Seymour Duncan rail pickups are bold. Even with a cursory glance, the magnetic bars cutting across their face jump out at you. It’s striking when compared to the pole pieces or screws in most pickups. And these rail humbuckers are a fast track to inject your guitar with that same attitude.

But rail pickups are much more than an aesthetic choice. This construction method ensures the pickup’s magnetic field is more consistent across all strings. Rails also eliminate signal dropouts when bending strings and inconsistencies from string to string.

But most of our rail pickups also share one fundamental trait: their sound. Though they’re all passive pickups, they are take-no-prisoners, high-output hard rock and metal machines. Their stock-in-trade drives the front end of high-gain amps and your favorite dirt pedals. And, of course, they add that aggressive look that’s perfect for players with savage tones and pummeling riffs.

Here are a few of our most popular rail humbucker pickups.

Jupiter Rails

The Jupiter dual rail humbucker pickup was developed as the signature pickups for guitarist Wes Hauch. Widely considered one of the best players in the modern metal scene, Wes Hauch’s reputation precedes him. Whether playing with Alluvial, Devin Townsend, Thy Art Is Murder, The Faceless, or most recently with The Black Dahlia Murder, Wes’s ferociously aggressive and immaculately clean playing cuts like a knife through the mix.

Hauch, a long-time Seymour Duncan artist, has used many of our high-output pickups to achieve his sound. He’s even responsible for some of our most popular metal pickup demos on YouTube. So there’s no question that, when it comes to tone, Hauch knows what he wants and knows how to get it.

So, we teamed up with Hauch over a two-year process to create his signature Jupiter Rails. The directives were to make them fast, aggressive, clear on extended chord voicings, and exceptionally precise in the low end. Being a fan of rail pickups and the way they managed both the high end and bass response of the frequency spectrum, Wes worked with the engineering team to develop the perfect combination of a ceramic magnet and high output wind in a rails design. Once we landed on the perfect recipe, we all knew it. The resulting Seymour Duncan Jupiter is the ideal rail pickup for Wes and fans of his precise tone.

El Diablo

When humbucker pickups have a name like the El Diablo, subtlety isn’t an option. Crafted in association with Anthrax’s Scott Ian, we set out to make one of the most powerful, hard-driving, and aggressive passive humbucking pickups out there. To do that, we knew we needed to use rail magnets. And we were right. The El Diablo humbuckers—formerly a made-to-order Custom Shop exclusive that is now available everywhere—became a mainstay in Ian’s signature guitars.

Not only are El Diablo’s rail magnets remarkably powerful, but their large size gives the pickup a look as wicked as its sound. That sound is fat, punchy, and perfect for the gut-punching rhythms Ian made famous. While some may ask how the El Diablo sounds clean, we would ask, “Why you would play the El Diablo clean…?”

No question, the Seymour Duncan El Diablo isn’t for everyone. But it continues to inspire legions of metal-minded followers. They clamor for its massive output and punch, waiting to add a new level of power to your electric guitar.

Slug

If the El Diablo is perfect for over-the-top ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s metal, the Slug is a close cousin aimed squarely at the doom and stoner scene. At first glance, it looks a lot like the El Diablo. You have two similar oversized ceramic magnet rails, overwound coils, and slightly larger housing. But the Slug is a very different animal.

At 48K DCR, Seymour Duncan Slug has to be one of the most powerful passive guitar pickups ever. Heck, it even gives active pickups a run for their money. Its one mission is to destroy whatever comes after it in the signal path. Whether you prefer gated fuzz pedals, vintage tube amps, or the precision of high-gain modeling devices, none of them stand a chance against the Slug. The rails themselves are as large as the ceramic magnets found in other humbuckers.

Classic rock tone junkies, Blues purists, and Nashville studio types need not apply.

Dimebucker

What can be said about Dimebag Darrell’s guitar tone that hasn’t already been said? You can discuss its aggression, thick harmonics, tight low end, and how it wrote the book for heavy metal guitar tone ever since. But we think the most fascinating thing about Dime’s tone is its uniqueness.

When Dimebag began hunting for a new pickup to achieve this sound, he came to Seymour Duncan. The pickup had to be perfect. It had to deliver an insane amount of low-end. The treble had to cut like a scalpel. And its metal-approved scoop still had to punch through a mix. It would use the dual rail humbucker pickup design to do it.

The pickup became the popular Seymour Duncan Dimebucker. It gave nearly all of Dime’s future signature Dean and Washburn guitars their searing tone. Drop one in your guitar’s bridge position, and you get a metal tone as unique as the man who designed it. It’s loud, it’s massive, and it cuts like a razor.

Adding to Dime’s unique sound, he was famous for pairing the Dimebucker with one of our bridge-position ’59 humbuckers in the neck position. This is still an extremely popular pairing, and we offer it as a set. The Dimebucker also pairs well with many other humbuckers, depending on the tones you’re going for. They just have to be metal.

Duncan Hot Rails and Cool Rails

Our most famous rail pickup might come as a surprise. While many others on this list are full-sized (or oversized) humbuckers, the Hot Rails come neatly outfitted in a compact, single-coil-sized housing. But don’t let their diminutive size fool you. Hot Rails are, in every way, a high-output humbucker ready for hard rock and heavy metal guitar tones. Meanwhile, Cool Rails deliver medium-output vintage-inspired tone that gives chords that thick humbucker crunch and single notes the right amount of sizzle without being harsh.

When the guitar modding craze kicked into full steam, many Strat-style players wanted to add a humbucker bridge pickup to their guitar. But a full-size humbucker required routing out the guitar’s body and/or finding a replacement pickguard to house it. Not wanting to make permanent changes to their instruments, they needed a different way, and Hot Rails and Cool Rails answered the call.

Easily fitting into the standard Stratocaster single coil route, Hot Rails and Cool Rails place humbucker tones within easy reach of Strat devotees. Players like Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray continue to swear by them for live performances and recordings. And the pickups even boast 4-conductor wiring so you can split the coils, giving your Strat both the bell-like tones of traditional single coil pickups and full-on humbucker tones at the flip of a switch—or push/pull of a knob.

It’s like turning your Strat into two completely different instruments.

The Rail Series

So far, we’ve focused on pickups originally designed as dual rail humbuckers. But in 2024, we unveiled something new yet familiar: the Rail Series.

With the Rail Series, we’ve taken some of our most popular, hardest-hitting pickups and given them the rails treatment. With these pickups, guitarists can enjoy our most classic tones with the clarity, tightness, and sustain only rails can provide. They’re perfect for high-gain applications and modern playing styles, and the response has been enormous. Here’s a look at what the Rail Series has in its lineup…so far.

JB Rails, Jazz Rails, and the Hot Rodded Rails Set

Our JB Model has been one of our most iconic pickups since its release. It’s our original high-output humbucker and is beloved by players across genres. Blues, country, fusion, punk, hard rock, grunge, thrash—the JB has always sounded just right.

With the introduction of the JB Rails humbucker,  it’s even more well-suited for modern high-gain playing styles. You still get the classic character of the JB—its powerful low-end, intense highs, and upper midrange bump—with enhanced string-to-string balance.

Similarly known for its versatility, our Jazz Model humbucker boasts a glassy treble response and full, tight bass, while scooped mids help each note sing clearly even under extreme high gain. The Jazz Rails humbucker takes those attributes to another level—increased clarity, greater sustain, and even performance under high gain.

JB Rails and Jazz Rails can shine independently, but something special happens when you combine the two into our Hot Rodded Rails Set. In its original form, this classic combo has been wildly popular since the 1970s. The rails treatment takes the wild versatility of our Hot Rodded Humbucker Set and makes it even better for players who favor screaming distortion, filthy amps, and modern playing styles.

Nazgûl Rails and Sentient Rails

Our Nazgûl humbucker has long offered the perfect blend of note articulation, saturation, and one of the most brutal chugs you’ll ever hear. It’s beloved by those who rock lower tunings in heavy genres for its tight bass and incredible harmonic content.

Nazgûl Rails combines the original’s unrelenting articulation and saturation with the clarity, tightness, and sustain of rail design, delivering focused low-end that is both vicious and controllable.

The Sentient neck humbucker is another longtime favorite among high-gain players. It delivers pristine cleans for intricate chordal and single-note runs with fluid leads under high gain. As you may have guessed, Sentient Rails retains the original’s clarity and tightness, with an incredibly expressive, modern response in lower tunings. It can be purchased independently or with Nazgûl Rails as part of the Nazgûl Sentient Rails Set.

Black Winter Rails

Featuring three large ceramic magnets to ensure maximum output and sustain in high-gain situations, the original Black Winter pickup is a savagely high-output passive humbucker built for and beloved by extreme metal guitarists.

Black Winter Rails brings a ferocious new edge to our already legendary Black Winter humbucker set. This evolution delivers the crushing aggression of the original Black Winter with even greater performance for modern music styles. With the unparalleled balance of the rails design, Black Winter Rails boasts an even tighter low end for focused power, extended sustain for screaming leads, and pristine note definition.

Following the enormous success of the Telecaster® and Stratocaster®, Fender released their third solidbody electric guitar model in 1958: the Jazzmaster®.

Originally intended for jazz guitarists, the Jazzmaster® featured a contoured offset body that was particularly comfortable to play while seated, a floating bridge with an anchored tailpiece, a new floating vibrato with a lockable tremolo, two separate tone circuits, and unique single-coil pickups.

Compared to Fender’s two previous models, the Jazzmaster® was a departure from what guitarists expected—including the pickups. The new pickups were still single coils, but they used wide, flat coils to produce tones that Leo Fender hoped would be well-received by jazz musicians.

Despite building it around their perceived needs, jazz guitarists didn’t embrace the Jazzmaster®. However, other genres connected with the new model, most notably surf legends like The Ventures and, later on, indie titans like Sonic Youth. These players embraced the Jazzmaster®’s ability to bounce between bright, punchy cleans and a warm, mellow growl.

And, of course, how it can absolutely rip through a fuzz pedal.

Like other single-coil pickups, Jazzmaster® pickups are also known for being prone to the dreaded 60-cycle hum, which is especially prevalent when stacked with overdrives and fuzz pedals. Considering that many genres that are aligned with the Jazzmaster®—such as shoegaze—rely heavily on these effects, Jazzmasters® have a reputation for getting quite noisy.

Enter the Jazzmaster® Silencer™. Available in vintage and hot voicings, our Jazzmaster® Silencer™ pickups are designed to preserve the unmistakable Jazzmaster® charm while eliminating unwanted noise, combining classic aesthetics with cutting-edge technology for unmatched performance.

How the Jazzmaster® Silencer™ pickups work

The Seymour Duncan Jazzmaster® Silencer™ pickups offer a new take on noiseless Jazzmaster® pickups. The traditional solution for a hum-free Jazzmaster® pickup uses two coils, either in a stacked design or by putting traditional humbuckers under Jazzmaster® covers.

While two-coil techniques work, Jazzmaster® purists aren’t always satisfied with the tone of these noiseless pickups. Since these designs are humbuckers (either literally or technically), many players don’t think this style of noiseless pickup captures the true single-coil punch, warmth, and growl of traditional Jazzmaster® pickups.

Instead of using stacked coil or traditional humbuckers, our Jazzmaster® Silencer™ pickups employ a patent-pending triple-coil design. This includes one primary (center) coil to capture that Jazzmaster® tone and two “outrigger” coils wired in series, placed on either side of the center coil.

