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Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Set
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Seymour Duncan Blackouts are 9-volt active neck and bridge humbuckers that provide more extended frequency response with less compression. Seymour Duncan engineers have captured the tone players want in an active design with the benefits of balanced...
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Searched Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Set in Reviews
Similar to a 18 volt mod EMG but for a cheaper price 
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I purchased a Jackson SLSMG super lightweight soloist and the active EMGs it came with SUCKED! I'm an EMG fan and have them in several other guitars but they just plain out sucked in this Jackson. So I replaced them with the favorable passives Seymour Duncan JB/59! The sound greatly improved but the crunch was still lagging!
Never hearing or playing with Seymour Duncan blackouts I thought I'd give them a try, thinking I had nothing to lose since the reviews praised these pickups as if they were Gods gift to man. So I switched out the passives and re-applied actives and WOW! These pickups sound great! Warm, Smooth, Crystal Clear, fuller and all around just adds character!
They honestly sound like a set of EMG 85x/85 with a 18volt mod and some more. These pickups pack a serious punch! In cleans and distorted, the tones that are produced are phenomenal; unlike the EMG 81/85 which produced a sterile, thin and compressed sound.
The blackouts give you an ideal combination of single-coil bite and clarity with humbucker punch and sustain- It has tremendous cut, its crystal clear and very brilliant with a touch of warmth to it! You can strum across full chords and hear every note or you can deliver brilliant single notes with perfect clarity!
With added distortion, I had a deeper and fuller tone, very organic sounding! Somewhat similar to the passives I previously had. Palm muting just had more 'Umph' to it, kind of more chunkier/beefier. Again, the notes played with great clarity! I was very impressed
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| Liked about it |
Great set of pickups they really do play beautifully. They have great sustain, power, cleans and distortion. No matter if you're playing rhythm or lead, these pickups will satisfy any sound you're trying to achieve. I'm completely satisfied. also I am very picky, as you can see it took me a total of 3 pickup replacements to achieve my tone. I think I praised these pickups enough up above ;)
Oh, I play Death metal by the way, along with thrash and grindcore.
Now im not saying these will sound great in every guitar. I wouldnt replace my EMGs I have in my other guitars but as far as my Jackson SlsMG, they sound amazing. it doesnt hurt to give them a try!
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| Didn't like |
Im not sure how other people wire these pickups? I know there are several ways into wiring and using Blackouts. I did it the most Simplest way and have no complaints! Keep in mind, these arent made to have an 18 volt mod! You can use it but you have to sacrifice the cleans. I see no reason in doing so though.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
 By Weezel Feb 20, 2010
Last updated: February 23, 2010
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making active's sound a lil bit more like passive.
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After trying several active pickups I came across these beauties. Thinking I'd give them a shot, I bought pair of these at the *bay. Couple weeks of waiting and there they were, ready for installing to my bc rich assassin. After removing the stock rockfields I took these out of the box and instantly noticed something nice: they had both, the cables and quick connectors. So, they are a direct drop in when you have EMG pups with the connectors. This didn't help me since I had passives on my guitar, but it's a nice feature. After installing the pups (they came with potentiometers and stuff.) it was time to try them out. I plugged my guitar into my amp, cranked up the volume and picked the first power chord.. And wow! Damn these things growl! Comparing the stock rockfields and these, think this.. a little chihuahua yapping VS. A COOKIE MONSTER GROWLING! ehh.. Well, anyway, they were every bit as powerful as I expected. After few hours of playing and tweaking the height of the pups, I came to conclusion that Blackouts are more "organic", warm and passive sounding pups than, say, EMG81 or 85. When EMG81 is sterile, angry sounding and great pup for metal, the blackout is full sounding, really angry and superior for metal. At least for me. And these CAN do the cleans too, mostly with neck pup and volume rolled a bit down from the guitar.
Anyway, if you're bored of those emg's on your guitar, try these out.. They just could do the trick, as they did for me.
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| Liked about it |
Warmth. The sterileness and coldness of emgs are far from these.
Power. I think these are a bit more higher output pups than emgs? That could be good or bad.. Matter of taste anyway.
Direct swap with emg's.
These can handle low tunings like champs.
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| Didn't like |
Naturally, these aren't made for cleans.. As the cleans work, they aren't as good as passive pup cleans.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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Seymour duncan blackouts phase I
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Very well made pickup, very good sound. Great active pickup, much better then current actives IMO. Everything was there, very tight, articulate, good bass response. The only drawback was the lack of highs.
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| Liked about it |
Very heavy pickup, nice and chunky.
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| Didn't like |
For the price i don't think there worth it. That's just my opinion. There was night enough highs for me.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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3.0 |
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My new favorite pickup
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I bought the bridge neck set for my Ibanez RG1570, it replaces Dimarzio evolution set, which sound great but my bridge evo like to squeal even though they are wax potted.
The blackouts sounds not much different to the evolution in terms of low end tightness, and overall freq response. The most noticeable difference is that everything is now a little bit more punchy, and i have to back off the gain by 20-30% to achieve similar saturation as the evos.
Strangely though, the blackout sounds friendlier (less piercing) and more dynamic than the evo. Playing with volume knobs when using heavy distortion give wider range of tone.
The neck pickup deserve an award. It sounds very glassy with great sustain. It works really well to warm up a 24 fret guitar. On my RG it totally nail that slash sound.
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| Liked about it |
1. More definition for chugga chuggin riffs. Sounds like phat and thick passive pickup, but notes really jump out of speaker compared to passives.
2. Surprisingly warm clean tone.
3. Respond well to volume knob
4. Great gain, low noize
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| Didn't like |
1. It can't split to single coil (say bye bye to "the boy in seattle")
2. I can't get the tone knob to work, perhaps I'm using wrong capacitor value, I will check again.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
By bowie8889 Dec 29, 2011
Last updated: January 27, 2012
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My Experience with Blackouts
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I installed the swapped them out in a Bernie Rico jr neckthru v. And it sounds better than a EMG 81 and 60!
MOre tone..
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| Liked about it |
More tone than emg 81. Perfect. I compared it to passive too, and its hot and balanced.. everything a metaller needs.. even to blues also, in a Gibson would be beefy..
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| Didn't like |
Nothing.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
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The only active pickups IMO
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i have probably purchased about 6 sets of BLACKOUTS. It was love at first strum. They are a must have in my guitars!
They are THICK and warm sounding without sounding too saturated. The warmth is what makes these pickups really shine. Side by side comparison to the EMG 81/85 and BLACKOUTS win hands down. The EMG's have more mid's and highs, and they sound "digital", if that makes sense. The Blackouts pack alot of gain but keep the character of the guitar which is very important.
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| Liked about it |
1) SOUND
2) QUALITY
3) Easy installation with quick connect cables.
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| Didn't like |
The installation instructions need to be updated as they now only come with the quick connect cables. But customer service is very prompt and extremely helpful in answering any questions. AAA+++ Customer support!
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
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Its ROCK !
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I bought a pair of blackout to install to my MTM2. These pickup give my guitar more guitar not like a piece of wood as before. I can say that active pickups can make every guitar the same. (but good) Cheap guitar with these pickups and high end guitar with these pickups are delivering almost the same sound. I chose blackout to match to what Mick used. But my feeling the blackouts are the same to the combination of EMG 60 and 81.
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| Liked about it |
It can make cheap Ibanez sounds similar to super expensive ESP. :-)
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| Didn't like |
Its not for the people who want the good clean sound. These are made for METAL only!
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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internal use: spec68 spec374 spec574
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