Seymour Duncan Phat Cats

Single coil. High output.

Gibson SG W&F. Both positions replacing original humbuckers. I don't like humbuckers, but love gibson guitars.

The neck pu is the real deal here. It reminds me of a "strat" pu. This pu is a tonemonster. I play trough a TRRI & RDRI and the sound is big and 3D. The bridge pu is a little bit "rock'n roll". Think of keith Richards and his sound. That is what i'm thinking of when I play on the bridge pu. The middle position reminds me of my teles. Very twangy. I didn't what to use this guitar before changing pu:s, but now I play it all time. recommended. I give the bridge 8 and the neck 10 points.

Perhaps I will change the bridge pu later for an gibson p-94. but not for a while. I will never change the neck pu to something else.

Single coil

Epiphone Junior, installed in bridge position, replacing original humbucker. Looking to improve general tone, "vibe" of guitar.

The single Phat Cat was installed in the bridge using 500k volume and tone pots and a .033 capacitor. At full treble, the pickup is reminiscent of a telecaster single coil with all the good jangle and twang, roll off the treble and it is rhythm humbucker. It is an extremely versatile for the sole pickup in this guitar. I play a lot of old rock, Eddie Cochrane, Chuck Berry, Stones circa 1964 and covers all these with a great vintage sound.

I would certainly buy another or even consider a pair. I think a set in a Gretsch hollow body would be the cat's meow. This pick up really opened up and blew the lid off what this Epi was capable of. Great pickup, very versatile, highly recommend.

Fat SC in Humbucker size, passive.

I'm playing a "Tommys Special Guitars" - a custom strat from Viersen, Germany. Original was: Neck=Duckbucker; Middle=Vintage Rails; Neck=Jeff Beck Jr.
Now it is: Neck=Little '59; Middle=Duckbucker; Neck=Phat Cat.
Amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

F%??!ing high output level! Overdrives my clean channel when I'm raping my strings. The sound is absolutely fat and very "jazzy", but: nothing for hi-gain. This is very sick, because the output level is a as high as a Jeff Beck Jr., but if you use a booster (like me...),you never can play hi-gain sounds without humming. I tested this PU for a week and it'll be changed with a SD "P-Rails" - sorry guys, but that's nothing for me (style: Jazz, Blues/Blues-Rock and 80's hard-rock)

Really nice PU, because it is absolutely not muddy, but you better buy a new guitar for heavier sounds (maximum is for example the legendary Randy Rhoads sound).

Big Single Coil, Passive

I have a Yamaha AES 620 that came with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and some no name pickup in the neck. I replaced the neck with a Phat Cat. The no name neck pickup was way to muddy and unusable, plus my bridge pickup was only usable with lots of distortion so i needed something that could produce clean sounds. The installation was easy and the Seymour Duncan website offers lots of easy to read wiring diagrams.

All you need is a screwdriver, wire strippers and a soldering iron (as with any pickup).

The output is very high, like that of a humbucker, yet clean and well defined. When playing a chord, you hear each string, the opposite of mud. The neck is very smooth and rich at high volumes and gets clean and lean at low volumes. I am play straight into a Crate Palomino V32 class A tube amp. The amp offers lots of distortion and the Phat Cat produces great sounds on all settings, but is best at low gain. It is easy to imitate a strat at the neck position.

This pickup is great. If i ever had to replace it, I would only consider a P-Rails pickup (it is a phat cat and single coil together to make a humbucker) but it would require adding extra switches.

I have been playing for 3 years and have never been more satisfide with my guitar.

I compared this with soap bar pickups on the SD website, but this one seems to have the tone that i am looking for.

If you choose to use this pickup my advice would be to play around with the hight of the pickups and use the volume and tone knobs alot. There a alot of sounds hiding in this pickup.

Feel free to e-mail with you questions or comments and ill do my best.

Single coil. Active as possible

I was working on a les Paul body with a single pick up and i needed a pick-up quickly even if i were to pay 30 dollars for one.. i went to guitar center and got it on the 4th of july sale. If you want rounded genre sounding pick-up this is it..

