SeriesSeymour Duncan Humbuckers

Seymour Duncan is a popular pickup maker. They are more known for their old school or classic pickups. So when they started making 7 string versions of these pickups I was quite surprised. I thought that these pickups would not sound too great because with their vintage voicing they are pretty much the opposite of what you want in a 7 string pickup. This is one of those pickups but it isnt as bad as some of the others. Since this is primarily a neck pickup the areas that let down the seven string JB for example arent normally used with this pickup. This pickup naturally has a bit of brightness to it so it is nice and clear in the neck position. The Jazz is based on the 59 but with a bit more high end. With the 7 string neck pickup you are going to mostly use it for leads and this is what this pickup excells at. 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. For a 7 string I would strongly recommend active pickups because they can handle the low frequences better than passives since they have active preamps. If you are looking for a good neck pickup for your 7 string guitar and dont want to go with a set of active pickups this is probably the best passive 7 string neck pickup you can get.

This is a straight rock and roll pickup. Its part of Seymour Duncans project to swap out magnets in their pickups to get cool new sounds. This pickup is a Duncan Custom but with an Alnico 2 magnet installed. Compared to the more common Alnico 5 magnets in most pickups these pickups are more laid back. They have more of a vintage tone. The Alnico 2 magnet gives you a very PAF like tone. All the frequencies are not as in your face as on most pickups. This pickup can be good at anything from Jazz to hard rock or really early metal. This pickup would get you a good Van Halen sound. EVH used pickups similar to these in his guitars to get his trademark brown sound. This pickup gets the same lose feel and heavy mids that Van Halen had in his sound. It is always important to match the pickup you are choosing properly with the guitar you want to put it in. If your guitar naturally has bright qualities you may want to balance this out this a darker pickup. In contrast if your guitar naturally has dark qualities you may want to balance this out with a brighter pickup. Or you may want to exaggerate these qualities entirely. Since it is so great for these types of music it is not too great for metal. Because of the low output it is not very tight for chugging metal riffs. Many people find that it is not tight enough for metal. It is like the pickup cannot keep up with the playing. The Alnico 5 version has a sharper attack so it will be better for metal. If you are looking for a nice vintage feeling pickup and dont intend on playing heavy metal on it the Custom Custom SH-11 is a good choice for you.

The Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates is designed to be like a standard P.A.F pickup, but with that little bit of extra "mojo," as requested by the Rev. Billy Gibbons. I purchased this pickup used several years ago to install in my main ax at the time, a 1985 Tokai Flying V. I was unimpressed with the cheap EMG knockoff humbuckers that had been installed by a previous owner and so I decided to purchase a more vintage voiced bridge humbucker to make it sound a bit more vintage and less processed and digital sounding. Now, this is supposed to have a connection to Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top's guitarist. I don't listen to them, so I can't really make a judgment on how close the tone of this pickup is to Billy's P.A.F in the Pearly Gates Les Paul 'Burst, but based on what I've read about Billy's gear choices, it sounds like it is pretty dead on to what the Pearly Gates PAFs sound like. It's got that classic mild overdrive tone of the Gibson humbuckers of yore, but hidden somewhere inside is a bit of extra kick to push the pickup to a point that it's just over the top enough to scream. It's not a ridiculously high output pickup either, so don't buy it expecting gobs of saturation... I particularly like this pickup because it fits right in with my theory on getting a good hard rock tone. I prefer to get a lower output pickup and make the amp produce the saturation. This allows me to use dynamics and not be stuck with a ton of output from the pickup. The PG is a prime example of this. I was able to use it for the rock, jazz, and blues projects I was in, using a mildly overdriven sound as my core tone, rolling the volume back to clean up the volume, and using one of my overdrive pedals to push it to the limit. All in all, I was extremely impressed with this pickup when I owned it. I tried it in a few different guitars over the years, all with the same great result. Seymour Duncan definitely has a winner with this pickup. If you're after a great all rounder pickup that won't break the bank... give this one a try. You won't be disappointed!

They Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Blackout pickups are Duncan’s attempt to rival the famous EMGs that have been so well known throughout the metal community as the #1 pickups out there. Just like the EMGs, these feature the same style black cover, quick disconnects, use special pots and the such. They’re truly EMG clones. The Blackouts come in both neck and bridge varieties. This review should hopefully cover both for you. First off is the bridge – The bridge model is an extremely high output and aggressive sounding pickup. It’s like a cross between the EMG 81’s aggression and the EMG 85’s fatness. They’re fat enough to where they deliver huge bass, but they’re aggressive enough to where they cut through the mix without any problems at all. They’re fairly scooped sounding, but that’s mainly because the bass and treble are increased more so than the midrange being actually pushed back. The neck model is like a much hotter and more aggressive EMG 85. It’s extremely fat sounding, but it also has some bite to it to help it remain clear sounding under high gain. This helps quite a bit when doing fast note soloing. Just like EMGs, I’m not a huge fan of the clean tones. Mid gain tones aren’t too bad, but most people who try these are looking at the high gain tones, and they deliver pretty good. Given that they’re active pickups, they’re very quiet sounding, and when under high gain, that’s a big must. However, I can’t help but feel these things have way too much output and too much bass. Every time I go to record with them, I keep thinking to myself that the EMGs just sound better. I’ve tried these in various woods with the same result. If you’re a fan of EMGs, you probably won’t like these pickups as much. However, if you always thought EMGs were thin sounding and not delivering the tones you’re looking for, the Blackouts are worth checking out.

The Seymour Duncan Distortion 7 is a new take on the JB 7. It features the same slugs on one coil, adjustable screw heads on the other and four conductor wiring. However, it has a ceramic magnet installed inside of it. This is what gives it its tone. The Distortion 7 is one of the tighter pickups that Seymour Duncan offers. The bass on this is ample enough to be fat but without being flubby. The midrange on this is fairly even sounding, and the treble is extended a bit thanks to the ceramic magnet. In reality, it’s just a JB 7 with a ceramic (or maybe two or three of them stacked on top of each other) magnet(s) installed. This is a very polarizing pickup as it depends on what you’re going for. Some metal guys love it for its very tight and searing quality. I’m generally one of those people. However, some find the treble to be a bit too much. I’ve experienced that in certain guitars as well. Like all Seymour Duncan pickups, it really depends on how the guitar sounds before you install the pickup. I’ve had good and bad luck in both mahogany and alder. My number one go-to pickup is the Duncan Custom 7, but the Duncan Distortion 7 is currently in my number one guitar at the moment. Go figure. It just matched so perfectly that I have absolutely no desire to pull it out. If you’re a metal player and looking for a tight pickup, I recommend checking this out. It’s a really good pickup for those machine gun riffs. However, just be aware that it can be bright if you’re not careful. If your guitar is already bright, you might want to try out the Custom 7 instead. The nice thing is that Seymour Duncan has a return policy where they’ll let you swap out a pickup if you’re not satisfied with it.

The Seymour Duncan Custom 5 is part of a line of pickups that shows the difference a magnet swap can make. The Custom 5 is a Custom but with an Alnico 5 magnet installed, hence it's name. 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 5 is the model that contains the Alnico 5 – a magnet that’s fairly popular in the pickup world. The Alnico 5 gives this pickup a PAF-esque tone in overdrive. It has that great vintage quality that the original PAFs had, but it’s not so loose that it can’t do those tight metal riffs. The midrange is a little scooped, so it helps keep things a bit more clear than if it had a boosted midrange. The low end blooms nicely, and the high end has a good bite without getting too piercing. It responds nicely to volume knob adjustments, and it sounds great both split and in parallel. The Custom 5 works in pretty much any wood, I’ve found. However, every piece of wood is different, so if your guitar has a certain hyped frequency, it might result in a bad tone. I’ve used this pickup in both alder and mahogany with no issues at all. It’s great for that 80s metal tone and sounds a little more “alive” in standard tuning than the Custom does. Compared to the Custom Custom, it’s more aggressive and a bit tighter. If you’re looking for a bridge pickup in the Seymour Duncan line, this is one I’d recommend for those playing 80s style metal. It thickens up the guitar enough to sound fat but isn’t too flubby. It’s tight without sacrificing dynamics and just seems like one of those good all-around pickups. If you’re more into pure metal, I recommend the Custom more as it’ll handle the tighter riffing a bit better.

