20 Best Humbucker Pickups For Blues (2023 Updated)

Sound: “Vintage” output level, balanced low and high end with a slightly scooped midrange, somewhat “spongey” or “loose” feel – pretty much how they describe it on their site, but that’s not really the whole story.

I got this to replace the Dimarzio Air Norton S (another single-coil-sized humbucker) in my Ibanez Xiphos’s neck slot, and I REALLY like the upgrade. It’s great for smooth, articulate neck-position soloing; clean, overdriven, and heavily-distorted rhythm across a range of styles; and really nice coil-split or out-of-phase tones using the 4-conductor wiring (I go with coil-split).

I paired it with a Black Winter Trembucker in the bridge (and reviewed that one on its page here on zZounds), and believe it or not, they’re an EXCELLENT match. The combined coil-split sounds with that one do an awesome Strat or Tele imitation, depending on whether you split to the inside or outside coils.

And as you’d expect, the Little ’59 is spot-on for jazz with the volume and tone controls rolled back a bit. NOTE: A lot of folks will tell you that this pickup doesn’t sound EXACTLY like the full-sized ’59, and that’s true – it’s a little sharper and more “single-coil-y”.

That’s to be expected; this version is narrower, so it picks up less of the string and thus less midrange, and the ceramic magnet that they use to get a comparable output level sounds a touch “harder” than the Alnico V in the standard model.

Again though, Duncan adjusted the coil windings and output to get as close as possible to the full-sized version, and most listeners who don’t play (not to mention plenty of players) would have a hard time telling the difference in a blind A/B comparison.

Features: Very customizable with the 4-conductor wiring and two rows of adjustable pole-pieces, excellent build quality and it looks great too. Ease of Use: Like with any pickup, you’ll want to adjust the height below the strings to get the best response.

The aforementioned 4-conductor wiring gives you tons of options for different tones, and you can fine-tune each string’s response with the dual rows of polepiece screws. Quality: I think the name “Seymour Duncan” says it all here – countless professional players all over the world use this brand because they’re durable, reliable, and they sound great.

This unit is no exception. Value: DEFINITELY worth the price, and then some! It sounds great, looks great, and lets players with single-coil routes in their guitars get that classic P. A. F. sound without having to cut bigger holes in their guitar.

Manufacturer Support: I’ve never had to contact Seymour Duncan for any mechanical or quality issues, but I did reach out with a wiring question some years ago – they were prompt, helpful, and responsive, and I don’t expect that that’s changed since then.

The Wow Factor: Much like the bridge pickup I got to match with it, “tone” is a very subjective thing – some people might like other pickups better. But if you want that old-school humbucker sound without having to route extra wood out of your single-coil-equipped guitar, I can’t imagine how you could beat this one.

A+ Overall: It’s. Well, it’s a Little ’59! Single-coil-sized version of Duncan’s original “P. A. F. ” style pickup (they have a few others with slightly different tones and cosmetics), and it’s very close to a regular ’59 in the sound and response.

The way they approach it is totally different of course – this one uses a ceramic magnet instead of the Alnico V in the full-sized ’59, as well as a different winding and DUAL polepiece screws – but that’s expected when trying to get a P.

A. F. sound out of a single-coil housing.

I have this exact pickup – bridge, double black. It’s installed in an SG 61 Std. The factory pickup wasn’t bad at all. I just wanted a slightly different voice. The HV bridge fills this need. The factory pickup is a Gibson 61 Burstbucker.

This pickup sounds like a Gibson Classic 57+ with an aged magnet that gives just a slightly softer edge to a pickup that has a good bite. You can definitely get the AC/DC tone from this pickup. We know that Angus had stock Gibson TTop pickups on all the studio albums we love.

This pickup is not a TTop clone. However it does get ‘that sound’. Why? because reality is that any PAF moderate wind pickup through a moderate gain Marshall will get you the Angus tone. This pickup gets you there with less fuss and tweaking.

It is sensitive to pickup height – so when dialing in, keep it low and adjust higher until your ears says ‘Live Wire’. I found the tone to be quite balanced with a nice edge at full volume. Combined with the factory neck pickup (Gibson 61) the tone was very vintage and had that Jimmy Page quack to it.

Quite impressed. This helped me decide that the HV was going to be my new permanent bridge pickup in this guitar because it’s not one dimensional – I have quite a pallet of tones to choose from. This pickup worked perfectly in my SG with an alnico 5 neck pickup.

I wouldn’t change anything with the HV pickup. Out of the box it worked nicely and I got the tone I wanted easily. This pickup has Multidimensional PAF tone with edge. It handled all the gain I had without flubbing out or falling apart.

I don’t play metal so I can’t attest to its ability to play high gain.

Bought this as the finishing touch to my Telecaster project. I was given the original guitar which had been left out in torrential rain in someone’s garden years ago. Having refinished the body, replaced the neck and upgraded the hardware I decided to increase the tonal range by replacing the neck pick up with a Humbucker pickup.

