I wasn't expecting much when I bought these pickups. I had a cheap Ibanez GIO Mikro that needed new pickups, and couldn't justify buying expensive ones. Similarly, I wouldn't spend $10,000 on 20" inch wheels for a 1990's Geo Metro, even though I'm sure someone, somewhere did, but I'm sure most people will get my point. After installing these fairly nice looking pickups, which included coil splitters, they were much better than expected. I did slightly adjust a few polarities, but nothing drastic. The final results were surprisingly good. With or without activating the splitters, there's no hissing, which I've found is common with other cheap pickups. If I had to do it all over again, I would still buy these pickups.