Seymour Duncan

This is the first Seymore Duncan Pickup Booster, the SFX-1 Pickup Booster. I have one as the first thing my guitar plugs into to take advantage of the pickup enhancement mode. The signal then goes into a Decibel Eleven Loop Expander that has a Buffer, then a Digitech RP-12, Digitech RP-1, then into another Seymour Duncan SFX-1 Pickup Booster with the toggle switch set to zero to drive my pedalboards signal 9dB's up with out altering my tone . I run both SD SFX-1's at 12 volts to get more out of them, instead of 9 volts, fed from my Decibel Eleven Hot Stone Deluxe for the cleanest sound possible. There is only one chicken head knob for raising the volume / gain boost , 6dB's to a whopping 25dB's. You can use it to add girth and gain to your overdrive, distortion or fuzz foot pedals, make your tubes sizzle harder when you go past 10 o'clock or just use it for pickup enhancement. The switch is 1,0 or 2. # 1 will give single coils a hot rodded P90ish kick but still retain the Classic Strat Quack. # 0 will only give you only un altered boost that is dictated by the gain knob and # 2 will give your single coil pickups the drive of a medium drive of 12k ohms pickup or maybe 13k ohms. If you love to drive your humbuckers slightly harder, use mode 1, unaltered w/ boost use mode 0 or if you want to make your passive humbucker pickup have the drive of a pickup ranging 18k ohms to 23k ohms, use mode #2. The older Seymour Duncan Pickup Boosters, like the SFX-1, boost range goes from 6dB's to 25dB's, while the current version goes from 0db's with pickup enhancement mode and up to 25dB's of with or with out pickup enhancement . I tried the newer ones, but I like the sounds of the older SFX-1 Pickup Boosters much better. They seem to hit the two tubes of my Digitech 2112 SGS and the tubes in my two VHT Valvulators 1's, like an extra tube before going into two Crate Power Blocks. If you get any version of the Pickup Boosters, get two , one as the first thing your guitar plugs into, to enjoy the pickup enhancement. And the second one to drive your signal hotter to you rack and or amps . You may not need to get new pickups, this unique Booster, will illiminate the need of more aggressive sounding pickups.

I found a set of these pickups going for around $45 on ebay and they had never been fitted in any guitar so essentially I got them brand new. This was the deal of the century. I was actually on the lookout for humbuckers until I came across these. I had never used or owned a guitar with P90's so I was unaware of the sound at first but once I put them in my guitar there was no way I was going back. I play a lot of country licks and such and the clarity I get from these pickups is amazing. My Tanglewood Les Paul copy came with pretty average pickups and by putting these phat cats in I feel like I have upgraded the sound of this guitar by miles. Highly recomend this pickup. What's great about it is that it requires no modifications at all for those guitars that already have humbuckers. Thanks! Justin

Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups are hand made at the Seymour Duncan factory. These are hand wound to his custom specifications and use the appropriate aged magnets, wire and pickup covers. This aging process gives a vintage look and a vintage tone. The tone these pickups give is very authentic but with a little bit more punch and smoothness. The extra smoothness is nice for blues or classic rock. These are some of the best sounding single coils out on the market today. Going into a clean Fender Super Reverb amplifier as well as a Hiwatt Custom 100, the bridge position pickup chimes with the bell-like tones just like those that come from the best of the original Strats. However, unlike newer Strat pickups that can be overbearing at times with brightness, some of the highest frequencies are tapered off and the result is quite a musical and wonderfully balanced pickup. The neck and middle position are equally as stunning. The bottom end is nicely balanced on the neck with plenty of punch to the signal while the middle position has an even and basically flat response when you don’t want to overemphasize the lows or highs. This is good because you will mostly use the middle pickup paired up with another pickup so you do not want the middle pickup to have some weird voicing that sticks out when you are using it with another pickup. It also sounds good with some gain. Boosting the bridge pickup into the old Marshall Super Lead produces heavenly results. The Antiquity Custom Bridge model is plain and simply the smoothest-sounding single-coil I’ve ever heard overdriven into this environment. The highs are present and punchy but again, the harshest frequencies that sometimes sound a bit brash with single-coil pickups were gone. If you have a vintage strat and need some new pickups. The Antiquity Seymour Duncans will fit right in.