With a warm and punchy neck tone, a bright and tight bridge sound, and visible Alnico 5 pole pieces that maintain the classic Jazzmaster® look, the only thing that gives the Jazzmaster® Silencer™ away is the inspiration for its name: Silence.

Available in Vintage and Hot Voicings

Not all modern Jazzmaster® players have the same sonic needs, which is why we’ve released our Jazzmaster® Silencer™ pickups in both vintage and hot voicings.

The Vintage Jazzmaster® Silencer™ retains the warm, punchy neck tone and tight, snappy bridge sound that defines the Jazzmaster®. Clean or overdriven, the Vintage Jazzmaster® Silencer’s vintage-voiced tone is perfect for shimmering indie textures, surf-inspired riffs, and modern pedal-driven explorations.

With their higher output, our Hot Jazzmaster® Silencer™ pickups deliver stronger, more powerful Jazzmaster® tones without sacrificing clarity. The neck pickup has a crisp, full-bodied tone, adding extra warmth in the low end, while the bridge pickup brings sharp definition and sustain for solos that cut through any mix. It’s ideal for gritty surf riffs, glimmering melodies, grungy fuzzed-out rock, reverb-drenched shoegaze, and beyond.

Enjoy Jazzmaster® Tone Without the Hum

The Jazzmaster® is here to stay, but that doesn’t mean you need to live with 60-cycle hum. No matter which version you drop into your guitar, the Jazzmaster® Silencer™ will give you the Jazzmaster® tone you know, love, and crave—without the single-coil noise.

Ready to try out the Jazzmaster® Silencer™ for yourself? Find the one that’s right for you here, and check out the rest of our blog for more pickup tips and guides.

Jazzmaster® is a registered trademark of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

Playing, performing, writing, and recording. As guitarists, we can improve in one or more of those areas—maybe even all of them.

It’s one thing to want to hone your skills in general, but knowing where to start is the challenge. That’s why we put together a list of resolutions for guitarists, which includes some of our team’s personal goals in 2025! We hope a few inspire you on your musical journey this year.

Improve Your Playing and Theory Skills

“I want to become a better guitar player.” That’s a great sentiment, but it doesn’t mean much without concrete goals. It’s important to think about what being a good guitarist means to you.

With that in mind, here are a few ideas for you to focus on in 2025.

Branch Out Into a New Genre

We all have our main or go-to genres, but there’s so much to appreciate in other types of guitar playing.

Here’s our specific challenge for you—in 2025, learn 10 songs outside your normal genre, note-for-note. That’s less than one new song per month. Bonus points if each new genre is unique! At the end of the year, we’re willing to bet that you’ll find more than one or two tricks to incorporate into your usual style.

Learn a Favorite Album All the Way Through

Learning how to play your favorite songs is one of the great joys of playing guitar.

This year, we challenge you to not just learn one or two songs by your favorite performer—we challenge you to learn how to play every song from one of your favorite albums to the best of your ability. Yes, every song.

Hopefully, you come out of this exercise with a newfound appreciation for a beloved album, and maybe even some new techniques or ideas you can pull into your own music.

Nail Down One New Concept or Technique

Learning a guitar technique is easy. Nailing it is the hard part.

This year, instead of floating around between several techniques or concepts, choose one and do your best to get it down flawlessly. A few you could work on include:

• Sweep picking
• Hybrid picking
• Tapping
• Pinch harmonics
• Fingerstyle
• Arpeggio positions

Film yourself exercising that technique today and again at the end of the year. You’ll see the difference dedicated practice makes.

Learn to Read and Write Traditional Chord Charts

We know the jokes about guitarists and reading music. Fair or not, being able to read a basic chord chart is a wonderful skill to have. By learning how to read and write a traditional chord chart—not a tab or lyric sheet—you can quickly insert yourself into any set, better communicate with other performers, and become a more hireable guitarist.

Most guitarists start by learning songs from sheets that list the chords above the song’s lyrics. This works alright if you already know the song, but it isn’t helpful if you aren’t familiar with the tune.

As the name implies, a well-written chord chart will guide you through a song’s chord changes, measure-by-measure. With a little practice, you’ll jump right into any song when presented with a chord chart—even if you’ve never heard it before.

Memorize the Fretboard

Finding any note at a moment’s notice is a great skill for a guitarist. While many of us learn how to find notes on the E and A strings thanks to bar chords, not everyone can find all 12 notes on all six (or more) strings.

There is no shortage of techniques and lessons for learning the fretboard, one of which involves octaves. Learning the different octave shapes, or patterns, is intuitive and easy to apply. If you can already find a note—B, for example—on the E and A strings, finding that B on any other string becomes a matter of applying those octave shapes.

Take a Structured Online Guitar Course or In-Person Lessons

Online guitar resources are plentiful and affordable, if not completely free. There are hundreds of talented teachers on YouTube and TikTok delivering everything from detailed song tutorials to quick-and-dirty tips to improve your playing.

However, online learning has its limitations. For one, a lot of online guitar resources aren’t particularly structured and almost none of them are tailored to your skills and goals.

If you feel you could use more structure in your guitar education, complete an online guitar course or take a handful of in-person lessons this year. Multi-week online guitar programs from Berklee, Pickup Music, and the like help you improve in general, or in your genre of choice. Meanwhile, an in-person guitar teacher can give you personalized recommendations to help you meet your playing goals.

Unlike YouTube, structured and in-person lessons aren’t (usually) free, but a great program or teacher is well-worth the investment.

Become Your Own Guitar Tech

Working on your instrument is a wonderful skill to work on this year. Not only will it save you money in the long run, it will help you build a new appreciation for and connection to your guitars.

Learn How to Complete a Setup

A proper setup is essential for getting the most out of your guitar. At its most basic level, a setup includes fine-tuning intonation, checking neck relief, and dialing in string height (action). A more thorough setup could include cleaning and polishing frets, cleaning and conditioning the fingerboard, checking and possibly adjusting pickup height, and even cleaning and securing electronics.

Different guitars have different setup needs, so be sure to find a setup guide that’s relevant to your instrument. For example, setting up a guitar without a vibrato system is simpler than setting up a guitar with one, and each vibrato system will have its own needs. As you learn the ropes of setting up your instrument, go slowly, check your work, and have patience with yourself.

Swap in New Pickups

Changing pickups is a time-honored guitarist tradition, and a lot of us rely on techs for this relatively straightforward bit of guitar surgery.

You can save money—and enjoy your new pickups right away—if you learn how to install them by yourself. This involves making sure you have the right tools and learning how to solder, but don’t be intimidated! You can sign up for our free Pickup Installation 101 Course to learn everything you need to know about swapping pickups, building wiring harnesses, and more.

Build a Partscaster

If you’re already familiar with working on a guitar and its electronics—or are looking for a heftier goal in 2025—why don’t you build a partscaster?

Assembling a partscaster isn’t like putting together toy blocks. You need to ensure proper alignment, drill holes, install wiring, and more. And, at the end of all that, you have to complete a full setup—adjust the truss rod, cut the nut, set the action, and intonate your guitar.

It’s a lot of work, but in the end, you have a guitar that you built for yourself with your wants and needs in mind, and that’s priceless.

Get Yourself Out There

While there’s nothing wrong with playing your music for yourself, there’s something special about getting together with other musicians. If you want to expand your musical community this year, here are some specific resolutions to keep.

Find a Local Online Community for Musicians

Gone are the days of posting personal ads to find new musician friends. These days, even smaller communities often have online groups dedicated to meeting other musicians.

Facebook Groups are a fantastic resource for finding other guitarists, bassists, drummers, and more. Of course, there’s a chance there isn’t already a local musician group for your area. If that’s the case, you can simply make your own group! Name it something easy to search for, like “Musicians of Santa Barbara,” ask a few friends to share, and encourage interaction among members.

Perform at an Open Mic Night

Open mic nights are great places to build your performance skills, test out new material, and meet fellow musicians. It’s likely that your area already has a few standing open mic nights—they’re often weekly or monthly events at local venues, coffee shops, and taprooms.

Like with Facebook Groups, you can start your own open mic night! Local businesses may be interested in hosting your event on slower nights of the week as a method of drawing a built-in crowd of performers and their friends. Keep in mind that either you or your venue will need to have a basic P.A. system to have a successful open mic night, and you’ll need to promote your new event as it gains steam.

Join or Start a Band

There are few things as scary, exhilarating, and rewarding as playing live music with a full band. But you need to join or start a band, first.

The key to a successful band is making sure your musical interests and goals are aligned. If you want to release professionally-recorded music and tour the world, you need to find band members who want the same. If your goal with a band is hanging out with your friends and playing a few gigs a year, that’s great, too! Just make sure the rest of the band is on the same page, and remember to have fun.

Write & Record

Writing and recording music can be daunting at first. But, as with most things, it gets easier with time. Even if you don’t plan on playing your music in front of anyone else, writing can be wildly fulfilling. If one of your resolutions is to write and record this year, here are some goals to consider.

Spend 15 Minutes a Day Writing for a Month

Writing is a muscle—you have to exercise it if you want to get stronger.

Pick a month and commit to spending 15 minutes writing each day. You can go longer, but try to make it at least 15 minutes. This could be writing a little chord progression, crafting a new riff, or refining a riff you’ve been working on.

What you come up with in those 15 minutes might not be magic, but you’ll come up with some ideas over the course of the month. You may even pop the kernels of a few great songs!

Write a Complete Song

It’s a lot easier to start a song than it is to finish it. In 2025, we challenge you to write at least one complete song.

The genre, theme, and structure are all up to you. Your song could be a seven-minute instrumental or a two-minute punk anthem. All that matters is that you create a piece of music that you think is cohesive and worthy of being recorded. Speaking of which…

Record Your Song at Home

There has never been a better time to record your songs.

Recording your music used to mean hiring musicians and booking studio time. Today, all you need is some kind of audio interface and a digital audio workstation (DAW) like GarageBand, Logic, or Audacity.

If it’s your first time recording, feel free to keep it simple. Or, if you’re up for the challenge, go for full-band instrumentation with your demo, whether that means working with other musicians or learning how to record with drum loops or virtual instruments.

Even if the final product isn’t ready for market, you can at least have the satisfaction of taking something you wrote to the finish line.

Enjoy the Journey

At the end of the year, you’ll hit some of your goals and will come short on a few, but that’s okay. Playing guitar isn’t a competition, it’s a lifelong journey, so do your best to enjoy it!

While we can’t help you with all of your resolutions in 2025, we can help you learn how to swap your pickups. Our Pickup Installation 101 online course is your free, step-by-step guide to install guitar pickups the right way. And it works. Most people complete their first pickup swap in 2-3 hours when following this course.

So go ahead, give it a go. And if you get stuck, no worries, you can always get in touch with the amazing Seymour Duncan Customer Service team, who are incredible at helping guitarists and budding techs finish the job! What have you got to lose?

Our hearts are with everyone who has been affected by the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, which have left so many devastated. As a company founded in Southern California nearly 50 years ago by musicians, for musicians, we feel deep connections to so many in this region and a responsibility to assist those in need.

We know that full recovery will be a massive task, and we want to help. Today, we are announcing two initial ways in which we are supporting our community.

First, Seymour Duncan has made a donation to MusicCares, whose work providing relief to musicians is more critical than ever.

Secondly, we’re launching a program to aid musicians who lost gear. If you’ve been affected, please fill out our official form on our website at www.seymourduncan.com/ca-fire-relief. Over the next few weeks, we’ll review applications and distribute assistance, doing our best to support as many musicians as we are able.

