We at Seymour Duncan would like to show our support for our friend Laith Al-Saadi, who has made it into the top four of The Voice. And we want him to win. Laith utterly rips on guitar, and his love of the instrument comes through in every note he plays. His voice is incredibly soulful and expressive; he sounds like a classic rock singer of the 60s or 70s, beamed forward in time. Just listen to what he does with Ed Sheeran’s “Make It Rain.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqQ8Do6U6GE

Seriously, when do you hear guitar this sweet and virtuosic on network television? You don’t! That’s why we need Laith to win. A vote (or ten: you can vote ten times per IP address) is a vote to tell the world that we want more of this in the media. More guitar, more lifelong musicians who slog it out every night because it’s in the very fiber of their being and they have no choice. Laith plays over 300 gigs a year.

Check out this take on B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.” Again, prime time network TV. Broadcast all over the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6lLtftluds

And here he is performing at our booth at Winter NAMM in 2015, paying tribute to Joe Cocker.

Speaking of Laith’s affinity for Joe Cocker, here’s his blind audition for The Voice back in March, where he played “The Letter.” There’s a great moment when Pharrell asks to hear the guitar solo again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGjRyz5q5xs

The voting windows for online, itunes, and in the Voice app for the finals are:

Pacific: 5PM (mon 5/23)—9AM (tues 5/24)

Central: 7PM (mon 5/23) – 11AM (tues 5/24)

Eastern: 8PM (mon 5/23)—12PM (tues 5/24)

For more info on voting times and rules, visit this link.

By Dave Eichenberger

In electric basses, there are basically (haha) three different ways to design a pickup system. You can go with passive pickups, passive pickups with a preamp, and full-on active pickups. All are valid ways of doing things, and while bassists may argue the merits of each system, the good news is that we have choices. Continue reading “Active Jazz Bass Pickup & Preamp Roundup”

If you play metal bass, you owe a debt of gratitude and maybe a pint of Trooper beer to Steve Harris. Steve is credited with creating the infamous ‘gallop’ rhythm used throughout metal, and even if his contributions started and ended there, he’d deserve a place in the history books. But he’s done so much more than that.

Continue reading “Talking Tone With Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris”

Seymour Duncan pickups are synonymous with hot rodding a guitar. Aftermarket pickups and other upgrades first gained widespread popularity in the ‘70s, and Seymour Duncan were one of the first companies to the playing field in a large scale capacity. The JB is famously the most recorded pickup of all time, but what are the best Seymour Duncan pickups for you?

There are so many pickup options out there, and it can be intimidating trying to figure out which to choose! Whether or not it’s aftermarket pickups in general, Seymour Duncan’s lineup, or different pickups well suited for different genres.

Today we cut through some of the confusion, with the top 5 Seymour Duncan humbuckers!

1) Black Winter Set

As their name would suggest, Black Winter pickups were designed for the trvest of trve kvlt fanatics. The saturated, aggressive black metal tones fly out of these, and are perfect for any extreme genre. However, they’ve quickly gained a huge following in the blues community too! How could this be?

Black metal is largely known (even comically so) in guitar circles for extremely bright tones and production that is sometimes borderline, or often pole-vaulting over the border, icepicky. So Seymour Duncan wound this pickup with a lot of mids, a good deal of treble, and chose a Ceramic magnet for tight bass response. This actually resulted in a bridge pickup that always has great cut in the mix and a good amount of clarity, and a neck pickup with some single-coil like qualities that excels at both overdriven leads and glassy cleans!

This accident of birth is one of my favorite things to come out of the Seymour Duncan lineup lately, and almost anyone could get a tone they enjoy with them! (As long as you like your pickups on the hotter side) I personally like them in 7 strings that are on the warm side to give them a much needed extra punch as well.

2) Pearly Gates Set

The Pearly Gates may just be the most versatile pickup on this list. This PAF-style pickup was created for Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, and benefits from an extra (but still not too large) dose of mids. This gives the pickup more punch for distorted tones, but also retains the sweet and reserved character PAFs are famous for. There is much more going on beneath the surface of this pickup, however.

The Pearly Gates utilizes an Alnico 2 magnet. This is the second weakest variation of Alnico magnet, and provides the utmost dynamic range. The bass response is a bit loose, but the highs are very warm and well controlled. When you combine that quality with the enhanced midgrange and slightly increased output, you’re left with a pickup capable of most things, with an awesome growl and character that catches metal players off guard!

