I got this pickup in a trade here a while back (thx JB From Hell). It's a 16.5k ceramic humbucker, and this one also has alnico V slugs. I tried it in a couple of guitars and it wound up in the bridge of my Steinberger Synapse baritone. Initially I thought it was too bright and scratchy there; the Steinberger is one of my brightest guitars, and it sounded really jangly. Not split-coil jangly but still very snappy, without much low end. Loads of pick attack but not a lot of "character" out of the gate.
The trick is to drown it in preamp gain. It loves gain, more than any other pickup I have. It's clear and defined at levels of preamp gain that would make even my Bare Knuckles sound fuzzy and indistinct. The guitar itself has a lot of metallic bite and great sustain, and this pickup with loads and loads of gain somehow brings out the voice of the guitar really well. It's not the same as using a lower-output pickup. It responds more like hybrids I've tried. I haven't checked but I suspect a fair amount of coil offset.
It's nice and clear for clean tones as well, but it's not forgiving. Brutal as all get-out for the heavy stuff. I'm tempted to try it in my Explorer, because I have a feeling it would offset the dark sound nicely, but I'm set up for recording with it right now and not swapping anything.
Steinberger shown next to my LP for scale. That 28 5/8 scale is surprisingly comfortable with the strap up high enough.
The trick is to drown it in preamp gain. It loves gain, more than any other pickup I have. It's clear and defined at levels of preamp gain that would make even my Bare Knuckles sound fuzzy and indistinct. The guitar itself has a lot of metallic bite and great sustain, and this pickup with loads and loads of gain somehow brings out the voice of the guitar really well. It's not the same as using a lower-output pickup. It responds more like hybrids I've tried. I haven't checked but I suspect a fair amount of coil offset.
It's nice and clear for clean tones as well, but it's not forgiving. Brutal as all get-out for the heavy stuff. I'm tempted to try it in my Explorer, because I have a feeling it would offset the dark sound nicely, but I'm set up for recording with it right now and not swapping anything.
Steinberger shown next to my LP for scale. That 28 5/8 scale is surprisingly comfortable with the strap up high enough.
