When it comes to playing punk there are a lot of people who would say that the only important thing is attitude. You don’t often hear about the guitar, its pickups or the amplifier being played through should matter, and to worry about this things is not punk. This may have been the case back in punk’s formative years but with the range of punk styles and sounds how do you help yourself achieve the sound you have in your head? Pickups play a major factor in this, and different models will achieve different results. Seymour Duncan has a number of pickups that are capable of generating punk perfection. I’m a huge fan of humbuckers for my punk rock sounds, so here are a few of my personal favourites.

Continue reading “Great Pickups For Punk Rock”

I am often asked by students about compressor pedals. What do they do? Do you use them for solo boosts? If I want a lot of sustain, do I crank the sustain knob? Sustain is good, right? I always tell them more or less the same thing: Compressors aren’t sexy. They don’t make your guitar sound like a spaceship, and they don’t make it swirl, echo, spin, distort, or cry. Why buy a pedal that doesn’t affect your sound in such a dramatic way? To answer that, we have to understand what a compressor actually does to your sound. You actually can feel a compressor working more than hear it, and if you are hearing it, it just may be set wrong.
Continue reading “Effects Basics: The Compressor”

Here at Seymour Duncan we love seeing where our pickups wind up (pardon the pun), whether it’s a set of vintage-accurate Antiquity single coils finding a home in a Stratocaster or a one-off Custom Shop set in a unique custom guitar… such as this Daemoness Valkenbyrd VII. It’s finished in “Skeletorburst,” echoing the hues of the foreboding skies above Eternia’s Snake Mountain. The scale length is a demonically appropriate 666mm, and the neck carve is the Daemoness “Shredator” shape. And the pickups are from the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop (a Black Winter/Nazgul-inspired bridge pickup and a Distortion neck pickup), with custom engraved covers. (If you’re ordering Custom Shop pickups you can upload the artwork for your own custom covers here).

Continue reading “The Daemoness Valkenbyrd VII”

As a guitar teacher, I get asked this question a lot. Since pickups can radically change or expand the tonal options available from an electric guitar, would it be better to just change the pickups or save up for a whole new guitar? As a guitar tech, it’s tempting to always suggest new pickups, as I might be the one installing them (even though it’s an easy process). As a player, I usually give this advice: it depends. This article will focus on what it actually depends on, and how you might reach a conclusion that is right for you, your budget, and your expectations. Continue reading “Should I Change Pickups or Buy a New Guitar?”

Let’s face it, we can’t all have a half dozen guitars with us everywhere we go. We’d all like one for the rude and and fat single-coil sound of a P-90 that is perfect for blues, rock and punk; another with single-coils with the brightness and snap for rock and blues; and yet another for the fat and warm sounds of a humbucker. The P-Rails with Triple Shots give you the ability to access as many tones as all those guitars combined, and then some. The P-Rails themselves let you switch between P-90, single-coil and humbucker tones, and the the Triple Shots make it easy to switch between these options without having to install push-pull pots on your guitar. And they also let you choose between series and parallel options (explained here).

You can now get your P-Rails pre-wired with Triple Shots in either LP and flat versions. With a regular 3-way switch you’ll get the possibility of 24 unique tones.

Continue reading “P-Rails Now Available With Triple Shots”

We discussed the anatomy of humbuckers in a general sense a while back, and because there are so many varieties of single coil pickups, we thought it was time we should take a look at single coil designs too. Let’s have a look at the internal structure of the single coil in general as well as the various main design ‘families’ of single coil pickups. Continue reading “The Anatomy Of Single Coil Pickups”

While I wasn’t playing guitar in the 1970’s, I certainly was around. I mean, I started playing in 1979 on a cheap nylon string (I still have it) and progressed to my older brother’s late ’60s Japanese electric that never quite played in tune. In the 1980’s, a friend of my parents got me a stash of old Gibson and Fender catalogs and old Guitar Player magazines. Boy, did guitars look different back then! There is a reason for those, um, questionable decisions made by the big two electric guitar companies,, and as we look back, I am happy some of those ideas didn’t stick. Continue reading “The 1970s: The Lost Decade in Guitars”

You’ve practiced for years. You’ve scoured thrift stores for the right wardrobe. You have a new set of strings, an amp that goes to 11, and you are ready to rock! There can’t be much more than that when preparing for your first gig, right? I mean, how hard can it be? You see bands all the time! Your friends encouraged you. “Look how easy it is!” they taunted. You watched videos of performances your whole life. We’re all human, right? Why do they get to rock and not me? Today it’s my turn! I thought of everything! I printed out set lists and bought gaffer’s tape*! Look at my hair, I mean, is there anything as perfect as my hair? Hold on there, cupcake. Preparing for your first show isn’t as simple as putting your gear in the minivan next to the car seat. There are probably things you didn’t think of, and that is where this article comes in. As someone who has tried their best, and failed many times, you can learn from my shame. *I use painter’s tape. It isn’t insanely expensive like gaffer’s tape. It keeps cords and set lists where you want them, without sticky residue. Continue reading “Preparing for Your First Gig”

Guitar players have known for decades that when we want to make our guitars sound better, the first place to turn to is Seymour Duncan. In fact, this has been so true for so long, a lot of guitar manufacturers are now saving us time by building their instruments with Seymour Duncan pickups already installed. These companies range from solo ventures of a single master builder hand-making exquisite blues machines one-at-a-time, to large companies producing precision shred weapons on a massive scale, and all points in between. No matter your style, budget, or aesthetic sensibilities, it seems that someone out there is building the exact guitar you need, and the odds are becoming pretty good that it will come with Seymour Duncans in it. Continue reading “Guitar Company Feature: Rick Hanes Guitars”

If you haven’t got your paws on a .strandberg* guitar with an EndurNeck™ before it’s a strange experience simply because contrary to what your eyes may tell you, it doesn’t feel strange. The EndurNeck™, the choice of woods and the way everything balances is just naturally comfortable and you forget about it almost instantly and just get on with the act of playing. .strandberg* Guitars has just announced the availablity of the Varberg. A few Varberg models have surfaced in the past – like this Varberg Tremolo for instance – but the Varberg is now available through the US Custom Shop with various Seymour Duncan pickup options, including the JB and Jazz as the standard. Let’s have a look at what makes this guitar so unique. Continue reading “Introducing The .strandberg* Varberg”