This is a pickup that would suit anyone’s vintage needs that is also capable of metal. The bridge is well suited for clarity under high gain, and the neck is well rounded for neoclassical leads and sweeping. If you’re interested in approaching your tone from a different angle (lower output, less aggressive magnet, and lots of dynamics, as opposed to pushing the front end of your amp very hard with a brutal pickup) this could be the pickup for you!

3) Custom 5 Bridge

The Custom 5 is a really unique pickup in both design and execution that fills an interesting niche. The original Custom pickup had a Ceramic magnet, and was designed to be a monstrous and much more trebley take on a PAF, pretty modern and removed from its roots. Later, the Custom Custom was released, with an Alnico 2 magnet (like the Pearly Gates) to rein things back in. Naturally, the Custom Custom Custom was developed (and luckily renamed) with an Alnico 5 magnet to provide the best of both worlds.

The result is a pickup with an EQ cure rather similar to a PAF (relatively bassy and scooped), but much hotter. This creates a very fat and thick sound that is still aggressive. Remember how I said there are different ways to approach a good saturated tone in the Pearly Gates section? That holds true here, you can have a scooped pickup and still dial in mids amp-side if you want that sort of tone. However, this pickup is especially good for styles that don’t necessarily require razor sharp bass response and even saturation, like punk, oldschool thrash, funk, and more. I find this pairs rather well with a 59 in the neck, given that both pickups are really fat.

4) Alternative 8 Bridge

This pickup may be the least well-known humbucker contained within this article. Though, if you notice a trend, it’s that we covered both ends of the pickup spectrum, and then worked our way back through the middle, specifically with different magnets types. I introduce to you a personal favorite of mine: The Alternative 8, complete with Alnico 8 magnet.

Alnico 8 can be described as the midpoint between Ceramic and Alnico 5: tight bass response and upper mids saturation meets warmth and character. Why doesn’t everyone use these? Sounds like the best of both worlds, right? Well, it’s loud. Extremely loud, and rather unruly. There is a lot of everything. A lot of treble, a lot of mids, and even a lot of bass. This makes it not very well suited to especially warm guitars, however it does thrive in brighter guitars, bolt-ons, and baritones.

This pickup is simply too hot and rough around the edges to recommend for vintage applications, but if you’re looking for aggression and don’t want to make any sacrifices to either end of your EQ, this could be a good bet for you. You can also match it with unusually hot pickups in the neck because of how loud it is, such as a distortion!

5) Jazz Neck

To put it simply this is one of my favorite neck humbuckers, and I’m very picky about them, given that I prefer single coils in the neck. This could be because of the enhanced treble response and scooped mids of the pickup: it’s very glassy like a single coil!

This is definitely a pickup for people wanting more articulation out of their neck pickup. Guitarists tend to fall into two camps here: fat, bassy, and totally rounded, or more pick attack and fluidity, and the jazz definitely falls into the latter category. Which ironically enough, would make it far from my first choice for jazz.

Leads maintain a lot of pick attack and cleans stay punchy. The pickup also splits very well and can get great notch position quack when combined with other pickups. The Alnico 5 magnet and moderate output makes it very versatile, so it plays well with basically all other pickups!

Hopefully this helped a little bit! As you can see, there really are pickups out there for everybody, and many are much more versatile than you’d think. Seymour Duncan’s wide catalog has many more quality pickups, and we’ll be doing reviews of specific models in the future.

This article was written by Kyle Karich, our editor located in Florida.

Notes for Notes is dedicated to designing, equipping and staffing after-school recording studios inside Boys & Girls Clubs. It allows young people to access professional music-making instruments and equipment. and helps educate youth about careers onstage and behind the scenes in the music industry.

Seymour Duncan has worked closely with Notes for Notes since 2011. At that time, Phil Gilley, the Founder and visionary, set up his first two “music boxes”-safe, drop-in recording studio environments-in Santa Barbara CA. Seymour Duncan supported it with several thousand dollars and musical products. Today,there are 11 music boxes, with more launching this year. Notes for Notes has now raised more than $400,000 in five years and the annual Seymour Duncan Notes for Notes Benefit Concert has featured inspiring performanc­es from Slash, Steve Miller, Jimmy Vivino, Joe Bonamassa, Peter Frampton, Robert Randolph, Don Felder, Gram Parsons and many others (including Seymour W.Duncan himself).

“Our goal is to gather spectacular guitarists who might not otherwise get to play together up onstage,” Seymour Duncan’s CEO, Cathy Carter Duncan, said. “So,it’s not just a regular show. Other companies and artists in Ml, including Fender, Iron Maiden, Joe Bonamassa and more have supported us via donations of instruments and memorabilia. Notes for Notes is very efficient and they make every dollar count. They do it for all the right reasons and they do it successfully. I am very proud of the kick-start we have been able to give to such a great program.”

