Have you ever sat at home and basked in your “lion riding a motorcycle” guitar tone, only for it to end up sounding all “duck chewing on a balloon” at your next gig or band practice? I know I have. If you’re the kind of bats-for-breakfast, skulls-on-mic-stand, brutal guitar warlord sort for whom LOUD is life, then you’re probably cranked 24/7 and have no idea what I’m talking about. However, for those of us who cut our teeth on modelers with headphones or amps turned down to law-abiding levels, having to adjust to being audible over a drum kit can be a very frustrating experience. Continue reading “Why Does My Amp Sound Different At High Volume?”

Sometimes we find that a particular pickup (or pickups) are a little too bright for our guitars. Traditionally humbuckers are darker and manufacturers chose to use 500K potentiometers to ensure the pickup didn’t sound too dark or muddy. Single coil pickups in contrast sound quite a bit brighter, and manufacturers chose to use 250K potentiometers to tame the brightness.
Continue reading “Create a two stage potentiometer”

Mention the idea of ‘midi guitar’ to most guitarists and the image that springs to mind is most likely an ’80s cover band with skinny ties where the guitarist has to cover the keyboard parts to ‘Jump’ and ‘Safety Dance.’ That is, if you don’t get the outright dismissal of the use of guitar synth in music making. I was there too. The last thing I want to sound like is a terrible keyboard player. I don’t want to carry an instrument that looks like a keytar. In this article I want to present an overview of what we call ‘guitar synthesizer’ and describe how I use it in my own compositions. Continue reading “Guitar Synthesizers and the Use of Hex Pickups”

The DIY spirit is at the heart of guitar innovation. What would the guitar-playing world be like If Eddie Van Halen hadn’t created his “Frankenstrat” Les Paul his world-famous Gibson, or Leo Fender and the first guitars that inspired so many? Many of us would never have picked up a guitar in the first place.
Continue reading “Turning Your Budget Guitar Find Into An Every Day Player”

SEYMOUR DUNCAN RELEASE SILVER LAKE 

SANTA BARBARA, January 5, 2018 – Seymour Duncan, a leading manufacturer of pickups and pedals, announces the release of Silver Lake Reverb Pedal. 

Silver Lake is a fully programmable reverb workstation, combining high quality reverb algorithms with unique dynamic control and powerful tone shaping options for a deep sonic experience – whether you need subtle sounds or a wash of massive ambience. 

The Silver Lake™ Dynamic Reverb is a powerhouse reverb workstation. The foundation is a collection of eight beautifully crafted reverb algorithms, a powerful set of tone shaping options and our proprietary Dynamic Expression control. 

If you’re looking for classic Room, vintage Spring sounds, or massive Plates and Halls, Silver Lake has you covered. In addition, Silver Lake offers special effect modes like Shimmer, Swell, Gated and Delay/Verb allowing you to go above and beyond traditional effects. 

Once you select your reverb type, you can further modify it with the Damp knob (to darken the tone of the reverb), the Grit control (to add some saturation for lo-fi and shoegaze sounds) and the Tweak knob (for gorgeous chorus or vibrato on the echoed signal, as well as Lo Pass and Hi Pass Filters). 

Dynamic Expression™ allows you to control how Silver Lake reacts, in real time, with your picking attack. That means you can alter settings for Mix, Modulation or Damping on the fly, just by how you play. For instance, by selecting Mix, you can set Silver Lake for a subtle reverb sound when you play normally that will bloom into massive soundscapes when you play softly, or vice versa. Depending on how you set the various controls, picking hard or picking soft will produce infinite variations on the sounds. It’s interactive, intuitive and—most importantly—always musical. 

Everything you need to create your reverb tone is right on the front panel, so no scrolling through menus or external programming is required. Twist a knob, change the sound—it’s that simple. Silver Lake provides the immediate response that we associate with classic guitar gear in a deep, modern effect. 

Because Silver Lake is capable of so many great sounds, we made it fully programmable. When you create a unique reverb patch, you can easily save it and recall it in an instant, either with the onboard buttons or via MIDI. And with 128 presets as well as MIDI In and Through, Silver Lake can be fully integrated into any rig for any level of performance. 

Silver Lake features stereo ins and outs, making it compatible with a wide array of live and studio applications and facilitating huge, expansive stereo imaging, powered by a 24-bit/48kHz digital engine. Silver Lake also comes with a micro-USB port so it can connect to our Updater/Librarian software. This will allow you to download firmware updates, name and save your favorite presets to your computer, trade patches with fellow users and more. Finally, the bright alpha-numeric readout on the front makes it easy to see what patch is loaded, whether on a dim stage or in bright sunlight.  

Like all of our pedals, the Silver Lake Dynamic Reverb is designed and assembled at our Santa Barbara, California factory. 

About Seymour Duncan 

Seymour Duncan celebrates a rich history as the world’s leading pickup and pedal manufacturer. Since 1976, Seymour Duncan has helped the world’s artists develop their own unique, signature sounds. This is accomplished through a dedicated team of craftsman at their Santa Barbara, California office. For more information, please visit seymourduncan.com. 

Media contact: 

Jayla Siciliano 

Seymour Duncan 

[email protected] 

Today we’re taking you back to the mid 70’s… to the very beginning when Seymour Duncan the Company started. Cathy and Seymour talk about how it all started in their $300 trailer with no electricity, how they made up the rules as they went and some of the timeless lessons they learned. Subscribe to our channel for new episodes!