This is the beginning of a long recovery process for many, and we will continue to look for ways to lend our support. Whether you play guitar for yourself or for thousands, you know that music is a force for good, which we need now more than ever.

It’s hard to believe that 2024 is already over! This year was full of exciting new releases, visits from special guests, incredible employee milestones, and more. Without further ado, here’s Seymour Duncan 2024—wrapped.

New Pickups

We kept busy in 2024, releasing new pickups that run the gamut from country to metal and everything in between. Here’s a look back on the new tones we unleashed in 2024. Check out the recap below, and to hear all of these pickups in action, watch the demo videos on our YouTube channel!

Brandon Ellis “Dyad” Parallel Axis

We kicked off the year with a new signature set from our Custom Shop: Brandon Ellis’ “Dyad” Parallel Axis. Designed with Brandon, Dyad combines the North coil of a Crazy 8 and the hotter South coil of a Parallel Axis™ Trembucker Distortion, along with the Alnico 2 bar magnet from an RTM. The result is a high output Humbucker with a sizzly bite and a super articulate pick attack.

“The Blonde Dot” Humbucker Set

Another Custom Shop offering, March saw the release of Joe Bonamassa’s “The Blonde Dot” Humbucker Set. “The Blonde Dot” is based on the P.A.F. humbuckers in his rare 1960 dot®-neck Gibson ES-335® with blonde finish. Joe describes the Alnico 2 neck pickup as “stratty and clear” and the Alnico 4 bridge pickup as “punchy and dark,” making a balanced set that he knew would sound good in any humbucker guitar.

Corey Beaulieu Damocles

Corey Beaulieu of Trivium is a longtime fan of Seymour Duncan Blackouts® Active Humbuckers, so when we started working on his signature set, our goal was to build upon what he already loved about Blackouts while crafting something uniquely his own. Released in April, The Corey Beaulieu Damocles™ Signature Blackouts® are tuned to a voicing specifically requested by Cory along with increased presence, balance, and clarity.

Eric Gales Signature Strat Set

Designed for Strat®-style guitars, The Eric Gales Signature Pickup Set delivers precise tone and dynamic expression. This April release is a lively set with A4 magnets and slightly overwound coils that ensure a perfect balance of vintage warmth and modern clarity.

alt.metal

Another April release, our alt.metal Blackout® active humbucker set was made for intricate, heavy riffs in lower tunings. Maintaining the massive crunch of our original Blackouts®, alt.metal enhances the low-end tightness, while the top-end has been refined for added cut without harshness.

Hot Chicken for Strat and Tele

In May, we delivered a double order of our Hot Chicken™ pickups. Available for both Telecaster® and Stratocaster®, these Stack® pickups were designed to meet the needs of modern country guitarists who want vintage twang, but need something more equipped for high gain applications.

Jeff Loomis Noumenon

Here’s one that no one saw coming—Jeff Loomis releasing his signature Noumenon™ passive humbuckers in late May. A call back to Jeff’s foundational experiences in sculpting his highly influential metal tone, which were forged by passive humbuckers, Noumenon™ delivers incredible dynamics and control. And, of course, powerful tone with a tight low end and smooth treble.

Phat Cat Silencer Vintage and Hot

June saw the release of two new offerings in our growing Silencer series: Phat Cat Silencer in Vintage and Hot voicings. Now, guitarists can enjoy our highly acclaimed P90 Silencer pickups in their humbucker-routed guitars!

Billy Gibbons Hades Gates™ Humbuckers and Red Devil™ for Tele®

The Reverend Billy F. Gibbons brought guitarists two new signature pickups in early September: Hades Gates™ Humbuckers and Red Devil™ for Tele®.

A hotter take on his popular Pearly Gates™, the new Hades Gates™ Humbuckers deliver Billy’s famed mid-forward punch with extra heat, while the Red Devil™ for Tele® delivers his hot Texas tone in a drop-in replacement for any Telecaster®.

The Rail Series: JB Rails, Jazz Rails, Nazgûl Rails, and Sentient Rails

September also saw the release of our exciting new Rail Series of humbuckers. Rail Series brings the popular rails treatment to some of our most popular humbuckers: JB Rails, Jazz Rails, Nazgûl Rails, and Sentient Rails. These pickups combine our most classic metal and hard rock tones with rail design for clarity, tightness, and sustain, perfect for high-gain applications and modern players.

Joe Bonamassa’s 1950 Broadcaster® Set

Our last release of the year was October’s Joe Bonamassa 1950 Broadcaster® Set. This set was modeled after Joe’s 1950 Fender Broadcaster®, which has a truly remarkable tone. Joe describes the neck pickup as bright and perfectly balanced with the punchy flat-pole bridge pickup. Authentic to Leo Fender’s original design, these pickups evoke the early days of blues, rock & roll, and country.

Other Cool Stuff!

New Pickup Covers for Popular Models

In 2024, we released brand new, ready-to-order cover options for a few of our most popular humbucker sets—our Hot Rodded Humbucker set, our Nazgul/Sentient set, and our Invader set. Classic cover options are still available, but now you can show off your personal style with Stargazer, Toxic Yellow, Crimson Red, Lime Green, and Frost White.

PowerStage in Black

The colorway that’s so good, we can’t keep it in stock! In late 2024, we released the PowerStage 100 Stereo in this stunning black finish and we immediately sold out, though some of our dealers may still have a few in stock. If you missed out of this run, don’t worry, we have more on the way!

Antiquity Strings

In 2024, we released our Antiquity Strings in Light and Extra Light. The perfect start to your signal chain, our Antiquity Strings cover the most popular modern gauges, but are pure nickel wound, which gives them a rich, warm tone—a crucial ingredient to the sounds of classic blues and rock & roll.

Camo Hats and Guitar Picks

It’s always fun for us to launch new merch, especially when the response is overwhelmingly positive! Two of our 2024 releases were especially big hits—the Seymour Duncan Camo Hat and our official Seymour Duncan guitar picks!

27 Custom Shop Runs

Headed by Derek Duncan, Our Custom Shop has delivered inventive, bespoke pickups to guitarists for decades. In recent years, we’ve offered special limited runs of pickups to guitarists. These are a fun way for us to show off some of our custom enclosures and sound signatures in small batches. And, considering they almost always sell out on the first day, it seems like guitarists are enjoying them, too!

Here are a few of our Custom Shop limited runs from 2024.

Crimson Red Invader Humbucker Set

Look familiar? Our first Custom Shop run of the year was our famed Invader Set under Crimson Red covers. These were such a hit and led to so many requests that we now have this exact combo—and several others—available ready-to-order on our website.

Lap Steel for Tele Lead

MJ—the heart of our Custom Shop—captured the emotive and haunting tone of a ’50s lap steel in a Tele lead pickup for this Custom Shop run. It was such a popular offering that we added the Lap Steel Lead for Tele to our Custom Shop lineup!

Signed Jared James Nichols Signature P90 Silencer

This was a fun one! In celebration of Jared James Nichols’ birthday, we were able to offer a few extra special signature JJN P90 Silencers—autographed by the man himself!

Blackened Duncan Distortion

With a powerful ceramic magnet and a hot wind, Duncan Distortion has been a go-to pickup for hard-hitting crunch rhythms and blazing lead tones since 1980, and we served it up “Blackened” in one of our Custom Shop runs this year.

Son of Slug for Strat (and Tele)

Our original Slug humbucker is a gnarly and insanely high-output humbucker that’s perfect for stoner and doom metal, and this year we were able to do Custom Shop runs of Slug – sized for both Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars. If you missed out on the drops, you’re in luck—both are available made-to-order through our Custom Shop.

Exciting Partnerships with Guitar Brands

We’re honored to work with so many remarkable guitar builders and manufacturers, providing pickups for their incredible guitars. We saw our pickups loaded into dozens of guitar models from some of our favorite brands, including Fender, Ibanez, and more.

A few notable releases include Fender’s blink182 collaborations in 2024. The Tom DeLonge Signature Starcaster was loaded with a single Duncan Custom in the bridge, while the Limited Edition Mark Hoppus Signature Jaguar Bass came equipped with our Quarter Pound split-coil P Bass pickups.

In the realm of jazz boxes, D’Angelico reintroduced their flagship Excel EXL-1 in January, a 17”-wide, 3”-deep single-cutaway archtop that comes loaded with a full-sized Seymour Duncan ‘59 Model humbucker.

ESP Guitars came out with their LTD Deluxe EC-01FT, one of 19 guitars added to their LTD Deluxe Series this year, back in February. It features 24.75” scale with a smooth set-thru heel construction and is loaded with our flexible and dynamic Custom 14, a new custom pickup designed exclusively for ESP.

Another February release was the Cort KX707 EverTune. Featuring our uber-popular Nazgûl/Sentient set, the KX707 EverTune features a gorgeous 5-piece roasted maple/walnut neck, stainless steel frets, an ebony fingerboard, and high-quality staggered locking tuners for ultimate tuning stability.

June saw Ibanez release a gorgeous new Grey Metallic finish for their AZ2402, which features our Hyperion humbuckers, and their AZ2204N, which comes with our Fortunata HSS pickups.

Also guitar released in June was the Charvel Pro-Mod Relic San Dimas® Style 1 HH FR PF, which Guitar.com called “near perfect” in their glowing review. Its worn-in feel and modern features make for an excellent axe, and the inclusion of our JB TB-4 in the bridge and ’59 SH-1N in the neck means it sounds great, too.

Nearly a year after they released their American Series Virtuoso, Jackson announced the new American Series Virtuoso HT back in August. As the name implies, the American Series Virtuoso HT is a hardtail version of the popular American Series Virtuoso, both of which come with our JB TB-4 in the bridge and our ’59 SH-1N in the neck.

Solar Guitars released their X1.6FRFBB Baritone+ six string baritone guitar in November. This metal machine boasts 22 frets, a 26.5” scale length, and our Duncan Solar+ (Plus) high gain pickups, which feature Alnico 8 magnets for maximum impact, grind and aggression.

In late December, Schecter released the C-1 Ink Bomb. The stunning new finish for the S-Style guitar is uniquely hand-splattered so each one is different. Adding to the high-contrast aesthetics are our alt.metal Blackouts, which are perfect for those intricate, heavy riffs in lower tunings.

Special Visitors

We were honored to be visited by dozens of artists and industry legends at our Santa Barabara office, including Brad Paisley, Don Felder, Darryl Jones, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Philip Sayce, Eric Steckel, Corey Beaulieu, Duff McKagan, Jeff Loomis, and even famed pickup winder Abigail Ybarra!

These special visitors didn’t only stop by to say hello—many of them filmed with us for our #RiffSchool and #MyDuncanMoment videos, which you might have seen on social media.

Here are just a few photos and videos from their visits.

Joe Bonamassa played his signature 1950 Broadcaster set

 

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Eric Gales showed off his signature pickups

 

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Darryl Jones of The Rolling Stones posed with the team

 

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Brad Paisley tried out our Hot Chicken for Tele set

 

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Eric Steckel spent time with our Custom Shop team

 

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Abigail Ybarra dropped by with her daughter

 

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Company Milestones

We’re proud to be the kind of business where people can build lifelong careers. In 2024, we celebrated Kevin Beller’s 45th anniversary at Seymour Duncan. Kevin is our esteemed VP of Engineering and is responsible for countless innovations in the guitar space.

A few of his designs include some of our most well-known and beloved pickups (including Nazgul / Sentient passive guitar pickups, APB-1 Active P-Bass pickup, Wavelength acoustic guitar pickup), amplifiers (our modular Convertible Amp and pedalboard-friendly PowerStage amplifiers), guitar pedals (805 Overdrive and Pickup Booster), and noiseless pickup designs (including the Stack Plus and P90 Silencer).

