The pickup set especially designed by and for the peripheral fingerboard magician Mark Holcomb reflects the ideal sound basis for percussive riffs of modern prog metal. Mark, in close cooperation with Conquering Dystopias Keith Merrow, decided on the attack-rich character of the ceramic magnet as the sound basis. Thanks to moderate winding, the Humbucker's further voicing is ultimately specially designed for the lower tone range of down-tunings and extended range instruments such as 7- and 8-strings and always delivers crisp, clear sounds without excessive compression, especially in the low frequency register.
I used these to swap out my stock pickups on a Jackson 8 string (bit of a project guitar), and the result has far exceeded my expectations! The dynamic range on these things is incredible, and they retain their detail even under the most brutal distortion and gain. I even detune my 8 string to drop E, and drop Eb and it still sounds super punchy and clear on the bridge and neck, amazing!
The tone wheel now unlocks a wide range of tones, and I added a coil tapping switch to make use of that feature with these, giving me great single-coil tones to boot.
My 8 string now gives my far more expensive 7 string strandberg (one of the original bodens) a run for it's money in terms of sheer tone and sound quality, and considering how much my 8 string has cost me in total with the work I've done, that's incredible.
Yes, they are a bit pricey for passive pickups, and I think they're getting more expensive as time goes on, especially in this 8 string configuration, but if you can afford them you won't regret it!