Sound: Well the V7 is an Ibanez stock pickup, less output than the Infinity series but still somewhat hot, more like a medium-high gain. Its name suggest what its good for, "Vintage 7" hence the medium to high output. Right now I'm using it in my Ibanez RG3EXFM1 since I haven't changed them (their stock) and I run it through Randall amps, and a mix of pedals, the Boss Ce, ISP Decimator, Hao Rust Driver, MXR Flanger to name some. It sounds great through all with its very balanced tone. I just wish it had a little more low end. However it gets muddy when tuned below B. Its a neck pickup so of course it'll have a round glassy tubescreamer kinda sound, but this one keeps some high end. you may want to back off ur tone knob though. Bridge, would be a dumb idea to put this in. Also its passive. Almost forgot to mention, clean sounds great, no breakup at all. Very round, watery tone. // 7
Reliability & Durability: Pickup durability reliability etc. good, its covered so don't have to worry about its screws and stuff. Hast shorted or done anything to me since I bought the guitar 1 1/2 years ago. // 9
Impression: Well, I like it honestly. When compared to other stock pickups, Ibanez is usually not the best company, but the Infinity and V series aren't horrible like many say they are. Of course their going to have crap tone when compared to Blackouts, and PAF's. I enjoy the subtle dynamics you can achieve with the v's but since its a neck pickup, I don't plan to use it much besides clean. Neck pos. // 8
Of course the replacement sounds much better...but for what they are, they're good pickups.