The Seymour Duncan STK-S10 YJM FURY is the new Yngwie Malmsteen signature pickup set from Seymour Duncan. Yngwie used Dimarzio pickups for a long time but has just recently switched to the Seymour Duncans. Although its a different company the pickups are pretty similar because Yngwie is pretty set in his ways and hasnt changed much in years. These pickups are stacked single coils. This means that they have 2 coils like a humbucker but instead of them being side by side they are on top of each other so you retain the single coil look. This means that these pickups are technically humbuckers so they are noiseless. I think this is what Yngwie wants most in a pickup. He wants it to be noiseless because he runs all those old Marshalls super loud. These pickups are the pretty opposite of most modern single coils. These pickups are super vintage in nature with a super low output. This is how Yngwie likes his pickups for some reason. I found that in single pickup positions on the strat these pickups tend to sound pretty thin with a clean tone. In the dual pickup positions the clean tone thickens up a bit. These pickups in a high gain setting require you to work hard for your sound. A lot of modern players arent used to such low powered pickups anymore. It does not really have the bite of a single coil either. Its like a smooth single coil with no body to it. It is a very unique sound to say the least. If you are looking for a single coil for metal this is not it. I think this pickup is only good if you plan on sounding exactly like Yngwie. If you are looking for a signel coil for metal Bareknuckle Pickups has an awesome selection of low noise high output true single coils.

The Jazz is another hugely popular neck pickup in the Seymour Duncan brand. It is pretty much the alternative to the 59 in the neck position. It matches up well with just about any bridge pickup but the Jazz and the JB are just about as popular a set as the 59 and the JB. The Jazz features four conductor wiring like most every pickup made in the last 20 years and it comes with an alnico 5 magnet the same as the 59. The Jazz is similar to the 59 but with more bite on the high end. The 59 is so vintage and smooth on some guitars it can get pretty muddy. The Jazz fixes that by added some more treble to the voicing of the pickup. When playing fast leads in the neck position the Jazz will have a clearer sound than the 59. The 59 is more voiced towards slower bluesy leads while the Jazz is better for fast shredding or even jazz. Having slightly less low end than the 59 means the Jazz is less boomy and will have more clarity when it comes to playing. This also means the clean tones are very good. With less low end the high strings in the clean tones will really ring out and do not get overpowered by the bass end strings. This pickup is ideal for people with darker sounding guitars that want a smooth neck pickup but not so smooth it gets a muddy sound. The 59 is so super smooth it can get muddy in the low end. With the Jazz's dialed back lows and increased highs you get the same basic sound as the 59 but with more clarity. If you are looking for a nice clear neck pickup for your dark guitar this matches well with most anything.

Seymour Duncan Blackouts are their answer to the EMG pickups that people have been using for decades. Like EMG's these pickups run on batteries and have quick connect installation systems so they are very easy to install on your guitar. They come with their own set of pots and switches for you to put in your guitar also. These pickups should not be a signature model. They should just be the new Blackouts. With these pickups available I dont know why anyone would buy the old versions. The original Blackouts were okay but they seemed to be trying to fill in the role that EMG's couldnt do very well. The original blackouts had so much low end they were hard to dial in. These Blackouts have a more traditional active pickup sound. This set has a neck and bridge pickup. The bridge pickup has a ceramic magnet while the neck pickup has an alnico magnet. They still have good low end but the top end is nice and crisp so the sound never gets muddy. These pickups were voiced for a guitar playing in super low tunings so when you are not in super low tunings the clarity is excellent. With this clarity the neck position is actually useable. On the old Blackouts since the low end was so woolly the neck pickup sounded muddy no matter what you were playing. These pickups with the extra top end crunch you can hear what you are playing on the neck position. This is good because typically people who have neck position pickup want to be able to use them. The bridge is crushing like you would expect but the extra new found clarity brings more useablility to the table. The bridge tone is super tight in the low end and has the top end crunch like you would find on an 81. This allows you to tune to whatever you want and still retain clarity. If you are looking for a set of active pickups are that crisp like EMG's but have a bit more low end I would recommend these strongly over the standard Blackout pickups.

