When used in the neck position, the EMG 60 achieves Metallica's old clean tones perfectly (eg Enter Sandman intro). The EMG 60 is the most compressed and clean neck humbucker pickup I've ever used, this makes it ideal for use with effects such as delay and chorus. It does have a sharp edge to the tone when using a pick, but that's what it's designed for - you can always go for the EMG 60A instead if you need a smoother sound. As with all EMG's I've owned I've had no problems with it, just the occaisional battery change required. The solderless system these pickups come with is great, I swapped my old Duncan Blackouts out and had this installed in under 20 minutes.