Artec Zebra Double-Coil Humbucker

****UPDATE**** I wrote the original review on this pup. After reading other reviews of Artec pups I saw that often they are wrongly wired in parallel. So... I checked and sure enough. So I rewired to series it is now 14.5K ohm as advertised. Annoying that I wrote an entire in-depth review of a pup that came from the factory incorrectly wired. But I will be fair although much less thorough in reviewing it again...

Advertised as: Rating: 14K (Actual Ohm rating: 14.5)
Double coil humbucker
Zebra (cream & black)

I installed this temporarily in a Gibson SG Jr. as a test for the most part.(See my first review)
I replaced a Gibson 489T bridge humbucker with this Artec humbucker.
The SG Jr. has one bridge pickup and no neck pickup.

Well, Well, Well...
To compare to the gibson 489T I would say the Artec has less gain and snarl in the mids, but a much clearer, wider tone. I guess to get the same sound as the gibbos, turn up the gain a notch or 2 and roll off the tone on your axe. For me, low gain and clear tone are good starting points so honestly, I would happily remove gibson pups and replace them with the Artec. But that's just me.
Running it head to head with my Les Paul Jr. which has a GFS Crunchy PAF in it right now, I could actually not tell the two apart tone wise. However the Artec actually seemed to have a little more bite and are hotter by about 20%. Dispite GFS's ads their Crunchy PAF is not a hot pickup and it is below average volume but very musical. Back to the Artec, I like it. Definately worth the $18 I paid for it.
Nice cutting edge to it, not shrill even through my 4x12 cab with Celestion G12T-75's which can be treble heavy. Great crunch and grind through the Fender M-80! Easy to get the Eddie Van H. "brown sound" out of them.
Overall these are warmer and fatter than I expected and I would say with a Randall amp these would be metal madness. I don't have a true high gain amp that's working right now to test this but I can just tell. The have that chuga-chuga feel.

In looking around I see that Artec has re-named these pickups and they are now selling as the "Artec Alnico-5 Hot Humbucker ".

Comparing these with the GFS pups they are nearly dead on identical in build. This is strange since GFS says their pups are made in Korea and these are made in China but I wonder...

Advertised as: Rating: 17.3K (Actual Ohm rating: 9.1)
Double coil humbucker
Zebra (cream & black)

I installed this temporarily in a Gibson SG Jr. as a test for the most part. I couldn't believe that this pickup would meet the claims made for the price ($18.00)
I replaced a Gibson 489T bridge humbucker with this Artec humbucker.
The SG Jr. has one bridge pickup and no neck pickup.
I was hoping for a miracle I guess or at least a surprise. I got neither.

The claims of this humbucker which are rediculous are that this pickup comes in at 17.3K ohms. That would make it one of the hottest passive pickups made accoring to the normal ohm = "hot" thinking which is flawed in the first place. Well the first problem is that the 17.3ohm rating is a completely bogus. I tested the pickup on a Micronta 770 meter and this pickup is a little over 9 ohms. That's not a bad thing since the Gibson pickup I pulled out was about 8.4ohm. However, the Gibson pup was most definitely hotter.
It may not be a fair fight to put this $18 pickup up against a $100+ Gibson pickup but that was exactly my whole purpose. Can a cheap pickup with BIG claims come even close to an expensive legendary pickup?
The answer is yes and no.
I tried this pickup using many different settings on two different amps, a
Fender M-80 Solid state '80's era amp designed to play butt rock and hair metal. and also on a more civilized VOX AD50VTX.
The good news is that the Artec is not a useless piece of Chinese crap. I actually got some very good sounds out of this pup. I had the most success with the Fender M-80 on the overdrive channel with the gain at about 7 and the Low and Mid set back at about 4 and the Treb. up at 9. I could get a singing, and harmonically colored telecaster sound, almost like Dire Straights but slightly thinner.
The bad news is that that is the extent of the decent sounds I could find with this pickup. Mostly it sounded exactly like my $199 Aria strat copy. Not good. Clean on the VOX AD50 it was tinny and lifeless, missing most of the bass response and having little character. Very Muddy and missing any high end clarity!!!
It sounds like an over wound burstbucker covered in fake chocolate or fruit leather. It is sticky and not in a good way and lacks any sense of chime, sparkle, or crispness. With heavy overdrive through a Danelectro "Fab Tone" which can get perfect AC/DC-Back in Black tones when paired up with a stock SG, all I got was a very dark and uninspiring grunge sound... and not a good one. Maybe more GWAR than grunge.

Overall this is a $18 pickup. I wish it wasn't. I wish I could tell you that you don't have to pay twice as much for that more expensive GFS pickup to get some real killer tones for less than you would expect.
But there is no magic here. There is a lot of hype but the bottom line is that this pickup is exactly the same sound and same Ohm reading as the cheap Chinese pickups that come out of cheap Chinese guitars. Hmmmm is that a conscidence? I don't think so. Yes they are Alnico V magnets in these rather than ceramics but you need a lot more mojo added to improve these pups. I was skeptical when I saw the price. Disappointed when I checked the ohms, and uninspired when I heard the sound. I just could not get these pickpus to sound like the quality instrument I put them in.