This involved some careful surgery to accommodate the new, bigger unit and a replacement, purpose made scratchplate ( customising the original didn’t go well!) The new pickup is a genuine Fender part, substantial and well made.

It’s done exactly what I was hoping to achieve and I now have my perfect electric guitar with a fat, dirty sound option as well as a clean traditional Tele sound.

This pickup is a killer! I replaced a pair of Squire with these in a Starcaster and now I definitely have a new guitar but a much better one!!!!!

This is a great looking Humbucker. This is what I was looking for, for my 72 Deluxe Telecaster build!

Overall: I was very skeptical about these. I had SD Blackouts on my guitar and wanted a JB or 59/Custom and an SSL6. After listening online to JB comparisons and seeing several Greg Koch videos where he states, and you can hear, there is no active pickup compression, and that they feel like passive pickups, I pulled the trigger on these insteadI am very happy I did.

It gets a very close to JB tone, but better; more round and defined and even. Just really great. It reminds me of my Blackouts but open without the compression. Exactly what I was looking for. icing on top is the PAF voicing which is great to have and a single coil voice that is very close to my Strat bridge, no a weak and over-bright harsh mess tapped humbuckers usually are.

The volume knob works! For real! You turn it down and it cleans up, highs don’t disappear and it is not compressed. It’s all usable. It has been great getting to work my volume control again!The tone knob works!.

Seriously, it really works; better than my guitar with passive SD Custom Custom and PRails. I also got the Fluence SSA single coil. Combined with this tapped single coil you get amazing “2 &4” tones.

Real single coil tones. Seriously. This came with a 25K standard control and a 25K push/pull, tone capacitor, stereo jack, appropriate wires/clips, two bridge clips (for permanent switching on the lugs, literature on all the functionality and switching options, and wiring diagrams.

This was a relatively complicated setup if you wanted to get all three sounds, but not more than a tapped passive humbucker. This is very well built. The mounting ears have very thick and wide metal mounts for the height adjustment screws.

I was very happy to see this. My SD Blackouts had these small bushings that came out and I had to superglue them back in, repeatedly. Fishman’s Customer service has been amazing! I was trying to get my knob off and I broke a push pull pot and pulled the mechanism out.

I went to their website and filled out an email form explaining my situation. The next morning a rep said he would send replacements right out. All around I am very impressed and will definitely recommend and buy these again.

These pickups are amazing for someone who wants to run with one bass and wants pickup options. The different voicings are truly different and can change the sound quite well, also considering they can be coil split.

These are perfect for the guy who has one bass or wants to use one bass and is a session guy. The voicings and ease of change on the fly make it ideal for studio work. I would say though, if there’s a specific tonal sound you are going for, I would buy the pickups that beat give you that tonal sound.

Are there better single coil jazz bass pickups? Yes. Are there better active soapbar pickups out there? Yes and no, depending on what you like. But what this does is give you very good pickup sounds for the different styles and voicings it offers, and pretty much puts 6 basses into one bass (if you consider the coil splitting).

If you already own multiple basses, this may not be for you as it may not add to your Arsenal unless you’re looking for a singular bass to travel with. But if you own a single bass and are wanting more tonal options, this is the way to go.

One thing to note, I did have to route out just a little bit the pickup cavities in my Jackson JS3VQ bass, so do check your pickup cavity size. I didn’t need to remove much though and they fit.

Very disappointed but I knew better. These sound like EMG81 pickups. They are not my thing. I love Killswitch engage and had high hopes but those awesome clean tones are post production for sure. High they do great but like I said you’ll sound the same with EMG81/85 pickups.

Just my opinion. Other guitars I own that I play daily to get an idea of the sound I go for. Tom Anderson Drop Top with factory passive pickups(blow these fishmans out of the water) 1969 Les Paul Custom Shop factory Gibson pickups ESP Viper Camo(had EMG81s that now has these fishmans) Dean ML Slime factory dimebucker.

Opinion online seems very divided on Fishman Fluence pickups, but then opinion on anything to do with guitar tone online is always very divided. For myself I have to say that these pickups blew me away.

First off, they look amazing with their high gloss black finish and the signature Fishman dividing line running across them. Second, installation was fairly easy for me with numerous wiring diagrams available for various combinations of volume and tone pots.

It is solder based so not as straightforward as the EMG Hetfields I previously installed in another one of my guitars as those use all push fit connectors. Consequently I would not recommend installation to someone inexperienced.

Third (and most important!) is how they sound. They are quite high output but remain very quiet when not being played, a key feature of the Fluence line. I have found the EMG Hetfields to be over sensitive and very noisy to things like lifting your hand away from the strings after palm muting them.

No such problems with the Fluence, they respond beautifully to picking with each note ringing out clear and unaffected by the others but don’t produce any other unwanted noise from what your hands are doing unless you are particularly heavy handed.

They are also fantastic chuggers, sounding brilliant when palm muted. Depending how you set them up with your controls, they have multiple voicing options. The Ibanez SZ I installed them in has a three position selector switch, two volumes and one tone.