Looking Ahead to 2025

2024 was an incredible year for Seymour Duncan, and we already have so much in the works for 2025. To stay up-to-date with our new products, Custom Shop limited runs, company news, and more, join our email list. We’ll see you in the new year!

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When it comes to giving gifts during the holiday season, it’s the thought that counts. As guitarists, we treasure the novelty gifts our loved ones have given us, like the guitar-shaped spatulas and LEGO sets.

Still, we all want the person we’re buying for to love their gift for what it is, as much as for who it’s from. With that in mind, here are our picks for some can’t-go-wrong gifts for guitarists.

Fresh Guitar Strings

Believe us when we tell you that your guitarist can never have enough strings stashed away. You might need to be a little sneaky to find out their preferred brand and type, or you can get them something new to try out, like our Antiquity Vintage Modern Strings.

We know, it’s always intimidating to get someone something they haven’t tried before, but new guitar strings are a low-risk, high-reward gift. And, they make the perfect stocking stuffer.

Guitar Picks

Most guitarists have a penchant for losing guitar picks (check your dryer), which makes guitar picks a perfect gift for the guitarist in your life.

We offer high-quality celluloid guitar picks in packs of 12, so it’s easy to stock up for your favorite guitarist. These picks come in a range of thicknesses—thin, medium, heavy, and extra heavy—so we’re sure to have a match for your guitarists’ playing style.

Merch From Their Favorite Brand

Most guitar and gear brands have a healthy selection of lifestyle merchandise—from zip-up hoodies to hats and beyond. A simple logo shirt from a brand your guitarist loves is a foolproof way to say, “See, I do pay attention!”

Here are a few of our favorite merch items from our shop:

Camo Trucker Hat

Camo trucker caps never go out of style, and we think ours, which feature a breathable mesh back and adjustable snap closure, are a great gift for any guitarist. We offer our camo trucker hats in three colors: dark, light, and orange for when you need some extra visibility.

Black Winter Shirt and Hoodie

Metal guitarists love two things—sick band logos and our Black Winter humbuckers. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that our Black Winter t-shirt and Black Winter hoodie are two of our most popular merch items among metal players.

Pocket Screwdriver

Guitarists never know when they’re going to need to make a quick adjustment to their instrument, which is why it’s always good to have an extra screwdriver (or three) around. Priced at just $4.99, our Seymour Duncan-branded pocket screwdrivers feature flat and Phillips heads to allow your favorite guitarist to take on most pickup height adjustment screws.

Bobbin Necklace

Maricela “MJ” Juarez, the heart of our custom shop, originally made these bobbin necklaces herself to hand out to artists paying a visit to our Santa Barbara Custom Shop. If necklaces aren’t your thing, these are easy to convert into a keychain, and they come in dozens of colors and two pole piece options—Invader screw heads or bling rhinestones.

Seymour Duncan Pickups

You may have heard the guitarist in your life talk about “tone,” which is the overall sound of their guitar. There are a lot of tools available to shape a guitar’s tone including pedals, amplifiers, and guitar pickups.

A guitar’s pickups are the first thing in its electronic signal chain, and it’s impossible to overstate their importance to tone. If your guitarist isn’t getting the sound they want out of their guitar—or if they’re interested in building their own guitar from parts—guitar pickups would make a great gift.

At Seymour Duncan, we have a ton of options for guitarists looking to upgrade their guitar pickups, and we understand that getting the right set can be a daunting decision. Whether or not your guitarist is already a fan of Seymour Duncan (we’re guessing they are, because they probably sent you this link), you have a few options. Let’s walk you through them!

New Takes on Established Favorites

If your guitarist already has Seymour Duncan pickups in one or more of their guitars, now is the time to find out what they’re already using. If their Duncan-equipped guitar is a favorite, chances are high that they’d love a second set to load into another one of their instruments.

But you don’t have to get them the exact same thing. We offer our most popular sound signatures in different looks, different sizes, and more.

New Cover Options

Many of our sets come with different visual options while retaining the same tone. For example, one of our most popular offerings is our Hot Rodded Humbucker Set, which your loved one might already have.

Traditionally, humbuckers offer a few options, including uncovered black bobbins, chrome covers, and things like that. But we’ve recently released a litany of exciting colors that can help a guitarist showcase their personal style, including Stargazer, Toxic Yellow, and Crimson Red.

These new covers are currently available with our Hot Rodded Humbucker Set, our Nazgûl & Sentient Set, and our Invader Humbucker Set with more to come!

New Rails Series

Colorful covers aren’t for everyone, but that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with getting them a second, completely identical set of pickups. If your guitarist enjoys one of our most popular offerings, like the Hot Rodded Humbucker Set, JB Model, Jazz Model, Nazgûl humbucker, or Sentient humbucker (separately or as a set), they’ll love our new Rails Series.

Our Rails Series pickups retain the essence of the beloved tone of those timeless models, while adding the modern articulation, feel, and look of rails. The guitarist on your gift list will still get the iconic sound of the pickups they love while enjoying especially even string-to-string balance with increased clarity and sustain. The result is perfect for modern high-gain applications, and these look as hot as they sound.

Different Sizes

What if your guitarist loves their Seymour Duncan humbuckers, and wants that sound in another guitar that’s built for single-coil pickups? In the past, adding humbuckers to a single-coil guitar meant performing major surgery on an instrument. Now, it means checking to see if we offer that pickup in a different size, which we often do!

Popular single-coil-sized humbuckers include the JB Jr. Strat, our Little ‘59 Strat, and our Hot Rails Strat. Don’t worry, we have plenty of popular humbuckers sized for Telecasters, too including our brand new Red Devil for Tele.

Choosing Something for Them—With Some Help

Gifting something new takes a little research, but we’re here to help! Even lifelong guitarists can have trouble choosing their next set of pickups, which is why we have tools to guide you on your search for that perfect gift.

First off, we have our Guitar Pickup Finder tool, which helps you choose a pickup set based on questions about the type of guitar, genre preferences, and more. You can also check out our 2022 gift guide, which walks you through the process of picking out pickups for a loved one.

Additionally, we have a wonderful support team that’s always happy to answer your questions. And, on top of all that, we offer a 21-day exchange program, so your guitarist can choose a different set if the first one isn’t quite what they wanted.

Or…you can ask your guitarist if they’ve been eyeing any pickups lately. We know, it’s more fun when it’s a surprise, but you’ll know you’re getting them the perfect set of new pickups if you ask.

Guitar Pedals

Now is a great time to be into guitar pedals. Whether the guitarist in your life prefers to play ripping high-gain tones or lush, delay-drenched soundscapes, we have pedals that can help them accomplish their sonic goals.

Most folks (understandably) know us for our pickups, but we have a lineup of popular pedals that can be found on many pro pedalboards. A few popular models include our Pickup Booster, which helps guitarists increase their guitar signal while offering a few clutch tone-shaping controls.

Our Vapor Trail Deluxe is another favorite. It’s an analog delay that takes advantage of digital controls to retain the warm, analog tone guitarists love while offering more control (and fun tricks) than a traditional analog delay pedal.

If your favorite guitarist loves a little (or a lot) of crunch, our 805 overdrive is a perfect gift. The 805 provides classic overdrive tones your giftee probably already loves, while adding a three-band EQ for unprecedented control. It’s also wildly versatile—the 805 is capable of delivering lyrical bluesy tone one minute, then crushing modern metal crunch the next. No wonder it’s one of our most popular pedals!

Those are just two highlights from our effect pedal collection. Check out our full lineup for more pedals, including our hard rock-inspired Diamondhead Multistage Distortion and Boost, the swirly, dreamy, and spacey Polaron Phase Shifter, our wildly versatile Shape Shifter Stereo Tremolo, and more.

Convenient and Versatile Pedalboard Power Amps

If your guitarist is stocked-up on pedals—or uses a modeler like the Neural DSP Quad Cortex or Fender Tone Master Pro— they might love a pedalboard-sized amp to let them travel light!

Our PowerStage series of amplifiers gives guitarists who use modelers flexibility when playing live.

With more guitarists moving towards modelers, lugging an amp from gig to gig is becoming less common. But there can be issues with not having an amp, as sometimes you need to have a physical sound source on the stage. A common sound source is a guitar cabinet, and cabinets need something called a power amp to push sound.

That’s where our PowerStage pedalboard power amps come into play. With our PowerStage series, performing guitarists have the flexibility to amplify physical cabinets—which they can’t do with just their pedalboard—while also sending a “direct” signal into a mixing board.

Every model in our PowerStage series delivers transparent sound, has an EQ section so you can tune your board or modeler to the room without messing up your settings, and offers a volume control. Check out our PowerStage pedal amps landing page to learn about the different models so you can find the best one for your guitarist.

Hyperswitch

Guitarists love hot-rodding their instruments. Since the electric guitar was invented, players have experimented with different wiring modifications that can help them get unique tones out of their guitars.

If your guitarist is a tinkerer and has a guitar with a five-way blade switch (e.g., a Fender Stratocaster), our HyperSwitch is the perfect gift. HyperSwitch can help them unlock tones previously not achievable without major wiring modifications, and they don’t even have to turn on a soldering iron!

Here’s how it works: the player removes their old five-way switch and installs the HyperSwitch using our solderless connections. Then, they connect the HyperSwitch to its companion mobile app via Bluetooth. It’s that easy. Now, they can design, store, and recall their custom pickup configurations with the easy-to-use app.

Click here to learn more about HyperSwitch, what it can do, and how to get the most out of it.

Happy shopping! Remember, the guitarist in your life will love whatever you end up gifting them, so don’t be afraid to get them something you think they’ll enjoy. After all, you know them best!

When you want to get low—but not too low—it might be time to turn to a baritone guitar. Bridging the gap between a standard six-string guitar and a six-string bass (like the Fender Bass VI), baritones fill a unique sonic space and can add richness to recordings and live performances.

What is a Baritone Guitar?

A baritone guitar is a guitar that has a longer-than-standard scale length. It’s tuned lower than a normal guitar, but not as low as a bass guitar, and they most commonly have six or seven strings.

Is a Baritone Guitar Just a Bass?

No, baritone guitars are not bass guitars. The major differences between baritone guitars and bass guitars with regards to construction and tuning include:

• Number of strings: Four or five on a bass vs. six or seven on a baritone.
• Their most popular tuning compared to a six-string guitar: Octave down for bass vs. a perfect fourth for baritones.
• Scale lengths: Bass guitars generally have a longer scale length, though there is some overlap between short-scale basses and the longest-scale baritones.

A Brief History of the Baritone Guitar

In 1956, Danelectro released the first mass-produced baritone guitar. Early on, it was adopted in surf and country-western music, especially among spaghetti western film scores. In the ‘80s, it would find favor among a new genre—hard rock and heavy metal.

These days, baritone isn’t just for country or metal. You can hear baritone guitars across a variety of genres, including folk-rock, pop, and indie.

Characteristics of a Baritone Guitar vs. a Regular Guitar

On its face, a baritone guitar doesn’t look dissimilar from a standard-scale six-string guitar, but there are a few key differences. These include scale length, tuning, and tone.

Scale Length

When it comes to scale length—the distance between the nut and bridge of a guitar—there’s no singular standard for neither standard nor baritone guitars. A standard guitar’s scale length can vary from around 22.5 inches on the very short side to 25.5 inches for a more traditional scale length.

