Artec MDC5 Ceramic Soapbar Style Bass Pickup Neck Bridge Pickups Set 14.4K for 5-String Bass

I upgraded a Tario fretless bass with these pickups.The stock pickups on the bass had very very low volume, and no tonal response when turning the tone or volume knobs on the bass. The Artec pickups were an inexpensive way to troubleshoot the reason the bass sounded so BLAH.These pickups immediately brought tone and volume to the bass. It came alive. For $38 off AMAZON. They won't compete with Seymor Duncans, or EMGs, or Bartolini, but for only $38, they brought life to an otherwise door-stop of a bass. They're not bad. Especially if you're not afraid to change your usual amp EQ settings. I use a Sushi Box preamp (pedal) with these and they sound great. Just my opinion.

The Ibanez Gio GSR 205 claims to be active but its the Phat pot that is active (a bad preamp) and the pickups are low output pickups that run off of the Phat pot.I took the Phat pot out and replaced it with a Blend pot to switch between the two pickups. These are Hotter pickups than the originals. They drop straight in. Bass sounds great now. More High end on the Bridge Pickup and the Neck sounds like a Neck Pickup. No more of that really bad preamp eq sound. Use your amp or pedal preamp for that. Great sounding Bass Pickups!!!

replaced the old pickups in my ESP LTD F series 5 string. the difference between one set of metal focused pickups and another is pretty small. These sounds punchy and clanky, I definitely recommend setting the pickup height as you can. they're a little quiet.