I tried some Artec Giovanni humbuckers

And I'm loving them.

I have a 2001 Santana SE that I have had since it was new. I have always liked it but never loved it. For a long time I had GFS dream 90's in it because of my affinity for single coils. This summer I decided I wanted to go back to true humbuckers. I got a set of Artec Giovanni GVH1 pickups from ebay (the only place i can find them) for it. The specs list these as 8.0K neck and 8.8k bridge. Mine measure 8.2k neck and 9.2K bridge. I installed them into that guitar and I was blown away. It has never sounded so good. The sounds are in the range of the classic PAF era gibson sounds. They are warm and full but still clear and defined. I really liked them so much I was thinking maybe i should get rid of my strats and have all humbucker guitars. It's been months now and still, every time I pick this guitar up it seems to sound better than the last time I played it. Of course I still have my strats, lol.

About a month ago I got a new Ibanez AS73 (335 style) and I ordered another set of those pickups for it. They measure 8.5K in both positions. I installed them yesterday and I'm mighty impressed. They sound much more lively than the stock pups (which are ceramic buckers also made by artec). More mids, more sustain, more clarity, and more depth. It's really the sound that I wanted out of this guitar.

I'm an not authority on pickups, and tone is totally subjective so make of this what you will. I really like these pickups, and at $65 shipped, the price is right. I was looking for some classic sounding humbuckers and I'm satisfied with these. I thouhgt I whould post my thoughts on them because there is very little info about these online. Maybe someone will find it useful.