The sound that can be achieved with these is almost unreal. Using the ghosting technique that Mike refers to, people are shocked when I plug in and pluck a string. I’ve purchased other pickups from other vendors for my projects and have returned them all because they can not produce the same sound quality as the Lucky 13s. Plus, having a clean top and maintaining the “this is a cigar box” look for my projects is important. I’ve used these on most of my projects and have never had an unhappy client.