Seymour Duncan SH-JB Hot Rodded Humbucker

This pickup set was recommended to me by a friend, who basically said "if you don't know what to install, install these" (i was looking to upgrade muffled-sounding stock pickups). They are basically a classic combination, and it's for a good reason - these are perfectly matched and sound awesome in your average single-cut guitar.

Just about the only thing that i can complain about is that they're a bit too big to fit in the pickup cavities of my Asian-made LP copy, so i'll have to drill those off to make more room at some point.

The "hot rodded" thing is perhaps a misnomer in this day and age since these aren't actually all that hot - compared to modern "hot" pickups these are quite polite. However, they have just enough bite and clarity to rock on all but perhaps extreme levels of distortion, but the neck pickup also has great clean sounds.

So I fitted these on an old Fenix LP clone I was giving a make over... Here's what I found:

Installation:
The pickups were easy enough to install, save for the thickness of the wire shielding. It required a little ingenuity to pull them through the routing - they were too thick to simply push through. But we got there in the end, and this is only a one time issue - once it's done, it's done.

Sound:
Obviously, this is the main one. We went from a generic humbucker sound, to a massive and rich sound, with real character. When playing through a medium/high gain, it just sounded great.
The bridge (JB) has a lot of bite, but dialling back the volume gives a crunch that doesn't hide the fact there is a lot in reserve.
The neck (jazz) was rich, warm, round - a perfect lead sound. Rolling back the volume and it started sounding deliciously bluesy.

Overall:
These pickups have given an old guitar a whole new lease of life. If you want a sound that can go from rock to metal with a twist of the volume control, then you could do a lot worse than this set.

My favorite pickup of the pair is the Jazz neck pickup, it sounds incredible and is one of my favorite humbuckers ever. As you would expect from Seymour Duncan the quality is as good as anything else even pickups costing 2 or 3 times as much. I found the pair to be perfect for covering a lot of styles which is great when doing a good mix of both live and studio work. I used these in a US made PRS Starla and they generally blended really well with it though I personally think that they would be better suited to something with a maple cap like a Les Paul. The Jeff Beck signature bridge pickup is generally great it has a really distinct mid range spike which means that it really cuts through mix well though when used with something like a tubescreamer (I was using a Maxon OD9) it can get a bit too much and become a little muddy, I used them with a Fulltone OCD and that seemed to work exceptionally with it! Generally though really impressed and would recommend if your after a versatile set of pickups to cover everything from Jazz to Hard Rock!

Great sound at a great price.
I purchased these pickups for installation in an epiphone 335 copy. While the guitar was superb I felt that the pickups, while perfectly adequate in their own right, could do with improving.
After some research, I chose the Seymour Duncan hot rod set as my replacements. In addition to being excellent value for money, the pickups offer the right enhancements for a semi-solid guitar. The neck pup is understated just enough to offer a wonderful contrast to the classic jeff beck humbucker in the bridge position. The four conductor wiring, when configured, offers a superb array of tonal options to the instrument.
All in all a worthwhile purchase for any guitar that may seem totally challenged.

Amazing and proven pickup setup! Especially for HH Super Strat Guitars

I am using them on my Ibanez RG721MSM. They are very versatile.
Neck pickup is great for clean tone Pat Metheny jazz sound if you dim the tone pot by %50.
Bridge Pickup is great for overdrive/distortion solos and less hum.
If you connect them correctly for split / parallel configuration you can also get great Fender Stratocaster / Telecaster like single coil sounds too.

With a 5 position pickup selector I have installed mine as same as Ibanez RG652AHMFX Prestige pickup configuration: (from to bottom)

Position 1: Full Neck Humbucker
Position 2: Neck Single Split or Parallel (The one close to the fingerboard)
Position 3: Full Neck + Full Bridge Humbucker
Position 4: Neck Center Single (The one far from the neck) + Bridge Center Single (The one far from the bridge)
Position 5: Full Bridge Humbucker