The output is Raunchy. Most guitar players complain about the hum from their pickups i dont care about it. i used a Sunn Sl 160 pared with a marshall slant cab and a starcaster distortion. The pick-up from my amp set can range From AC DC-Van halen but it has to be Les paul Jr with Mahogany neck.. Best at bridge position

This pick-up screams, taps does the whole nine yards i prefer not to take off the casing it puts burstbuckers to shame. Burst buckers are meant to be manipulated by the amps and pedals.. the p-90 applies it self so it does not need alot of adjustment.

I put this as the Bridge pickup in my 92' American strat which has a Warmoth neck on it. (The original neck was just too thin for my hand, and I got the Boat Neck)

It is single coil, and buzzes. It's hard to be very objective about the buzz, because my practice space is THE most busy room ever. But, for that reason, I often wish I had a buzzless pickup there. However, having said that, I NEVER dream of changing it. I think this IS the best bridge pickup you could put in a strat.

As above.

I previously had a Seymour Duncan Mini-humbucker as the bridge. When I bought this Phat Cat, I got a new pickguard (I previously had a rosewood pickguard I had made) and moved the minihumbucker to the middle. The neck is a Dimarzio Heavy Blues.

The output is hot. The sound, man, the sound.... It's awesome, but you can hear it on the Seymour Duncan website - and that's what got me. I listened to it, compared to all the others on the page. It stood out for me. THIS IS PROBABLY ALL I NEED TO SAY FOR YOU: If you go to the website, and listen to it with headphones, and like the sound, buy it. It will sound like it sounds on the website.

I will say that personally, after not really liking my strat for about 5 years, and always going to my Epi Les Paul, I now go to my Strat - I'm getting old enough that the weight of the Paul gives back problems. :) But the strat pickup set up is awesome. One thing I'll say - the SD minihumbucker didn't really float my boat in the bridge position, but now in the middle position, it's a great option. Frankly, I've never in my life picked up a 3 pickup guitar that I liked the middle position, (have you?). Now, here's how I feel about the 3.

The Phat Cat is the most righteous bridge strat sound in the world. It sounds single coil, and is just as rich and full and and and and as you could imagine. The Dimarzio heavy blues may not be the best neck strat pickup. It sounds really good, but my ear tells me there's some room for improvement. Replacing it is WAYYYY down on my list of purchases. Honestly, it's soo good I doubt I'll ever change it.

The Middle is a nice, mellow, humbucking-sounding alternative to the other two. It makes a nice crunchy rhythm sound when I'm not trying to stand out in front over other guitars in the band.

Somehow, both positions 2 and 4 sound about like you'd expect from a strat.

So, the only problem is the Phat cat is the only pickup that buzzes in the guitar, AND it's the one that I would be most likely to go to in a lead/high gain situation.... suck.

Well, usually, when we play out, this isn't a problem.

I just wish it didn't hum, but the tone is so outrageously broad, phat, sick, wicked, crazy, groovy, or whatever decade you say "cool" from, I wouldn't replace it.

Single coil passive P90 pickups in a humbucker-shaped housing.

I threw these in my Epiphone Les Paul after my recording engineer told me the sound from my Epi was too muddy for recording. When I say I "threw" them in, I'm talking about 5 hours work with a screwdriver, soldering iron broken wire strippers, and a sore back. Replacing pickups is not that easy, especially when your pots are in tight places. I read all the reviews before buying these, maybe it's just me, but someone could have warned me!!!

I had my wife pick these pickups up (pick up the pick-ups, ha ha) while I watched the kids. While she was gone, I recorded strumming and fingerpicking with my muddy humbucker pickups. To do this, I plugged right into the board - no messing around. Any difference in tone is from the pickups alone. The salesperson said "don't solder them and he can return them." This must be a colossal joke in music store land. After trying to devise a temporary way to try out the pups and failing, I bit the bullet and soldered. I was eager to compare before and after. When I finished, I went back to the board, plugged in, and played the same bits.