The Fluence set comes with two standard pots and two push pull pots. For my purposes I purchased and additional push pull put so all three on my guitar have a function. Volume 1 push/pulls between voice 1 and voice 2.

Volume 2 when pulled engages the high frequency tilt mode which rolls off some of the higher frequencies as some pickups would when using very long cables. The tone pot when pulled turns them from humbucker to single coil mode.

So, not only do they sound great but you get all these options to change their voicing making them one of the most versatile pickups out there. Fishman Fluence are now my pickup of choice and I will be installing them in more of my guitars, can’t really give a higher recommendation than that!.

Nice calmed down version of the PAF Pro. Despite a mirange bump, which helps in a band mix when used in live performance, the reaction to legato and staccoto picking styles is very forgiving. Perhaps not as crystaline as a Duncan ’59, this pup has it’s place.

Especially when overdriven. Clear response. Pups are definately subjective and depend on what you want out of your sound as well as your technique. I have used this model periodically since 1995. Works great in a higher gain soloing situation; more complex harmonics than the PAF Pro.

I normally use the Duncan ’59, but wanted to contrast my sound and use a newer version of the Air Classic. The midrange ‘honk’ that was mentioned is not dramatic enough to not regard this pup. In a live performance, that honk, which I overlook, is a benefit to your sound in the mix.

Mostly, DiMarzio’s such as this have great note to note response. Hey, if Shawn Lane used it in his custom guitars, that should be testament enough.

I recently rewired my Epiphone Les Paul with Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAF pickups. This wiring job included NEW Bournes 500k Audio taper pots and Orange Drop caps. I used a Sprague Orange Drop. 015 uf for the neck PAF and a.

022 uf Orange Drop cap for the bridge PAF. I firmly believe that using the right pots and caps are critical when getting the correct tone that you are looking for. I am extremely happy with the (clean and over-driven) tones that I get out of this guitar.

At the heart of this vintage sound are the Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAF pickups. The 36th Anniversary PAF pickups provide a full spectrum, vintage sound. I have tried the Duncan 59 neck humbucker and it just seemed to have too much bass, it even sounded boomy.

I have heard the Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAF pickups described as sounding more compressed than the Duncans. I do not feel that compressed is an accurate term to describe the 36th Anniversary PAF pickups.

The 36th Anniversary PAF pickups seem to produce more even Bass, Mid and Treble tones than some other pickups, this is very reminiscent of what I have heard and expect from a vintage (sounding) Les Paul.

Dimarzio has done a good job at reproducing a vintage sounding Les Paul Pickup. I recommend the Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAF pickups if you are trying to get a tone reminiscent of an Old Les Paul.

I put these in a 1988 Les Paul Custom that I have owned since new. I have experimented over the years with different wiring; push/pull, full Jimmy Page, etc. , but never with the pickups. The pickups that were in there were pretty hot and would never really play clean.

I decided that I would try the DP103 in both the bridge and the neck position and I am very satisfied. They balance together really well. At the same time I pulled all of the JP wiring and put in a 50’s wiring harness from a guy named Huddy on the Bay.

I can now play much cleaner, but still get plenty of dirt when engaging the fuzz, distortion or overdrive pedals. They just create a cleaner canvas to work from. I am one that doesn’t completely buy into the whole “boutique” hype.

I enjoy great products at affordable pricing and these fall into that category. I am happy with the purchase.

These are really great sounding pickups. I replaced the 490R and 498T pickups in my 1998 Les Paul Standard and got rid of the muddy undefined tone instantly. These pickups made my chords distinguishable again using a Marshall at high gain.

I don’t split my coils but these have great definition, and while they can be split, I don’t because I have a strategy for that. Before replacing my stock pickups I was very uninspired to play my LP.

The tone palette I now have access to using the various combinations of neck and bridge with the volume and tone knobs makes me want to play for hours. You can tell a lot of thought and work went into crafting the sonic characteristics.

So glad I went with these. The tone quest is over and now I can just play and enjoy what I am hearing.

It’s a fantastic pickup . Sounds great in my Ltd eclipse . I bought it being a fan of Aldrch and Lion . Previously my favorite pickup was seymour duncan Jb . I definitely have a new pickup

Excellent pickup. Bought one on a whim about 3 months ago. Amazing tone loud or soft. But definitely comes alive the more you crank it up. Replaced Whole Lotta Humbucker. I just bought a third one this weekend for another guitar, replacing a SD SH4, which replaced a 498T Best pickup for Suhr !!!.

I never thought I’d get my volume this equal across all 6 strings. The half-and-half design really appealed to me, but there was no way of knowing until I actually bought and installed it. It’s just as effective as the design implies, it’s not a novelty! I play a lot of complex chords using all 6 strings in a high gain setting, and every note cuts through, retaining touch sensitivity all the while.

There is an inherent compression in the pickup which might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but in a mix it’s not a problem, if anything it’s a benefit. The harmonic content is rich and musical, the high output is assertive without being abrasive, the bass response is fantastic, the highs are pleasing although subdued, which is ok with me because with normal pickups I usually dial the tone knob down to 6 or 7.