Seymour Duncan has produced a set for what it thinks is a good combination in dual humbucker guitars. It has put out the Hot Rodded Humbucker set. This set features a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and a JB in the bridge. These are some of Seymour Duncans most popular pickups. The Jazz is a classic neck pickup. Its output is pretty low at around 7k but this makes it able to do a lot more than a hot neck pickup could. It can do anything from rock leads to jazz and country. It has a great high end that makes up for the bass in the neck position. With its high end it never gets muddy in the neck. The JB is like the bridge version of this with more output for more bite. These pickups are voiced for the treble end so it seems this setup is intended to go in darker guitars like Les Pauls. I tried these in an Epiphone Les Paul and it really woke the guitar up. The Epiphone had typical Epiphone pickups which were low output and muddy. These pickups added a lot of clarity to the sound. The neck position was nice and creamy for my blues leads but still retained clarity. Roll off some tone knob and you have a nice dark jazz tone that still isnt muddy. The bridge position gave a lot of punch and bite. If you split the coil in the bridge you get a great single coil sound that you can get a nice country twang with. If you are looking to wake up your dual humbucker guitar but need pickups that can do almost every style, the Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded Humbucker set might be what you are looking for. The only thing bad about this set is that you only save like 10 dollars buying the set instead of buying them by themselves. If you can find these pickups used separately you can save a lot of money.

When you relic a guitar you are intentionally damaging it to make it look like it has seen years of playing. Seymour Duncan is bringing a type of relicing into the pickup world. When you look at the pickups in an old guitar you can tell the pickups are old and when you hear them you can tell they are old. Over time the electronics have been worn in. These pickups are not even wax potted. Seymour Duncan has gone out of his way to give the look and feel of an old piece of hardware. This vintage worn in tone is what guitarists love and now you can get it in a new pickup from Seymour Duncan. The Seymour Duncan Antiquity set is a set of custom wound humbuckers with a vintage sound and feel. The output is 7.8k in the neck and 8.5k in the bridge. Along with being hand made they are hand aged. The magnet poles and covers show the age you would expect from a vintage pickup. These pickups are buttery smooth. The voice of the pickups are also totally balanced between bass mids and highs. All of the harmonic range was well preresented and plentiful. The mid range is creamy through a Marshall and gives awesome tone. The neck pickup cleans up well and the bass never gets muddy. Even though these pickups are not wax potted they are not noisy at all. I had no problems whatsoever controlling the guitar. The non-potted design really helps contribute to the top end sparkle as well as a bit of the mid-range “honk” as the internal sonic vibrations within the pickup are all “on the verge” of feedback. Because the Antiquity was so controllable, I could enjoy the tones and feel of the these pickups rather than dreading them and hoping not to break out in uncontrolled feedback at any second. If you have a vintage Les Paul that needs some new pickups but want to retain the vintage look, these pickups will fit right in and no one will know your electronics are from this century.

I purchased this pickup in early 2004 to go in one of my Yamaha RGX superstrats that I was restoring for a project guitar. I didn't know very much about replacement pickups, so I opted to go for the Full Shred based solely on the name. I knew it would be higher output, so I figured it would be perfect for the guitar in question. I purchased one off of a local seller and once I finished sourcing all of the parts for the guitar, I installed the pickup in the bridge position. As the name implies, it was definitely a high output metal machine to be sure. The big thing I dislike about high output pickups is that I find them to be one trick ponies as far as what they can do sound wise. I noticed some of this with the Full Shred as I got to use it more and more, but given the name, I shouldn't have been surprised that it was designed to be high gain and high octane. I used it with various solid state Peavey and Yamaha amps mainly, and at that period of time, I was getting into using quite a bit of amplifier distortion. It definitely held its own in (sometimes ridiculously) high gain applications. The nice thing about this pickup is that it wasn't absurdly scooped out like a lot of high output pickups are, but rather it's more of a neutral EQ curve that you can adjust with your amp. It definitely didn't excel at lower gain tones or clean tones, but I wasn't banking on it to do that, so I'm not being too picky. After a few years of using it in standard tuning, I set the guitar up to use as a low tuned guitar (dropped B tuning usually) and this is where the Full Shred really came into bloom. The low notes had a ton of saturation, but they were also quite articulate and the sound remained clear even with very low tuned chords. Compared to the Duncan Invader, I found it to be more articulate and I found that it was less muddy than the Invader as well. All in all, the Seymour Duncan Full Shred is a fantastic pickup for higher gain applications. You can use it with gobs of distortion and it holds up like a charm. It's a one trick pony to be sure, but for that trick, you can't really go wrong with this pickup. Shred on!

