Before Seymour Duncan started designing their new 9-volt Blackouts active humbuckers, they did a little market research. They found that while lots of guitarists love active pickups, many wanted a tone that was less compressed, with a more extended frequency response. In their efforts to solve those issues they discovered that some of the most popular active pickups have what they consider a design flaw in their circuit architecture. Those other pickups use unbalanced inputs in a differential preamp. The problem is, an unbalanced differential preamp is not very effective at cancelling hum. Seyour Duncan's engineers figured out how to capture the tone that players want in an active design, but using balanced inputs. The result is that not only do these Seymour Duncan Blackouts active humbuckers have less hum than the competition, but they also have more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, the Blackouts have more tone than other active pickups. Players will notice the benefits of the reduced hum when they record, especially if they're around computer monitors or fluorescent lighting. As for the benefits of having more tone, well those will be apparent everywhere. Comes with all necessary mounting hardware, including pots, jack, and a battery clip.