The question of which pickups are "best" for electric guitars (and acoustics) is one of the more contentious aspects of guitar gear. Tastes simply differ, and a tone one person likes is often considered bad by someone else. Some people can't stand the "noisy" single coils, some don't care for the less clear sound of humbuckers; some think Seymour Duncan pickups have "great tone" but DiMarzios don't, some vice versa. So the first thing to point out here is that these reviews are just my opinion, and even though that opinion is based on decades of playing hundreds of guitars, it's still just my opinion. Yours may be different. I promise not to get upset if you disagree with me, and I hope you feel the same. The thing I will try to get across in these reviews is simply what I consider the strong and weak points of the product in my humble opinion, based on a wide variety of experience.
Bill Lawrence acoustic guitar soundhole pickup
To the left is my old Aspen copy of a Martin D-28. In the (admittedly crooked) photo the guitar has a spring-clip Bill Lawrence soundhole pickup. There are a lot of soundhole pickups for acoustic guitars on the market now, and many of them are quite good. But from my experience the most natural, most well-rounded and (IMHO) "best" of these is this one. On recordings I have made with it, I simply cannot tell on the playback that the guitar has a pickup, except for the effect of the sound (volume and tone) never wavering like it does if you move a guitar even slightly in front of a microphone. Except for that, I can't tell ANY difference at all in sound quality from the guitar being miked by a high-quality large-condenser microphone.This is quite an accomplishment! Most acoustic guitar soundhole pickups, like most electric guitar pickups, "color" the sound to some degree. This has a clean and totally transparent sound; if your guitar sound good, it will come through the PA or recording console sounding just as good with this pickup.
. Bill Lawrence probably has more experience with designing and building pickups than anyone else in the business today, and it really shows in this product. The only drawback is that this will only fit in the soundholes of fairly large-bodied guitars (like dreadnoughts and jumbos) - it won't fit into smaller bodied guitars like auditorium or concert sized. Whether or not Bill Lawrence still makes these or makes them in another size, I don't know. Check out his website and contact him for more info
As for the pickups systems for acoustic guitars that are built in, ie bridge piezoelectric transducers or ribbon transducers, or interior-mounted microphones, they all have their good and bad points. Many people are very fond of the L.R. Baggs "double-barrel" system, which is a ribbon transducer coupled with an interior mic, and which can use either or both at the same time. I have more limited experience with these systems, but I can say that interior mounted mics are very touchy, and having the mic mounted just so is very important. The difference of as little as 1/16th of an inch can spell the difference between the guitar sounding great and sounding terrible.
As for bridge transducers, I think that in general a good ribbon transducer gives a more accurate and natural sound. Many people say that peizoelectric transducers have a tendency to an annoying "quacking" sound and EQ problems, but I think the best systems don't really have any problem. Fishman is probably the overall best - these transducers give a very natural sound, and if the guitar itself sounds good "unplugged" then it will sound good plugged in. The Fishman amp is also an excellent acoustic guitar amp, probably the overall best made, and pairs up great with a Fishman-equipped guitar. Personally, I think the best systems that come factory-equipped on the guitars are on Ovation and Takamine guitars, both made by Kaman industries. Ovation was the first really good acoustic/electric guitar, and I personally feel their system has remained the best. Where I would probably replace a Fishman-equipped Martin or Fender transducer with an L.R. Baggs ribbon unit (but not with the "double-barrel"), I wouldn't do so on an Ovation. The whole Ovation design system of tone woods, soundhole design, plastic or composite backs, internal bracing and electronics is so carefully engineered that I'd be afraid to mess with it much!
I use an Ovation Elite as my primary studio/live guitar now, and I am very impressed with the system. Even the less expensive Korean-made Ovation acoustic/electrics (such as the Celebrity line) sound great if you use the electronics, and with the Elite you can use the electronic system recorded direct into a console plus ambient miking the guitar and get any acoustic guitar tone you want. Close-miking is a little difficult, the non-traditional soundhole(s) design makes it hard to pick a good spot right next to the guitar for a mic. But with a good quality large-diaphragm mic set three feet or so from the guitar, it sounds like any great sounding dreadnought acoustic guitar. The EQ system is great, also. So, to sum up acoustic guitar pickups, for soundhole pickups I personally prefer the Bill Lawrence pickup, and for bridge transducers, interior mics and hybrid transducer/mic systems I give the Ovation transducer system "two thumbs up", followed by the ribbon transducer in any more traditionally built acoustic guitar.
