Following on from my demonstration of the Little ’59 pickups, I wanted to continue with a few words about the Li’l Screamin’ Demon. Most discussions of single-coil-sized humbuckers tend to drift towards the pickups that make up the Everything Axe set – the Little 59, the Duckbuckers and the JB Jr. It’s a great set – the smoothness of the Little ’59 in the neck with just a little bite to give definition, the Duckbucker in the middle providing bell-like tones on its own and quack when combined with the other pickups, and the searing aggression of the JB Jr in the bridge position for hot riffing and scorching leads.

However, the JB Jr is not a subtle pickup. Like the full-sized JB, it’s all about putting everything front and center. It doesn’t clean up that much when you roll down the volume and the clean sound somehow still sounds like it’s just waiting until you kick in the distortion. Great attitude, but not always what you want.

Enter the Li’l Screamin’ Demon. In a similar way to the full-sized Screamin’ Demon, this pickup gives moderate, rather than high, output. It’s more than the Little ’59, but not as much as the JB Jr. It’s an altogether more laid-back, looser sounding and feeling pickup. It’s very sensitive to picking dynamics and to volume control changes, and even under heavy gain it retains articulation and string separation. Again following on from the full-sized version, it has adjustable pole pieces on both coils – allen headed screws on one and slotted screws on the other. This allows really fine tuning of the sound.
When I fitted one to a Strat in the bridge position instead of the JB Jr, it felt like the guitar took a step back, breathed out, had a sip of beer and loosened its belt a notch or two. The sound was airy, glassy and dynamic. It can handle clean and distorted tones equally well and it doesn’t try to push you one way or the other.

When combined with the Duckbucker in the middle position, it provides a half-way house between stratty quack and a more traditional humbucker tone. It’s a very usable sound both clean and pushed harder.
I already have a Strat-type guitar with a JB in it, and I love it to bits – but for this Strat, the Li’l Screamin’ Demon sits just right.

Here’s a poppy, clean demo:

And here’s a rock-focused demo with some drive:

Have you ever considered the Li’l Screamin’ Demon? What guitar would you put it in?