My wife and I sat there, noses scrunched, trying to hear the difference. We felt like beer drinkers at a wine and cheese. "Oh, this Riesling tastes SO much different than that Riesling." After hearing the Seymour Duncan sound samples on their website, I was expecting to hear a very dramatic difference, which really just wasn't there. Not that the sound was bad - just really not that different. Maybe it's just me. I am mentally picturing a whole lot of P90 fanatics now shaking their heads. "He can't tell the difference between a humbucker and a P90? The SHAME!". Thinking it might be my wiring, I opened the guitar and worked on it again, for another 2 hours - resoldering joints, checking wiring diagrams. Frustrated, I compared a Les Paul copy, with humbuckers, through my Peavey amp, to the Epi with the new P90s. Still no difference.

Or maybe the difference is there, but I'm just not trained enough to hear it?

I can definitely hear a buzz when the 3-way switch isn't on the middle setting.

I will follow this review up with one in future. I'm going to take the guitar to my recording engineer, and ask her. If she says the sound is the same, well then, I guess I just wasted $230. They sure do look pretty, though!

I am holding off of my overall rating. My first impression is that I'm really a beer drinker at heart, maybe spending this much money on a subtle difference should be a privilege reserved for the more refined wine-drinking ear.

Single coil. It??s a high output single coil, but still right on the vintage output zone.

The Phat Cats are in my Hohner archtop. It??s reeeaalllyyy cheap archtop with a bigsby. It had regular humbuckers on it.

Oh, I own a Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb (great amp).

After two years gigging with the Phat Cats, I can proudly say that these are great pickups. Before the cats, I had filtertron style TV Jones pickups on the archtop - which are great. So, I??m not comparing the cats with bad sounding pickups.

And I writing these review for those guitar players that are looking for THE vintage sound for your archtop without spending tons of money on old Gibsons or Gretschs. I play old school rock, country and R&B (think rockabilly, Chuck Berry, Beatles and everything from 50??s to 60??s). Well, the cats are the way to go for all that if you don??t want humbuckers.

Nowadays, it??s hard to find a stock archtop with single coil sound. You have Epiphone ES-295 (the Scotty Moore model), Gretschs (which are kind of expensive) and really expensive Gibsons. That??s it. So, the Phat Cats are a great alternative for you, poor vintage guitar tone lover.

The cats are adverstized as a P-90 solution for your humbucker equipped guitar. But it??s not. Forget that. P-90??s are darker and have that distinctive middle punch. The cats don??t do that - all the time, at least. You can get the P-90 tone when you crank your tube amp and get some crunch. That??s when they sound alike.

But the cats sound amazing anyway. It??s lively, clear and can deal with distortion. They are more versitile than P-90s. They can sound like a filtertron if you turn the treble up in your amp. In the middle position, you can get really Gretsch like if you turn the neck volume down just a bit. The neck pickup is a joy. It can do anything. It??s humbucker-like if you turn the tone down. But it NEVER gets muddy. Do you love Duane Eddy??s tone - like me? Well, you can do that if you get the neck pickup on the right height. Sometimes, with the treble really up, it??s fenderish, like a Jazzmaster or a warm Strat. Do you remember those old recordings when the guitar player uses an unknown guitar, but with a distinctive single coil sound? When you can tell if that marvelous tone comes from a Kay, a Harmony or any of the less know brands from the early days? The Phat Cats sound like that a lot of the times.

In order to get all that, you need to work on the knobs. And you need to adjust the height. Be patient. The neck pickups sounds better lower (nice jazzy tone for Barney Kessel lovers). The bridge pickup sounds better higher, closer to the strings. You will have to find a balance on that in order to have a usable middle position.

Jazz players: it can deliver old school jazz tone. Think Barney Kessel, Hank Garland, Kenny Burrell. It??s not a P-90. It??s not a charlie christian model pickup. But It??s good in it??s on way. Great note definition. Great for chord-melody.

