If you want to perform extreme musical styles with chunky distortion YET a lot of signal separation and clarity, these pickups will not disappoint. Very bright, hot and loud but without making the sound into a mess/wall of noise. I was genuinely surprised by the ability to hear individual tones when a lot of notes/strings are played together. Would definitely recommend these. I'm also interested to try the "black winter" pickups someday BUT I think the Distortion mayhem set is probably more useful for a wider spectrum of musicians.
Not a problem playing without high gain, too. "Clean" tones come through well, not overly grumbly/crunchy.
I put 3/5 for "quality" as Thomann shipped me what looked like a 2nd/returned box, which was cracked and in a bit of a mess. Pickups were fine, though, not a problem.
I also think there should be a more exhaustive explanation of wiring. I've no problem with this, but I can imagine it might confuse people not familiar with the inner workings of guitars. All wiring diagrams are technically available on the Seymour Duncan site, though, so bear this in mind if your guitar model isn't covered in the instructions (mine wasn't)
