Seymour Duncan AHB-1s Blackouts Active Humbucker Pickup Set, Black

These are really nice pickups. They sound much better than the EMGs that they replaced. They let the tone wood of your guitar come through. They are high output and a bit bass heavy but if you lower the pickup height a bit they sound much better. You can a nice clean sound from these pickups if you lower the gain and the master volume on your amp. They also have great sustain. The downside: these pickups ship from Seymour Duncan with only short shaft pots. If you want to put them in a Les Paul you need long shaft pots. Seymour Duncan offers to send these to you for free but they do not answer their emails. I have been waiting a week now and still haven't heard back from them. I expected better customer service from Seymour Duncan!

Excellent pickups. Unbelievable how great they sound. One of the pots is a little bent but other than that, the pickups are incredible. Sustain for days, powerful, and my Marshall JCM-900 sounds modded out. Also, the clean sounds are incredible; no noise, crystal clear. Whether clean or distorted, the pickups are well controlled. I believe I'll be buying more of these.

I had an ibanez s920 that came with emg 81 in the bridge and the neck. I was satisfied for a while. I hate to sound clich? but they did sound lifeless. The only way to give them any tone was to use an eq pedal or to dial in the bass all the way on my amp. (peavey jsx) The distortion on the emg's was good, no matter what I plugged the guitar into the distortion was good, but the tone had no soul no bass or low end. it always had to be dialed in via some external source. I put a passive invader in another Ibanez I had and was blown away by the tone and the sound so I bought the blackouts for my Ibanez s920 and there was a world of difference. There are more lows and more mids and the treble comes through clear as a bell and the distortion is face ripping! depending on your strumming style and how hard your pick hits the strings, the clean comes through nicely as well. It will also depend on how you raise or lower your pickups. Also since emg's were already in my guitar, the pickup swap was a piece of cake, just make sure you line up the red wire. As popular as these are, guitar center doesn't sell them in store so you will have to purchase them online, but it's worth it if you don't like that lifeless tone of the emg's. get some blackouts and add some tone and color to your sound!

Im a big metal guy but also love playing blues and ill tell you right now these are the perfect pickups. The distortion sound these boys give is on another level, its just perfect. It took time to find the exact settings to get a good clean sound but once i found it i was blown away. You can really play anywhere from light chords to heavy metal, from simon and Garfunkel to avenged sevenfold. These pickups really do the job i cant believe it took me this long to install them. I put them in a schecter omen extreme 6 and it sounds like a real guitar should sound. I would definitely recommend buying these. If you have trouble finding the right settings for clean try lowering your bass all the way it should do the trick.

Don't get me wrong these pick ups do sound good, but I feel that the output is too high for me. With EMG's you get a nice crunchy heavy sound and it sounds clean. The blackouts, however, sound really dirty when in a metal channel which is good for anyone that likes a really heavy tone but I feel that it is just too much. I swapped the EMG's from my Jackson Warrior and tried to see if there would be a difference but in my opinion it didnt sound all that amazing. I couldnt believe how much I had to lower the gain on my amp just to get that tone that I got from the EMG's which is nice but I really don't need that much output. Overall, really good pickups but I am still sticking with the EMG's. I recommend them to anyone who wants alot more gain than what the EMG's offer, because I know that these pickups will satisfy those players.

These pickups sound very well. I put them in a jackson dk2m, wiring wasn't bad, anyone with a little soldering experience could do it. They will drive a clean channel and give you a lot of crunch for a 70s sound, on a dirty channel be prepared to roll back the gain a bit to get good tone. They have a lot of low end crunch and can produce some brutal sounds, while remaining very crisp for alternate picking. Harmonics scream like you've never heard, and power chords are very punchy and aggressive sounding with great sustain. They do however limit you from ever getting a clean sound. The neck is very warm but lacks in the upper mid section. Good pickups, if you're interested in them I recommend giving them a shot, just be prepared for what they are. I would not recommend them unless you're looking for a specific sound, otherwise, get a duncan custom. \m/