If you want “Sweet, warm tones to raw rock ’n’ roll” and “great harmonics”, enter to win our Freebie Friday Contest on our Facebook page!

This Freebie Friday, we are giving away the JB, the world’s most popular humbucker.  We were so thrilled with all of the great feedback from Frank’s post on his first experience with the JB, we decided to give one away.

Check out some of the amazing artist that use JB’s:

Paul Stanley (KISS), Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Ty Tabor (King’s X), Steve Marker (Garbage), Nick Hexum & Tim Mahoney (311), John Connolly (Sevendust), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth)

All you have to do to enter is:

1) Become a fan on our Facebook.com/seymourduncanpickups page.
2) Leave a comment on our Facebook page answering one of the following questions:

• What was the first song that you played on the guitar?
• What artist/song first inspired you to play the guitar?

One submission per fan and the winner will be randomly selected.  The contest will run until Sunday night (11/14) at midnight PST.  Winner will be announced on Monday morning.
Good luck all!  Looking forward to hearing your responses!
Don’t forget to become a fan on our Facebook.com/seymourduncanpickups page and Follow us on Twitter/seymourduncan.
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EDIT: A note of clarification, Dave Mustaine used to use the JB and now uses the Dave Mustaine signature pickup.  Check it out here.

Last Friday, Thievery Corporation’s bassist Ashish “Hash” Vyas and guitarist Rob Myers stopped by Seymour Duncan for a tour of the factory.  Here at Seymour Duncan, they learned the finer points of winding pickups by the legendary Maricela “MJ” Juarez.  With her help, they were each able to wind a Seymour Duncan pickup and learn how much skill and craftsmanship goes into our process. Also, during the factory mid-day dance break (yes, we have dance breaks twice a day, more on that later), Hash and Rob made their mark on the Seymour Duncan “dance” floor.

Later that night at the concert, Hash showcased his appreciation for MJ by writing her initials across his bass cab in huge letters with neon red glow tape!  How cool is that?!

“It was amazing to see my name on stage, but what was pleasing to me was to see how Rob and Hash connected with the pickups they were winding.  They’re welcome back anytime!” -MJ

Afterwards, MJ and the rest of the artist relations team got to hang out backstage and in the VIP area.  Check out the pics:

Check out Thievery Corporation’s new album in stores now.

If you would like to learn more about Seymour Duncan endorsed artists, you can check them out here.

Have you noticed that the baseplates on all of our passive humbuckers are silver in color? They’re made of nickel silver—and there’s a reason.

Seth Lover used nickel-silver baseplates when he invented the humbucker in 1955. We think he did a pretty good job, and we like to respect the way he did things. We also use nickel silver because of quality, durability, and sound.

Aside from nickel silver being very hard and strong with durable threads for the height-adjustment screws, many people can hear the difference between pickups with nickel-silver baseplates and those that use softer alloys like brass or pot metal. The baseplate metal has a direct effect on a pickup’s inductance.

In the image, you will see a Seymour Duncan nickel-silver baseplate (top) and another pickup manufacturer’s brass baseplate (bottom). On the brass baseplate, note how the threads on the height-adjustment screw hole are beginning to come apart, while the more durable nickel-silver baseplate remains intact.

Want more tips and tricks like these?  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

If you want to know more about our pickups, you can look through them here.

By Frank Falbo, Seymour Duncan VP of Product

My very first experience with Seymour Duncan was my first time hunting for a replacement pickup—when I was 12. I remember endlessly poring through the Seymour Duncan catalog, (what homework?) and the JB was my ultimate choice. No one told me how popular it was, or what famous rock stars played it. I read Seymour’s description, and it sounded exactly like what I wanted. “Sweet, warm tones to raw rock ’n’ roll” and “great harmonics” are what sold me. One of my dad’s friends showed me how to solder, so I installed it myself. And you know what? It sounded exactly the way I imagined. Way better harmonics. Screaming output meant more (and better) distortion with my little yellow overdrive. That was it. I’ve been addicted to pickups ever since.

Since then I’ve learned the JB is quite possibly the single most popular, most recorded bridge humbucker in existence. Why is that? You can loosely classify bridge humbuckers into three baskets: Vintage models like the ’59 and Alnico II Pro, medium output like the Custom series, and high output pickups like the JB and Distortion. These higher output pickups usually slam the input of the amp harder, and the JB is no exception. Some high output pickups are smooth on the top end, because of the abundance of winds. A lot of amps will see that as muddy and garbled under a lot of distortion. The JB on the other hand, will make an amp scream. Tons of harmonics and in-your-face top end, and the low end doesn’t get in the way.

If you’ve ever seen Seymour play a JB, though, it’s an entirely different experience. He’s using a 250k pot, which knocks down the top end a little, and usually working the volume and tone knobs to change the tone and gain. He also plays with his fingers. What a different experience! The JB sings like a violin under the fingers. The edgy top end now becomes like the velvety sweep of a bow against the strings. Grab a pick and the JB becomes a razor, cutting through the mix like nothing else. You’ll get heard with the JB, but you’ll also have the ability to sound sweet and warm with a little less volume and a change of pick attack.
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Feel free to share the story of your first pickup in the comment section below and if you want to know more about JB’s check them out here: Seymour Duncan JB.

