EMG JH James Hetfield Signature Guitar Pickup Set, Black Chrome

Very good sounding pickups. My first active pickups and I'm impressed. The individual string clarity is very articulate. They clean up nicely when rolling your volume down. The installation is easy if you can follow written directions. The instruction was clear and covers different configurations. There are a few wires that need to be soldered, some of which you could avoid with crimp connectors. If you watch some videos, you can learn the basic soldering that is needed. It's a great skill to have. I've been playing 48 years and can easily recognize a great product when I hear it.

Awesome pickups!!! I was hesitant with emg's for a long time. I had an 81 in a BC Rich about 20 years ago, liked it but preferred Dimarzios, passive, they just always sounded better to me. I'm more of a lead player, way more, so I was also hesitant about putting what would obviously be pickups more geared toward rhythm playing. Not the case, for me anyway. These are less like actives to me and more like an extremely hot but quiet passive humbucker. All the dynamics and punch are still there, and like everyone says the low end is punchy and tight. I have a lot of Ibanez guitars, 2 jems, some RG's...etc. Since I was kinda experimenting, I put these in a Steinberger ZT-3. It's more of a fun toy of a guitar I bought because I always wanted one when I was a kid and couldn't afford one. Back in the day they came with emg's, so I put them in that one to see if I would like them or not. I usually play a jem, through a Peavy JSX 120 head and Randall cab with celestions, and a eventide dsp 7000 in the effects loop. I assumed the emg's would throw my levels off, which it did on the eventide, but not as bad as I thought it would. My amp settings didn't change, just set up a duplicate bank for the steinberger so I could set separate levels for it and can switch back and forth between passive and active now without adjusting anything on my rig. The only problem I had, which was kinda big but not emg's fault, was the pockets for the pick ups in the guitar were too small. The steinberger came with Kramer (Gibson) pickups and the way they routed the cavities in Korea they made them really tight fitting, more rounded on the corners. The tabs on the side of the pickups were also too wide for the pockets. I ground off just enough metal on the tabs to get them to fit, and had to route out the pickup cavities on the guitar itself to make it them fit. Took considerably longer because of that and anyone who's not familiar with wood working tools might have to have them installed by someone more experienced. Little scary, but I took out just enough wood so they fit kinda tight, no wiggle in them at all and looks like it came from the factory that way, very very happy. I've changed out pickups numerous times in the past and that's never happened before, might just be a steinberger thing but it might be a good idea to measure before you buy so you'll know if they'll fit or not first. Great pickups, and yes they are very good for lead playing if you like a hot lead sound. Of course you can dial some of that heat out with your amp, but for me, very very happy.

I bought the EMG_JH Set in black chrome. They sound just like James sounds. Very different from the emg 81-85 pickups that I've been playing for years. I was worried about this Finnish because every picture i saw of them looked grey....lol, but they're black as night with a beautiful gloss. I would get the brushed black chrome if your gonna spend the money. But these are beautiful I just know I'm going to scratch them while changing the strings, but I don't care I play HEAVY METAL....lol emg needs to escape California's ridiculous taxes, cause I love emgs but they are getting very costly to my guitar building and repairing costs. I might have to try those ones from China...lol Kidding I could never buy stuff that they copy from American companies, Just look at the F-35 Lightning they made it look exactly like ours but they're not even close in performance.

EMG JH James Hetfield Electric Guitar Pickup Set, Chrome. Product arrived in perfect condition and very quickly. I have never owned active pickups, I went with these to try active, but also that come in a kit that has everything you need to install them yourself. I took out all the electronics out of a old Les Paul with faulty wiring and replaced the pots and pickups plus I bought the below EMG toggle switch, I really think the toggle switch is a must have. EMG Solderless Toggle Switch with Cables 3 Position Lever Black Knob B289 Install was a little challenging since I have never done one before, but I did a second one and it went super fast and way more enjoyable. What a great product!! So well thought out, no soldering and a new pair or one EMG pickup can be installed quickly once this whole kit is installed! Sound is good and heavy and inspires many new riffs. Still getting used to active, however no remorse getting these ;) Adds a new dimension to my guitar collection.

These emg's really made my sound pop,at first i wasn't sure about active pickups but boy it really impressed me a lot.It made the sound really bright and when it comes to metal it really does give me the agressiveness i wanted .My current guitar is an epiphone les paul in case you need to know.

Hell of a good pickup on my Ibanez. Had to buy a five way switch for my h-s-h setup, but my guitar sounds amazing now! Just needed the switch and everything was plug and play. The free pick is dope, so I ordered more of those too

For heavy metal is the best better than the Zack Wilde not as sloppy

I installed them in a ESP LTD EC256. I like that the pickups came with volume and tone pots, a input jack and no soldering. I had a bit of a problem with the installation since the wires from my toggle were different than what was shown in the wiring diagram. It took me a bit of problem solving to get everything connected properly, but the pickups sound great now that everything is correct. With that said I wish I had a new toggle instead of using the original. It is worth it to buy that with this package, since all electronics are replaced except for the toggle.