Shadow SH661 4-Conductor

For my current project, I have non-standard string spacing, pickups with regular pole pieces do not work.

I needed a compact blade pickup - which is where the SH661comes in.

In the prototype phase, this project was built using Artec Hot Rails, which have the advantage of being cheap, I've used them before, and they work well.

But (like many "single coil size" blade pickups) the Hot Rails are quite curved, to match the string curvature of a Strat - I'm running a very flat radius, and the string balance was poor as a result.
Further, the tonal quality of the Hot Rails is not exactly "delicate", tending more towards power than subtlety.

The SH661 has flat rails, which suits me much better and the resulting balance across the strings is much nicer.
They also have a more delicate and detailed sound, with quite a bit more treble and clearer harmonics. Good for this project (though maybe not if you just want to shred...)

The downside is that the output is down compared to the Hot Rails, maybe not higher than a single coil would do. I can feel a pre-amp coming on...

Oh!
And an important point I nearly forgot: The wiring diagram supplied with the pickups seems to be wrong. When I initially wired the pickups, following the supplied chart, there was a lot of hum and the output was *really* low (not just low!) Taking a coil tap into single coil mode, the output was better...

Some testing with my oscilloscope and a tuning fork, and checking each coil individually, indicated that the coils were phasing against each other, cancelling each other. Flipping the wiring got everything working much better (no hum, more signal.)

The wiring that worked (for me) was black & screen to ground, white to output, red & blue together. I'm not using a coil tap, but it would go on the "common" red+blue if I were.

I have both an old version Shadow SH661 pickup and a new one.

+ PROS:
* Good sound for a good price

- CONS
* Wrong wiring color code! (for old and new versions)
* Wires are very thin (hard to work with);
* There are no mounting screws or springs included.

The first pickup I have bought 10 years ago. To improve the sound of my first cheap guitar. I liked it much for that price and now I have purchased a new one for neck position.

The worst thing about new pickup was a completely wrong wiring color code! After soldering (according to instruction) I received a single coil with a lot of hum! I had to study about pickups and determine wires myself with Multimeter. The old version pickup had also wrong wiring code, but it was at least a humbucker but with reversed polarity.

The new Shadow version is no more made in Germany, but in China and comes in small and very cheap plastic box. It also looks different. Black wrapping is different, the rails are nickel black instead of steel, the shadow logo is yellow instead of white and a wiring color code was different.

I will recommend passive EMG pickups instead. For example EMG HZ S4. It costs only 10 euro more but the quality is just great! It also has mounting screws and springs. The wires are thick and prewired.

This pickup is a really hot humbucker.
It looks a little cheap with no cover and only wrapped with black ribbon. It has four conductor cables so you've got the option for a coil split but the wires are somewhat thin, you should be careful not to rip them off. When once installed in a guitar this doesn't really matter. And you don't have to worry about string spacing because it has a blade instead of six pole pieces.
I put it in the bridge position on my strat and wired it so that i can split the humbucker for the famous middle/bridge single coil strat sound. Works perfect and sounds as it should, great for funky stuff. When in humbucker mode it delivers a massive output with lots of bass and treble and a full mid spectrum. Even when the humbucker may look cheap, it sounds like a much more expensive one! Great for all sorts of heavy music with high gain distortion, to get nice clean tones you should use the coil split option.

Very disappointed in this product, and I shall be asking for a return, specifically:

1) Coil is not potted, just copper wire (which is visible) with a bit of tape wrapped around.
2) On mine the mounting holes on the base were neither drilled through fully, nor tapped to take adjustment screws. Neither were any mounting screws supplied.
3) Appearance is poor. Coil is just wrapped in black tape and some copper is still visible. I wouldn't want to use these without a cover to hide it.
4) Wiring instructions are poor compared to other manufacturers (though at least the option to wire as you want is present).

I bought this to fit to a new build instrument, but the quality isn't present for me to go ahead and fit it, so I can't comment on the sound quality. It's a shame because other Shadow products I've used have been very good. However, it's clear you get what you pay for, and I shan't be using this one again.