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Hatsubai « Fat sounding bridge pickup »
Published on 04/17/11 at 18:33The Seymour Duncan Seth Lover is Duncan’s tribute to the original Seth Lover PAF humbucker featured in the original Gibson Les Pauls. It’s a purely vintage pickup that features an Alnico II magnet, single conductor braid shielded wiring, adjustable pole pieces on one coil and is not wax potted.
The Seth Lover is a true and true vintage humbucker. They come in both neck and bridge models, so you can get a nicely calibrated set if you’d like. The bridge pickup has a lot of similarities to the original ’59 that Duncan offers, but it’s more harmonically rich and fatter. This pickup works awesome with clean tones and mid gain tones. The clean tones are very complex and clear, yet fat and smooth. I’m surprised they were able to make a pickup that was able to do both so easily. The midrange is fairly even sounding, so it’s neither too dominant, nor is it too scooped. It seems to sit perfectly in the frequency spectrum.
As expected, these pickups tend to sound best in Les Pauls, but I find they can work in just about any wood you throw at them. They’re versatile enough to handle nearly anything you throw at them. The biggest drawback, however, is that they’re not wax potted. Because of that, they can really squeal under high gain, and that’s a big no-no for heavy metal players such as myself. Once you wax pot them, they sound quiet, but they seem to lose some of that great vintage style sparkle they were known for.
If you’re looking for a fatter ’59, I highly recommend checking these out. However, just be aware that they’ll probably squeal under high gain, and if you wax pot them, they’ll lose some of the more complex tones these are known for.
The Seth Lover is a true and true vintage humbucker. They come in both neck and bridge models, so you can get a nicely calibrated set if you’d like. The bridge pickup has a lot of similarities to the original ’59 that Duncan offers, but it’s more harmonically rich and fatter. This pickup works awesome with clean tones and mid gain tones. The clean tones are very complex and clear, yet fat and smooth. I’m surprised they were able to make a pickup that was able to do both so easily. The midrange is fairly even sounding, so it’s neither too dominant, nor is it too scooped. It seems to sit perfectly in the frequency spectrum.
As expected, these pickups tend to sound best in Les Pauls, but I find they can work in just about any wood you throw at them. They’re versatile enough to handle nearly anything you throw at them. The biggest drawback, however, is that they’re not wax potted. Because of that, they can really squeal under high gain, and that’s a big no-no for heavy metal players such as myself. Once you wax pot them, they sound quiet, but they seem to lose some of that great vintage style sparkle they were known for.
If you’re looking for a fatter ’59, I highly recommend checking these out. However, just be aware that they’ll probably squeal under high gain, and if you wax pot them, they’ll lose some of the more complex tones these are known for.