I keep it wide open with the Railhammer and it sounds awesome. I can’t recommend them enough if you want to generate a rich wall of sound with one guitar. I’m surprised this company hasn’t become industry standard!.

I put this pickup in a cheap HSH Strat that I’ve had sitting around since the early 2000’s. The stock pickups were too thin and sharp sounding–except the middle single coil which sounded okay. I was deciding between this Railhammer pickup and humbucker sized widerange pickups from several manufacturers.

I’m glad I picked Railhammer. This neck pickup is exactly the fat noiseless single coil sound that I was searching for. It sounds thick with just a touch of hair in the mids. The clarity across all strings is the best I’ve heard.

I also put a Cleancut pickup in the bridge position but I didn’t like that as much as it sounded a little ***** on my Strat. I added a cool rails (humbucker in single coil size) to the middle position–but I wired it in series–so that the low end rounded out the ***** bridge pickup.

This is a great sounding set up and maybe one of the best for clean and spanky tones of any guitar that I’ve had yet (I’ve owned Les Paul, Hagstrom, Strats, Tele, PRS, Dan Electro, etc. ).

I dropped a set of these into a Hagstom Ultraswede about a month ago. Seems to be a good replacement for the so-so sounding pups that the ultra had in it. It was an easy swap, and these pups have a pretty high output.

I have never been a fan of active pups due to the need for batteries, these are a good balance between the sound of an active with the ease of a passive pup. Eventually, I will probably put these into one of my down tuned guitars as I believe they will be a better match for that sound.

If you like to tinker around with your guitars and have the ability to change pups from ax to ax you may find that the anvils are fun to play around with. They are pretty heavy (sound wise), but they can also clean up nicely too.

For the type of playing I do, stoner, doom, and heavier sounding tunes, these pups perform. They came with some swag as well, nice little bags, which are always useful for keeping other “stuff” in, and some stickers.

Gotta appreciate a company that gives you freebies!.

Overall: I replaced an 81/85 set in my Schecter C-1 Platinum. They remind me a lot of the old Duncan Distortion in my MIJ Contemporary Strat. I swapped the ceramic magnet with an A5, basically the same specs as a JB.

That’s been my go-to guitar for a while and sets the bar pretty high for any pickup comparison. Well, the Fat 55 set may be my new favorite. They have a really full and powerful tone. I have a JTM45 2×12 combo and a Mesa Rectoverb 50 and these pickups sound great through either amp.

They are similar to my DD pickup output-wise, but after switching to that guitar after using the Fat 55 set, the DD sounds dark and a little dull. Overall, I’m very pleased with this purchase. Somehow the EMG logo was printed on the wrong coils, so when installed properly the logo is upside down.

EMG customer service was great though! They immediately offered to replace the pickups. My lower output PAF style pickups will always have a place in my arsenal, but these pickups offer a very wide range of tones, from great cleans to smoky blues, classic rock and metal.

If you use the volume and tone controls, they will cover just about anything.

I recently purchased this kit, last week. Waited a few days to install. On EMG’s webpage there are two kits, one for Les Pauls and guitars with thick tops, the other kit is for thinner caps like Strats.

AMS sells only the kit thats designed for thinner caps. I didn’t find out this important fact until after the box was open. Once these kits are opened AMS will not allow the kit to be returned. With that said, I contacted AMS Customer Service and they will attempt to contact EMG to get the correct parts to fit my Les Paul.

The parts in question are the Volume and Tone pots. I have been told by AMS it could take 6 weeks for the proper parts to show up to replace the short shaft pots. While I spoke with AMS they were sorry about the incorrect kit parts but bottom line my 2013 Gibson Traditional Gold Top is sitting in its case; tore apart waiting for parts that will not arrive for weeks.

Before you order, make sure its the right kit. FYI; other On-Line Venders are doing the exact same thing and its not just AMS. Still a customer with AMS just wished it didn’t take over a month to get the proper parts for my NOT SO RARE guitar.

There is a upside, I own the Crossroads pickups by EMG and these are a newer type of pickup by EMG. Those pickups sound fantastic and I know once the proper parts arrive; these pickups will sound great too.

I have the sun valley ss frs. This pickup is crispy. Cleans are pretty good for an active pup. This emg hot 77 isnt good for say metallica and sounds alike. Still very rowdy though. I love killswitch engage and trivium.

This pup will growl fosho. Saw reviews that said it wasnt for newer metal. This is not true. Its just not as deep. Ive played guitar for 25 yrs. This is a good pup if you arent one of those scoop all the mids folks.

I’ve used DiMarzio pickups, on and off, since the 90s. I am typically a big fan of the company. Their pickups often have a much more unique or quirky sound then the main competitor. Sometimes though, they miss the mark, at least in their description of the pickup.

The Bluesbucker is marketed as a noiseless P90 in a humbucker size. Some reviewers, who love the pickup, feel that it’s under-marketed by DiMarzio. After installing this pickup in the neck position of a Gibson SG, I’m under the impression that it’s not widely marketed because DiMarzio knows this pickup, while quite good, doesn’t really sound like a P90.

