Using this pickup for 2 years now. I dislike this for cleans.. as it is quite sterile and lacking in personality. It is not bad, per se... it can certainly be clean, but has no quack or other desirable single coil characteristics in clean or distorted mode for that matter.. this pickup seemed to be designed for one thing... to have gain heaped upon it and not get muddy.. even with the signal loaded, trebles up basses up. this can handle extreme amounts of gain. Retains clarity.. and begins to sing as you increase your gain. Very odd philosophy behind this. You totally use your amps gain.. this is very low output. The opposite idea behind say, an EMG 81. The signal hitting the amp is weak.. but this lets you dime your rig without your sound turning to mush. You would need to lower your gain on your amp if using hot pickups as opposed to being able to crank it. I have used lots of pickups.. this has changed my overall approach to my sound. I like using other devices to achieve my gain now.. and use pickups like this and the EJ Custom. Add all the distortion I want and no slop. Just a detailed warm sound with lots of heat. I can get metal sounds... but with character. Becomes more fluid/flutey as you add more gain.
I think this is an insane value for the price. If you can't get a great heavy sound out of this.. get rid of your amp. Or maybe get a guitar that is not made of concrete. Get a wooden one.
I will always have a guitar with this pickup in it. I give it a "9" because I need it for my tone. It allows me to achieve heavy heavy sounds.. but not at the expense of detail.