Baritone guitars most commonly boast a scale length of around 26.5 inches to 30.5 inches. The longer scale length means baritone guitars have increased string tension, so they can be tuned lower than a standard guitar while maintaining a “feel” and playability more akin to standard scale guitars.

What is a Baritone Guitar Tuned To?

Like with scale length, there isn’t one singular baritone guitar tuning. However, B standard (B-E-A-D-F#-B) is popular.

B standard is five half steps, also known as a perfect fourth, down from E standard. Since it’s tuned in ascending perfect fourths (excluding the major third between the G and B strings), standard chord shapes translate. For example, strumming an open E position in B standard will give you a B major chord.

Other popular “standard” tunings include C standard (a major third below E standard) and A standard (a perfect fifth below E standard).

Baritone guitarists are also known to play various drop tunings including drop A and open tunings like open G.

A quick aside here, your tuning of choice will determine what guitar strings you should buy. A poorly matched string set will result in unbalanced string-to-string tension and less-than-ideal playability. We recommend using a guitar string tension calculator where you can input your scale length and the pitch at which you plan to tune each string. This way, you can find or even build a perfectly balanced string set.

What is a Baritone Guitar Used For?

Like bass guitars, baritone guitars are commonly used to “fill in” the lower end of the sound spectrum in recordings and performances. Its specific uses are only limited by creativity, but there are a few common uses, which vary by genre.

Since their release, baritone guitars have been popular in country music. Early on, Nashville-based producers famously used baritone guitars to double lines over acoustic stand-up basses, which were notoriously difficult to mic for recording purposes. This punchy sound became known as “tic-tac” bass and prevails in certain country subgenres today.

Beginning in the 1980s, downtuned guitars became a major element of metal subgenres including thrash and progressive metal. In metal, baritones are used across tracks for lead and rhythm parts.

Surf rock is the third genre most closely associated with baritone guitars. In surf and surf-inspired music, baritone guitars are often used for percussive lead guitar parts. “Rock Lobster” by The B52s is a classic surf-inspired baritone guitar riff.

Tone and Sound

A baritone guitar’s tone can vary, but some of the words we associate with baritone guitars across the board include rich, warm, deep, dynamic, and resonant. The resonance in particular has a lot to do with the extended scale length creating a high amount of string tension, which gives you more sustain.

The increased string tension also helps account for the deep, warm tones of a baritone guitar, as it enables players to use those lower tunings we discussed earlier.

The build of a baritone guitar isn’t the only thing that will affect its tone. Pickups play a huge part in any electric guitar’s sound. You can make your baritone guitar bright and open, dark and compressed, or anywhere in between depending on your pickup selection.

Recommended Pickups for Baritone Guitars

Modern guitarists have no shortage of pickup options for their instruments, but there are a few things you should look for when selecting pickups for baritone guitars.

As we mention in our article “Electric Guitar Scale Lengths Explained,” low-tuned guitars like baritones should be paired with “pickups that were specifically voiced for lower tunings, which are designed to retain clarity and high-end and reduce muddiness.”

From there, it comes down to personal taste and what you want to hear with your baritone guitar. For example, do you plan on playing low, chugging metal riffs, or are you trying to capture classic country tones? With these questions in mind, here are some of our team’s top pickup choices for low-tuned baritone guitars.

Single Coils for Baritone Guitar

The true “vintage” baritone sound is most associated with the lipstick pickups found on early Danelectro models. Our Lipstick Tube For Danelectro pickups feature an Alnico 5 bar magnet to give you the jangle, spank, and sparkle you’d expect from a Danelectro Baritone guitar. We also have a Strat-sized version of our Lipstick Tube pickups, which are a drop-in replacement for standard-sized single-coil routing.

Over the years, the Telecaster has been a popular choice among baritone guitarists. For your baritone Telecaster, we recommend our Vintage Broadcaster Tele set for more traditional tic-tac or “spaghetti western” tones. If you’re looking for heavier tones with your baritone Telecaster, our Hot Rails for Tele will transform your baritone Telecaster into a high-output rocker.

For baritone Stratocasters (or other single-coil baritone guitars), we’ve already mentioned our Lipstick Tube pickups. But those aren’t your only options for traditional ‘50s and ‘60s baritone sounds. For a Strat-inspired baritone sound, our Vintage Flat Strat and Antiquity II Surfer Strat are popular choices.

Many baritone guitar sounds from the classic baritone era were played on Fender Bass VI guitars that were transformed into baritone guitars. The Bass VI was equipped with Jaguar pickups, and our Antiquity II Jaguar pickups are perfect for getting that bright and jangly ‘60s surf tone on your baritone guitar.

For single-coil metal tone on your baritone guitar, we again recommend our Hot Rails, but our JB Jr. for Strat delivers a bright harmonic sparkle and a tight focused low end that’s perfect for baritone. We’re also big fans of our Quarter Pound Strat set, which brings a fat, punchy tone with plenty of top-end sparkle.

Humbuckers for Baritone Guitar

For humbucker-routed baritone guitars, there are slightly fewer options for classic baritone sounds. Our Psyclone humbucker, which is based on an old-school Filter’Tron, can get into twangy territory, which is why we often recommend it to baritone players who want a ‘60s sound.

Most humbucker-equipped baritone guitars are marketed to metal players, and what they need is something with a tight and defined low-end—otherwise their sound may be overly muddy.

A recent addition to our lineup is our Rails Series, which currently includes our Hot Rodded Humbucker Rails set (JB Model bridge and Jazz Model neck) and a Nazgul/Sentient Rails set. Both are available for 7-string baritones and are particularly helpful if your baritone has non-standard string spacing.

In fact, many of our humbucker sets are made with lower tunings in mind and would be perfect for baritone guitar. A few favorites include the Jeff Loomis signature Noumenon passive humbuckers, Mark Holcomb’s signature Scarlet and Scourge set, our Pegasus & Sentient set, and our Black Winter models. For active pickups, our new alt.metal Blackouts, Corey Beaulieu Damocles signature Blackouts, and our classic Blackouts are all popular choices.

Notable Musicians and Bands Using Baritone Guitars

It’s one thing to talk about baritone guitars and their construction, tone, and electronics, but what about real-world examples? What are some popular baritone guitars, who plays them, and where can you hear one in action?

Examples of Baritone Guitars

D’Angelico Deluxe Atlantic Baritone

Most of the biggest guitar manufacturers offer at least one baritone guitar model. Examples of six-string baritones include the D’Angelico Deluxe SS Baritone, which features two Seymour Duncan D’Angelico Great Dane P-90s, and Rondo Music’s Agile AB-3000 Baritone, which ships with two Seymour Duncan Blackouts.

When looking at 7-string baritones, we have the PRS SE Mark Holcomb SVN, which is loaded with Mark Holcomb’s signature “Scarlet” and “Scourge” humbuckers, and the Dino Cazares DC Demanufacture by Ormsby Guitars, which features Dino’s exclusive signature Machete humbucker.

ESP LTD M-7 HT Baritone Black Metal

The above examples all ship with Seymour Duncan pickups—as you probably noticed—but we’d be remiss not to mention other popular baritone models, including the Gretsch G5260 Electromatic Jet Baritone, the ESP LTD SN-1007 HT Baritone, the Squier Classic Vibe Baritone, the Reverend Descent RA Baritone, and the Danelectro ‘56 Baritone.

ESP LTD Signature Ben Burnley BB-600 Baritone Electric Guitar

What Musical Genres Commonly Use Baritone Guitars?

Baritone guitar is arguably most popular in country and metal. However, guitarists in surf, rock, folk, ambient, and more have embraced the baritone sound when they need a little more low-end.

Which Guitarists Use a Baritone Guitar?

Since baritone guitars are used across a wide variety of genres, it makes sense that its most well-known players traverse a wide spectrum of music.

Within country music, Brad Paisley is one of the most visible baritone guitarists. Other baritone players in country music include Glen Campbell, Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, and Chris Hillman of the Desert Rose Band.

Moving to metal, Dino Cazares (Fear Factory) is a baritone guitar pioneer. He even has a signature 7-string baritone guitar—the DC Demanufacture by Ormsby Guitars—which we mentioned earlier. Other baritone players in metal include Mark Holcomb of Periphery (who also has a signature baritone in the PRS SE Mark Holcomb SVN), John Petrucci of Dream Theater, and Brian “Head” Welch of Korn.

When we look to rock and folk music, two baritone players who stand out include Pat Smear (Germs, Nirvana, Foo Fighters) and Phoebe Bridgers, the latter of whom famously smashed a Danelectro baritone while performing on Saturday Night Live.

Popular Songs Featuring Baritone Guitars

One of the great things about baritone guitars is their versatility. Not only can they appear across a wide swath of genres, how they’re used in songs can vary greatly. Here are a few well-known songs that feature baritone guitar in different roles—from ambience and rhythm to leads and solos.

Van Halen, “Spanked”

Van Halen fans will surely remember Eddie Van Halen’s double-neck baritone guitar, which can be seen in the live video for their song “Spanked.”

Fear Factory, “Linchpin”

It’s hard to pick just one Fear Factory song to feature on this list, but we think “Linchpin” is a perfect example of Dino Cazares’s trademark tight, crunchy baritone sound.

Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss, “Whiskey Lullaby”

Another country hit with an emphasis on baritone guitar is the Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss tear-jerker, “Whiskey Lullaby.” Though Brad Paisley typically plays acoustic on this classic live, the recorded version features his tasteful baritone guitar playing.

Phoebe Bridgers, “Motion Sickness”

From the first chord of her breakout 2017 single, the warm, deep, crunchy tones of Bridgers’ baritone guitar are unmistakable. It’s hard to imagine what the track from Stranger in the Alps would sound like without that signature baritone sound.

B52s, “Rock Lobster”

The lead riff from “Rock Lobster” by the B-52s is one of the most famous baritone licks of all time. In fact, it’s the first riff a lot of guitarists learn to play on their new baritones!

Ricky Martin, “Livin’ La Vida Loca”

Another famous baritone riff can be heard on this Latin crossover classic. This surfy baritone guitar part (including the solo) was provided by Rusty Anderson, who may be best known for his time touring with Paul McCartney.

Glen Campbell, “Wichita Lineman”

Though Glen Campbell got his start with the famed session music group known by some as “The Wrecking Crew,” Campbell had a remarkable, multi-decade solo career. “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston” are two of his songs that feature baritone guitar solos.

Julee Cruise, “Falling” (Twin Peaks Theme)

Sweet tremolo and reverb drench the prominent baritone guitar in Julee Cruise’s “Falling,” which is better known by many as the theme song for the TV show Twin Peaks.

The Dave Matthews Band, “The Space Between”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvzWRzTh7jg

Though this article has largely focused on electric baritone guitar, Dave Matthews has featured acoustic baritone guitars in his music for decades.

Final Thoughts

Baritone guitars have a storied history and a bright future. Every year, more and more guitarists discover the deep, rich sound of baritone guitars. Though they may not be an everyday player for most guitarists, they’re a valuable tool to keep in your sonic toolshed. With the right pickups and setup, they can add a moody crunch, give basslines an extra pop, rip surfy or shreddy solos, and so much more.

If you loved this article, check out our piece about the best pickups for drop-tuning.

On its face, a 3-way toggle switch is simple—up is the neck pickup, middle is both pickups, and down is the bridge pickup.

Using a 3-way toggle is one thing, but we think it’s important for guitarists to understand what’s going on inside of their instruments. When you know more about how your guitar works, you’re more empowered to care for and troubleshoot your guitar when something’s amiss.

