Your Seymour Duncan Journey?

[Mosher Zone]

Been on the forum a few weeks & really enjoying it. Just wondered how you all got turned on to Seymour Duncan pickups? What's your story?

Mine is when in 1995 i got my used Bc Rich Bich which had a Duncan Distortion(a DDJ) in the bridge. My other guitar at the time was a Jackson JDR '94 which a friend had fitted a bridge pickup from a Jackson Soloist & sounded great but when i plugged in the Rich it completely blew me away, I'm aware that it was also the guitar but the combination of it & the Distortion was just amazing & it is still my best sounding guitar which everything gets compared to. I always start with a Distortion in every guitar i get as a reference point & it will always be my favorite Duncan.

[Binnerscot]

Back in about '86 or '87, my guitar just didn't sound very good...I had read that changing pups would help and I saw that Hamer used Seymour Duncans (I still love those Kamen era Hamer superstrats!)..the rest is history.

[Edgecrusher]

The first guitar I ever bought had seymours in it. Was a invader with 2 hot stack HSS set up. Though Ill admit to having no particular brand alliance when it comes to pickups.

[bluesbend]

Welcome to the Forums Mosher Zone.

My first experience with Duncans was when I did my first guitar build. I wanted a pickup that was Tele'ish and P90'ish at the same time. A friend of mine had a Guitar store at the time and suggested Quarter pounds to me, I went with a QP bbridge and a QP Strat at the neck. I loved it! I've been using Duncans ever since. Look at my profilr page to see the Duncans I have or had.

[Mosher Zone]

Welcome to the Forums Mosher Zone.

My first experience with Duncans was when I did my first guitar build. I wanted a pickup that was Tele'ish and P90'ish at the same time. A friend of mine had a Guitar store at the time and suggested Quarter pounds to me, I went with a QP bbridge and a QP Strat at the neck. I loved it! I've been using Duncans ever since. Look at my profilr page to see the Duncans I have or had.

Cheers bud, i had a look, you certainly have worked your way through a few. Sweet guitar by the way.

[Khriss Bliss]

i hadnt played hard rock or metal since 88. i found a supercheap indigo colored ibanez that i told myself i wd someday get, with fast neck, solid tremelo bar- just wished it could sound better, get that LA Metal first demo album hungry/ dangerous type menace tone - lots of concrete wall... i tried EMGs, no, Dimarzio, no. I got a TubeKing pedal& swapped a JJ 12ax7 into it, got me closer. I almost bought a Jackson, so at GC i tried one that said Seymour Duncan on it into a Xxx- THAT was it! then i suspected it was mostly the p/u so i plugged into fender gain ch. - still had that sound, then i plugged a Jackson w EMGs...nowhere near it anymore! so i started to skip all over the store knowing SeymDuncis what i needed, but i still needed a model. The Southernrock guy told me he used a JB. With my crappy net service on my phone, i got on to Harmony Central to read reviews- just before the store closed i found two reviews that mentioned Ratt, so i bought the JB that Friday nite. When i put it in, not only was it awesomely what i wanted, but i have been boring anybody who will listen ever since about how pickups are lifechanging...

Later I thought maybe its the sh6 DuncDistortion i wanted-Lynch,Rhoads used it-, so i tried that, at first there seemed no point, but yeah the output was hotter, bass tighter, the Distortion is what i wanted. I realized the JB history later, glad i got it ...and, im glad i know now aboutmagnet swapping!...

[Mosher Zone]

i hadnt played hard rock or metal since 88. i found a supercheap indigo colored ibanez that i told myself i wd someday get, with fast neck, solid tremelo bar- just wished it could sound better, get that LA Metal first demo album hungry/ dangerous type menace tone - lots of concrete wall... i tried EMGs, no, Dimarzio, no. I got a TubeKing pedal& swapped a JJ 12ax7 into it, got me closer. I almost bought a Jackson, so at GC i tried one that said Seymour Duncan on it into a Xxx- THAT was it! then i suspected it was mostly the p/u so i plugged into fender gain ch. - still had that sound, then i plugged a Jackson w EMGs...nowhere near it anymore! so i started to skip all over the store knowing SeymDuncis what i needed, but i still needed a model. The Southernrock guy told me he used a JB. With my crappy net service on my phone, i got on to Harmony Central to read reviews- just before the store closed i found two reviews that mentioned Ratt, so i bought the JB that Friday nite. When i put it in, not only was it awesomely what i wanted, but i have been boring anybody who will listen ever since about how pickups are lifechanging...

Later I thought maybe its the sh6 DuncDistortion i wanted-Lynch,Rhoads used it-, so i tried that, at first there seemed no point, but yeah the output was hotter, bass tighter, the Distortion is what i wanted. I realized the JB history later, glad i got it ...and, im glad i know now aboutmagnet swapping!...

Cool story, i have a JB too, it's my favorite behind the Distortion.

[frankfalbo]

http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/ar...part-1-the-jb/

Here's mine, got all choked up writing it

[Ed Hunter]

http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/ar...part-1-the-jb/

Here's mine, got all choked up writing it

great read! I also am a JB fanatic,best pup ever imho why because the JB is the only pup i found that lets me go from country clean's to all out metal and over half of my all time favorite players have used a JB and i can hear why. it also gets the best old VH tone i ever got!

[IanBallard]

Mine was very simple. I'd heard of the wonder and greatness of Seymour Duncan pickups for many years, heard many of the guitarists in my bands rave about them. After deciding to upgrade pickups, I initially decided on a TB-59. It was awesome, but not quite hot enough. I bought a used DiMarzio Super Distortion and liked it overall, but it was kind of dull for my taste and clean sound was "brangy" and ugly. I then bought a Custom Custom. It was closer to what I wanted but the bass was flabby and again the clean tone just didn't compare to the 59. I read the "How to make a Hybrid" thread and decided to brave the operation and tried it. The pickup sang like no guitar I've ever played but it still lacked the bass I liked with the A2 magnet so I got an Alnico 8 and swapped. Now I have to say I'm perfectly happy. Every note on my guitar sounds "just right" and the dynamic qualities and tone is amazing! Two brilliant Duncan winds combined into one!!

