I ordered this to upgrade an Indonesian-made Squier Stratocaster.
My customer asked especifically for this set of pickups, because he is into metal and made me upgrade a other guitar to sport EMGs 81 and 85.
The pickguard is an exact retrofit for the original 11-screws Strat's with no need for extra routing. You don't even need a soldering gun, because the pickups are already connected and the output lugs are inserted directly in the output Jack, and these pickups don't need a ground wire being soldered to the tremolo claw.
Only downside for the instalation: these are active pickups, so you need a routing for the 9V battery in the rear of the guitar or install the battery below the pickguard...in the latter case, you will need to remove all the pickguard to change the battery.
In terms of sounds, It does exactly what you expect-: modern compressed heavy metal sounds in the Bridge (EMG81) and powerful but clearer single coil sounds in the other positions. The neck one is more mellow ant the middle more funky, but don't expect the bell-like quality of a Strat. All of this sounds with almost no hum.
Overall very satusfied
