Will it work? Will it nail the MM humbucker sound?
YES! and YES!
I just replaced the oem pickup in a Kingston MTD, which , incidentally, is a very very comfortable 5 string setup. Maybe the most comfortable I've used, and I'm a Lakland guy.
Anyway, the acoustic sound of the instrument was fine, but plugged in, it left a ton to be desired. Thin, mid heavy sound, and I even played with pickup height.
While I almost popped on a Nordy off Ebay for cheap ($100), I decided to go with an AERO after my excellent results in my JoBo5.
At first, the sound was only marginally better, but I measured the pole heights at a whopping 8mm. Once I got the height to 4mm, it really woke up. Big, phat, the highs shimmer. Its wired series, if that measn anything to y'all.
More $$ than a Nordy. Yeah. Worth it. To me, yeah. The Nordy's I had in a Jbass were replaced with AEROS and the sound is much 'bigger'.
The place where the differences between a Nordy, oem, and AERO pickup are most obvious are on that B string. Clear, articulate, and deep. AERO seems to have an extraordinary frequency response.
Anyway, the AERO doesn't make this $300 TB special MTB a Fodera, but gives it a very polished professional sound. The Alnico mags really dupe the classic MM tone, imho.
www.aeroinstrument.com HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
And I paid full price! I am not a paid endorser!
The only issue is, if you measure it right, the AERO will have the poles centered directly under the strings. The OEM pickup isnt. If you reuse the cover, it will have to be "clearanced" to allow the pole to be exposed. I ahve to complete that, and replace an errant tone knob.