If I ever decide to change up again, I'll probably go the Custom Shop route. Thanks Seymour for starting a quality company!!

[skynyrd]

It was back in the mid to late 80`s for me, I had a Kramer 605ST that the bridge pup sounded like sqwat and I got 1 of the origonal trembuckers and put in it. I loved that pup so much I ended up buying a custom custom for my Washburn WP-50 LP and after that I was hooked.

[Nagash]

My story is : I have a guitar with EMGs and I don't like this sound anymore, I'm waiting until I can replace them with a Full Shred set. Other than that, I'm a Jackson fanboy (even though I have no Jacksons yet, but I know they're closing in ) and Jacksons mostly come with Duncans. Then, my buddy has an Ibanez that didn't sound awesome enough, he put a JB in and it suddenly kicked ass, and he also has an ESP Horizon with Duncans that kicks even more ass.

So, for me it is bad gear and jealousy ^^

[GuitarStv]

My Epi Dot had a terrible stock neck pickup. I had heard that SD did better old timey sounding pickups than Dimarzio, so I went with Seymour. They rocked. . .

[FuseG4]

My first guitar was a cheap Ibanez GRX40. Stock single coil neck pickup sucked. Went into a shop and asked what he recommended. In went an SSL-1! it was great.
I went on a dimarzio kick for a while after that, I put a Super D in that same guitar and loved that.
I got my second guitar, a squier tele custom, and wanted a punk rock sound. Did a search and found that Greg Hetson used a CC. Tried that one and liked it. I ended up putting that CC in a semi-hollow with an A2P. I liked Duncans but weren't in love with them yet, though. I fell in love when I put the red/black zebra 59s in an Epi. Since then, it's been duncans.

[Bones]

I put a Lil 59 in my Squier Strat back in 1999.

[BloodRose]

I had a Kramer Striker as my first "real" guitar. Had a very bland sound.. I mentioned to a guy at a local shop and he said, change pups.. said the best thing on the market (86 or 87) was a Duncan JB. Bought one and had in installed and they installed a coil tap switch.. guitar was NIGHT and DAY better. Ive been a Duncan lover and pup swappin ho ever since...

[Jay 77]

Bought my Charvel used in '93 that had a JB in the bridge with a pair of Dimarzio SDS-1's in the neck and middle. Stuck with the JB in that guitar ever since.

[grapeskeletons]

First replaced a pickup in college, it was a DiMarzio Tone Zone...that was quickly replaced by a Duncan Full Shred. I played the 'Shred for 8 years solid and became unhappy with its limitations...so I went through a string of Duncans and DiMarzios for years looking for the perfect high-output Alnico V humbucker...and then I found it in the JB. Which I probably should have tried in the first place. It's the best pickup for my style of music, and I am glad to be done wasting money on trying out pickups. I'll just stick to the JB, thank you. Err, after I try out an S-Deco....

Honorable mention goes to Duncan Distortion, DiMarzio Breed, and DiMarzio Super Distortion. And of course, SH-6n and SH-1n, which I still own and like.

[Gearjoneser]

Mine probably started where many do...yanking a stock pickup and going for the most obvious upgrade (in the mid/late 80's when Duncan made everyone perk up regarding aftermarket pickups) And that was and still seems to be the JB.

Without question, Duncans sounded better, yet still retained that stock look, which is a major appeal.

Then, I moved through pickups like the Custom, 59, Hot Rails etc.

After that, I was hooked, but this was still the pre-internet time when you just had to go by word of mouth.

By the late 90's, I'd gone through many Duncan humbuckers, but still used stock single coils on Fenders. This was also the time when the internet exploded and I could actually research things. It took off from there, and I started swapping pickups, coming to realize I liked the C5/59 and Surfer singles. After going through more and more pickups, and being on this forum, I really pinpointed it. But I also learned that you should never change stock pickups that sound good......usually meaning guitars that have Burstbucker 1/2 or 57 Classics....no need to pull those out.

But overall, I'd say that the Brobucker/PGn is my favorite humbucker set.
Strat singles can be anything good, but the Surfer Custom/Surfer set is in the top 3. For tele, the Jerry Donahue bridge is the go to.

[Baltar]

i was a bloody beginner and very disappointed from my first guitar (epi les paul special ii)
and figured out a strat would be the way to go. the first strat i bought seemed to be a
mispurchase for me again, due to the guys in local musicstore weren't helpful so i just
went for an expensive strat with lot's of switching options - the american deluxe hss s1.
when i trashed my first marshall ss combo and went to a peavey db115 i could get
a variety of sounds out of my strat, but i wasn't 100% happy with any of them.
i didn't know these days, that fender was equipping the american deluxe hss with
mex singlecoils and figured out later on.
i met a new colleague of mine then for jamming. he was just building a guitar on a set
of fat cats and told me, that i have a very untypical strat and sugggested me to go
for a set of duncan singlecoils. the pickguard with s1 sold nice on ebay and i started
with ssl-1. later on i added a lil 59 into neck position.
i still have the guitar and the duncans are spread in my circle of friends, after i used
them and other pickups testdriving some diy strats as well. the expirience was very
important for me, but i went to leosounds red house singlecoils in that strat,
which are less dull to my ears. a friend which i gave the lil59 to and wired his diy guitar
in the past gave his old xtreme les paul as present to me. i put an sh4 and a prails into
it and absolutely love them.