The P-Rails is one of Seymour Duncan’s most versatile pickups. It’s a humbucker, a P-90 and a single-coil rail pickup in one. However, to access all these sounds it’s necessary to do some more complicated wiring then you might do if you’re just putting a normal humbucker in your guitar – even if you’ve already wired a coil split before. The fact that some players go for a fourth sound – both coils wired in parallel – only adds to the potential for wiring confusion.

One way to sidestep any confusion completely is to use Triple Shot mounting rings. They give you immediate access to all four sounds from each pickup without needing to use push/pull pots or mini switches, or even to understand four-conductor wiring. If you’re not interested in learning the ins and outs of the P-Rails but you want to take full advantage of them, using Triple Shots is the way to go.
Continue reading “The P-Rails Wiring Bible, Part 1”

Now that we have the look (Image), the sound (Music), and the direction (Mission), what’s left to do? Probably one of the most overlooked pieces in regards to your band’s success, the Branding. We need to create something that is bigger than music, bigger than appearance; we need to create your band’s distinct brand. As a brand, we need to form an identity that people can relate to and want to be a part of. That identity helps create a loyal fanbase with an unbreakable bond. Continue reading “Band Basics: Part 4 – The Branding”

We already built the game plan (Mission) and forged a new sound (Music), but now we need to make you look the part. Never underestimate the power of your Image. That’s why you need to carefully mold it into who you want to be seen as. You can give yourself a persona like Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance of Avenged Sevenfold or simply a heightened appearance of who you are like Mark Hoppus of Blink-182. Regardless, we need to convey confidence and self-expression. You need to look like a seasoned professional whether you are or are just in a garage band.
Continue reading “Band Basics: Part 3 – The Image”

Having laid the foundation with the Mission Statement, we’re ready to start building!
The most important aspect of any band is the music. It’s the reason people even care about the band in the first place. Rarely do you hear someone say, “Yeah, I don’t like their music, but they look so cool that I have to be a fan.” That’d be ridiculous. Music creates a connection with people where they can relate to what the group is saying. Without that, it makes all else irrelevant. So think of this as the framework that’s building upon an already solid foundation (Mission) that the exterior (Image) and roofing (Branding) can rely upon.
Continue reading “Band Basics: Part 2 – The Music”

“We wanted to be the coolest, sexiest, meanest, nastiest, loudest, funnest band. There was a group consciousness of rape, pillage, search, and destroy.”

So you want to start taking your band more seriously? Great! Hopefully the next couple of articles can help. Let’s get to work!
First we need to examine why you’re starting the band in the first place and what you’re hoping to get out of it. Hopefully you have a deeper reason than the superficial rockstar perception. For me personally, music is who I am, it defines me, it helps express the good and bad in my life. And I’m not talking about lyrics either, but music in general. As a guitar player, I use the strings to convey how I feel and let others know through soundwaves. So my motivation to make music is deeply rooted in emotion and is a personal experience. Whether money, women or fame ever come is irrelevant for me. I’m successful in the sense that I’m doing what I want by making music that speaks to me. So what’s your reason? Continue reading “Band Basics: Part 1 – The Mission”

The truss rod is an engineering marvel. In its basic form it’s a long metal rod that runs through the length of the neck of your guitar, with one end fixed (most often near the high frets of the guitar) and one end accessible with a nut.
Tightening the nut will fix the rod and will make sure the wood can’t bend. Loosening the nut will allow the neck to flex a bit. Since wood is flexible and is subject to environmental changes, the truss rod is an essential piece of kit if you want to maintain a relatively constant level of action (the height of the strings relative to the frets). Hence, the truss rod plays a crucial part in the adjustment of the playability of your guitar. Continue reading “Truss Rod: My Best Friend In Action”

As a company, we have always believed in giving back to the community by supporting music education. In order to help those who desire to learn more about music and instruments we have offered a bass and guitar scholarship to Musicians Institute. Weeks ago we announced that the Seymour Duncan bass scholarship had been awarded to Aaron Williams. This years Seymour Duncan guitar craft scholarship will be going to Wei-Hua Chaing, who comes from Taiwan and wants to learn how to build his own guitars. Wei-Hua wrote back to say:
“I am a beginner in the field of guitar building so I really hope to learn everything from the most basic level and then study to tremendously improve my knowledge.  I chose MI because this school is famous for their teaching and professionalism in the industry.”

Congratulations future builder Wei-Hua and we hope that you enjoy learning the art and science of guitar building. For more information on Musicians Institute, click here.

So you’ve got a great bridge pickup that just really shoots flames when running through a hot guitar amp. It’s awesome, but you find yourself wanting just a little bit ‘more’. Not more in the sense of hitting the amp up with a boost or overdrive pedal, but ‘more’ from your pickup. There is a pretty easy way to achieve this with a DPDT on/on switch or push/pull (or push/push) potentiometer, some wire, and some simple soldering skills.
A few manufacturers have offered variation of this particular modification on some of their guitars. Fender calls the modification the “Passing Lane” switch, while Suhr’s variation is called the “Blower” switch. It doesn’t really matter what you call it, the goal is pretty much the same. To give your bridge pickup more volume and high end to really drive and cut through.

The way this modification works is by bypassing your guitar’s pickup selector, volume and tone potentiometers (if any), and essentially hard wiring your pickup directly to the output jack. This essentially lowers the circuit’s load, which in turn gives you the extra volume and high end.
Continue reading “So You Want to Get a Bit ‘More’ Out of Your Pickup…”

The humbucker as we know it traces its history back to a design by Seth Lover, who invented it while working for Gibson in 1955. His Patent Applied For (P.A.F.) design has served as the launching pad for innumerable pickups in the nearly six decades since, and these days original examples of those early humbuckers change hands for some pretty impressive figures. But there’s an easier way to tap into that historical tonal mojo, and it’s currently catching the light as I type this and drawing my eye to my Gibson Les Paul: the Seymour Duncan SH-55 Seth Lover humbucker.

Continue reading “Humbucker History: The SH-55 Seth Lover Model”

Originally wound as part of a pair for Seymour’s own Tele-Gib (which was built for a certain legendary British guitarist in the 70s), the JB has gone on to become one of the most iconic bridge pickups in rock music. However, even though it’s the world’s most popular pickup, you might not know it immediately. It’s kind of an unsung hero of sorts. But even if you don’t know the name, chances are you know the SOUND. Matched with the right guitar, it’s positively lethal; its character instantly recognizable. And in the hands of a great guitarist, riffs, power chords and solos sound HUGE with it.

Continue reading “The JB: The Sound of ROCK”