And remember: work those knobs. I have a master volume on my guitar with a treble bleeder (it??s doesn??t lose it??s highs when you roll of the volume). I suggest you do that. It allows you to find a great variety of tones.

Work those knobs!

Some people won??t like the Phat Cats. Specially people who expect the perfect P-90 sound. I think it??s GREAT for vintage tone lovers like me. But I don??t if it can do it all (hard rock, for instance).

Comparing them with the TV Jones?? TV Classic (humbucker mounting also), the Phat Cats are waaaayyyy more versitile. The TV Jones sounds like a filtertron. That??s it. The Phat Cats can sound like a lot of things. Sometimes, it doesn??t sound like anything I can remember - it just sounds like a Phat Cat. Which is good. The guitar player need to find new original sounds and these pickups can help.

One last thing. Over 2 years, I??ve tried them with flatwounds, roundwounds, 011??s, 012??s and 013??s. It always sounds good. But now I have with 011??s roundwounds and I think I can??t get any better tone than that. The guitar never sounded so good.

Good luck on your search.

Passive big single coil in a hb case

Les Paul Studio, both positions. I have Phat Cats in some all mahogany guitars and they sound great, so I wanted to try them in a LP.

I do not like them in a LP. The maple cap-over-mahogany construction of a LP is just too bright and brittle. They work fine, but I like the Phat Cats much better in my all mahogany Gibson Hawk. They are more trebly than a Gibson 490, for example, but I knew that, and it is not a question of simply turning down the treble on my amp. Rather, the LP dishes up a lot of bass and a lot of treble, and a humbucker smoothes this out, while the Phat Cats accentuate it in a rather unpleasant fashion.

I still need more brightness out of my Les Paul, but I plan to put the humbuckers back in and try a 1 meg volume pot and see if that helps. The Phat Cats do add some tele-ish quack, but the maple brightness is hard to take. I would like to find some humbuckers with some quack, so if anybody has a suggestion, please send it along.

I play a mix of traditional pop and bar blues and rock styles, no metal. I try to be musical, go figure.

Great pickup for the right guitar, but not a cure-all for all guitars.

Great sounding, chrome covered, P90 in a humbucker casing.

I put these in a Gibson Les Paul Classic Goldtop. Originally this guitar came with their hot ceramic pickups the 496r and 500t. Way too hot, so I swapped them out for some Duncan Humbuckers. Alnico Pro II neck and 59er bridge. These sounded good but too similar to another Les Paul I have. After reading all the reviews below, I traded with a buddy for these

Like it says in the reviews below the neck pickup is hotter (small margin) over the bridge. Being on a Les Paul helps, I just turn the neck vol back a little. These are well balanced pickups that don't sound exactly like the p90's but do have their own character that is closer to a p90 sound than a PAF or fender sound. So far it has been used for everything from blues-funk-jazz to rock-metal-reggae. Yes I even added metal. Try these on a solidbody thru a cranked Orange Amp. Metal is in there. However it really shines thru amps that aren't as high gain as others (JTM's, Matchless, Epi valve Jr. etc.)

I wouldn't mind having bridge pickup a tad hotter, but am overall pleased with the tone of this Les Paul. I did an A/B test with a Les Paul Jr with a p90. The Jr still has more balls but the Phat Cats tend to be very articulate -- all notes are clear in both positions with an upper mid bite as opposed to a little muddiness with a lower mid growl in the P90 on the Jr.

I've been playing Fenders, Gibsons and Paul Reed Smiths for 18 years thru a variety of Boogies, Fenders, Marshalls and other amps. I had always wanted a Les Paul Goldtop and ran across this one at a great price. I knew the stock pickups weren't for me beforehand and had planned on changing. Didn't plan on going single-coil like some of the real "classic" LP's, but am glad I did. The only thing better would be to get a 56 reissue goldtop with p90's factory installed. Should that ever happen, I can always change the pickups out of here again (sigh) G.A.S. is a serious word