I purchased Seymour Duncan’s SH-5 bridge pickup because I received a wonderful Fender Strat as a gift but it had only single coil pickups and I needed something beefier and heavier for the music I play. I had the body of the Strat modified to be able to fit in a humbucker pickup and after a good deal of consideration I decided to go with the SH-5. My decision was certainly a good one and I do not regret making it because this SD pickup brought life to my guitar and it improved everything about it when it comes to sound, tone and sustain as well, not to mention the fact that my guitar is now less of a background hummer with the humbucker instead of a single coil pickup which tends to bring out some unwanted background noises. Features and Sound The SH-5 bridge pickup is a high output pickup using a ceramic magnet and as with all Seymour Duncan pups that I have some experience with, it comes with 4 conductors giving the more advanced players and modders the option of coil splitting which simply means that the player will have the ability to use the humbucker exactly as a single coil pickup with the simple flick of a switch. The SH-5 is similar to the famous JB pickup from Seymour Duncan. It has a beefy low end, a rich but moderate midrange and a decent amount of treble and while it is a high output pickup, the sound it produces will remain tight and focused at all times by having just the right amount of compression. It still is an open coil pickup but it still has a certain amount of compression to it which keeps the sound just tight enough. The SH-5 is extremely versatile when it comes to sound and tone and you can literally play pretty much anything with it, depending on the rest of the gear you have available of course. Played clean, the sound it produces seems to be nothing really special but it does sound great to my ears during the few times I actually get to play clean. To me the pickup shines when overdriven or distorted. The sound is heavy with good sustain, natural and pinched harmonics sound very much alive while the rhythmic dead note chugs sound thick and powerful. More or less I made my Stratocaster sound pretty close to my Les Paul and it became much more versatile in sound. Before the modification, the single coil was too weak and lacked a powerful bottom end, especially for metal, but now I can play whatever I want. Durability and Reliability I own two Seymour Duncan pickups, the SH-5 and JB (SH-4) and so far I had absolutely no problems with either of them. They are easy to install, they feel extremely solid in your hands, it doesn’t feel like holding a cheap pickup made out of plastic. All Seymour Duncan pickups come with highly detailed installing instructions, including coil splitting and other options you may have other than the standard installation. You can fit your guitar with new pickup yourself, you just need a soldering iron and to pay attention to make the connections properly and solid enough to ensure proper functionality. The older SD pickup I have is a little over 2 years old and not once have I had a problem of any kind with it. I haven’t tried another pickup brand yet, but if I will change my guitar’s neck pickups as well, I will certainly rely on Seymour Duncan pups. Overall Impression If you are into hard rock and metal especially, you should really look into this pickup because it may be exactly what you are looking for. I love it mostly because it turned my Strat into something I actually enjoy playing and it made its sound and output much more appropriate for heavier genres of music. To give you a better idea on how this pickup performs I will attach two covers I recorded using my Fender Strat with the SH-5. One of the covers is one of my favorite songs by Tool and there you can hear how the clean tone sounds, how the harmonics perform, dead note chugs, muted strings and of course a healthy dose of distortion. If you want to skip straight to the distortion part on Tool’s song just go straight to 5:15. Tool cover - https://en.audiofanzine.com/guitar-pickup/seymour-duncan/Custom-Bridge/medias/audio/a.play,m.474895.html Two steps from hell, Heart of Courage arrangement with guitar - https://en.audiofanzine.com/guitar-pickup/seymour-duncan/Custom-Bridge/medias/audio/a.play,m.474894.html

I ordered it from America early this year, because i needed a more powerfull sound for the music i play , i payed $300 for it. I like the fullness of the tone it gives and the power of it and it has large harmonics which i really like, and also the way it looks there is nothing i really dislike about the invader because its perfect for the type of music i play , mainly punk and metal. it is very good quality its a top of the range pickup. it looks like a normal Humbucker but is a bit funny looking. the invader is used by Tom Delonge from Blink 182 , but if ur a heavy freak dont let that put you it off , the invader is also ideal for playing metal. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Gus G is the current guitar player for Ozzy but he was more known for his work in the Progressive band Firewind. With his growing stature in the music industry it was about time for him to put his name on a set of pickups. Since he is playing with Ozzy now he needed to be able to replicate the tones from the Randy and Jake E Lee eras along with the tones from the Zakk Wylde era. The latter being with active pickups. So he took advantage of a recent Seymour Duncan product to combine the attributes of a set of passives with a set of active pickups. These are the Gus G Fire Blackouts set. They are not like normal Blackouts though. They remind me more of the old Dave Mustaine Livewire pickups. These Gus G pickups take advantage of Seymour Duncans new modular active preamp assembly. These pickups are a set of passive pickups with the Blackout preamp added to them to give them the kick and output of an active pickup. Since the base of the pickup set are a set of passive pickups you get more dynamics and touch sensitivity with a setup like this. Gus G use to use the Duncan Distortion in the bridge and the 59 in the neck and im pretty sure this is what the set is based on with the preamp added to the setup. With the preamp added to the sound you get a bit more high end bite and clarity. The 59 is a super smooth pickup and with the extra bite from the preamp you get a bit more top end in the sound but it can be a bit fizzy at times. The harmonics just jump out with the preamp added. And the tone is thicker overall. The Blackout preamp tends to add more low end I find and it has dont that to these pickups but while keeping the top end clarity and touch sensitivity that the passive pickups had in their original state. A setup like this is good if you are looking for as et of pickups that can do the heavy active sound but still clean up moderately well and respond like a set of passives. These pickups cost about the same as a new set of active pickups and for that you get a more versatile set since these passive based active let you have the good cleans of a passive when you want it with the brutal gain and high end clarity of an active when you want that.

