Kent Armstrong

This is a high quality Telecaster replacement pickup from Kent Armstrong. While not exactly a household name, Kent Armstrong is actually one of the most well-known individuals in the world of pickups (each pickup is designed by Kent himself). A friend of mine recently turned me on to these pickups. I put them into a Telecaster that I own (a Squier) and it drastically improved the sound of the guitar. The cool thing about these pickups (besides their chrome design, which is unexpected but really cool-looking!) is their sound. They have a really punchy, bright sound. I've heard it described as "borderline uncomfortably" bright, which is like an ice pick in the ear. This is actually a good thing for a lot of us, we can't always be dark and moody! I really like the bright jangly sound that these pickups bring out of my Tele. That's really the kind of sound that a Tele does best. It's surprising that some of the pickups that come into these newer ones really don't do the guitar justice in terms of supporting that jangly sound. The best thing about these pickups is that they are usually available for less than $50. Compared to some of the other pickups out there, I can't really believe this. Whether or not it's easier to make Tele pickups than others (like humbuckers), I don't know, but I'm awfully surprised. All in all, this is a solid replacement in any respect. Whether refitting due to frustration with old sounds, or simply replacing old worn pickups, these are a solid choice. I highly recommend them.

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.

This is a humbucking electric guitar pickup made by Kent Armstrong. It is called the Distortion, which implies that it is to be used with a distortion pedal/amp distortion. The sound is definitely favorable for this type of music. It significantly cuts feedback on high-gain settings, which is useful in the world of playing concerts and really rocking out. The unfortunate side effect of this is that using it on clean settings is not nearly as useful. The pickups greatly mask the qualities of the guitars. I bought these pickups a couple years ago, thinking that adding them to my Strat would solve my distortion problems. I later discovered that while they did solve my feedback issues, they lost the depth and warmth that my original single-coil pickups had delivered. Since I eventually discovered that I liked the old sound more, I switched the pickups back, and instead replaced the pickups in my Les Paul with these. I still found that although my Feedback issues were gone, I didn't really like the tone that came with these on my Les Paul, and put the original humbuckers back. In that case they were extremely ill-suited. I think that overall, you're better off replacing a Strat, Tele, or Jaguar-esque guitar with something like this, as it accentuates the distorted highs and mids that those guitars favor. I think that if you are only interested in using a guitar for distorted sounds, and have the resources to use different guitars for different functions, then these pickups are possibly worth your while. They really do cut feedback and really accentuate the distorted frequencies that we rockers love so much. However, if you are looking for anything resembling diversity, avoid these at all costs, since they are among the least versatile I've ever tried.