I wanted some active pickups to try and update the tone of my Ibanez Universe and so I thought I should try these as Keith Merrow is, in my opinion, one of the best of the modern “tone chasers”.
From previous experience I definitely also prefer the more “80’s” tone of the Classic/Open Core pickups than the Modern variety, and knowing these Merrow pickups are same/similar to the Classic sealed the deal.
I think they qualify as the best active pickups I’ve had, but so far I’m not convinced they are better than the passive Dimarzio Evo bridge/Blaze neck pickups that they replaced. Bridge Voice 1 is surprisingly low/mid output, which I don’t find useful for a 7 string guitar, I’ve hardwired it to the more aggressive Voice 2.
Voice 1 on the neck pickup yields the better, more natural clean tone, so I’ve stuck with that. Voice 3 (single coil) is quite nice, although it is absolutely quieter than humbucking mode, though I’m sure I read Fishman said there is no volume drop…?
I like them, I’ll stick with them for a while, but after many attempts with active pickups I realise I am just a passive pickup kind of guy.
I also bought a 6 string set to install into my Ibanez S - hopefully the results are as good or better than with the Universe!
One push/pull volume pot is faulty, so I’ve marked them down to 4*
