Today I picked up my guitar with the Fred installed. At first I was dissapointed because the upper mids are pushed even higher than the PAF Pro almost to the point of fatigue and reminded me of the Live in Denver tone. It took me lots of tweaking of the amp until it sounded right. Even then it sounded a little wierd. Then after an hour or two of playing the pup sounded great! Very modern. You can definitly hear the Satch vibe especially in the upper register. Natural harmonics scream more than most pickups I've used. Pinch harmonics could be better. The Fred doesnt have the pick clack that the PAF Pro had and is much tighter, maybe even thinner on chords, but thicker on leads. The Fred colors your tone more than the PAF Pro. I'd imagine this pickup would cut through great in a live setting. Two Satriani songs that come to mind is Mystical Potatoe head and Summer Song is you could imagine the base tone without any wah. I have no idea if he used the Fred on those songs, but thats what it reminds me of. Over all I give the pickup a 9/10
