Category Archives: News

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…

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.

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.

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.

Congratulations to Aaron Williams winner of the fall 2012 Seymour Duncan Bass Scholarship at Musicians Institute!
Aaron, from Durango, Colorado, says: “Thank you very much for the opportunity and the reward. Bass playing is my passion, and I am very excited to see my dreams unfold right in front of my eyes.”

We guitar players are strange creatures, aren’t we? We exhibit a lot of habits, behaviors, and superstitions that other people – even other musicians – find odd. We use weird descriptive terms like “woody,” “dry,” and “icepicky” to describe sounds. We say to each other “tone is in the hands” while spending fortunes on equipment. We believe in mojo.

One of my Les Pauls was in need of new pickups, and I decided to step out of my comfort zone. I usually get PAF-style pickups and I occasionally go a bit hotter, but I decided to try the Seymour Duncan PATB-1 and PATB-2 pickups. I asked Seymour Duncan to change the magnets though. Instead of the Alnico 5 for the PATB-1 and the ceramic for the PATB-2, I chose Alnico 8 magnet bars for both.

Kids have an amazing ability to absorb and learn at a speed that’s nearly unheard of for adults. Some kids are just pure naturals at playing guitar and at a young age they can make seasoned guitarists’ jaws drop against the floor. In this article we look at some kids who had exceptional playing ability well beyond their years.

In the last article, we got our first look at a true five-throw switch, with two poles. This allowed us to create some different wiring schemes for a Stratocaster, rather than just the standard one. This week, we’re going to go a step further and look at a true “super switch.”

There are two types of Telecaster lover. The first insists on vintage twangy purity all the way, and won’t put anything in their Tele other than the pickups Leo intended. The second type demands more from their beloved Tele: more output, more harmonics, more mids and lows, and more of that raunchy attitude that only a hot-rodded Tele can deliver.