The Bluesbucker has nice, somewhat mellow sound. Single notes have some snap (not a lot), and the pickup gives my guitar an unusual, almost semi-hollow sound. By far the best part of the pickup is its dynamic range.

You get a significant volume difference based on how hard you pick, and there is very little compression (a big plus in my view). It does a great job of cancelling out noise, like a true humbucker. Yet, it really does sound more like a single coil.

The down side, of course, is that if you purchased this expecting P90-type sound, you’re nowhere close to achieving it. I guess there could be a P90 labeled pickup, somewhere out there, which sounds like this.

But, if you compare this to a vintage or modern Gibson P90, there is very little similarity, at least to my ear. It’s hard to describe the difference, but this pickup is more airy and less aggressive sounding than any P90 I’ve ever tried – no matter how close you get it to the strings.

Also, the pickup is slightly larger than a Gibson, and as a result, barely fits into the SG pickguard, deforming it slightly. I’ve only tried one other humbucker-sized P90 – the Duncan Phat Cat. I have to say that the Phat Cat has a MUCH closer sound to the P90.

It’s also very noisy. So, pick your poison.

I own or have owned many high-end instruments, including guitars with original PAF’s Shaw PAF’s and early P90’s. I had picked up an Epiphone Dot ES-335 – NOT a high end instrument but surprisingly very well made.

But the pickups (Chinese 57 Classics) are lacking when compared to PAF’s, early patent number HB’s and early P-90’s – all fairly low output, articulate, clear-sounding pickups. Contrary to folklore PAF’s sound more like a low-noise P90 than a modern high-output HB, and I was researching replacements to get a more vintage-type tone out of the Dot.

I’d read recommendations specific to this guitar & decided to try the Bluesbuckers. Although hyped as a noiseless P90 I found them to have the clarity, articulation and tone of several types of PAF’s (which actually vary quite a bit) with the slightly “raw” edge of a P90.

The guitar simply “woke up” and sounds like a late-50’s/early 60’s Gibson ES-335. Reasonably priced, these pickups. in my case. made a huge, positive difference in the tone of the guitar. I also tested them in my ’84 Les Paul Studio Standard and found them virtually identical to the stock Shaw PAF’s.

Highly recommended for vintage tone applications – they’re not a screaming metal pickup.

After researching online, I chose this DP163 Bluesbucker for my HSS configured strat. The previous humbucker was a DiMarzio DP100. This pickup had only a 2 conductor output and very high output. As a consequence, it couldn’t be split to single coil to enable the bridge/middle Strat “quack” tone.

The output was so much hotter than the two stock single coils that it was impossible to set my amps to get a balanced volume. The DP163 is wound with the coils unbalanced so you get a bright humbucker tone with no hum in normal series mode.

But when you split it into single coil mode, you can combine it with the middle pickup and get that classic Strat “in between” sound. And because the coils are unbalanced, there is little volume loss when split.

The output matches up very well with the stock Strat pickups, so I can set my amps to sound good no matter which pickup is selected. I’m sold. This pickup is perfect for this use!.

These are awesome!!! I’ve put off for the longest time getting EMG’s because of the premium price and the use of batteries, but a recently failed neck pickup in my Dean V prompted me to give em a go.

I was not disappointed in my decision! The 81 is hot yet very meaty, lots of sustain, bite, & clarity. The 85 is surprisingly loud, even set all the way flush with the pickup ring, but it had that deep rich “woman” tone you’d look for from a neck positioned pickup.

They both are very quiet, and you seem to have a lot more control over them, especially if you love using feedback to your advantage. A happy surprise is that they shine just as nicely with clean tones, adding more depth & sustain than was expecting.

They’re aimed at hard rock & metal, I’d be willing to bet you can use em for any style. I installed them myself, and you don’t need much more than some simple small hand tools. Installation was fairly easy, and the instructions are fairly easy to follow if you’re any way mechanically/technically inclined, giving options on setup depending on your volume/tone/selector switch arrangement.

The solderless layout was a big selling point for me since I’m not the greatest at soldering, and the “plug n play” setup is well thought out. My only gripe is that the kit does not give a short shaft pot option, and the cables for the output jack could stand to be a bit longer, but that’s as far as the complaining will go.

Aside from that it’s a Grade A upgrade for those who love humbuckers and rock n roll, SOOO worth the price, can’t believe I waited so long. I’m not one to tell people what to do, but I definitely without a doubt recommend these🤘🏻😎.

EMG is a love or hate relationship with guitarists. I was once in the hate camp until I bought an ’86 Rhoads w/ the classic Jeff Beck / Jazz configuration. I had a set of EMGs molding in a box so I busted them out and installed them.

Being a metal player, and mostly stupid most of the time, I reasoned it a temporary fix to quell the ultra noisy Duncan pickups until I could decide on something better. Serendipity. My guitar came Alive! Not being much of a mystery, I wondered how I could’ve been so wrong, and predictably stupid about the 81/ 85 set.

