EMG Select SES

Pickup features: passive dual blade humbucker in single coil housing
Impedence or other specs: slightly above 6kOhm

Model of guitar or bass: Charvel Model 6 (Strat with maple neck through body)
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: none
Other pickups on guitar: Seymour Duncan Vintage Staggered Strat, Fender American Std Strat, Seymour Duncan JB
Artists using this pickup: Nobody, I hope
You musical style(s): Rock, Blues
Reason for pickup change: I'd like to have humbucking pickups that sound like
vintage Fender Strat single coils

Perceived output level: much lower than Seymour Duncan Vintage Staggered Strat, Fender American Std which I regards as 'normal'
Tone: No treble or brilliance as I expected to hear from something that is advertised to sound like a Fender Strat single coil
Sonic evaluation: I compared the Select SES with those vintage SD single coil and
with the Fender American Standard Strat single coil. The SES does
not have any treble or brialliance and is by far not as load as.
Amp: it does not matte which amp you play. The SES sounds too dull.
The only good thing with the SES is that it buck hum very efficiently.
Since this pickup is also a 'treblebucker' (or 'soundbucker'?
or 'tonebucker' ?) it does not have any value

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This pickup is not suitable for any style of music.

Comments: Don't buy this pickup.

Pickup features: S-S-H from neck to bridge, passive
Impedence or other specs: Hi-z (specific info n/a)

Model of guitar or bass: J.B. Player Pro
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Prog, jazz etc
Reason for pickup change: I did not replace the pickups - they're original.

Perceived output level: Louder than stock pickups.
Tone: Single coils give Strat-like sounds. Humbucker gives a clear defined tone also good for harder rhythm parts. All pickups sound balanced, perhaps little middy.
Sonic evaluation: J.B. Player Pro, Rocktron VooduValve On-Line, Cry Baby, H.H. Electronics 100W Combo.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This is not my main guitar, but when I need Strat-like sounds I'll grab this one. The single coils work well in neck and middle positions and the humbucker is good in bridge position (I will possibly try it in neck position someday too). With my custom wiring I can get so many different tones that it always gives me the vibes when I start playing.

Comments: The special thing about these pickups is actually the wiring. I have a 5-way switch, vol pot, tone pot and an extra push/pull pot. I use the extra pot for running the humbucker's other coil to ground and the DPDT switch for switching the humbucker on no matter what position the 5-way switch is in. This gives me two extra options: all the pickups on and neck&bridge pickups on. The wiring for the humbucker makes it possible to use it as a single coil or as a full humbucker or anything between. Imagine how many different sounds you can create with this setup! Please contact me for wiring diagram.
As I stated before, the pickups are great for Strat-like sounds but the humbucker gives also power for heavier distorted sounds. These pickups are very versatile and they should not be expensive! I bought the guitar second hand and rewired it. The pickups are original so I don't know how easy/hard it is to get them nowadays but there is information at EMG website. They would be a good choice for a person who wants to get his/her backup guitar a little(/a lot) better but doesn't want to spend too much money for pickups.

Pickup features: passive single coil
Impedence or other specs: dc resistance about 6.6Kohm according to my volt-ohm-meter

Model of guitar or bass: Tokai Custom Edition (looks like a Jackson)
Position: middle
Pickup being replaced: stock (I think) singlecoil
Other pickups on guitar: Sky (Kent Armstrong) STCR-1 (neck) and a stock humbucker (bridge)
Artists using this pickup: No idea whatsoever
You musical style(s): Anything I can play, but mostly metal & heavyish stuff.
Reason for pickup change: The usual: stock pickups were very tinny and didn't have
much output to speak of (the single coils, that is, the
stock humbucker is great!). Oh yes, I bought the guitar
used, so I'm not sure if they really were stock pickups,
but I think so.

Perceived output level: I'd say it's about the same as the stock single coil (S1, middle pos.) in my Ibanez RG570, and about twice that of the stock ones (although they registered 10Kohms or so).
Tone: Not much bass and rather sharp highs. Doesn't get muddy no matter what.
Sonic evaluation: I used the Tokai (surprise!), a Park G10 and BOSS ME-8 (also used it
without the ME-8).

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I like it in the middle position, but wouldn't use it in all positions of the same guitar. It suits me fine, and I mostly use it for clean sounds, although some clean-sound-purists might have different opinions.