Electric guitar pickups, part one: strats
Electric guitar pickups are a more contentious issue among guitarists than acoustic systems. For one thing, there is a dizzying array of aftermarket pickups for electrics, and everone of course has their favorites. I have experience with quite a variety, and know people whose opinions I trust who have used others I haven't. Below I list some of the more common modern strat pickups and what is, I remind you, simply my opinion of them. Before getting started let me note that one of the major selling points of many of these products is that they "nail the classic '50s/'60s strat sound". This is purely a marketing ploy: first of all, which classic '50s or '60s strat sound are they talking about? Not even taking into account the differences between individual pickups from the hand-winding era (prior to '64), there were at least four major different basic strat pickup tones. The early strats were clear and clean, chimey and bell-like, but somewhat underpowered pickups compared to modern tastes. The late '50s were the same sound but much hotter. The early 60s strats tended to a darker, warmer and more compressed sound. The output wasn't as high as the '57 through '59 pickups, but the tone of the pickups made it easier to get what sounded like a "hot" sound out of them, particularly while overdriving the amp. The mid-60s were much the same, but more even in sound quality (especially the 1964-'65 strats), and in the late '60s/early '70s the sound was cleaner and clearer again, but not as hot as the late '50s. So I always am skeptical of this particular marketing claim. Most of the pickups making this "nails the classic strat sound" claim in reality have a hotter, edgier and more modern sound than the originals.
Fender Custom Shop single-coils
These are custom-shop hand-wound copies of "classic" era stratocaster and telecaster pickups, and as such have the good and bad points of the originals. The Custom '54 strat pickups are a sort of average 1950s strat pickup; clean, clear, chimey and bell-like, although somewhat underpowered. Hotter than many early strat pickups (especially the 1955 models), but not as hot as most of the late '50s. They sound great, if that is the sound you're looking for. If you are not well acquainted with the early strat type pickups, though, these may seem underpowered to you. You have to really know how to get the sound you want out of clean and not very high output pickups, both in the way the guitar is set up and in the "touch" of your playing, or you may not like these. They are, however, I feel the smoothest strat pickups Fender has made, and as good as anyone's. They handle clean sounds fine, effects of any sort also, including distortion or fuzz with less roughness than any other strat pickups I've used. They're my personal favorites.The "Fat '50s" are noticeably hotter than the Custom '54s. These are manufactured to the average specs of 1958 strat pickups, which was the hottest of the classic era strats. They have the same clear, bell-like sound, but if pushed at all slide into the hot, glassy sound of a late '50s strat, a sound largely associated today in people's minds with a "Texas" kind of blues sound. I think these are the best overall pickups Fender has ever produced, and would unhesitatingly recommend them to anyone looking for a classic strat sound. The little bit hotter winding than the Custom '54s probably make these more versatile to a lot of players. The Custom Shop '69s of course are made to the average '60s specs, and emulate the sound quite well. These three lines of pickups are, in fact, literally the closest things available on the market today to the original early strat, late '50s hot strat and '60s strat pickups. They are made with the same materials, same winding techniques, and made on some of the same hand-cranked winding machines. The Custom '54s are not, actually, exactly copies of '54 strat pickups; the magnet composition, diameter and pole stagger are somewhat different. The across-the-board quality of these three pickup lines is more consistent than the pre-CBS Fender pickups were, and better than any other post-1964 Fender strat single-coils. If you want "the real thing", these are as close as you can get today. The "Fat '50s" and "'69s" have reverse-wound/reverse polarity middle position pickups, for hum-cancelling in the "in-between" positions.
Texas Specials and related pickups The Fender Texas Specials are essentially traditional-component overwound pickups, attempting to emulate an overwound, even hotter version of late '50s strat pickups, a sound most associated with Stevie Ray Vaughan (although I suspect he actually got that sound mostly by using a TS-808 Tube Screamer overdrive). They are frequently described as "too bright and trebly", and can easily become somewhat shrill. But often what is "too bright" in solo practice at home translates into "cutting through" in a live band environment. There are various other Texas Special-like aftermarket pickups, notably Van Zandts, Rio Grandes and the "Texas Hot" Seymour Duncan Antiquities. I had fender Texas Specials in a basswood-bodied strat, and they were simply too noisy for the studio environment so I replaced them with EMG SAs. Probably the best of this type of pickup is the Rio Grande "Muy Grande".
