Kent Armstrong STV-1

Pickup features: Staggered Vintage Bridge
Impedence or other specs: 6 K ohms,unknown bucnh of millihenries,etc.

Model of guitar or bass: Yamaha Pacifica 112 (mx- Maple neck,Alder body...becomes important later).
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock Yam non-staggered single coil (mine's been altered from the original pac configuration)
Other pickups on guitar: Stock yam neck,Stock yamaha in middle.
Artists using this pickup: I don't know and it probably won't help you to know that either.
You musical style(s): Anything.
Reason for pickup change: *Slapped wrist begins*
First off a HUGE appology to MR Armstrong as the first review here was mine.
Amongst reasons why this pickup sounded bad in The Plywood body of the Kramer. 1) Plywood body 2.)It was a Kramer 3.) I'd only given it a couple of weeks 4.) The preamp confused the issue.
After reading the other guy's review here, i scratched my head and swapped out the KA STV-1 into the ALDER BODIED (strat style resonance characteristics) Pacifica.
The bridge "came alive",more alive than even Peter Frampton (sic). I can detect nuances in the bridge that the Yam stock pickups (while not terrible) just do not have,and in some ways it has almost as many overtones and harmonics as my Gibson's pickups,obviously found in somewhat different places.
The pickup has been in the guitar now for some months and when I play the Pac,quite rarely,now, I find myself coming back to the bridge setting with alacrity.
I've never changed my mind in any HC gear review before,so this is a BIG turnaround,but justified. Make sure you put it in some decent wood an then you can get some flavoursome tone.
Picksqueals at high gain? - yes, Country Clang at low gain? yes..do what a Strat does? _ I do beleive so.
So very sorry for the previous review.

Perceived output level: Excellent tonal range and more so than I can describe with my limited written vocabulary,try one darn it! .Output is around the same as a Pac or cheap/Stock Strat pickup. WTF does 6k Ohms tell you about the sound output of a pickup?...next to nothing.
Tone: Seem to have a good low and high candour with clarity and a degree of transparency which is very nice. High mids/High tones are emphasized more,rounds out nicely with the tone control. I'm usually using a Vox,which is why I may perceive it as having a more trebley tone.
Sonic evaluation: Yamaha Pacifica 112 and a Vox Cambridge 15/Park G10..it will sound good in any of those and even struggles manfully against the"blanket tone" of a Zoom 505II.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Blues,Rock,Country,Reggae,heavy Rock..Don't know if it will do metal,with a distotion pedal it probably will.

Comments: See above I was A hasty C''t in writing the first review here,this pickup needs decent woods and control pots. In the Yam with 7 way switching and modded tone contol it interacts well with the neck pickup (Yamaha) to give me many,many different sounds,not being a pro it is about all I need. I will give it a 9 because I've told you what a c...haracter I was before,and there are probably better sounding pups out there,I'd have to look hard to find them though.
*Slapped wrist end*

Pickup features: Single coil alnico Strat replacement
Impedence or other specs: Low output, vintage, Staggered pole pieces

Model of guitar or bass: Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Fender US stock
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): blues
Reason for pickup change: Fender pick-ups too bright and harsh. Looking for a more '62 vibe

Perceived output level: Lower than the stock pick-ups
Tone: *much* better than stock. Retains sparkle but loses harsh top end that stock had.
Sonic evaluation: Laney LC-15, Yamaha DG-Stomp, Korg AX-30.
These do exactly what I wanted and are *very* close to an old Strat I had that was fitted with Seymore Duncan Alnico Pro's. It has all the
classic Strat tones but none of the harsh top end common in current Strats. Think Hank Marvin and Apache or surf music and it's got those clean tones nailed to the floor. It'll also do Rory Gallagher style hi-octane blues - However, it does not do heavy rock - hardly surprising as thats not what they were intended for - so these won't
suit metal merchants.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: It was a full set with reverse wound centre I fitted. It does what I wanted them to do

Comments: If your looking for an excellent Strat type clean sound or blues, these pick-ups are hard to beat for the money. I had an old recording of me playing a Duncan alnico loaded Strat and redid the recording with the new pickups using the same set-up and compared side by side.
There really was very little in it. If anything, the Duncans had just a fraction more depth, but it was hard to spot and would take a golden eared individual to notice.

Pickup features: Strat bridge vintage staggered passive.
Impedence or other specs: @6.0K Ohm .. Very "vintage" - ie, weak . Lower output koreans sound better

Model of guitar or bass: Korean Strat copy
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Single coil korean vintage staggered at @5.4K Ohm - Potted and sheilded
Other pickups on guitar: middle is the same as korean bridge above, neck is hand rewound (scatter) to give 4K Ohm.Potted and sheilded.
Artists using this pickup: Do not know , not many i guess
You musical style(s): just about anything non musak-al
Reason for pickup change: To compare a "decent" pickup to standard copy pickups versus my "rubbishy" attemps at winding. The order of the words in quotes can , strangely, be reversed in reality.

Perceived output level: Low - almost good
Tone: mid nasal to high tonal range
Sonic evaluation: Heavilly modified Kramer Focus (dont fall off your chair laughing!!)
and an old Marshall practice amp.
To be fair the gtr has an onboard preamp, and i realise that lower impedance pickups CAN work better through this setup BUT the difference in output between the middle and the bridge is only 0.6K Ohm and the middle pickup (being objective) sounds better than both of the others.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Blues,Rock,Reggae.... Name it.

Comments: Boy this sucks. Firstly I was disapointed to see that this was a "Sky" brand- the cheaper oriental version,secondly disapointed to see that the coil was exposed (didn't Fender used to tape most of theirs?). I wish it had a better sound. Nothing particularly against Brandoni. I may yet try a Kent Armstrong PAF type in my LP copy- but i'll try and get a real one not an f'ing sky.