Seymour Duncan SH-4BK

There's often some debate about what works best, to buy a more expensive guitar or to find something cheaper and mod it to how you like. Essentially, with this pickup I was able to turn a pretty cheap guitar into something that sounded extremely more professional, within about 30 minutes and would say for a combined total of £140, created something of quality you can't buy at the price.

The guitar I installed it on was a Squier Bullet Strat, which I bought to sit in one location due to my other guitars being elsewhere. The workmanship on the cheaper Squiers is great value for money but the pickups still leave a lot to be desired due to the low guitar cost. I decided to upgrade the pickups to rectify this and chose the Jeff Beck humbucker from Seymour Duncan.

Quality: In terms of pickup quality, it is what you'd expect from SD. Top grade, there's little more to be said. This thing will last an eternity.

Sound: I opted for the SH-4BK due to its more rounded tone, yet still a bright one like you'd expect from a Strat, adding some tight crunch to the HSS pickup formation. There is some good sustain and clarity from the pickup. The cleans are glassy clear with a subtle shimmer. I'm not going to give 5 stars as its not the best pickup Seymour Duncan have ever created. While you get some impressive tones, its not jaw dropping, like some pickups I've heard. Don't get me wrong though! It sounds awesome and if you're anywhere in the rock/blues (or even Metal I'd say) arena this will do the job perfectly. It was miles better than the stock pickup of course.

Installation: I've installed pickups before so this was no issue, but it really isn't that hard, especially if you're simply replacing another passive pickup. Make sure you have the right tools: soldering iron, Phillips screwdriver and it'll be quick and painless. The diagrams online make this easy, too.

Overall, for the price this is an amazing piece of kit. I don't understand why more people don't mod their cheaper guitars to sound crisper, cleaner and generally more awesome. This pickup fit the guitar and playing style well and I'd totally endorse it for this or another similar purpose.

I used this Humbucker to replace the old bridge Pickup on my Yamaha Pacifica. The original no name pickup has not had a very clear tone when playing an amp with more gain.
The delivery arrived really fast so that I could install this Pickup only three days after I ordered it. I never worked with a soldering iron before but with the provided wiring diagram and a little help from a friend I was abled to build it in correctly.
The sound of the SH4 is good. It has got a lot of sustain and works perfectly with Hard-Rock and classical Heavy-Metal stuff like AC/DC, Accept, and Judas Priest or other 80s bands. You can play Blues as well because it is very focused on the mids and delivers a well balanced sound. In combination with a tube amp it is very easy to control the distortion by turning the volume up and down.
All in all I am very satisfied with this Humbucker. It is not too expensive, easy to build in and delivers a huge variety of of classical sounds. If you want to pimp a cheap guitar I would definitely recommend this Humbucker. Five of five stars.

Put this into my 2013 MIM Lone Star Deluxe Strat as the original humbucker crapped out.

The SH4 is a much nicer sounding pickup. Better mid range and harmonic response. It definitely can hold a note for longer than the humbucker in the Lone Stars.

Came nicely packed, but not with too much crap in the box either: The pickup, the mounting screw and a wiring diagram (which was VERY handy). And the pickup also has a lot of wire on them for you to do whatever sort of wiring you need, theres plenty there to mess around with.

This pickup even looks better in the start than the last! Will definitely be using these pickups again going forward!