All user reviews for the Kent Armstrong HBMN1

This is an older version of what's now available from kent armstrong for the musicman basses. This one's got open magnets and has kent armstrong in cursive gold print on the front.

I'm actually very used to the stingray sound and can tell the difference between how they usually sound compared to say, an fender p bass, which has always been my go to bass. However, this pickup sounds quite good. I personally haven't tried kent armstrong guitar pickups but have heard good and mixed things about them, I'm generally open to trying new brands and manufacturers these days so I decided to give this one a shot and I can't say I'm disappointed. The signal is clear yet thick and the output is HOT. Very hot. It's wire passively, I know the new one (that looks like an EMG) can be wired up in passive or active mode depending on how you want to use it. This is wired up currently for a tone, volume and sort of a mid-range tone volume which is very subtle but does make a difference to my ears.

Overall I think it's a decent pickup. Definitely an improvement over any stock pickup you'd get if you bought some offshore guitar with unknown brand pickups. Clearer and hotter but plenty of headroom to keep it clean. Haven't tried overdriving this pickup yet with fuzz or distortion but I'm sure it'll sound fine. I don't think it sounds like a stingray would but it sounds good so I can't complain! If you're looking for a musicman-esque humbucker pickup replacement and want to try something different, this is worth a shot. I'm curious to try the new revision of this some day as well.