Duncans just sound so much better...You can really tell when you are hearing Seymour's pickups. The JB alone is probably one of the best, if not the BEST bridge humbucker ever made. My first ever guitar came stock with a Pearly Gates Plus and a '59 in the neck...Coil tap push\pull on the tone pot too. Still have that guitar today, it's a tele -- still plays and sounds amazing...Nothing else even comes close to the Pearly Gates Plus. You guys should really make that a production model, or even do a seven string version of it!
The best sounding pickup I've ever played, to this day, was the old hand wound JB I played from the late 80s to the mid 90s. It came stock with a candy apple red Holdsworth style Charvel with one volume, standard trem that always stayed in tune, and that one bucker. Sounded amazing. I bought the guitar off the used wall at a shop in L.A. in '89, and the main reason was because of how great that pickup sounded. I eventually popped it out to see what it was, then asked a tech about it. It said JBL. He said it was a Lidia Daniel made JB, and probably produced in the late 70s, early 80s. So it was already an older pickup by the time I got that Charvel, and had aged and had this wonderful sweetness to it. Just an amazing pickup. I eventually popped it into different guitars I owned to see how it sounded. All of them sounded much better. Then I moved a couple times, and I forgot what guitar had what pickup, because I had a lot of JBs, Customs and Distortions in various guitars. I had about fourteen guitars at one time. I lost track of it, and then I sold some of my guitars to friends so I could buy a Les Paul and SG that I really wanted. Then I realized, "Oh crap! I don't have that wonderful JB anymore!" I called my friends who I'd sold my guitars too and they'd traded or sold them. I could never track down that JB because I could never figure out which one of those guitars it was in or who had it. The lesson is if you have a great pickup, keep an eye on it! But yeah, the JB is just a solid all around pickup. I've got an Antiquity JB right now and it's pretty darn close in tone to the Lidia JB. I also love the Full Shred, Screamin' Demon, Custom, Custom Custom, and Custom 5, and 59/Custom Hybrid. Just amazing pickups. The best.
Seymour Duncan pickups are not ONLY the BEST, the man himself is a great individual, and the company itself is absolutely outstanding! The history, the perseverance, the expertise and the customer service. SUPERB! I will never have any other pickups. 😊👍 THANK YOU! Edit: 🤘🤘🤘
Seymour changed my life!!! B.S. don't bother. But I do like the products. The pickups, the pedals and so on. The blood of music is presented in a very dedicated way. Seymour Duncan= dedication. Thanx
Been digging on Seymour Duncan Pickups since the 80's...glad to still enjoy some of there products.. Which I still use.. Screaming Demon, JB pickup and now Duality pickups and Alfa Omega pickups...
Been a guitar player for about 10 years now. During my 2nd or 3rd year of playing guitar, I started experimenting with Seymour Duncan pickups and I never looked back since. Top favorites are definitely the Classic Stacks STK-S4 and STK-S9, Custom SSL-5, SHR Hot Rails, SLSD Lil Screamin' Demon and Antiquities Texas Hot. All thanks to the genius behind the Duncan family that I can achieve my tones, and the wonderful customer service people at Seymour Duncan who know their stuff and gives great recommendations/advice. Cheers and regards from Singapore!
What a cool story! I recently bought some Pearly Gates and am amazed at how dramatically it changed the sound of that import guitar for the better. Absolutely awesome!
Who they are? Pickup nerds and tone gurus is who they are. There might be a handful of folks in the same league as Seymour and MJ, but no one is better at this. Plus, Seymour is a really cool dude if you get a chance to meet him.
I installed a pair of slash pickups in my 2022 Les Paul 60's unburst. I've never worked on a guitar before and i used Seymour Duncan's training video program. It was really well done and i'm pretty proud of myself. Love the pickups much more than the stock Gibson 60's burstbuckers :) They seem like such a great couple/family, would love to work there, but i'm in Florida, Keep up the awesome work.
Cool! I feel like I’m a part of guitar history just by watching this video. I’m working on my first guitar mod and put Duncans in a squire telecaster. Little 59 in the bridge and vintage stack in neck. Rock On !
Got stock singe coil pickups in my 2015 American Standard Strat but, I am going to change the bridge pickup for something from Seymour Duncan very soon. I am new to guitar so I am learning something new about sound and tone etc everyday .