Check out Hedras Ramos Jr. who took second place in the Ziua Chitarelor 3 guitar competition. For those of you who don’t know, the Ziua Chitarelor competition in Romania is one of the greatest guitar competitions in Europe.
This 18 year old guitar prodigy hails from Guatemala and has caught the attention of guitar greats including Michael Lee Firkins and Jennifer Batten. It’s easy to see why, just check out his insane tapping technique! Hedras currently plays 7 string Halo guitars out-fitted with a Seymour Duncan SH-2 Jazz in the neck and a SH-4 JB in the bridge. If you want to hear more of Hedras, look for his third album, Atoms and Space, to be released on iTunes and Amazon.

This is what Hedras says about Seymour Duncan pickups:
“Seymour Duncan pickups are amazing!!! These humbuckers give me a lot of tones, from warm jazzy to nasty gain and sustain. It’s amazing the feel and tone you get!!! I’m glad I’m working with them!!!”
Keep an eye out for Hedras and his band BlueROJO, coming to a town near you.

October was breast cancer awareness month and Seymour Duncan stepped up by giving away a Custom Shop ’78 Trembecker in pink to a randomly drawn forum member.  Christopher “supazar” Canavan of Coram, New York won the drawing and was very appreciative and said, “Thanks again Evan.  Thank you Seymour, Cathy and MJ.  This is a cause close to my heart.  I have had several women in my family affected by the disease and I lost my grandmother Nora to breast cancer in May of 1997.”
Breast cancer is a disease that has affected too many people within our Seymour Duncan community.  Let’s do what we can to build awareness around this disease.  It’s shocking to learn that research has found that 40% of all breast cancer cases in the U.S. could be prevented with lifestyle changes which includes exercise, proper diet and weight management.
What else can you do? Increase your awareness. Read about breast cancer.  Make a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, or one of the other worthy charities dedicated to wiping out this terrible disease.

Thank you to everyone who submitted photos on Facebook and tweeted us on Twitter to win our Halloween Boo Buckers!  We had a great time looking through your costumes and enjoyed all of your submissions.  It was very difficult to pick just 5 costume winners, but it had to be done.

Without further ado, here are the Facebook and Twitter winners:

Facebook:

• Nigel Langley
• Gary Foster
• Stephen Brennan
• Jack Williamson
• Jon Sullivan

Twitter:

• @touron11
• @frozensummers
• @richardfernands
• @tonefreqpodcast
• @GuitarPatrick

Congrats to our winners!  Here is a description of our Custom Shop ’78 Humbucker Model that these Boo Buckers are based off of.

Please stay tuned for more exciting news, tips, and giveaways.  Hope you had a spooky Halloween.

Happy Halloween! If you haven’t seen our Seymour Duncan Halloween Boo-Buckers yet, check them out in the post below.  We are giving away ten sets through Facebook and Twitter (check out the Facebook competition below).  You can enter both competitions to double your chances of winning.  Here is how to enter the Twitter contest that will run until Monday morning 6am PDT.  To enter, simply do the following:

1. Follow Seymour Duncan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/seymourduncan

2. Tweet this to us:

“Hey @SeymourDuncan, Happy Halloween!  I want to win Halloween Boo Buckers!  Give me! http://bit.ly/daa8IC #SeymourBoo”
Thanks for participating!  Have a great holiday weekend!

Just in time for Halloween, the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop has created ten sets of “Boo-Bucker” pickups. Throughout the weekend, ten lucky winners will receive a set of these brilliant humbuckers—a Custom Shop ’78 humbucker for the bridge and a Pearly Gates humbucker for the neck—wound by the legendary Maricela “MJ” Juarez of Seymour Duncan Custom Shop. To complete the spooky Halloween look, MJ dyed the bobbins orange and incorporated a jet black “Seymour Duncan” logo.

The ’78 Model is a recreation of a legendary low-output humbucker Seymour originally created for the high-flying soloists of the late ’70s and early ’80s. The Pearly Gates is a faithful recreation of the pickups in a certain ’59 Les Paul that helped lay the foundation of Texas blues-rock. Both pickups have Alnico-2 magnets and 4-conductor cable. And both are spoooooooky … in the Halloween Boo-Bucker set.

All you have to do to enter is upload a picture of yourself in a Halloween costume to the Seymour Duncan Facebook page.  Photos of Halloween costumes on your pets, your guitar, or your band are accepted as well!  Enter photos by Sunday, 6pm PDT.  Good luck!

Also, stay tuned this Halloween weekend for contests through the Seymour Duncan Twitter page.
Good luck!
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EDIT:
Happy Halloween!!!
Madame MJ/Master Pickup Winder to the Stars/Tone Clairvoyant Predicts Great Tone in Your Future.
Don’t forget to enter our Halloween Costume Contest on Facebook!