Extends Blackouts Active Humbuckers to 7-String Guitarists

Santa Barbara, California - After the resounding success of their Blackouts active humbucker range, Seymour Duncan follows-up their hit with launch of 7-string Blackouts. Actually, the Santa Barbara-based pickup giant is offering two versions of Blackouts for 7-string aficionados. They call the two versions "Phase I" and "Phase II." The Phase I set is a direct retrofit for passive 7-string humbuckers made by Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio®. The Phase II set is a direct retrofit for EMG®'s 707 pickup.

Before Duncan started designing Blackouts, they did a little market research. They found that while lots of guitarists love active pickups, many wanted a tone that was less compressed with a more extended frequency response. In their efforts to solve those issues they discovered that some of the most popular active pickups have critical design flaw in their circuit architecture. They use unbalanced inputs in a differential preamp. The problem is, an unbalanced differential preamp is not very effective at cancelling hum. Duncan's engineers figured out how to capture the tone that players want in an active design, but using balanced inputs.

The result is that not only are 7-string Blackouts active humbuckers up to 14dB quieter than the competition, but they also have more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, 7-string Blackouts have more tone than other active pickups. Seven-string gutiarists will notice the benefits of the reduced hum when they record, especially if they're around computer monitors or fluorescent lighting. As for the benefits of having more tone, well those will be apparent everywhere.

Guitarist Dino Cazares of Divine Heresy has appeared in a nationwide ad campaign for 7-string Blackouts. In addition to Dino, some of the many A-list guitar artists who have switched to Blackouts include Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom, Mick Thomson of Slipknot, Corey Beaulieu of Trivium, Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir, Mike Schleibaum of Darkest Hour, and Rob Trevino of Helstar.

7-string Blackouts are available in individual neck and bridge models, or as a two-pickup set. All versions come with all necessary mounting hardware, including pots, jack, and a battery clip.

DiMarzio and EMG are registered trademarks of their respective companies with which Seymour Duncan is not affiliated.