IronGear Hot Slag

Passive Humbuckers, matched pair of Hot Slag pickups with coil tap

Fitted in a project homebuilt strat style guitar, wired through a Fender tele 3 way switch with coil tap, trem and roller nut

Excellent output from both neck and bridge pickups. very evenly matched.
Using just the crunch channel on my Marshall TSL valve Head & 4x12 vintage loaded cab, and the pickup selector and coil tap, I am able to cover from strat/tele cutting clean tones, nice bluesy break-up, nice punchy blues drive, to full on heavy rock saturated overdrive, JUST using the volume control & pick-up options. Even on full overdrive, lead-run notes remain well defined and cut through over our full-on band !

I was suprised at the quality of tone and finish of these pick-ups for the low price. They easily compete with the more common and expensive names we have been led to believe are "must-have" products.
I would definitely buy another set. In fact, I am going to replace the pickups in my other project guitar with a pair of Irongear humbuckers.
In comparison with my Gibson Les Paul Standard, the Hot Slag pick-ups have a broader sound-scape, making them more versatile for live work, and are also far more powerful and agressive sounding than the standard humbuckers

Humbucker. Passive
16k Ohm DC resistance + 6.7 H Inductance

Tokai Love Rock LS80F
Bridge
Seymour Duncan SH-1 '59
n/a
Dissatisfied with the scooped mids on the '59 Duncan

This is a big, full sounding zebra pickup. At 16K it's easily on a par with the Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB as regards output. Finally, I can raise the neck pickup up from the bottom of the pickup-ring ;-)
My amp is a Peavey Classic 50, all valve. This pickup has it all - a nice tight bottom-end, crunchy mids and searing highs, and, as I mentioned previously, a big full sound, with bags of real character. Very articulate. It's as agressive as you want it to be, but you can coax some lovely chimey sounds out of it too at lower volumes. There's definitely no mud or ice-picks here. Also, there is no noticeable tone decay as the volume is turned down.
I play blues and jazz - Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, Chris Cain, etc. This pickup is perfect for the music I play. It's the Les Paul sound I've had in my head ever since I first heard the "Beano" album. I would recommend this pickup for anything from blues to heavy rock. Metal? At 16K I really don't see why it shouldn't do metal too. This is no one-trick pony. A very versatile piece of kit.

I wouldn't hesitate to replace this pickup. It's what I've been looking for for quite some time now. IronGear pickups are very much the new kids on the block, but it's clear to me that they are going to make a very big impression on the pickup market. And the prices are insane! I paid ??22.95 for this thing! I suppose the first reaction is to think: "How can these be so good at such prices?" Well, I think they are that good! Strange, but true. I started playing the guitar when I was 11 years old, back in 1962 and have tried quite a few different pickups over the years - Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Kent Armstrong, Fender, Lace pickups, Bare Knuckles and Joe Bardens. I'm obviously not going to say that IronGear pickups are every bit as good as the last two makes I mentioned, but they certainly are as good as, if not better than the others I listed. Also, folks at IronGear are extremely helpful - I e-mailed to ask about availability of pickup covers and Keith e-mailed me back (minutes later!) offering to send me one for the cost of postage and packing (??1.50!). Let me tell you that IronGear pickups, the prices and the people behind them are a real breath of fresh air.