October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month when we are reminded of the devastating impact of this disease. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women with one-in-eight developing the disease in their lifetime. According to the Centers for Disease Control breast cancer is second leading cause of death in women (40,000 deaths per year) and leading the cause of death among Latina women and all women aged 25 to 50.
A joint study from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund found that 40% of all breast cancer cases in the U.S. could be prevented with lifestyle changes which included exercise, proper diet and weight management. If only there was more awareness…
One lucky winner will get the Pinkbucker. This contest is open to all Seymour Duncan forum members worldwide. The winner will be announced on Monday, November 1. One entry per member.
Enter here.

Adjusting Your Pickups: Fine-Tune Your Sound
Most guitars have screws around the pickups for adjusting pickup height. Most guitar factories adjust the pickups to a median height, but why not find the best height for your tone? While you can’t change the character of a pickup, you can make small adjustments that will fine-tune your sound.
A good place to start is about 1/8″ (about two pennies) away from the strings.
If you want more output, raise the pickup closer to the strings. But be careful; get too close and the pickup’s magnetic field can pull too hard on the strings causing an unpleasant sound and interfering with string vibration. If you need more output than that, you’ll need a higher output pickup.
If you want a softer sound, with less output, lower the pickup. Go too far away and the vibrating strings will barely disturb the magnetic field, and the quality of the sound will begin to suffer. If you want a cleaner, sweeter sound, it might be time for a new pickup.
If you want a little more bass, you can raise the bass side up and lower the treble side. More treble? You guessed it, vice versa.
There are other times to consider adjusting your pickup height: If something else has changed, what used to be a perfect pickup height may not be perfect anymore. Are you using different strings, or is your guitar set up with different action? Have your style, pedals, or amp changed? These are all times to consider tweaking your pickup height.

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Try this tip out and let us know what you think!

Thank you to all of you who participated in our Bass Player Live! online giveaway.  And big congrats to our two winners who will receive their choice of Seymour Duncan bass pickups:

• Lloyd Plum
• Timothy Brisson

Stay tuned for our Halloween Seymour Duncan giveaway this week!

Bass Player Live! 2010 starts today!  In addition to giving away Jaco Pastorius pickups, we are giving away Steve Harris pickups!  Just like the Jaco pickups, these Steve Harris pickups were wound by Seymour W. Duncan himself.  Read Seymour’s story about working with Steve Harris below. These pickups are one of a kind collectibles and we are giving them away at Bass Player Live! this weekend.  If you are in the LA area, find us at Bass Player Live! 2010 to enter the giveaway!

For those who can’t attend the event, don’t forget to enter our online competition here!

Follow us on www.twitter.com/seymourduncan as we live tweet from the event.  Tell us who you want to see!

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Making Pickups for Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris

By Seymour W. Duncan, as told to Bill Leigh

I’ve been working with Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris since the mid ’80s, through his tech, Michael Kenny, who’s also a bassist. We have made many pickups for Steve over the years and we still do to this day.

For Steve, I first made pickups with different specs for basses with different weights. Steve wanted his pickups to sound the same in the amp so he didn’t have to change the amp controls when changing basses. I had a formula I would use to determine what kind of winding would keep the same tone depending on the weight and particular wood. The heavier the bass, the brighter it was, so I’d make the pickups sound darker. The lighter the bass, the darker the sound, so I’d make the pickups brighter.

Steve always had a problem with sweating so much that he would corrode his instruments and short out his pickups. Plus, his heavy playing would sometimes break the pickups! In addition to making him new pickups, I suggested some ways to ground his instruments better. He was also having a problem with static on the pickguards. That kind of thing can happen if you’re moving around a lot, or wearing certain kinds of clothes, like leather. I told him to spray Static Guard laundry spray on a rag and rub it on the pickguard. It works.

Over time, the basses Steve used a lot became more consistent, and we developed a standard formula for his pickups: a good, clean, round, balanced sound.

Weekend Giveaway: Seymour Duncan Bass Pickup of YOUR choice!
This weekend, Seymour Duncan will be at Bass Player Live! For those of you who can’t attend the event, we wanted you to be able to participate in the action! So, we are giving away a set of Seymour Duncan Bass pickups of YOUR choice.
All you have to do to enter is fill out this survey. We are picking 2 winners to choose a set of Seymour Duncan bass pickups! Easy, right? The winners will be announced on Monday morning. Also, follow us on twitter.com/seymourduncan for live tweets from the event.
Good luck!





Contest Rules: Only one entry per person. Winner will be chosen at random. We will close the competition at 6pm PDT on Sunday. Custom shop pickups excluded.

Welcome to our brand spanking new Seymour Duncan blog!  Please come back often as we will be updating loads of guitar tips and tricks, interviewing Seymourized artists and giving away free stuff!
Tell us what you think!