i have just finished installing them into my ultra strat. And if I'm honest. I prefer the sound of the strat with the stock fender lace pickups than the alembic pickups.
they do sound good and change the sound of the guitar unlike the lace pickups which basically remove some of the top end to make it sound mellow or bright.
the filter seems to have a wah wah sound when swept back and forth with a sort of notch in the middle then it sounds like it goes bright if you turn clockwise ( away from you) and mellow if you go anti clockwise until about the last 1/8th when it goes slightly brighter and more strat like in tone.
At the bassier end of the tone there doesn't seem to be much difference betweeen the sound when switched between the pickups but at the brighter end its very noticeable.
I'm gonna leave them in for a couple of weeks and see how the tone grows on me. If I'm not happy then I'll move them to the Fretless.
here is a photo.
As for the fretless guitar. Yes I do play it but not a lot recently, actually hardly at all this year been too busy touring.
I've only played reggae chords on it as the chop style can be played more percussively on the guitar with out a strong sense of key.
I have played it on a couple of gigs but mainly for lead and melody stuff.
Chords are more challenging as finger position is more crucial since they have to be where the fret was and not between. Therefore chord that you would bar within a fret or play with two fingers in the same fret tend to be slightly off key due to the slight difference in the part of your finger that is making the note.
I aim to use it more but need to do more practice on it first.
I do find the sound a little dull which is another reason why I'd like to try these pickups on it to try to get a crisper sound.
