Photo above: Guitarist

Tim Brennan

The Dropkick Murphy’s dropkick Duncan’s into their guitars with help from tech extraordinaire …..drum roll please….. Grizz Middleton!

It’s Saint Patrick day every day when you’re with the Dropkick Murphy’s.

A rare blend of Irish-American Celtic Punk, these guys keep the heavy guitar tones, accordions, and banjos true to their roots. Three axe men are needed to fill the full rhythmic and melodic sound of the Murphy’s. Seymour Duncan is very proud and honored to help them translate that to their fans.

Guitarist James Lynch is a big Slash fan. It was nothing but natural for him to gravitate towards the Slash APH-2 for his Les Pauls.

Tim Brennan gets a fatter vintage tone in his 335’s with the SH-1 59’s.

And Jeff Darosa gets a fuller mid heavy tone out of his tele’s with the STHR-1 hot rails and keeps the rhythm crystal clear with the sa-6 in his acoustics.

You can see the Dropkick Murphy

’s on tour now.
Don’t forget to check out their new album Going Out In Style in stores and online.

Photo above: James Lynch

Congratulations to Yngwie Malmsteen for being included in Spin magazine’s list of the 30 Greatest Instrumental Songs Ever. It was Malmsteen’s “Icarus Dream Suite Opus 4” from 1984 that made the list, alongside works from Eddie Van Halen, Frank Zappa and Miles Davis. About “Icarus Dream Suite,” Spin wrote, “On this majestic track from his debut album, the onomatopoeically-named Swede defines the art of heavy guitar shredding, delivering classically-inspired songwriting with lightning-fingered speed.”

When it comes to his amazing guitar tone, Malmsteen turns to Seymour Duncan. His signature STK-S10 YJM Fury pickups meet his exacting tonal demands. The bridge pickup is aggressive and handles Yngwie’s hard-hitting chordal onslaught. The neck pickup balances Yngwie’s fluid left hand technique with his broad mix of right hand pick attack for a tone that’s sweet and fluid, but with great articulation and responsiveness to dynamics. And when it comes to potentiometers, Malmsteen again turns to Seymour Duncan with his YJM High Speed Volume Pot which contains a minimal-viscosity lubricant for fast-action potentiometer turns. Malmsteen uses the volume pot to take complete control of his phrasing dynamics. He uses his pinkie finger to flip the volume on and off for dramatic, lightning-fast starts and stops.

The P in P-rails stands for Phunk!

When the guitar player from the Parliament Funkadelic called and said she wasn’t happy with the tone from her stock pickups, Seymour Duncan didn’t hesitate. A tech from the Duncan factory met Shaunna Hall at the Gibson Amphitheater a few hours before the show to bring her guitar to life.

Shaunna needed something that had the jangly chime of a neck strat pickup and a fatter single coil sound in the bridge. It was also very important that she didn’t loose the full, warm, and clear over tones of a humbucker. Is it possible to get all of these sounds in one guitar and still be in the realm of funk you ask? The axe woman for the funkiest band in history says yes!

“The Seymour Duncan P-rails have achieved the until now, unobtainable feat of having three guitars in one: I can get sounds like a fender strat/tele single coil and with the flip of a switch, a Les Paul p-90 sound. And they sound RIGHT! Funk-yes!!!”

For more than 35 years Seymour Duncan has helped many different guitarists find their voice. Let us help you, find yours.

Mick Box, the guitarist for Uriah Heep, shares his set up which includes a SFX-05 Lava Box. Here’s what Mick has to say, “The Lava Box gives me the grunt I need, Night after night….What more do you need? ‘Appy days.” To find more about Mick Box you can go to his website mick-box.net, or for Uriah Heep uriah-heep.com. Be sure to catch them on tour in a town near you! Dates listed below.


6/14/2011 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
6/16/2011 Chattanooga, TN Riverbend Festival date change
6/17/2011 Kettering, OH Fraze Pavilion for the Performing Arts
6/18/2011 Annapolis, MD Rams Head on Stage
6/19/2011 Falls Church, VA State Theater
6/20/2011 Sellersville, PA Sellersville
6/22/2011 New York, BB King Blues Club
6/23/2011 Foxborough, MA Showcase Live
6/24/2011 Jim Thorpe, PA Penn’s Peak
6/25/2011 Ridgefield, CT Ridgefield Play House
6/27/2011 Norfolk, CT Infinity Hall
6/28/2011 Londonderry, NH Tupelo Music hall
6/29/2011 Del Mar San Diego, CA Del Mar Fair
7/02/2011 Palm Springs Indio, CA Fantasy Springs Resort
8/09/2011 Lincolnshire, IL Viper Alley
8/10/2011 West Allis, WI Wisconsin State Fair – Cousins Subs Amphitheater
8/12/2011 Three Forks, MT Rocking the Rivers Festival Site
8/14/2011 Rochester, MN Mayo Park
8/17/2011 Scottsdale, AR new
8/18/2011 West Hollywood, CA Key Club
8/19/2011 Santa Anna, CA Galaxy Concert Theatre
8/20/2011 Las Vegas, NV Green Valley

Clayton Bellamy is currently recording a solo record with four time Grammy award winning producer Ray Kennedy as well as touring with his Juno award winning band the Road Hammers. Below is a blurb of what he has to say about his Seymour Duncan Pickups.
“The Seymour Duncan 59 humbuckers in my Les Paul complete my quest for pure vintage tone!”