Fender '57/'62 reissues
I have an early reissue, a '62 reissue strat made in 1982, and it's pickups have aged into a wonderful and very faithful sonic copy of a '64 strat. This could be an anomoly, because I had an '86-made '57 reissue which had pickups that had just not aged as well; they sounded OK, but didn't really have the "it" that I wanted (I replaced them with "Fat '50s" and was totally satisfied). The later reissues I've played just weren't that great, as far as the pickups go. For one thing, as mentioned above the pickups actually put on strats in '57 and '62 were quite different. These are certainly "better" in my opinion than the American Standard pickups, and not as trebly as Texas Specials, but not as good as the Custom Shop pickups or many of the more common aftermarket pickups.
Fender American Standard pickups
In my personal opinion, these can be summed up as fairly hot, but limited and somewhat toneless. No wonder dozens of aftermarket strat pickups are available!
EMG active pickups
EMG makes four basic single-coil models of active pickups, ie pickups with an integral preamp. These are true single-coils which are also noiseless, and the magnets can be made quite weak, allowing the pickups to be set extremely close to the strings if you so desire. There are four basic models, the S, SA, SV and SAV. The S and SV models use ceramic magnets, for a hotter sound, the SA and SAV use alnico V for a more traditional strat sound. The SV and SAV have exposed polepiece magnets, which of course have the strandard fade-out in string bends and a more pronounced "hollow" sound in the in-between positions. The S and SA models use bar magnets and have smooth covers. Personally, I prefer the SAs, as I like the more traditional strat sound and the look of the smooth covers. The "hollow" in-between position sound is definitely there, although not as strong as traditional polepiece magnets, but very noticeable anyway.
The main complaint I hear about these is that some players refer to the tone as "cold, sterile and lifeless". In reality, they are just very, very clean and clear. If you rely on your pickups for specific tonal coloration of your guitars, these probably won't do for you. You have to really know how to set the guitar up in terms of string height, distance of the pickups from the strings, etc., and also really know how to use your touch on the strings to get different tones and sounds out of the instrument, to get the most out of these. Any pickup will work as a tone control in the sense that close to the strings they will pick up a brighter and hotter sound, farther away will give a darker tone. The EMGs do this better than any other pickup I've ever used; close to the strings (and you can get VERY close) gives a sound that's plenty warm, and even far away you still get a very "alive" sort of sound. These pickups will faithfully transmit to the amp what the guitar, strings and your fingers sound like. If your playing is lifeless, these pickups will not change that.
These pickups will literally "pick up" whatever tone your fingers produce very accurately and cleanly, it's up to you to give your amp the sound you want out of the guitar. The EMG SAs are currently my favorite aftermarket strat pickup, due to the exact and faithful sound reproduction quality, and the noiseless factor combined with true single-coil playing characteristics.
NOTE: I am not saying that everyone who relies on the tonal coloration of their pickups for their basic tone from a guitar is an inferior player. It's true that there are plenty of guitarists who really don't know how to use their fingers to achieve a wide variety of tones, and there are some guitarists who simply aren't very good (and often haven't a clue that they're not). But often pickups which color the tone of the guitar are very good pickups, and there's nothing wrong with this. Sometimes you just want a certain sound from one guitar that a particular pickup will give, sometimes there are pickups that are not transparent at all but the "color" they lend the guitar is so great there's no point in changing them out.
Lace sensors
Like EMGs, these pickups have smooth covers, and are designed so they can be set closer to the strings than regular pickups without too much string warble. They are also actual single coils, advertised as "noiseless" and often accused of sounding cold, sterile and lifeless. Unlike EMGs, these are passive pickups, and not as noiseless as advertised (although less noisy than traditional single-coils). There are Gold Lace sensors, meant to emulate '50s strat pickups, Silver to imitate a hotter but '60s kind of strat sound, Blue for late '50s humbucker sounds, and Red for very hot pickups. I think the Gold are by far the best. Again, like the EMGs, these are very clean pickups that require proper setup and a player used to using his or her touch to get the tones they want from the guitar, or they may well sound "lifeless". If your playing is "alive", these pickups will pick that up, just like the EMGs. Personally, I think these are fine pickups; although I don't like them as much as the Custom Shop or actually vintage strat pickups (at least good sounding ones) or EMGs, they are fine pickups. They definitely get a better sound with the 25 dB boost circuit Fender has in the "Eric Clapton" and "Buddy Guy" signature model strats. The Gold Lace sensors can give harmonics as good or better than any other available pickup, and that may be their best point.