In this blog post, we’re focusing on—you guessed it—the 3-way toggle switch. Keep reading to learn what it is, read up on the different types of 3-way toggle switches, and find out how to wire one up correctly.

What are Switches?

Briefly put, a switch creates or breaks an electrical connection. A common example is a lightswitch, which is also the most basic type of switch. It’s on, or it’s off. A connection is made, or it’s broken. Specifically, a lightswitch is a type of switch that’s called single pole, single throw (SPST).

In a guitar, a single SPST switch may be used to turn individual pickups on or off (e.g., the pickup selection on a Fender Cyclone), engage custom wiring features like a built-in fuzz, or a kill switch (i.e., a switch that mutes your guitar completely).

What is a 3-Way Toggle Switch?

As the name implies, a 3-way toggle switch is, well, a toggle switch with three positions that “click” into place. Generally, 3-way toggle switches are used to switch between two pickups in a guitar (neck and bridge).

Common Guitars with 3-Way Toggle Switches

Arguably, the most famous guitar that uses a 3-way toggle switch is the Gibson Les Paul (and the majority of Gibson’s 2-pickup guitar models, like the SG). Other common guitars include the Fender Jazzmaster, the Fender PJ Mustang Bass, and various models from brands like Ibanez, Jackson, and more.

3-Way Toggle vs. 3-Way Blade Switches vs. 3-Way Slide Switch

Many major guitar manufacturers use 3-way toggle switches, but toggle switches aren’t the only 3-way switching option available to guitarists. Other types include blade switches and slide switches.

The Fender Telecaster is an example of a guitar that often uses a 3-way blade switch rather than a toggle. Fewer guitars use 3-way slide switches to switch between two pickup positions, but the Fender Mustang uses them to control pickup and phase selection.

Ultimately, the results you’ll get from each type of switch are the same, though the instructions for wiring them up will be different. In this article, our focus is on the 3-way toggle switch because it’s rather unique to the guitar world.

The Anatomy of a 3-Way Toggle Switch

Before we talk about the types of 3-way toggle switches or how to wire them up, let’s define some key terms. We’ll explain these as they relate to a single pole, single throw (SPST) on-off switch, which is the most basic type of switch.

Pole: The number of circuits controlled by the switch. An SPST switch is single pole because a light is either on or off.

Throw: The number of connections a pole can have. An SPST switch is single throw because the pole can either be connected or disconnected.

Lug/Terminal: The pieces of metal to which you solder cables. These often have a small hole in them through which you can feed a wire before soldering. On an SPST switch, you would have two lugs. In one position, the two lugs will be connected and a current will run through them. In the other position, the lugs will be disconnected and no current will run through them.

Ground: A guitar switch (and the rest of the guitar circuit) needs to be grounded to prevent noise. The most common 3-way toggle switches have a specific lug for your ground wire.

Types of 3-Way Toggle Switches

Just as there are different types of 3-way switches (e.g., toggle, blade, slider), there are different types of 3-way toggle switches. The ones you’re most likely to see—from most to least common—are Switchcraft, box, and mini-toggle.

Switchcraft Style

The Switchcraft 3-way toggle switch is the classic Les Paul 3-way switch. While it’s sometimes referred to as a double pole switch, it’s technically two SPST (on-off) switches next to each other.

It has two poles (one for each pickup) and two throws, which are connected, usually by two lugs being bent together. When the toggle is in the middle position, both pickups are connected, so both are on in parallel. When the toggle is up or down, the connection of one of the pickups is broken, and the signal for only one of the pickups will pass through.

There are different types of Switchcraft 3-way toggle (long, short, right-angle/l-type), all of which are wired the same. Which one you have often depends on how much space is in your guitar cavity.

Common Import 3-Way Box Toggle Switches

You might find that your import guitar’s 3-way toggle doesn’t look like the Switchcraft style mentioned above. If that’s the case, you’re likely working with a 3-way box toggle switch. These are more commonly found in guitars made overseas and are known as on-on-on DPDT switches.

These function very similarly to the more traditional Switchcraft-style switch. This type of import box toggle has four lugs—one side has a single ground lug and the other side should have three lugs. The lug in the middle is your output and the two on either side are for your neck and bridge pickup, respectively.

The downside to the 3-way box toggle switch is that—unlike the Switchcraft style—it’s nearly impossible to repair if something goes wrong. The good news is that these switches are affordable and easy to find.

3-Way Mini Toggle (DPDT)

3-way mini toggle switches are the least common option for 2-way pickup switching on guitars. You’re more likely to see 3-way mini toggle switches used for push-pull pots, but occasionally used for pickup selection.

If you’re looking for a 3-way mini toggle switch that can be used for 2-way pickup switching, find an on-on-on double pole double throw (DPDT) switch.

Wiring up a 3-way mini toggle is relatively simple, but some guitarists say this type of toggle can create a loud “pop” when switching, which is one of the reasons we don’t recommend using 3-way mini toggles for pickup selection.

3-way mini toggles have six lugs—three on the left and three on the right. To wire up your guitar with a 3-way mini toggle, you would start by bridging each lug on the left to the adjacent right lug, turning it into three connection points vs. six.

From there you wire it up like you would the 3-way box toggle switch. The group of lugs on one end will be soldered to the neck pickup, the other far end to the bridge, and the middle is your output.

Basic Step-by-Step Guide to Wiring a 3-Way Toggle Switch

If you know how to solder, wiring up a 3-way toggle switch to select between two pickups is fairly simple. However, if you’re an absolute beginner, we highly recommend learning the basics in our free Pickup Installation 101 Course or our “How to Solder” blog post.

Preparing for Installation

Before you get started with your 3-way toggle switch installation, ensure that you have the correct toggle switch, pickups, a 40W soldering iron, and solder. You may also want some needle-nose pliers, desoldering braid and/or pump, tweezers, and possibly flux.

How to Identify the Different Terminals

To properly wire up your 3-way toggle switch, you’ll need to know which terminal (aka lug) is which. This can vary depending on your toggle type (long, short, or right-angle/l-type) and manufacturer.

If your 3-way toggle should have three lugs on one side (or row) and two lugs on the other side, the side with two lugs is the output and the side with three lugs has ground in the middle and soldering points for your pickup on either side of it.

You may instead have a 3-way toggle switch that has one lug on one side and four on the other. In this case, the side with one lug is the ground. On the other side, the two middle are output, so you’ll want to bend those together. The two outer lugs are for your neck and bridge pickups.

Here are some ways to remember which lug is which:

Ground

• Can be on its own side or between two other lugs
• Is always one lug (never two bent together)
• Is often longer and/or thicker than the other lugs

Output

• Can be on its own side or between two other lugs
• Is usually two lugs that are bent together

Pickups

• Will always be on the outside of its side or row
• Will have either ground or output in between
• Should never be bent together

If you’re still having trouble identifying the lugs on your switch, check the manufacturer’s website for a detailed diagram.

Two Humbucker, One Volume, One Tone, One 3-Way Toggle

Now that we know which lug is which, let’s take a look at a simple two pickup wiring diagram with one primary volume and one primary tone control.

Soldering Output

First things first, we want to bend the two output lugs together. This terminal will be soldered to an outside lug on your volume potentiometer. The middle lug on the volume potentiometer is then soldered to the tip (hot output) of your volume jack. The third lug on the volume potentiometer is bent up and soldered to the back of the volume pot for ground.

The outside lug of the volume potentiometer is then bridged to the outside lug on the tone potentiometer. The tone potentiometer also has a capacitor where one end is soldered to the middle lug and the other is soldered to ground. The third lug on the volume potentiometer is left alone.

Soldering Pickups

Your pickups have at least two wires—hot and ground. Humbuckers often have four wires. Occasionally, pickups have braided metal shielding, but we’ll focus on a basic four-conductor humbucker setup with one black hot wire and one bare or green ground.

With our four-conductor humbuckers, black will be your hot and green or bare will be your ground. Red and white will be for more complex wiring (which we’ll expand upon later). For this example, you’ll tape the red and white wires together, because we’re not going to solder them to any lugs.

Solder the hot wire from the neck pickup to one of the pickup leads and the hot wire from the bridge pickup to the other. Be mindful when doing this—it’s easy to solder pickups backwards. Most people want it so that the neck pickup is selected when the toggle is up and the bridge pickup is selected when the toggle is down.

With a single volume and tone, fixing this is as easy as rotating the toggle, so don’t stress too much! Believe us, everyone who wires guitars regularly has made this mistake at least once.

Soldering Ground

In this diagram, we’re connecting both pickups’ ground wires to the back of the volume pot. We’re taking that same grounding spot and connecting it to the ground on the pickup switch, the ground on the tone potentiometer, and the ground to the output jack. Though not shown above, we also send one ground wire to the bridge.

Ultimately, all that matters is that all of the metal parts of a guitar (pickups, switches, pots, output jack, and bridge) are connected. If you prefer to wire the pickup ground to the switch, you can do that as well.

Advanced Wiring Diagrams Using 3-Way Toggle Switches

The two pickup, one volume, one tone wiring diagram is one of our simplest, but the sky’s the limit when it comes to guitar wiring.

We have wiring diagrams that include everything from two pickup, two volume, two tone control setups to ones with multiple push-pull pots for changing the phase, splitting the coils, and more.

If you want to learn even more about swapping pickups and wiring your own guitars, check out our free Pickup Installation 101 Course. Not only do we show you the basics of soldering, we also walk you through the how and why of wiring up Les Pauls, Telecasters, and more.

Remember, wiring up guitars can be stressful, but it’s hard to beat the satisfaction you get from working on your own instrument!

Short scale. Standard scale. Multi-scale.

No, we’re not talking about music theory—we’re talking about guitar scale length. Though you may not think about your guitar’s scale length very often, it’s an important part of your guitar’s construction and has an impact on playability, tone, and more.

In this article, we’ll explain what guitar scale length is, why it matters, highlight different common scale lengths, and give you tips on choosing a guitar with a scale length that’s best for you.

What is Guitar Scale Length?

Guitar scale length is the distance between a guitar’s nut and bridge, usually represented in inches or millimeters. It’s an important measurement for the luthiers who build and repair guitars and the customers who buy them. Guitars with different scale lengths require different fret placement, have a different overall “feel,” and may work better with different string gauges.

How Do You Measure Scale Length?

The best way to measure scale length is by measuring the nut to the 12th fret and multiplying that number by two. The 12th fret is the halfway point of a guitar’s scale, and fretting there gives you the octave of the open string.

Measuring from the nut to the bridge should still give you the right answer, or close to it. The issue with measuring that way is that guitars have compensated saddles that are adjusted to fine-tune intonation. If you measure from the nut to the bridge, your measurements may be off by a few millimeters.

Why Scale Length Matters

Scale length is one of those factors that has a huge effect on your guitar. Two guitars with different scale lengths will have completely different feel, tuning possibilities, and more.

Fret Spacing and Reach

Fret spacing on stringed instruments is a matter of math and geometry. Historically, luthiers have used the Rule of 18 to determine proper fret placement, but you can also find calculators to place frets online.

As we’ll get into later, one of the main selling points of short-scale guitars was that the frets were closer together, which should be easier for smaller hands to navigate. While all players should be able to play a guitar with any scale length, some players may find certain chords, techniques, and riffs difficult to reach on guitars with longer scale lengths.

Tension, String Gauges, and Tuning Possibilities

Tension is a major element of playability and feel, and it is directly proportional to scale length. When a guitar is tuned to pitch, a longer scale length means greater string tension. With regards specifically to playability, less tension means strings are easier to bend, but you get less sustain.

