EMG SL20 Pro Series

Good descriptions elsewhere

Fitted this set to the stock American HSS Strat since the Fender pickups are a bit naff. No character and feel to them.

These have a high output and the variety of tones is great. The bridge pickup is all rock and the single coils have a superb tone. The neck position is all blues and you can't resist playing some great bends and licks. This is like a new guitar and will inspire you to play better and experiment.
Playing this through a Mesa Boogie Mark 4 and its a perfect match for me. I play from blues to rock and this combination gives loads of flexibility.

If stolen I would replace these straight away. Been playing in bands for 30 years and this is the best set up I've had - too bad it took 30 years to get it !
My other main guitar is a 70's Gibson Explorer and I must admit that the original Gibson humbucker is a bit warmer and more full but not that different.

HSS active pickups, SLV singles and 85 in the bridge

I have them in a amer deluxe strat, Ive spent almost 3 years of trying these and its getting better with time. I mean, its been a little hard to set these correctly, since the 85 is louder than the slvs, but now i think im pretty close to what this set is in the music man luke guitar. Singles at 4/64" in the treble side and 5/64" bass side, bridge 5/64 treble and 6/64 bass, lnow i have an almost perfect balnace in the 5way switch. Luke is my guitar hero since i was a 5 years old kid, maybe younger... I wanted to nail his sound on the livefields record. I think i got the guitr to soun like his, now i only need his fingers! and you know thats not gonna happen!! hahah anyway it sounds friggin awesome.

Average single coil output, the 85 is not really loud, its like a single coil on steroids, but very smilar to a single in several ways, you know its a humbucker and gives you that little extra mmpphh youre looking for in a humbucker, but not too dramatic, being articulate as a single.
I use 2 rigs, one for playing late night (my music room is next to my babys room) and one for live. Live a fender supersonic head with a custom cab 2x12 eminence legend gb128, cable, guitar... Sounds very pure and organic. Late night, the pod pro to a mixer and phones. Incredibly, the pod pro gets a really similar sound to the supersonic in the clean channel. This pickups in the singles are similar to what you hear on a hendryx record, the 85 to me is a less hotter duncan jb. Exactl what i looked for. I lve the single tone, i think it works cool with the 0.1 uf cap. Ive thought about getting these mod to every HSS strat i could own in the future.
Ill give it a 9 only because i would like to have the 85 closer to the strings but that causes unbalanced output, wich to me, i reapeat "to me" is a problem. Ohter than that a 10 would be highly deserved.

I would definitely buy these again, started playing in 1990. I love everything about htese set except the 85 is louder than the slvs.
Ive gone back and forth with these set, buying lace holly grail, duncan, dimarzios, a parker fly, fralins... everything else is gone, im keeping these active pickups for its NATURAL tone. Nothing too compressed nor sterile here. Versatility its the SL20 middle name!!! Use it in any rig or style and itll work. Lukather and emg made a huge job here! congrats guys