards the bridge.