Price paid: $ 34.95
Purchased from: dragonfireguitars.com
Sound: These are high output, ceramic pickups. Very modern sound. 17.5k bridge and 8.8k neck. I put them in my old backup guitar, an Ibanez RG320PG, to replace the stock Infinity pickups. Amp is a 15watt Marshall Haze head w/ matching 1x12 cab and an old 1x10 Peavey cab from a VS20 mini stack. Vox Wah, Joyo Dyna Comp Joyo 6-band EQ and amp based reverb and echo.
These are very articulate and well defined pickups. The over-sized poles seem to really capture the nuances of my playing and accentuate my weaknesses. Muted they stay very quiet and there's no excessive hum or buzz. Like I said before, these are very modern sounding. Definitely geared towards modern metal and heavy music in general. I can pull pretty much anything from Iron Maiden to Lamb Of God.
Detuned they still sound very clear and articulate. They're a little bright at times, but that's probably due to the RG's basswood body. I have my eye on an Agile AL-2000 with a floyd rose and extended scale to put these in and the mahogany body should sort that out nicely.
The Phat Screamers definitely have all the tone of a much, much more expensive pickup and are a great alternative to active pickups for players that don't want to give up passives. // 9
Reliability & Durability: They seem to be well made and durable. They are at least as impressive as any of the better pickups I've had experience with. The leads are long. The pickups were unblemished and everything worked perfectly right out of the box. Very easy to install. They have the extra wires for coil tapping but I don't have the proper pots on the RG for that. // 9
Impression: So far these pickups are incredible. Much better tone and quality than I expected for their price. They make the lower end Ibanez I put them in sound just awesome and put the stock Inf pickups to shame. Very respectable pickups. I would definitely buy more. If you want to make your budget guitar sound like it isn't a budget guitar this is a good way to go. // 9