Various other pickups
There are a great many aftermarket strat replacement pickups available today, including a wide variety made by Seymour Duncan, plus those made by Lindy Fralin, Bill Lawrence, DiMarzio, Kinman, etc. I have less experience with some of these, but will report my personal opinions and those of players whose opinions I trust. Seymour Duncan makes excellent pickups, although many are so carefully voiced in specific ways that they very much color the sound of the guitar. As mentioned above, this is not always bad. These include a very wide variety of different basic tones, and include single-coils of various magnet types, polepiece and rails, alnico II and V or both, stacked humbuckers and active pickups. For active pickups I prefer EMGs; in general I don't care much for stacked humbuckers, they really don't sound like true single-coils, although some are closer than others. Duncan's Antiquity strat pickups are single-coils designed to imitate the sound of aged pickups; they do this fairly well, but there's only so much "aged" tone you can reasonably expect of new pickups. Antiquity I "Texas Hot" pickups are intended to emulate the late '50s hot strats, and Antiquity IIs the 1964 strats. All these are good pickups, but there are simply too many to wade through, and which you may like only you can say.
Fralins are advertised as "nailing the classic strat sound", and although they are excellent pickups it seems they have a much more modern sound than an actually vintage type sound. They seem noisier than most single-coils, also. They are basically the kind of single-coils Fender should have been making through the 1990s instead of the fairly hot but pretty toneless and limited American Standard pickups. You can get the bridge pickups with a metal plate underneath, which gives a more telecaster-like, brighter sound.
DiMarzio's stacked humbuckers are pretty noiseless, and the "Virtual Vintage" models are basically (as far as I know) similar to Fender's new "Vintage Noiseless" pickups. The Fenders seem to sound more single-coil-like if set up farther from the strings. In general, stacked humbuckers simply don't have the clear high end of true single-coils; you get less noise in return for "less" tone. The Virtual Vintage are more like older strat pickups than the older models like the HS-3, but still don't quite cut it.
On the other hand, Kinman Guitar Electrix of Australia makes a noiseless pickup line that is more noiseless than any humbuckers, and are advertised as true single-coil sound. People I know who have tried them in general say that if set up properly they are virtually indistinguishable from older single-coils, but not completely. Setup is more critical than with other pickups, apparently. DiMarzio has blocked Kinman from having U.S. distributors by allegedly spurious legal action, but they can be bought by mail order or from Kinman's website. These are probably the best bet currently for totally noiseless while closest to aged, vintage strat sound.
Bill Lawrence also makes "noiseless" strat type pickups, some of which are rail magnets and some with polepieces. The 280 series strat replacement pickups are described by some people I know as perfect single-coil sound without the noise, although others I know say they are noiseless but fairly toneless also. This may be one of those situations where setup and playing touch make all the difference, though.
In addition to the Lace sensors, AGI also manufactures the Lace "Holy Grail" pickups, a very different design than any other pickup type. These are differentially wound double coil pickups with the two coils in a sort of triangular arrangement on either side of the polepiece magnets, and fit in a standard single-coil strat pickup space. I have zero personal experience with these, but from people I know who have tried them I hear that they sound quite good, although some say very vintage like and some say not. Personal opinions obviously differ a lot about these; but "that's what makes the world go 'round", as they say. These do apparently sound better with 500 k pots, like all the stacked humbuckers (not including Kinmans; he recommends sticking with the 250 k pots true single-coils usually use).
All these pickup choices and others (Joe Barden, Harmonic Designs, etc.) really boil down to what kind of basic sound you want, and what you can make work for you. For me, it's vintage sounding single-coils, and the closest to true vintage are simply the Fender Custom Shop models. And the only noiseless pickups I've personally tried that have true single-coil charcteristics and vintage sound are the EMG SAs (or SAVs). You might like something really different, and if so, more power to you. Just don't be paralyzed by the confusing array of aftermarket pickups; the main point is to plus the guitar in and play. The gear nut behavior, GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and the confusion over what pickup may be "best" isn't as important as the TONE IN YOUR HANDS.