They’re extremely agressive (little Kreator reference there hehe), quiet and grab all the signal. I own 12 guitars ranging from Jackson, ESP, 2 Les Pauls, 2 Ibanez, a strat, a neck thru Warlock blah blah blah.

all of them have undergone reconstructive EMG surgery. The only divergence in tone is relative to the wood of the particular guitar. People argue this but having 12 guitars all loaded with the same pickups tells the tale.

The cheapest, crappiest Ibanez I spent $700 between a new neck, Shaller Hannes bridge, Grover tuners. all because it sounded the heaviest of all my guitars. This set is exceptional. It’s right there with the ZW 81/85 sets in terms of tone, clarity and silence.

Don’t Tell the Wife Guitars did me a supersolid deal on these. Highly recommend for people who’re going to shred. If you’re going to play Grandpa music (Roy Clark is exempted here), go buy some boring, Vanilla pickups.

If you want to melt your face off, buy these.

I absolutely love EMG pickups. I’ve had guitars with passive EMG and now several with EMG active pickups. The KFK active pickups are BA. I just installed them in my 2004 Ibanez RGT. The stock ones were good but KFK’s with the boost made this guitar sound much better.

Clean, distorted it doesn’t matter these pickups are well rounded. I play mostly Metal and a bit of blues and country. these pickups are great for everything I play. Harmonics are rich and the sustain is great.

I mean the RGT is a 5 ply neck through guitar so that helps but the pickups really woke this guitar up. 81/85 set is the way to go. If you have a dual humbucker guitar. get these! If you play a strat then I say get the Steve Lukather EMG loaded pickguard.

Same bridge humbucker with two active Single coils in middle and neck. Most of my guitars now have EMG actives. The KFK set now my official go to pickup and will definitely go in my next build. EMG’s Rock! Oh and KUDOS to AMS, I ordered these pickups and they arrived the next day.

The pickup itself is great after the tech got it working. The pickup is very balanced with the treble and bass The mids sound to me like a healthy amount of mids without being honky. The harmonics are amazing as you would guess.

It’s versatile in the fact that I can use it for blues, rock and metal. I compared to my other favorite pickup the SD Jb and it sounds bit less girthy and has a tighter low end but plenty enough lows to fill out the sound.

It reminds me of the airy sound of a pearly gates but with more meat and a bit more in your face sound. I loved it and I’m thinking about installing it in another guitar. It kinda sits in the same ballpark as my jb but differs in the harmonics and the airiness.

It doesn’t sound like a high gain pickup but more of a medium to high. Now to the bad. I received this pickup while it was on backorder. Apparently everything EVH is back ordered. I was so surprised when I got the package and my pickup arrived despite gc website saying it’s still on back order.

My local guitar tech said it appeared to be used as the ends were tinned and after installing it didn’t work. He said he re-established the leads to the pickup and it worked. I think GC sent me a returned pickup.

Luckily the tech got it working and I absolutely love the sound. My stars are for the evh pickup but gc really deserves a 1 star as this would have been very upsetting if the pickup didn’t work and knowing they sent me a return.

I cannot say for sure but this is what appears to have happened. Again, luckily it worked.

I replaced my Ibanez’s RG4EXFM1’s oroginal bridge pickup (INF4) with a Wolfgang Bridge Humbucker Pickup. In terms of ease of setting it up, I needed to study my guitar’s wiring system by looking at it (I don’t think you need the original guitar’s wiring diagram).

My Ibanez had a “5 way blade” as a switch board with 8 connecting points, while the instruction that came with the Walfgang was a 3 way. The original had three wires and the Wolfgang had two. I attached the black wire to the volume control and the red one to the swtichboard (one of the two that the original pickup was connected to; I believe you can guess which).

It worked. I really like the look of it and appreciate that it’s Eddy Van Halen’s. In terms of sound, I can’t hear the difference. Overall, I like it for its brand image and the cool zebra look.

This is a great all around pickup. Very hot, clear and “sharp” sounding – distorted or clean. It easily articulates every note. Harmonics are a breeze whether they’re a pick, natural or tapped harmonic.

I’ve got a few of these Wolfgangs as well as the Frankenstein pickup and I believe these Wolfgangs are hotter. I put a Wolfgang bridge and neck in my Ibanez RG550 and they sound awesome – large and in charge.

I play through a 5150 212 combo and these pickups are a great match. It’s gain city!! I do have to keep an eye on it though because these pickups, if oversaturated with gain, can be tough to tame because of feedback.

I keep the lead pre-gain on 6 and that seems to be a good balance for VH or any other rock music. Even though it’s a four conductor wire, it comes from the factory set up for just a single wire lead (one hot and one ground wire).

It could be easily modified though to undo what was done at the factory. I haven’t messed around with that yet – I’m enjoying the sound too much to care. I don’t miss not being able to split the humbucker.

Also, I’ve heard that these don’t sound very good when split. Keep in mind with these that Peavey/Fender use their own color scheme with the wiring for this pickup. The hot is red and the ground is black.

Overall a great pickup and I couldn’t be happier.

