Took a chance on these after not being impressed with some somewhat.. gimmicky pickups for my strat that I wasn't a big fan f (low output, muddy sounding to my ears.) These had short leads, so i extended them since i had the soldering iron out anyway. turns out they were already perfect length for my strat actually lol. they are marked! 52-50-48, and the middle pickup is a different color wire and reverse wired for hum-canceling. marked as clearly as could be hoped! the leads are not exposed and super delicate like some vintage style pickups you'll find. i've definitely nicked and ruined a few single coils this way.. I love how the cheap ones are somehow a lot more durable that way.the screws and springs fit just fine in both the pickups and my pickguard. i had to buy my own covers for these obviously because the clear is just a little too funky .. funny how the covers cost $9.99 and the pickups $16!anyway, most importantly the sound right? no problems here. they ARE hot, and i was worried about them being too hot actually. i got 8.8K, 8.2 and 7.8K in my meter. i've had overwound super-hot single coils before and they can sound really muddy (although loud), and i was hoping that wouldn't be the case here.nope, they are hot but nice and clear.. good bite. everyone has their own silly ways of describing guitar tone, but to me a good alnico pickup has clarity but bite, will growl a bit, whereas ceramic ones tend to be cleaner and pluckier. if you want something real bluesy or jazzy, go for low output ceramic strat pickups, forget how cheap they were and the negative connotation and you'll be totally happy. same with these. if you want some clear, loud, biting strat pickups, can't go wrong here. clearly i wouldn't be writing this review if i was a firm believer in high-end boutique pickups., but i will say i've played a few in my day, and after spending $75 or so for a strat pickup when i was a kid out of curiosity, i kind of learned that there's a lot of marketing and voodoo involved in pickups in general. i still have that Lindy Frailin in my other strat, and it sounds just fine and no intention of swapping it out.. but i doubt anyone could tell the difference between that and these.
Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]