Comments: I might buy it again if I had to, but I might also make use of the
excuse to try something different. I've been playing for 5 years with
the Tokai this is on, and I bought an Ibanez RG570 almost a year ago
(the next thing on my shopping list is a better amp). At first I
didn't like the idea of changing any parts of a guitar, but I kept
reading these reviews here, and figured the change could only be for
the better, so I might as well give it a try. And it was well worth
it, especially since this was by far the cheapest replacement pickup
available.
Don't know if I'd go as far as to say I love it, but I like it quite a
bit, and don't hate anything about it. Maybe it could have a bit more
output as it is much quieter than the humbuckers on neck and bridge
positions (but that was to be expected). However, it combines very
nicely with them both, and the guitar now has five very good tones,
instead of only one (I didn't use the stock single coils too much).
As I said, I mostly use it for clean sounds, but it also sounds good
with heavy distortion (but not so great with milder overdrive).
Yes, I'm quite happy now with this guitar's sound. After I've gotten
that better amp, I'll get new pickups for the Ibanez...
Overall rating is 7, because I suppose it could be a lot better, and I
almost never give 10's anyway, but don't take me wrong... As far as my
limited (and mainly bad) experiences with single coils go, this is the
best I've used. And it's really quiet, too (doesn't hum any more than
the humbuckers)!
Oh, and one other thing: this is a tall pickup. I suppose that doesn't
matter if you mount it on a pickguard, but the Tokai doesn't have one
and I had to carve out some wood to make room for it or it would
have touched the strings.

Pickup features: single coil passives
Impedence or other specs: dunno

Model of guitar or bass: Fender custom Jap Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock strat pickups
Other pickups on guitar: Hopefully a Seymore duncan in the bridge sometime soon! (donations accepted :)
Artists using this pickup: Not sure, Somebody probably is.......
You musical style(s): Punk, grunge, heavy rock and R.E.M. ish clean stuff.
Reason for pickup change: The strat ones arent what they used to. They were noisy and very tinny sounding, and the output sucked. They just didnt have the punch I was looking for.

Perceived output level: The level was noticably higher than my stock ones, although they still arent beasts. They get the job done though.
Tone: Relatively balanced, with a little more mids and highs. Not muddy at all, even with bass eq cranked.
Sonic evaluation: I use a Crate 70 watt tube amp with Boss PW-2 distortion and Boss CE-5 (or something like that) Chorus Ensamble. It pretty much satisfies my needs for a pickup, but they could be a little hotter. Very, very, VERY quiet operaton even with a lot of effects and a high boost. When I first put them in, my guitar wasent shielded and they still had very little hiss. They work very well for clean sounds (like R.E.M.'s punchy-trippy clean sounds) which is what I was looking for. I mostely use the middle pickup for that stuff, and use the bridge for distortion. Harmonics sound good on them too.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: It works for my style. It also looks cool on my axe! :) I dont know what these pickups wouldnt work on, probably clean blues sound maybe, or possibly country, but I dont play much of that so I wouldnt really know.

Comments: I would definately buy them again, although only two and get a hotrail in the bridge. Which is something I hope to accomplish soon. I really didnt try out any other pickups, just stuff on electric guitars in the store (like gibsons, washburns, etc) but I have never played anything with EMG's before. I had read good reviews on EMG, so I thought I would give it a try. I figured anything would sound better than my stock ones. If they were a little hotter it would be ok, but since I am getting that hotrail, it dosent matter. I get the sound I want, and they are very quiet, which is a really nice bonus. They accually do have a nice output when it comes to how quiet they are. It almost suprises you when you first plug and play. But overall, a very nice pickup with smooth and responsive sound. The good thing is that you can pretty much make up whatever sound you want with eq and effects, the EMG's make sure you get there without noise.

Pickup features: quieter than normal single coils
Impedance or other specs: no clue

Model of guitar or bass: Cruise Stratoclone
Position: neck and middle
Pickup being replaced: Cruise stock single coils
Other pickups on guitar: Duncan Hot Rails in bridge
Artists using this pickup:
Nobody I know of.
Your musical style(s): Rock, heavy metal
Reason for pickup change:
Like I said in my Duncan Hot Rails review, the Cruise stock pickups
suck rather badly -- wimpy output and really noisy too.

Perceived output level:
Moderate. They sound about as loud as the stock single coils in my
friend's Jackson Stealth.
Tone:
Your basic Strat tone, lots of highs and kind of glassy but not harsh.
Sonic evaluation:
These are middling-to-good pickups. They're probably not for SRV fans,
but if you want good *quiet* Strat tones without spending the bucks for
Duncans these are the way to go. They sound pretty nice clean, but
they're not so hot for really high distortion stuff.

There's sort of a weird interaction between my Hot Rails and the middle
Select; they sound like they're out of phase although I don't think
they're wired that way. I had the same kind of "problem" with the
stock Cruise pickups and the Hot Rails, but it was much noisier.
Anyway, with the Selects this turns out to be a useful tone -- it's
a half-decent Telecaster imitation...
For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:
These aren't super-hot, so you might not want one in the bridge
position. They may not give that Texas blues sound, either.

Comments:
Overall, I'm very satisfied with these pickups, especially considering
how little I paid for them. I'm much more likely to just buy another
electric guitar than replace the Selects with something else.
8, based on the bang/buck