Thrice is back in the studio to record their new release which is due out late summer/early fall of 2011. Below are videos of Dustin and Teppei showing off what they are using for this coming album as well as on the road. For more info check out Thrice’s website here. Want to know how Dustin routes his pickups? Be sure to click here for our last post if you missed it.

The time has finally come! The winner for the SD35 guitar is…[drum roll, please] Bear Erickson from Buellton, California. Bear stopped by the Seymour Duncan factory in Santa Barbara to pick up his prize. There he met Seymour talked about the history of the guitar. Recently, Bear invited us to go to his show at Soho here in Santa Barbara where he played the SD35. Be sure to check out the video below to see it in action. Congratulations to Bear! You can check out Bears website here. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the contest.

Notes for Notes is Seymour Duncan’s favorite local non-profit. Founded here in Santa Barbara, it provides kids with a real working music studio to hang out in after school. There, the kids not only learn how to play instruments, but they learn the fundamentals of making records including using recording software, mixing, mastering, duplicating and even promotion. Having a safe place to make music and having an outlet for their creative expression enables these at-risk kids to be productive with their after-school time and not fall in with the “wrong crowd.”

Last week, 311 bassist P-Nut stopped by Notes for Notes and spent time with the kids. In the weeks before his arrival, they learned some 311 songs and got a chance to jam on them with P-Nut holding down the bottom end. How cool is that? In addition to making music, P-Nut spent a lot of time talking with the kids, answering questions, and telling them about the importance of focusing on a creative outlet. If you’d like to learn more about P-Nut’s visit to Notes for Notes, click here for some local press.

This isn’t the first time an A-List artist stopped by Notes for Notes. A few months ago Jack Johnson did the same thing. For some of these kids, hanging out and jamming with a world class rock star will be the biggest thing they ever do with music. And for a lot of them, this is the catalyst moment that propels a life long love of music-making.

This July, in celebration of our 35th anniversary, the Seymour Duncan company will be presenting a concert to benefit Notes for Notes. We’ll have the legendary Steve Miller Band at the 650 seat Lobero Theater. All proceeds from the concert as well as the silent auction will go to Notes for Notes.

If you’re interested in attending the Steve Miller concert, click here. If you’re interesting in learning more about Notes for Notes, click here. Click here to friend Notes for Notes on Facebook. If you’d like to donate to Notes for Notes, click here.

Blending disparate hardcore and metal, Billy Hamilton, bassist and backing vocalist for Silverstein works hard laying a hard pounding yet melodic groove that helped propel Silverstein into one of the top bands in its genre. Billy uses Seymour Duncan Basslines in all is basses, Billy says, “I run the Duncan SPB-2 Hot for P-Bass pickups in all of my basses. I feel like it gives a rich woody tone with lots of punch and growl, which works great with our aggressive blend of rock, punk and metal.”
With over 750,000 albums sold and over 1200 shows played, hear that tone live and can catch Silverstein on tour currently with Bayside, Polar Bear Club, The Swellers, and Texas in July.

The mid-‘70s surely were not the heyday for the “Big Two” American electric guitar brands. The quality at CBS-owned Fender and Norlin-owned Gibson dropped dramatically. It was during this time that Seymour Duncan started offering alternatives to Fender’s and Gibson’s stock electric guitar pickups. And it was during this same era that a bunch of aggressive, young, American guitar designers sprung up and offered high-quality alternatives to the lackluster solid body electrics. Some of those brands: Schecter, Charvel, Jackson, Anderson, and Dean still endure. Another one of those designers was Jol Dantzig, who co-founded Hamer Guitars.

Hamer’s early artist roster included Cheap Trick’s Rick Neilsen, Vernon Reid, Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre and John Glascock, John McVie from Fleetwood Mac, Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash, and Andy Summers and Sting from The Police.  Over the years, Dantzig’s guitar designs won eight Editor’s Pick awards from Guitar Player magazine. Some of Jol’s design achievements include the first 12-string bass, the first locking tuner, and the first workable electric/acoustic hybrid guitar.

Hamer was eventually acquired by Kaman Music Corporation, best known for their Ovation guitars. And a few years ago, KMC was acquired by Fender. In 2010, after two years at Fender, Jol left to start Dantzig Guitar Design in order to continue with his unique vision for musical instrument design and construction. Dantzig Guitar Design instruments are built one at a time, by hand. Each example is built to a concept and theme. Most use Seymour Duncan Custom Shop pickups.

Jol is currently at work on a guitar he calls The Crow. This unique one-off instrument features a Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Charlie Christian pickup. You can read about The Crow, the Charlie Christian pickup, and some unique modifications Jol made to the pickup on Jol’s blog . If you’d like to read the transcript of Jol’s Q&A with the Seymour Duncan User Group Forum, click here.

If you’re interested in purchasing a Dantzig Guitar Design instrument, get in line and get out your wallet. Production is extremely limited and prices start at $16,000. If you want to know more about Seymour Duncan Custom Shop pickups, click here.