The Seymour Duncan Custom Custom is part of a line of pickups that shows the difference a magnet swap can make. The Custom Custom is a Custom but with an Alnico II magnet installed. It still has the same slugs on one coil, adjustable screws on the other and four conductor wiring. Seymour Duncan made a series that shows how important a magnet can be in terms of the overall tone of the pickup. The Custom Custom is the model that contains the Alnico II – a magnet that’s not used too often. The Alnico II really boosts the midrange on this pickup, lowers the overall output and gives it this kind of “chewy” quality. The lows on this pickup are subdued a bit, and it definitely has a more vintage feel. It has that PAF sound, but it’s like an older PAF. Split coil and parallel sounds on this are pretty nice. This is definitely one of the lesser used pickups in the Custom line up. Some people find it to be a bit too loose for metal, but it definitely makes a great hard rock pickup. It works nicely for those EVH style riffs, and it can really sing in the right guitar. Keep in mind that I find Seymour Duncan pickups to be a lot more picky when it comes to choosing what woods work best. I’ve used them in a plethora of woods from mahogany to alder to basswood and even walnut. It has given me very different tones in each wood, and which is better really depends on the ear of the beholder. Personally, I find this pickup to be a bit too loose and have a bit too much midrange. However, I’m primarily a metal guitarist. If you’re looking for that EVH kinda sound for a cheaper price than those custom wound EVH pickups, this’ll probably deliver the sound you’re going for.

Seymour Duncan's Pearly Gates Plus was designed to produce an enhanced version of the old PAF sound of that slightly over wound tone we generally attribute to the Les Paul. I have one of these installed in the bridge of a '97 American Stratocaster. I love the response that this pickup provides in my alder Stratocaster. It offers both a standard hum bucking mode and a single coil mode. I have mine wired up in conjunction with the neck pickup to work in either series or parallel when in single coil mode in position 2 and 4 on the five way selector. The sound reproduced in hum bucking mode is warm and rich with a bit of aggressive edge to the top end. The harmonic content of this pickup is enormous. This pickup sounds wonderful playing most any type of rhythm and holds up very well when pushed into a gain laden amp. The notes remain thick but without losing much definition or muddying up. For a bridge pickup lead sounds remain satisfying and complex. They tend to not be thin or weak sounding like many other bridge pickups. Due to the mid bump and slight edge these have harmonics will simply fly from your fret board with ease. When placed into a single coil mode the pickup behaves very differently. Depending if you are in series or parallel wiring configuration the sound can go from a thinner version of the hum bucking tone with what seems like only a drop off in output to a convincing replication of a true single coil. It has a jangle very close to many other single coils I have played over the years and the sound is very useable, providing the proper vibe to execute songs requiring those tones. The pickup is truly and all around winner in the bridge position. At just under $100 dollars this pickup is more than others but the quality of the sound it produces along with its versatility makes it worth every dollar. I believe this pick up to be useable for most types of music except types requiring a large mid scoop as that would be counterintuitive to its design. I find the tone of this pickup indispensable to me and I am extremely satisfied with it.

I had been looking for a new pickup for my Edwards LP, since I'm not a fan of the Duncan JB that it came with. I tried a couple different pickups but as soon as I put the Duncan Custom in it I knew it was the right one. I just nailed everything I was looking for in this guitar. For cleans it is pretty cool. Since it is not a super high output pickup it cleans up really nice. It’s a pretty warm pickup, which I really like for clean. It’s warm but still retains that bridge humbucker bite, makes for a really unique clean tone. Personally, I usually use the neck pickup for cleans so it is not a big deal to me either way, but it is nice to know that I can use it to get cool clean tones in a pinch. For crunch stuff this pickup is all kinds of amazing. It is so crunchy with a lot of punch, I love it. My other guitar has a really high output pickup in it so I had been looking something that really shined for mid gain stuff, and this does it in spades. It is also not overly compressed so the single notes really pop, especially on the low strings. It has great clarity. It really captures that classic Les Paul tone without being muddy at all. I love it. This pickup sound awesome for high gain too. Everything about I said about the mid gain stuff holds true, it is more open than a typical high gain pickup and really crunchy and punchy. One thing that surprised me was how nice and tight it is. It’s tight without being overly compressed. It really is a great sounding pickup, and quickly became one of my favorites.