Epiphone Stock Humbucker

open alnico humbucker, single conductor. it comes from the neck of a gothic sg.

I tried it in the neck of a strat, then in the bridge of the same strat.

this is a neck pup. in the neck position it sounds quite bad: good highs but no definition in the mids and a mess in the bass. I give it 3. in the bridge position it's not bad: very funny, I like the sound it delivers. I don't know why but it's something close to the strat's mid+neck sound, plus a bit honky and compressed. not a very tipical humbucker sound, however.

I play since I was 16, now I'm 26. if broken, I would buy something else, maybe a kent armstrong. I like it because it's unusual. sometimes I play it out of phase with the single coil it's in the neck and I like the funky sound I get. if you're looking for a paf tone or a high output or a clean sounding humbucker, forget it. this is good for uncommon sounds, for over drive to distorsion sounds, for having more bite in the bridge instead of a single coil. it's got its own sound, I like it, you may not.

Pickup features: passive
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Epiphone Korina Explorer
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Epiphone bridge humbucker
Other pickups on guitar: Bill Lawrence XL humbucker
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Hard rock, rock, funky stuff
Reason for pickup change: Changing pickups and testing them is one of my hobbies

Perceived output level: Hot and very sweet
Tone: middy with just enough high end ; not muddy at all
Sonic evaluation: First of all I found out that Epiphone use different bridge and neck humbuckers, which proves that they really do some research for instruments that are relatively cheap. The problem is however that my bridge pickup (and the one of my friend's Les Paul)squeals like hell !
I even had this problem with the bridge mini-humbucker in my Epiphone Firebird VII ...So that's why I tried to put the neck humbucker in the bridge postion and I'm quite satisfied with the result. I like bright humbuckers and this one delivers a tight and smooth distorted sound that can be compared to Van Halen's guitar on the first albums.
The Bill Lawrence XL is a bridge pickup but I put it in the neck position anyway. This pickup is so articulate that it's impossible to get a muddy sound even in the neck postion. It's also wired for single-coil switching to give me more possibilities.
As I stated before I'm always changing and trying out pickups and my all-time favourite is still the Duncan JB. ( I tried out Gibson Spotlight pickups and Iommi humbucker, the Ibanez V2, the Duncan Distortion, DiMarzio's Superdistortion, PAF, Tone Zone, Humbucker from Hell and even the John Birch Magnum ...)
I play through a Hiwatt 100 Custom amp with a Marshall cabinet and a London City cabinet both equiped with Celestion greenbacks. My effects come from a Yamaha FX 500 processor. I also use a Boss compressor pedal before going into my amp.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This is good pickup for power riffs and speed soloing. It has lots of sustain . If you put this kind of pickup in a bridge position you only need to find a good pickup to match with it in the neck position.

Comments: I don't think you can buy these pickups separately. But I will be looking out for them and if I get the chance to buy one I will certainly not hesitate. A good pickup to me is one that has sustain, clarity and doesn't squeal at high distortion settings. This one has it all.