Seymour Duncan’s Palladium Gain Stage effects pedal authentically replicates a high-gain tube amp. Palladium features three gain stages: a gain stage to control the overall saturation, a resonance control for low-frequency gain shaping and a boost control that adds overdrive to the beginning of the signal path. Those three gain stage allow for a versatile range of tones–from classic rock at lower settings to modern metal at higher gain settings–for 110 decibels for total gain. The pedal also offers a comprehensive EQ, with bass, treble, presence and sweepable midrange-frequency control.

By Martina Fasano

Canadian Music Week descended upon Toronto once again from May 2-8, 2016, and it got me thinking about some of the best guitarists Canada has produced over the years. Continue reading “10 Great Canadian Guitarists”

SANTA BARBARA, CA May 2, 2016 – Seymour Duncan, a leading manufacturer of pickups and pedals, and Chicago Music Exchange, announces the release of the new Forza Overdrive effects pedal. This pedal will be available for purchase from Chicago Music Exchange between May and July.

“We are very excited to work with Chicago Music Exchange to bring this to market as an exclusive launch. They have been a wonderful partner to us over the years.” says Max Gutnik, SVP of Products and CRO at Seymour Duncan. “Forza is beautifully-voiced overdrive designed to deliver an open, even-tone that enhances the sound of your amp without changing its fundamental character.”

Developed in partnership with Chicago Music Exchange, the Forza has clear highs, deep lows and a slightly scooped midrange which lets you dial in broader, more dynamic overdrive tones, from ‘edge-of-breakup’ to classic late 70s hard rock and beyond. Because the frequency range is wider and the mids aren’t as ‘boxy,’ the Forza maintains more of the original character of your guitar’s voice while still letting you shape the fine details of your sound with a three-band EQ (Bass, Mid and Treble). And it’s great for adding more saturation and growl to an already-overdriven amp without changing the fundamental tone of your distortion unless you want it to.

“Chicago Music Exchange is proud to have collaborated with the legendary Seymour Duncan, a force (pun intended) in the gear industry for decades,” says Andrew Yonke, CEO at Chicago Music Exchange. “We are especially pleased with the result of this partnership; the Forza Overdrive produces a classic, smooth overdrive and allows the player to have maximum tonal control with the 3-band EQ. It is a total success.”

In addition to the above the Forza Overdrive:

• Features True Bypass
• Features a glass diode, back-to-back stack overdrive circuit
• Is Made in the USA
• Will retail at $179

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.

About Chicago Music Exchange For over 25 years, Chicago Music Exchange has been serving the world’s musicians, collectors, and friends for their first, second, or twelfth guitar. Nestled in the heart of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, it boasts an incredible showroom, a first class drum shop, and a full service repair shop. Its reputation and collection of new, used, and vintage gear has turned the store into a major Chicago destination for musicians.

Media contacts:

Elysse Miller
Seymour Duncan
[email protected]

Colleen Harvey
Chicago Music Exchange
3316 N. Lincoln Ave.
(888) 686-7872
[email protected]

A lot of pedals make the claim that they’re designed to give you the feel of an amp, but the Seymour Duncan Palladium Gain Stage is probably the first pedal I’ve played that’s really come good on this claim. I spent a lot of time with it in January, often plugged directly into a power amp, and it really nails the feel, in terms of the responsiveness and all those intangible little harmonic overtones that happen around your playing when you’re blasting through a real amp. Keith Merrow has made a fantastic video of this pedal used in a metal context. It’s great for all sorts of things though, and I found it to be really, really, really great at Alice In Chains Dirt-style tones. This pedal is shipping soon so keep an eye out for it.

By Dave Eichenberger

Using pedals with an acoustic guitar is a pretty counter-intuitive thing. After all, it is an acoustic guitar, and it gets its name from the sound of the guitar in a room, with the reflections blaring out from the soundboard in all directions of the room. A pickup or even a microphone might come close to sounding how a good acoustic sounds in a room, but nothing quite nails the sound of a great acoustic in an awesome –sounding room. However, since most acoustics produced and bought are not those iconic models we all wished we owned, we might have reason to modify the sound of the acoustic guitar in the room we are sitting in. This article is about how I designed an acoustic pedalboard to compensate for having both a less-than-ideal guitar in a less-than-idea room.  Continue reading “Building an Acoustic Pedalboard”