Artec HBA117 Alnico 5 Uncovered Humbucker 7-String Electric Guitar Neck Pickup 9.2K

Like many people I threw these in to a Jackson JS22 7 string. They dropped right in with out modifications to the cavities. And they sound really good. Use them for lessons and several jam sessions or band practices and there are some differences between these and my a Duncan’s but the Artec’s definitely hold there own.

These pickups are fantastic. Easily the same quality, in teams of tone and build, as pickups 5 times the price. I've played, and own Duncans, Dimarzios, and EMGs. These pickups are excellent.1) Build - Literally identical to top-brand pickups. They use brass baseplates, which are generally believed by many to not be as good as nickel-silver, although PRS generally uses the same material, as well as historically many other pickup makers. With humbuckers, it matters sonically only marginally. Nickel screws are used to mount the bobbins, they have good coil tape, polepieces, Comes with a slightly oversized alnico 5 magnet.2) Sweet and modern The neck is like a very clear, crisp, PAF, with a bit more output. Excellent, excellent cleans, pure 'Slash' dirty tones, and sings with 3D, slightly scooped richness for leads. The bridge is reminiscent of a JB - lots of midrange, fairly hot, very articulate, with a modern/vintage punch. Cuts through with power, and just a slightly, slightly rounded bass tonality, compared to hot ceramic magnet pickups.Overall, these pickups are not even a step down from far, far more expansive big-name brands.

These pickups actually sound good for any price range! I was very surprised. The bridge pickup is tight and percussive. The neck pickup is great for shred solos. Im very impressed and will be buying more.

*LONG REVIEW ALERT*I picked up a pair of these pickups mainly for the price and looks, to be perfectly honest, as I had a limited build budget and figured I could swallow the cost if they sucked and I ended up getting something else. I installed them into an early 00's Epiphone 7-string Les Paul with a busted nut (ha!) that turned into a whole...project thing.I've got them currently wired as standard humbuckers with plans for push-pull splits later. I was shocked at the output from this set, I really didn't expect them to sound so good for the price. With tones and volumes at 10 the pickups are LOUD but can be backed off a bit on the volume and the sound cleans up nicely. Both pups sound great individually or together in middle position - rhythm is round and full, bridge BARKS, for lack of a better description. I did find i had to dial in a bit more mid on my amp or Guitar Rig to get some definition in my preferred sound but given the target market of 7-string pickups this is not unusual.I got a decent comparison against a name brand when I acquired another Les Paul, same model, very close serial, but with SD Nazgul/Sentient installed. I did a side-by-side of both the Artecs and Seymours, and as expected the SDs were: more defined, just as loud, but needed some bass rolled off to be usable in a rock/blues setting.They also cost about 10x the price of these pickups.In the photo the Artecs are on the black 7-string, the brown one has the Seymours. I did end up switching coil wiring on the bridge pickup so I could have the cream tops facing the same orientation. Made literally no difference in sound, but I'll be doing push-pull switching later to add tone options - these do come with split wiring.I'm on the hunt for more 7-string oddities like these Les Pauls, and would not hesitate to order another set of Artecs for them.

Made and shipped well in a secure box with directions/diagrams and guutar pics. Great price too.