The Seymour Duncan Blackouts are a new beast in the active pickup market. This is the main bridge pickup of all the Blackouts. This pickup takes aim at the iconic EMG 81. This pickup like the 81 is an active pickup. This means that you need a battery for the pickup to operate. You also need special tone and volume pots. These are usually included if you buy the pickups new but if you buy them used you may have some problems trying to fit these into a guitar. Usually if you need both active pickups because it is very difficult to run an active pickup with a passive pickup. The 81 is a great pickup and has been used for years but everyone knows its weaknesses. This AHB-1B Blackout aims to make the 81s weaknesses its strenghts. The thing that most people dislike about the 81 is its lack of bottom end. That is not a problem with the AHB-1B because this pickup has bottom end a plenty. The pickup has all the high end crunch and gain that you expect from an active pickup. They are just as hot as any EMG's you have heard. With the added bottom end it does not sound harsh and thin like an 81 can sound sometimes. To me it is more like an 85. I prefer the 85 to the 81 due to its fuller sound. This AHB-1B is like they combined the 81 and 85 and stuck a Seymour Duncan label on it. Where the extra fullness hurts you is if you are tuning very low. If you are tuning very low you may want to stick with the 81. You will need the top end clarity to keep everything clear. If you are not tuning super low the AHB-1B can give you a much bigger sound than the 81 at higher tunings without clarity problems.

Hands down this is my favorite neck pickup. I would go so far as to challenge people to find something it can't do. Its sound great for any thing I have tried using it for. Super versatile with an awesome warm tone. I love it. The clean tones are simply awesome. They are really nice and open. The tone is warm without being muddy, but it still retains this vocal high end. The high end is not sparkly like a Strat’s neck pickup; it has its own thing going on. Its this really sweet vintage style sound. I absolutely love it. For crunch it NAILS the Les Paul tone in my head. It is warm but still very clear, with that sweet bite you hear on all the old school albums. It still very open sounding, even with a lot of gain. This leads to a ton of punchiness in single not runs, I love it. The perfect lead tone in my opinion. And its not only useful for lead work, I love how it sounds for groovy, single not staccato riffs on the lower strings. With high gain it retains that sort of vintage feel, but still has the liquid smoothness you expect from high gain leads. The vintage feel stems from the openness I mentioned earlier. The lack of compression makes for much more dynamic lead tone, which I much prefer. So it is not the perfect modern high gain tone, but it is still really nice. Overall I think this pickup is amazing. I cannot find a flaw in it, it is amazing. If you're looking for an extremely versatile neck pickup that just nails the vintage LP tone, run to the music store, buy a Duncan '59. If you want perfect, compressed, modern lead tone this might not be ideal for you. But for me, its perfect.

Firstly, some specs I was able to dig up: Impedence - Neck: 7.6 k Bridge: 7.85 k Resonant peak - Neck: 7.1 KHz Bridge: 6.7 KHz Magnet type - Alnico II Bar EQ - Bass, Mid, Treble 7 / 4 / 8 Great for studio and live use, the Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro (APH-1) is a fantastic pickup. It has the silky smoothness of an old Gibson PAF pickup, with crisp clarity, and a warmth you could practically build a fire around. I've owned a few of these pickups, and I've used them in the neck position of a couple of Gibson Les Paul guitars, as well as the neck position of a Fender Telecaster. In both guitars, the pickup allowed the guitar's own characteristics to shine through, yet still imparted the tone with a wonderful singing "woman" tone, ala old Clapton, or Slash from Guns 'n' Roses. If you read my review on the Duncan Seth Lover pickups, this pickup offers similar tones, albeit a touch more modern and open sounding, and it is noticeably less expensive. I love both pickups for different applications, but this Alnico II Pro certainly gets the job done for classic rock, 50's rock 'n' roll type stuff, rockabilly, country (especially fingerpicked Chet Atkins style), blues, and jazz. My favorite use is just jamming on a thick, overdriven Marshall, cranked up. This pickup excels at that type of use, and will provide all the creamy goodness you can handle. A bend, vibratoed note can sustain forever it seems, and the resulting tone will cause anyone, even lay-persons to take notice! I've had so many compliments on the guitar's tone if I play my Les Paul at a show. I highly recommend the Alnico II Pro for blues and classic rock tones especially, but as a generally versatile pickup, this one is a great choice as well.