EMG S1 Passive Stacked Single

Easy to install
Alnico magnet
high-output, full sounding, stacked single coil humbucker

Fender American Deluxe strat

Bridge, Middle, Neck

I was expecting amazing things when I tried these pickups out the first time, but what I found was a pickup that had a lot of clarity, balance and a full round sound. I wasn't that stricken by them at first.

After a while of playing them on different amps, trying them in combination with humbuckers and other single coils, I realized that these pickups are really really good.

I wanted to upgrade the stock strat pickups but also wanted something different from the Dimarzios I usually use, so I chose these since no one else is using them and I'm sure glad I did.

They seemed a little bit sterile at first, and not quite as powerful as I expected, but after getting a better feel of them, trying them in several tube amps, and comparing them directly with other pickups, it was easy to tell that they are amazing pickups.

Pickup height adjustment was necessary and so was a little EQ of my amp. They're stacked pickups so you can't EQ your amp the same way you do with single coil pickups. Once I made those adjustments, the pickups sounded awesome.

They weren't quite enough to push my amp into overdrive, but they sounded so damned good that I decided to keep them. The next thing I'll try is the S4 which has a more powerful ceramic magnet for the bridge position. Hopefully this will give me the extra power I need and still have the same EMG sound.

You can pump some serious gain through your amp and it will never get muddy. With a little extra gain, you can play some pretty heavy metal and searing leads with these pickups.

Clean sounds are really great and shimmery, bluesy sounds are balanced and harmonically rich, and overdriven sounds are incredible.

I'm shocked that these pickups aren't much much more popular. I've tried many pickups, including Dimarzio, Lindy Fralin, Seymour Duncan, Bill Lawrence, etc..., and these are easily as good or better than any of those brands.

If you're looking for something really good but a little different than the usual choices, you need to try some of these out.

I wish they had just a bit more power, but overall a really impressive single coil.