Let’s say you have a set of light gauge guitar strings. These may feel perfect when tuned to E Standard on a guitar with a 25.5-inch scale length. However, these strings on a 24-inch scale length guitar could feel like rubber bands—you can bend them with ease, but they don’t ring out as long and, depending on your string height and pick attack, you could experience fret buzz.

On the other end of the spectrum—guitars with longer scale lengths—you could have difficulty tuning up to E Standard with these strings. Instead, you may tune your guitar lower to achieve that same balanced feel you’d get with a guitar that has a standard scale length.

In fact, achieving lower tunings without resorting to thicker string gauges is one of the reasons longer-scale guitars are so popular in heavy genres. With a standard-scale guitar, you’d need thicker, higher-tension strings to downtune. With a longer scale length, you can tune to C Standard or lower and maintain balanced string tension.

Intonation

Guitars with longer scale lengths are generally easier to keep intonated than short-scale guitars. But this has less to do with the actual length than it does with the tension.

A properly intonated guitar should be perfectly in tune no matter where it’s fretted. Fine-tuning intonation is part of a basic guitar setup and is achieved by adjusting the bridge saddle so that it is closer to or farther away from the nut.

But that’s only part of what makes a guitar sound well-intonated when it’s being played. The other element is how much strings bend when being fretted. And, as we mentioned earlier, guitars with shorter scale lengths have strings that are easier to bend. The thing is, you don’t want strings to bend all of the time. If your short-scale guitar isn’t intonated despite having a proper setup, consider using heavier strings to increase that tension.

Are There Common Scale Lengths for Different Types of Guitars?

Different types of guitars often have similar scale lengths, though exact scale lengths vary between builders, and often between models.

There are three primary classifications of guitar scale length: short, standard, and long/extended. Just to throw a little spice into the mix, there are also multi-scale guitars, but we’ll start with the three most common.

Standard Scale Length

Standard-scale guitars are known for having a balanced tension and being a comfortable size for most adults.

Calling a category of guitar scale lengths “standard” is a bit of a misnomer. There isn’t one, singular scale length that we’d call a universal standard. Instead, we can look to some of the most influential brands and their internal “standard” scale length.

Common Standard Scale Lengths

While there’s no one scale length that we can call the universal standard, we can define a general “standard” scale length as one between 24.5 inches and 25.5 inches.

25.5 Inches: Fender

As the first brand to mass-produce an electric guitar, Fender heavily influenced what we as guitarists consider a “standard” scale length—and Leo Fender settled on 25.5 inches. Countless other builders have similarly adopted the 25.5-inch scale length for many of their models, including Jackson, Schecter, ESP, Ibanez, and even the rare Gibson.

Guitars with a 25.5-inch scale length can be set up with lower string action than 24.75-inch scale length guitars without worrying about the strings vibrating and buzzing against the frets. There’s also more distance between the frets, which becomes advantageous when playing higher up on the fretboard.

These two factors make the 25.5-inch scale length a popular choice for those who favor faster playing styles higher up on the fretboard, like shred guitar. String bending is still relatively easy, but not quite as fluid as it is on guitars with shorter scale lengths.

24.75 Inches: Gibson

Gibson is, without a doubt, one of the most influential guitar brands in history. Though they’ve dabbled in longer scale lengths, their tried-and-true standard is 24.75 inches. Other brands that have used the 24.75-inch scale length include, once again, Jackson, Schecter, ESP, Ibanez, and sometimes Fender.

While you can’t always set string action as low on a guitar with a 24.75-inch scale length, you can still set up your guitar for comfortably low action. With a slight reduction in tension, techniques like string bends and vibrato are especially fluid.

Fret spacing might lead to feeling a little crowded on higher frets if you have larger hands, but many still find it easy to navigate the guitar’s highest notes. Those guitars may even find themselves having an easier time with reaching notes and forming chords lower on the fretboard that may have proved difficult with a longer scale length.

25 Inches: PRS and D’Angelico

Somewhere in between Fender’s longer standard and Gibson’s shorter standard, you’ll find PRS and D’Angelico. Both brands have been known to venture outside of that scale length, but their most well-known models boast a 25-inch scale length.

A tad closer to the Gibson side of scale lengths, the 25-inch scale guitar gives you just a little more wiggle room on string action and a tad more space on those higher frets. If you find that 25.5-inches makes string bends a little difficult and 24.75-inches doesn’t offer enough tension for setups, a guitar with a 25-inch scale length might be your answer.

24.6 Inches: Gretsch

Of major guitar brands, Gretsch uses one of the shorter scale lengths on their standard builds—24.6 inches. To be clear, not all Gretsch guitars have this 24.6-inch scale length, but many, including their popular Jet and Country Gentleman models, do. Other Gretsch guitars may boast a 25.5-inch scale length, including their G6136TG Players Edition Falcon™.

Players may find the 24.6-inch scale length fairly comparable to Gibson’s 24.75 scale length. It’s ideal for those who don’t need as much space between frets or low string action. If you don’t have a heavy strumming hand and want a guitar that isn’t technically short-scale and makes string bends and vibrato a breeze, give 24.6-inch scale guitars a try.

Pickups for Standard-Scale Guitars

When it comes to shopping for pickups for standard-scale six-string guitars, the world is your oyster—most pickups in production are geared for guitars in this “standard” range.

For example, a Seymour Duncan JB Model is going to sound just as good in the bridge position of a Gibson Les Paul (24.75-inch scale) as it will in an HSS Fender Stratocaster (25.5-inch scale). Ultimately, your pickup choice for a standard scale guitar will depend on your overall sonic vision. Do you want something vintage, something hot, something for lower tunings, something jangly? It’s up to you!

Short Scale Length and 3/4 Scale Guitars

Short-scale guitars were introduced as early as 1956, when Fender released the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. Both had a scale length of 22.5 inches, which would be considered especially short by today’s standards.

Short-scale guitars are very popular with players who have smaller hands, including younger players and women. However, players of all shapes and sizes may find that they prefer the closer frets, lower tension, and overall look, sound, and general affordability of short-scale guitars.

Common Guitars with Short Scale Lengths

Modern short-scale guitars typically have a scale length of 24 inches, a far cry from the 22.5-inch short scales of the early Fender days. However, you can still find scale lengths as short as 20 inches, though these are generally referred to as 3/4 scale guitars instead of short-scale.

Fender is a major player in the short-scale guitar market—including their Jaguar, Mustang, and Duo-Sonic models—but there are plenty of other great short-scale builders available. Reverend, Peavey, and Rickenbacker all build (or have built) guitars that would classify as short-scale.

Pickups for Short-Scale Guitars

Sonically, any pickup that will work for a standard-scale guitar should work for short-scale guitars. But as we mention in our article, “Pickups For Jaguar, Jazzmaster, Mustang & Duo-Sonic,” many short-scale guitars—especially Fender offset models—are known for their unique tonal characteristics and aesthetics.

Pickups for short-scale guitars should be bright, springy, and sparkly to counteract the lower tension, which makes short scales naturally darker and more mellow. For example, Jaguar pickups are known for being bright, articulate, and having a midrange bite, helping them cut through a mix. Mustang pickups have a low output and offer a warmer, springy, almost Strat-like sound, with a honkier midrange. Meanwhile, Duo Sonics pickups are famous for their clear, smooth, spanky tone.

With their unique look and sound in mind, many short-scale aficionados turn to our selection of Offset guitar pickups—many of which are geared toward short-scales. Whether you’re looking for true vintage flavor or something that retains that unique character, but with a higher output, we have something for you.

Extended Scale Length

Guitars with scale lengths of 26 inches or more are considered long- or extended-scale guitars. Guitars with these longer scales are ideal for lower tunings and drop tunings thanks to their increased tension.

Six-string guitars aren’t the only extended-scale-length guitars out there. Builders like Ibanez, ESP, Schecter, and Music Man build long-scale seven- and eight-string guitars that are hugely popular in heavier genres.

Are Long-Scale Guitars Harder to Play?

In some ways (and for some players), long-scale guitars are easier to play than short- or standard-scale guitars. The increased tension aids with certain playing styles, and guitarists with larger hands may find it easier to play chords and riffs higher on the neck.

On the flipside, those with smaller hands may indeed find long-scale guitars harder to play. Even players with average-sized hands may struggle with extended-scale guitars. These players may find the increased distance between the frets makes some reaches harder and that the additional tension can make bending strings more difficult.

Common Guitars with Long Scale Lengths

Any guitar sold as a baritone guitar will have a longer scale length. Brands known for their six-string baritone guitars include Fender, Gretsch, and Danelectro.

Similarly, seven- and eight-string guitars (also known as extended range guitars) often have longer scale lengths. You can find them from builders like ESP, Ibanez, Schecter, Strandberg, and more.

Pickups for Long-Scale Guitars

Whether they have six, seven, or eight strings, guitars with longer scale lengths are tuned lower than a standard guitar. Examples include B standard, which is common for baritone guitars, and Drop C, which is popular in metal.

To get the most out of your downtuned guitar, we recommend choosing pickups that were specifically voiced for lower tunings, which are designed to retain clarity and high end and reduce muddiness.

A lot of guitarists gravitate towards active sets like our alt.metal Blackout humbuckers. However, passives like our recently released Jeff Loomis Noumenon humbuckers and our Mark Holcomb Alpha and Omega sets are also great choices, especially if you’re looking for modern metal tones.

Multi-Scale Length Guitars

Multi-scale guitars, also known as fanned-fret guitars, are a subset of extended-scale guitars. As we’ve mentioned before, a longer scale length means more tension and more tension means you can use lower tunings more easily. However, more tension makes it harder to bend strings and the increased fret distance makes some reaches more difficult.

Multi-scale guitars split the difference. The lower strings, which are often downtuned, have a longer scale length while the higher strings have a relatively shorter scale length. This enables guitarists to rock low tunings and extra strings while still being able to easily accomplish bends and lead runs on the higher strings.

Common Multi-Scale Length Guitars

While multi-scale guitars are considered more of a niche instrument, several high-profile brands offer fanned-fret guitars, including Ibanez, Schecter, Jackson, Strandberg, and ESP. Specific models include the ESP LTD M-1000 (which comes loaded with our Nazgul and Sentient humbuckers).

Pickups for Multi-Scale Guitars

Because of their unique shape and slant, it’s not always easy to find drop-in replacements for multi-scale guitars. However, the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop is always more than happy to do its best to accommodate multi-scale guitars.

Let’s talk about voicings. Since most multi-scale guitars are built for lower tunings and even seven or eight strings, we recommend choosing pickups—usually humbuckers—designed for extended-range instruments. Low-output pickups are popular for vintage guitars, but tend to have a flubbier low-end and can ultimately sound muddy.

A good rule is to find medium- to high-output pickups that have a tight low-end and are more mid-focused.

For example, our Black Winter pickup features three high-output ceramic magnets—which are naturally brighter—while a custom overwound coil design keeps mids and highs clear, and lows controlled and focused.

Other popular passive options for downtuned, extended-range guitars include our Invader humbuckers and our Nazgul and Sentient set. For active setups, our alt.metal Blackouts and Retribution pickups are fan favorites.

How Do You Choose a Guitar Scale Length?

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with scale length options, but the choice ultimately comes down to personal preference and needs. Here are a few things to take into account when shopping for guitars.

Genre

You can play nearly any genre on any guitar. Nothing is keeping you from playing high-octane metal on a Fender Mustang or chicken pickin’ on an Ibanez RG8. But there are reasons certain genres prefer certain scale lengths.

