Musiclily Pro ST-DPLC Ceramic Rail Blade Single Coil Sized Humbucker Pickup 6.2K for Strat Style Electric Guitar

Interesting specs for a ceramic pickup, and it's a good sound. I chose to put it in the neck position. It's cheap enough where it's not a problem testing it out. Installation is easy, and it has four conductors to allow coil splitting, although it might be an interesting sound considering it's made with mini coils. Value is good, although Musiclily sells this pickup as part of a set of 3 for a little over $30. If you can spare the extra money, I think the sets are better for the money, and it allows you more options, even if swapping only one pickup in a guitar.

For reference, my other ceramic magnet pickups have a brighter sound with decent high mids and harmonics. However, this single-coil-sized humbucker sounded very dull and lifeless. There's not a lot of detail in the treble and high mids. I find that the pickup might have been overwound, but not in a good way, which may have contributed to being dull and lifeless-sounding. Nevertheless, I feel like I will have use for it when I need to tame down a high-end on certain guitars. But for now, it's not very useful and therefore I'm giving it a lower mark.

I don't use the bridge pickup often, just not a big fan of the bright chime, so I wanted to try something different. This gave me the opportunity to try out an hss configuration. FWIW, I didn't know what sound or style I wanted when I started playing, so I just got a used guitar and started tooling around.Easy enough install if you have a soldering iron - I didn't want to muck with the switch or tone knob wires, so I just clipped out the existing single coil and soldered the wires to the new pickup. The leads are a bit long, but not so much that I couldn't everything back into the body. Fit is mostly ok on my 2021 Fender Squier SSS stratocaster. They helpfully provide 2 sets of screws (panhead and oval head countersunk) to match your pickguard. The screws provided are a bit larger diameter than my stock, but are necessary as the mounting hole diameter on the pickup is larger than the stock screw diameter. I mention this only because I had to enlarge the pick guard through-holes slightly in order to use the provided screws. Aesthetically it would have been a better match if the plastic faceplate on the new pickup matched the stock pickup faceplates, but it is a frankenstein mashup, so it will never look quite right.This pickup measured about 3kOhms - stock were about 4.5kOhms. There is definitely a volume difference between this and the stock, and I do find myself adjusting the volume knob to accommodate the difference between the stock neck/middle pickups and the new bridge pickup. Of note, the way I wired this has changed the sound character of position 2 (B+M) on the 5 way switch - there may be some phase issues, because the volume is lower on 2 than on the middle pickup alone (position 3), and way lower than bridge pickup alone (position 1).These output issues don't matter to me because I am just noodling around for my own satisfaction, but I could see how it might frustrate someone trying to play with others or making recordings and needing to constantly readjust their volume if/when switching pickups.The tone is less chime, more rounded and similar to the neck pickup, but with an edge that I like, so I'll keep this installed for now.

This was my first experience with a ceramic pick up. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that not only the unique sound but also the sound quality.

Thought I was getting an alnico pickup, but it is ceramic. Almost thought about sending it back, but it sounds good enough and still better than the stock kit pickup. It has a warm tone that I actually like for the neck position. The value is great and I’m happy with the sound, so it will stay right where it is.