Going from a normal set of EMGs, these are not just a different take on the normal 81/60, but from Duncan. They’re very raw sounding. Very edgy. Cleans are more natural than EMG, but not as compressed.

I would say they would work best for hardcore or intense metal that doesn’t need precise tone. At least through my rig. The neck is a lot warmer/fatter than an EMG 60 or 85.

Ok let me start this off with: I hate emgs (the 57/66 are really good). I own a lot of guitars with passive pickups. Those being Bare Knuckle Ceramic War Pigs, Bare Knuckle Ragnaroks, Seymour Duncan Invader, Nazgul, Sentient, and one with a set of Black Winters.

The guitars I like typically come loaded with emgs and those are the first thing I scrap. with the exception of the 57/66. I play a lot of metal, tune to C#, and use big ol’ Honkin’ Strings (. 11-. 70).

Play through a Mesa Dual Rec, Mesa Mark V, a Peavy 6505+, and have a little cruddy line 6 spider for the bedroom/late night. I wasn’t discouraged at all when I plugged these into a ESP Ltd f400-fm because I’m familiar with the Seymour Duncan Invader which these sound to me the most like.

So I dialed back the bass till it tightened up, dialed the mids back a hair, turned up the treble just a hair and turned the gain down a little till the sound tightened up and I had what I believe to be the best sounding active pickup I have ever heard.

I had to do this on all of my amps especially the Dual Rec and the Peavy. For the Peavey it was a matter of not just the bass but the resonance and fine tuning the presence knobs. I played with it jumped and detached.

I like it with the jump the most. I also played with 9volt and the 24 volt mod. 9 volt is nice and a good place to start, but for volume and power the 24 volt is where it’s at, kind of brought it to life more.

I am very familiar with emg 81, 85, 60, and the 57/66 set, this is way different. Like I said it sounds the most like the Invader with out harsh mids (could be attributed to the fact that the Blackout Metal uses alnico V magnets and the Invader uses ceramic magnets).

In fact I like the Blackout Metal more than the Invader. I was worried I was going to get “honky hollow” mids but this surprised me. I like the Seymour Duncan JB but I don’t like the mids in it. This wasn’t like that.

I genuinely love this pickup!.

I have been using Duncan livewire metal humbuckers for 20yrs. I have a stash of them ranging from the first batch in the 80’s up until they discontinued them mid 2000’s. Before this “BLACKOUT” line they use to run on 18v instead of 9v.

They also didn’t use the quick connect & if you wanted less output you had to mess around with putting a resistor with it. They also used a ground wire which allowed you to mix them with passive pickups.

Not that it was practical for live because of output levels, but was nice for a studio guitar. I purchased a new guitar that came with active, meaning it had no ground. I didn’t want to modify my new guitar to use my old Duncan Metal’s so I tried out these BLACKOUT AB2’s.

Since they now use the quick connect I was able to pull out the EMG & pop in the BLACKOUT without any modifying. Right out of the gate it obvious that they were nothing like the old Duncans. They have less output, less highs, less mid bite, and muddy compared to the old ones.

If people think the BLACKOUTS suck at doing cleans then they should hear the old lw-met, there is nothing close to clean with them. BUT! If your looking for a pickup that puts out more oomph than other active pickups this might be for you.

And if your the guy who almost like the old 18v livewire but wished it wasn’t so harsh & overpowering then this may also be an option for you. Final thought is they sound just like the old Duncan 18v CLASSIC livewires, which in the day was a lower alternative to the 18v lw-met.

I am very biased on my opinion because I am stuck on the original 18v pickups and was hoping these would satisfy, but they don’t. I’ll still keep the AB2 around, but as soon as my new guitar gets some battle scars I will drill a hole for a ground wire and put the old pups in it.

Overall, this is a great pickup and is very responsive and has a wide range. I prefer it not overly distorted but with mild overdrive. It made my S series prestige Ibanez sound a lot like an old Les Paul which is very cool.

This particular guitar has really poor sustain – at no fault of this pickup. I do feel that this pickup helped this guitar sound better than what I had in the stock pickup. I installed it in the bridge position and tried the hot pole piece side first toward the neck.

It was muddy so I put the hot side toward the bridge which helped brighten it up quite a bit. Overall, I would say this is a great pickup. Thank you Dimarzio. The Bluesbucker is supposed to have p90 tone without the hum.

I put it in my Ibanez S prestige to change the guitar’s character from heavy metal to a more bluestype of sound. Depending upon my amp settings this pickup did in fact sound like a p90 when not too much distortion was on.

If I added distortion it would only retain p90 tones if the volume pot was tuned down minimally at around 2 or 3. Any past that and it mudded up really bad. But, for clean to mild overdrive it sounded fantastic – at least on this particular guitar.

I have not tried it in any of my other guitars. I have several Dimarzio pickups and quality is always top shelf. Excellent price.

I purchased a guitar with replacement pickups that sounded incredible. When I opened it up, I found that they were DiMarzio Bluesbuckers. I tried them in other guitars and they sound great in various body types, from heavy mahogany LP types, to maple capped bodies, to light solidbodies.