For example, guitarists in genres that favor lower tunings—especially metal and its sub-genres—will likely find it easier to get the sound they’re looking for from extended-scale or multi-scale guitars. Some country players may even choose to have an extended-scale guitar handy so they can get that vintage tic-tac bass sound.

Short-scale guitars have been long-associated with punk, indie, and surfy styles of music (to name a few examples). Since short-scale guitars have less distance between frets, they’re not favored in genres that tend to have solos higher up on the fretboard—if they have solos at all. Players in these genres may also prefer the jangly sound afforded by the shorter scale length.

Meanwhile, rock, blues, and country guitarists have traditionally gravitated toward models with Fender or Gibson scale lengths, depending on the techniques they tend to implement while playing. Which leads us to…

Playing Style and Technique

While your choice in guitar won’t disqualify you from certain playing styles—same with genres—it could make it easier to accomplish your playing goals.

A lot of this comes down to—surprise!—tension. A longer guitar scale length means higher tension, and higher tension means you can get lower action without buzz. Lower action can make it easier to play certain styles, like lightning-fast arpeggios, and increased distance between frets can keep you from tripping over your fingers during tricky runs. Guitarists who need to downtune and want to play shred guitar may choose an extended-scale or even multi-scale guitar to help them achieve their paying goals.

But you don’t need a 28-inch scale length to get low action and uncramped fret spacing. Fender’s 25.5-inch scale length has historically been especially popular for guitarists whose playing styles call for a bit more tension but no downtuning. This includes shred guitar and country chicken pickin’. The increase in tension over Gibson enables lower string action and offers more space between frets so guitarists don’t feel “cramped” higher up on the fretboard—while still being able to easily achieve string bends. Plus, the chicken pickers will especially appreciate the extra “bite” and “snap” from the extra tension.

Blues and rock players who like to bend notes while playing may prefer a guitar with a Gibson 24.75-inch scale length because there’s less string tension than with extended scale lengths—or even Fender scale lengths, for that matter!

Short-scale guitars tend to be popular with rhythm players who play with a softer strumming hand, or lead guitarists who mainly play vibrato-laden riffs or leads on the low or mid sections of the fretboard. Think surfy riffs or jangly indie strumming!

Comfort and Ergonomics

Guitarists come in all shapes and sizes. A comfortable reach across frets for one player may be an impossible task for another. That’s why guitarists with smaller hands are more likely to prefer a guitar with a shorter scale length—it’s what short-scales were designed for, after all.

On the other hand (pun intended), guitarists with larger hands might feel cramped on short-scale or even standard-scale guitars, especially if they want to play higher up on the fretboard. Those guitarists are more likely to prefer a guitar with a longer scale.

Ultimately, your ideal guitar scale length is up to you and your own personal preferences.

Can the Scale Length of a Guitar Be Changed or Modified?

For the most part, scale length cannot be easily changed or modified. While you may be able to physically put a 25.5-inch neck on a guitar that was originally made with a 24-inch neck, you’d have to re-measure and redrill the bridge if you want it to be intonated.

The major exception to this rule is the baritone conversion neck. This is most common for Fender-style guitars, but it’s relatively easy to find guitar necks that were built to convert a standard-scale guitar into an extended-scale guitar. The most common conversion necks are made to be drop-in replacements for Fender Telecasters®.

Scale Length Matters

But it isn’t everything. There aren’t a lot of hard, fast rules in guitar, and that includes scale length. There’s no reason you can’t load your 24-inch guitar up with heavy strings and chug away, and there’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to nail those hot country licks on a multi-scale guitar.

No matter what scale length you prefer, Seymour Duncan makes pickups that can help you create the tone you hear in your head. Browse our ever-growing list of ready-to-order pickups or work with our Custom Shop to achieve the perfect look, feel, and sound you want.

If you’ve shopped for guitar pickups, you’ve probably noticed a line listed in the product description that specifies “DCR.” But what exactly is DCR, and what does it mean in relation to guitar pickups?

If you ask another guitarist, they may have an answer for you—and they’d probably be wrong. Or, at the very least, not exactly right.

Guitarists are often told that the higher the DCR—which stands for Direct Current Resistance—the louder the pickup. But Kevin Beller, Seymour Duncan’s V. P. of Engineering, says this isn’t totally accurate.

Kevin Beller, Seymour Duncan’s V.P. of Engineering

“Misinformation is rampant on the topic of DCR,” he told us.

To be clear, DCR is an important measurement for those working with guitar pickups, but to simplify it as the output or volume of pickups doesn’t tell the whole story. So, let’s set the record straight with a little help from an expert. Keep reading to learn the ins and outs of DCR and what it means for your guitar.

What is DC Resistance?

DC resistance (which we’ll shorten to DCR from here on out), is a measurement of how easily current runs through an object. It is affected by the material itself (e.g., poly-coated copper wire), the material construction (e.g., 42 American Wire Gauge), and the material’s length (e.g., 3,000 feet of wire).

A lower DCR means that voltage will pass through an object with more efficiency. From a raw materials standpoint, silver has the lowest DCR followed by copper, assuming the same construction and length. Meanwhile, wood and hard rubber have very high DCRs, as voltage doesn’t easily travel through them.

What DC Resistance Tells Us About Guitar Pickups

The material, construction, and length in the previous section’s example on calculating DCR aren’t random—they’re the ingredients of a guitar pickup. We use thousands of feet of copper wire in our pickup winding process.

As for what that means with regards to DCR, we’ll let our own Seymour W. Duncan take it away.

“The DC resistance is basically telling you what the resistance is for the length of wire being used on that particular pickup.” Seymour W. Duncan

That’s basically it. You’ll notice that Seymour doesn’t mention output at all in his explanation on what DCR means for guitar pickups. That’s because, when it comes to pickup output, DCR is only one part of the equation.

What Affects Pickup Output?

To understand what affects output in guitar pickups (how loud they can be), it helps to know a little about pickup construction.

A guitar pickup is made of one or more magnets wrapped in wire, held in place by a plastic bobbin. As we explain in our article “What is a Humbucker,” the combination of magnets creates “a magnetic field around the strings, and in turn [induces] a small electrical current in the coils as the guitar strings vibrate.”

The raw output of a pickup is going to be determined by the construction (single coils, stacks, humbuckers), magnet or magnets (ceramic, Alnico), the type of wire used (copper), the thickness of the wire (AWG 42, 43, 44), and how many times the wire is wrapped around the bobbin (length of the wire).

Wire Gauge and Number of Winds

As Seymour W. Duncan explained to us earlier, DCR simply tells us what the “resistance is for the length of wire being used.” So, what happens when you change the wire?

“The DCR will increase,” according to Kevin Beller. “Using a finer gauge of magnet wire—for example, moving from 43 to 44 AWG on otherwise identical pickups—will cause the DCR to go up.”

But this still doesn’t mean much when we’re talking about output. “That’s a case where DCR can be misleading,” Beller explains. “The pickup with the thinner magnet wire will have a higher DCR, but that doesn’t necessarily change the output. It’ll change the tone, but not the output.”

Magnets

One of the big factors in pickup output is magnet strength. “There’s a linear relationship between the gauss strength—the magnet strength—and the amount of output,” according to Kevin Beller.

Two pickups with the same DCR but different magnets will have a different output. For example, Alnico 2 naturally has a lower voltage output than Alnico 5, and Alnico 5 has a lower voltage output than ceramic magnets. “Generally speaking, if everything else is equal in the pickup and you take the Alnico 2 out and put a ceramic in, it’ll have more output [even though the DCR stays the same]”

Pickup Construction

The same goes for construction. “Let’s take, for example, a stacked pickup vs. a single coil. The stack could have the same (or higher) DCR as a single coil, but the single coil would have higher output,” Kevin Beller explains. “This is because half of the stack is canceling output, which isn’t happening at all with the single coil.”

You can look at a few of our pickup sets to help understand this a bit better. First, let’s turn to our Custom Flat Strat set with Alnico 5 magnets. The DCR of the neck is 12.27k, the middle is 12.8k, and the bridge is 13.3k. The bridge has a slightly higher DCR, but they’re all pretty close.

Now, look at our Cory Wong Clean Machine set (two single coils and a stacked bridge). DCR will read 7.05k in the neck, 7.15k in the middle, and 14.54k in the bridge. This doesn’t mean that the bridge pickup is twice as loud as the neck and middle because stacks can have higher DCR and still have a lower output.

“You may look at our Vintage Stack and see the DCR is close to 20k and think ‘Oh, this is going to be really hot.’ Well, it’s not at all,” Beller explains. “It’s more like a vintage output. There are probably single coils that read 6.5k that are hotter.”

What is DCR Good For?

So, how can you, as a guitarist, use DCR when evaluating pickups?

Though higher DCR doesn’t always mean louder, it can mean exactly that. DCR isn’t especially helpful in comparing apples to oranges, but it is relatively helpful when comparing apples to apples. “Let’s say you’re just looking at humbuckers with Alnico magnets,” Beller posits. “Generally speaking, as the DCR goes higher, the output will go higher with it.”

DCR can also affect the tone of a guitar pickup. In general, higher DCR means you start to lose some of your top-end. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing! For example, ceramic magnets are often described as “brighter” than Alnico magnets. By increasing the DCR of a guitar pickup with a ceramic magnet (through overwinding or changing the wire gauge) we can mellow that high-end for a more balanced frequency response.

Another way guitarists can use DCR is not for shopping, but for testing the functionality of their pickups. As we touch on in our article “How to Test Guitar Pickups with a Multimeter,” knowing DCR can help you troubleshoot fussy pickups.

If you suspect your pickups aren’t working as they should, you can pull them out of your guitar and see if their DCR is close to what’s listed on a product page. If their readout is more than a little different, you may have an issue. If your pickups are reading fine, you may want to check other elements of your wiring or overall signal chain to diagnose the issue.

What’s the Best Way to Determine Pickup Output?

By now, we’ve established that DCR alone is not the best to determine pickup output. Even though DCR can help us compare like pickups—e.g., Alnico 2 humbuckers vs. Alnico 2 humbuckers—there’s still a big blank space in determining which of two pickups with dissimilar construction or magnets has a higher output. The biggest one being that pickup manufacturers don’t usually publish wire length, wire gauge, impedance, and other elements that contribute to output.

But one thing we do publish at Seymour Duncan is a Salsa number.

Similar to how a jar of salsa has a spiciness scale, our pickup pages feature an output scale. For each pickup, you can see if it ranks on the low (10) or high (100) end of our salsa scale, with a larger number being a louder pickup.

And we’re not just running on vibes here. We conduct tests to determine pickup output.

“We put the pickups in a special guitar equipped with a mechanical strum arm,” Kevin Beller explains. “The arm is spring-loaded, pivots on precision ball bearings and has a spring steel pick. The pickup height is then set precisely using pin gauges. Then the arm is pulled back to the stop and released across the strings. We then read the instantaneous output on a digital storage oscilloscope.”

This isn’t to say our Salsa number is an industry standard—other manufacturers may have different systems that don’t correlate with ours. “We’ve done a lot of experimenting to develop our system and to get the Salsa numbers we publish,” Beller tells us. “We always get consistent results and feel that they are directly proportional to output. They ignore the other differences and exclusively look at what the pickup puts out when you strum a chord.”

So, there you have it. If you’re simply interested in the highest output you can get, or if you’re looking for a specific range, “the Salsa number is a much more accurate indicator than looking at DCR,” Beller concludes.