While these pick ups sounded fine in a guitar build that I was making, they unfortunately do sound like cheaper pickups. I find that these pick ups lack the midrange bark of a PAF tone. They have a bit too much low mid which sometimes can make the guitar sound muddy. This is the case where the higher resistance value is working against itself. With higher resistance comes with a slightly higher volume and gain but it can also be muddy and in this case, too much low mids. When paired with a 500k potentiometer, the pickup also lacks the sparkle highs. I tested the pickup by connecting it directly to the output jack which makes the high end come through. But the low mids are still pretty overwhelming. I also want to note that while the pickups give an option to coil tap and turn them into single coil, they don’t sound that great doing so. I find that the coil-tapped sound of these pick ups severely lack in definition and treble. It actually made the whole thing some more muddy. Often times you would expect a coil-tapped sound to be more sharper with better clarity. Unfortunately, not with this set. You may be able to ground a different with some fancy switch wiring but I doubt that it would make a difference. It probably has to do with the type of magnets they used in these pickups.If you plan on using these pickups for your main guitar, I would make sure that you have a way to tweak the EQ of your rig. I think a bump in 1k, a bit increase in the 4k and a cut in 500 will help to make these pickups sound more acceptable.