I got my first set of your pickups from a deal i scored online. From a partscaster p90 style in a strat that was partially stripped. One other partscaster later an some replacement parts bam two amazing guitars for pennies. It just goes to show what a little tlc an effort can do to a old piece of gear.
I got some Antiquities what seems like forever ago now and they are still in one of my guitars, recently I got some of the Custom Shop Joe Bonamassa pickups and without question they are some of the best sounding pickups I've tried, and I've had/or tried many boutique pickups! I'm proud to have any Duncan set but when I bust out my Les Paul with the Joe Bonamassa pups every guitar player in the room asks, "How are you getting that incredible tone?!" Thanks Seymour and Co.!!
Just found out that Seymour Duncan is a real person name. I thought it was like Carl Seymour & Eric Duncan combined. Own one guitar with TB-14 and SH-2. Sounds great!
'59 bride on my '78 LP custom, unmatchable,,,,,, period. I even tried the JBJ in the bridge, not as good. JBJ is now in bridge of '04 Destroyer,,,,, perfect!
To whom it may concern. I just ordered an SSL-5 for a strat. What matters to me as much as how that thing will sound, is who is responsible for creating it. I regret buying a GibsonSG as I could have bought a Paul Reed Smith instead. Look at my effects pedals and I can name almost every creator from Josh Smith to Robert Keeley, Brian Wampler… what i’m saying, is that I need the connection. Sure my Boss pedals are very good but I prefer the connection when I can. I’d like nothing more than to thank those concerned, those responsible for the creation, personally but I get that’s not possible. But my intention, almost each time I use my guitar, is to connect that feeling of conscious choice not just of the effect byt the makers. Okay i’m no lothario but if the Duncans ever read this, I want them to know that my first pickup swap in the ‘80s was a SD and that I respect how much effort must have gone into sticking with us for all these years. Thank you.
I got a pair of AHB-1 Blackouts in my Schecter V. Super happy with those and I'm planning on getting a DUNCAN DISTORTION TREMBUCKER TB-6 and a DUNCAN DISTORTION - NECK SH-6N when I get the chance and money :) And the JB of course. But can I ask a question? I intend to buy a HSH Strat and I have no idea which single coil to get with the TB-6 and the SH-6N, and what would go well with a Bridge and Neck JB set? Big thank you to everyone at SD!!! :D Andro from Croatia
I am trying to put together a combination of pickups that will work together and separate well. I do realize that you took the work out of what I am trying to do. When I was younger I would play around with Pickup windings and magnets. Now a days I don't have the Time.This is what I am trying to do. I want to have the Hendrix Snappy tubey do da lude sound in the Neck,The Bridge Sound I am considering the JB junior but I also like the Hot rail Crunch sustain. The problem is I don't know if I will be able to back off to get a clearer tone with the hot rails. Its hard to tell from a lot of you tube tutorials because most people are running a booster of some sort in their demo's. Once I figure out the Neck and Bridge situation we will be able to marry the middle pickup. The thing about the middle pickup I would like it to Stand on its own and still enhance the neck and Bridge pickups when paired together.I like your products and I know you have what I need and or looking for. Thanks for the post seymour & Co. c];-D
The normally-wired Hot Rails isn't the most dynamic pickup. For what you want, I might look at something like the Lil' Screamin' Demon or the Little 59. You can also wire a switch in something like a Hot Rails to wire it in parallel, which will get a cleaner, clearer sound.
Do you have any videos with some of the people mentioned for the winding labels? I have a JMBG and it would be awesome to know something/history about the lady who had her hands on something I now own. Gloria Ocompo ?
I thank G -d everyday that I met Eric Clapton in NYC, waiting on a bus to take us to Jersey. I think he was going to Bruce Springsteen's farm. He called me Tom Petty,& it made me feel like I'd been inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!
Not a fan. Honestly the build quality of a new Duality I bought was like...seriously? The tone was so-so. Just so many mediocre flavors and teenage-oriented marketing.
I'll never understand the guitar player obsession with vintage...Who wants a car that was made 50-60 years ago to drive to work in every day? It's cool to have it in your garage and maybe restore it or just be inspired at the engineering and construction -- but to actually use it as it was intended to be used? No way! I'd take a Korean made PRS any day with a line made JB and a 59' as my work horse.
+Seymour Duncan You should make the Pearly Gates Plus a standard production model and also put out a 7 string version :) If I wanted a 7 string ver. could I get one through your custom shop maybe?
