Category Archives: News

Sometimes there’s a need for a hammer, other times there’s a need for a scalpel. A scalpel can cut cleanly with precision. Sure it’s doesn’t smash through things like a hammer does, but when used correctly a scalpel can be just as devastating. The Full Shred would be Seymour Duncan’s scalpel in its tonal bag of tools. It doesn’t have the highest output, but its precision lets it hit a lot higher and harder than its weight category.

The true test of covering someone elses’ song is making it your own. That’s no easy feat, and while there’s a tonne of cover versions of classic and contemporary tunes, only a few stand the test of time. Even more rare are the ones that eclipse the original. Recently we asked Seymour Duncan readers what their…

The Hofner Violin Bass is an icon in and of itself, due to one particular musician that happened to do pretty well in the 60s. It’s also an interesting instrument, because while it is classified as a short scale (30″) instrument, it actually requires a set of strings that would be classified as medium scale…

Acoustic guitars have always presented a problem when playing at higher volumes. Back in the day (as the kids say), if you wanted a louder acoustic guitar, you bought a bigger acoustic guitar. Bigger bodies = more volume, as there is more wood to vibrate and project the sound towards the listener. But what if you have to play a big club or theater with hundreds or thousands of people? Huh? HUH? You could get a guitar the size of the stage itself, but I bet you wouldn’t like how it sounded! This article will explain some of the difficulties that acoustic guitarists face when wanting just to be heard.

The NYC Bass pickups are the same thing that we’ve been making for some of the world’s finest handcrafted basses. They each use a dual coil J-type pickup design with a double row of Alnico Pole pieces. The resulting pickups provide a more organic tone and they are very versatile without sacrificing output level and…

There aren’t many players who can say they’ve spearheaded an entire genre, but Yngwie J Malmsteen is among this esteemed few. Yngwie synthesised the worlds of classical melodicism and heavy rock energy in ways that had only been hinted at before, and in doing so he ignited a guitar revolution. With Yngwie currently on the road for his Guitar Gods tour with fellow virtuosi Bumblefoot and Gary Hoey, we caught up with the maestro to talk tone.

The humbucker, with its single bar magnet under the coils, is generally less gritty, crunchy, raunchy or dirty than the P90. Let’s compare a few ‘vintage’ styled pickups Seymour Duncan has to offer.

The world of guitardom has all sorts of cool descriptive words to characterise tone: The Brown Sound. Djent. Crunch. Chunk. Quack. Spank. Wah Wah. It’s all part of the unique vocabulary we share amongst ourselves. The Woman Tone isn’t quite as self-descriptive as the others though. Personified by Eric Clapton’s tone on various Cream Tracks such as “Sunshine Of Your Love,” it’s a harmonically rich, slightly muffled, honking, squonking tone.

Many guitarists know the simple truth; change your tone voicing by switching out the capacitor on your tone pot. This has led many guitarists on a long quest for finding the ultimate cap to achieve their tone. Usually though, most bassists never think that changing the capacitor on their tone knob will unlock the tone that they’ve been seeking. We’ll talk about some of the benefits of using different value tone caps in your bass, as well as a couple of easy tips to give you some more options.

Its DC Resistance comes in at a whopping 48k. It’s the most powerful passive humbucker we’ve ever produced. It lives for stoner/doom metal. It’ll drink all your beer and go through your stuff, but it’ll also help you move house because it’s cool like that. It once hog-tied a Rancor. It patched things up between Mork and Mindy when things were looking a little rough. It likes long walks by the swamp. REAL long walks. It was the one who nicknamed John Wayne ‘The Duke.’ It’s SLUG.