Two friends get together to talk guitars, favorite guitar players… and the Paisley Telecaster. Check out the new episode of Seymour’s Studio, with his special guest Brad Paisley.

Subscribe to our channel for new episodes!

The Silver Lake Dynamic Reverb is a powerhouse reverb workstation. The foundation is a collection of eight beautifully crafted reverb algorithms, a powerful set of tone shaping options, and our proprietary Dynamic Expression™ control.

If you’re looking for classic Room, vintage Spring sounds, or massive Plates and Halls, Silver Lake has you covered. In addition, Silver Lake offers special effect modes like Shimmer, Swell, Gated and Delay/Verb allowing you to go above and beyond traditional effects.

Once your reverb type is selected, you can further modify it with the Damp knob (to darken the tone of the reverb), the Grit control (to add some saturation for lo-fi and shoegaze sounds) and the Tweak knob (for gorgeous chorus or vibrato on the echoed signal, as well as Lo Pass and Hi Pass Filters).

Dynamic Expression allows you to control how Silver Lake reacts, in real time, with your picking attack. That means you can alter settings for Mix, Modulation or Damping on the fly, just by how you play. For instance, by selecting Mix, you can set Silver Lake for a subtle reverb sound when you play normally that will bloom into massive soundscapes when you play softly, or vice versa. Depending on how you set the various controls, picking hard or picking soft will produce infinite variations on the sounds. It’s interactive, intuitive and—most importantly—always musical.

Everything you need to create your reverb tone is right on the front panel, so no scrolling through menus or external programming is required. Twist a knob, change the sound—it’s that simple. Silver Lake provides the immediate response that we associate with classic guitar gear in a deep, modern effect.

Because Silver Lake is capable of so many great sounds, we made it fully programmable. When you create a unique reverb patch, you can easily save it and recall it in an instant, either with the onboard buttons or via MIDI. With 128 presets as well as MIDI In and Through, Silver Lake can be fully integrated into any rig for any level of performance.

Silver Lake features stereo ins and outs, making it compatible with a wide array of live and studio applications and facilitating huge, expansive stereo imaging, powered by a 24-bit/48kHz digital engine. Silver Lake also comes with a micro-USB port so it can connect to our Updater/Librarian software. This allows you to download firmware updates, name and save your favorite presets to your computer, trade patches with fellow users, and more. Finally, the bright alpha-numeric readout on the front makes it easy to see what patch is loaded, whether on a dim stage or in bright sunlight.

Like all of our pedals, the Silver Lake Dynamic Reverb is designed in California and made in the U.S.A. Silver Lake continues our legacy of attention to detail and quality. Hear sound samples

Seymour Duncan Announces Cutting-edge Pickup Architecture with New Duality Line

SANTA BARBARA, CA – February 17, 2017 – Seymour Duncan, a leading manufacturer of pickups and pedals, announces Duality™, a new concept in pickup design merging the best active and passive technologies to create a versatile and dynamically rich tone palette.

“Duality is a new active pickup architecture featuring the best attributes of passive and active technologies in one,” explains Seymour Duncan SVP of Products & CRO, Max Gutnik. “We’ve spent a lot of time reimagining what an active pickup could sound, feel and look like. The voicing is very versatile. From super-modern metal with a lot of aggressive attack to legitimately authentic blues and country tones.”

The Duality architecture revolutionizes pickup design, putting more emphasis on the pickup coils and magnet than traditional actives while still offering the low noise, high headroom and signal strength integrity of actives. The lows are tight and percussive, the mids are strong and vibrant, and the highs are clear and airy.

“There is a lot of string content built into the voicing so you can really hear the tone coming through, as opposed to a lot of other actives where the preamp masks what’s going on with the guitar,” Gutnik says. “Duality will accentuate what you’re getting from your instrument.”

Duality is handcrafted in Santa Barbara, California.

*         Available as black uncovered bobbins and zebra uncovered bobbins.

*         Individual neck, bridge and Trembucker or in a matched set.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmhNKpor3jc

About Seymour Duncan 

Seymour Duncan celebrates a rich history as the world’s leading pickup and pedal manufacturer. Since 1976, Seymour Duncan has helped the world’s artists develop their own unique, signature sounds. This is accomplished through a dedicated team of craftsman at their Santa Barbara, California office. For more information, please visit seymourduncan.com.

For more info or to secure your set of limited edition Amos Custom Shop pick ups please visit our Custom Shop – JOE BONAMASSA AMOS PICKUP SET

Joe Bonamassa’s 1958 Flying V was special even before being purchased by the famous bluesman – as one of just 98 Flying V’s produced by Gibson in the fifties, it has been featured in numerous books and magazines, and even had a cameo in the infamous mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap”. Remarkably, tracing the serial number led back to the original dealer where it was sold – with a photo of storeowner Amos Arthur holding the guitar in his shop as proof. So of course we were thrilled to work with Joe again to reproduce the unique original pickups from this incredible piece of guitar history.

The sound of the Amos Flying V is uniquely robust compared to other PAF loaded guitars. Careful examination of the original pickups revealed something unique – unusually strong magnetism, which could only be replicated by using Alnico 6 magnets. Although Alnico 6 might seem like an odd choice for a PAF replica, the result is surprisingly warm, clear and powerful – and matches the tone of the originals.