They are very focused and are the perfect pickup for splitting. They split with almost no volume loss, with a good quality usable tone. Most humbucker become too thin when they’re split.

Not many humbuckers deliver clean bell-like mid-tones and high clean treble, but these are very different and deliver the goods! I was really surprised at how well they improved the sound of my SG (cheapo knock off) now the guitar is not just hanging on the wall in disappointment! Well worth the ‘cheddar’, as Jesse would put it.

I upgraded the pickups in various MIK Hollow body Epiphone Jazz guitars, including Broadways, Emperor II’s and Es-335 style Sheratons, Casinos and one MIK Dot. The results were spectacular! I used Gibson 490R’ or 57′ classics in the NEck Positiiom, and matchings 490T’s and 57 classic Plus pickups in the bridge position.

Only hand wound, Very Fine, Kent Armstrong 12 pole Pickups Rivaled these in sheer audio Beauty and Quality, and were slightly more chimey and Sparkly that the Gibsons. The Ultimate Gibsons have depth and smoothness with my 65’Twin Rrverb amp, That enables Deep beautiful Chording and octaves right out of the Wes Montgomery era.

An MIK Epiphone Broadway strung with Flatwound Jazz Thomastics or D’Addario Chromes will produce L5 Quality Tones all week, especially when Playing wih your thumb. The Gibson 490Rs are my ultimate favorite Jazz Pickups.

I have 3 guitars currently equipped with these killer Neck Pickups: A 1997 (Peerless) Epiphone Broadway, a 2005 Epiphone Joe Pass, and a 1980’s Gibson Les Paul Studio Deluxe, These 490r’s are, in my opinion, based on 54 years of guitar playing experience, the Ultimate Jazz Guitar Pickups, They were standard equipment on the Gibson ES-165 “Herb Ellis” Model for many years.

I have a 2013 Gibson Les Paul LPJ that came with the 498T/490R pickup set. I found the 498T to be brittle sounding with a nasal quality just I just couldn’t get in to. I loved the sound of the 490R and after doing some research I learned the 490’s have Alnico II magnets where the 498T has an Alnico V.

I bought and installed a 490T and the sound was greatly improved. Yes, I know tone is subjective but to me the tone was brighter with a crispness that was absent in the 498. With the distortion kicked in and the pickup selector in the middle position and the tone knobs rolled back a bit I get a tone that is full and well rounded without the nasal grinding noise of the 498.

Definitely a vintage ‘Clapton with Cream’ tone. Like myself, Slash prefers Alnico II pups. I’m not really into G’n’R but love the tone Slash gets from his guitar. I would recommend this pup.

I did a complete upgrade on a 1999 custom Epiphone Les Paul. It was golden sparkle and I couldn’t resist. So I swapped a guy another guitar, knowing I would have some work to do on this one. I chose Gibson 490R and 498T for the neck and bridge respectively.

I am very impressed with these pickups. Very powerful. Full, ready to crunch. Absolutely rock pups. I did some research and found that this pickup combo was on several high priced Gibson Les Pauls. So I gave it a shot.

I have six other electric guitars and I swear that this is the only guitar that I have to dial the pedals back for. It just wants to rock on it’s own. The pups are very powerful and full. They can sparkle if you want or they can just plain rock.

I know that there are other fine pickups out there. But I am glad that I chose these. This old Epi Les Paul never sounded like this.

This is my most favorite bridge pickup! It subtly thickens up the tone and just bumps up the hotness just enough for a rich tone. Just sounds ‘right’ to my ears when played both clean and overdriven.

Perfect for modern blues and classic rock/pop. I find the burstbuckers tone on the other hand to be thin and lacking, though perhaps they might shine in other applications. This is not the first time I had to replace one of them with a 498T.

Any cons? I guess since the tone is thicker and warmer, adding a whole lot of distortion might make it more difficult to cut through a band mix? Just depends on a whole lot of factors and all the equipment & settings you use.

Overall, I love the tone this pickup helps me to achieve more easily.

I originally had a set of Burstbucker Pros in my Les Paul Standard, and ended up swapping them out. It was primarily the bridge pickup that didn’t mesh with me. The best way I can describe it is too much high mids, which can sound harsh to the ear (for an amp, I use an EVH 5150iii combo, and for recording I use a Line 6 Helix, and my preferred tones range from Jimmy Page up to Van Halen levels of gain).

I ended up swapping them out for the classic DiMarzio pairing of a Super Distortion at the bridge and a Super 2 at the neck, and was very happy with the results – the tone was tighter, more pleasant, with the right amount of output (the BBs output was good too, so I’m not complaining about that.

it was more the tone). All of that said, I don’t think these are horrible pickups and with some parametric EQ’ing, I could get some tones I was relatively happy with (especially with lighter gain settings), but I also factored in that the DiMarzios I ended up with cost less than 1/2 the price of the BBs (around 40% of the cost).

That’s what brought my rating down from a 3 to a 2.