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. I just like Alnico 8: it gives me a lot of power but a bit less than ceramic. The tone is very organic and, dare I say, pure, with huge mids, tight lows and soft highs (compared with Alnico 5 anyway!). The results? Amazing!

I started with the PATB-1 Alnico 8 in the bridge position of my Les Paul. The feel of the pickup in its regular configuration reminds me of the Seymour Duncan Custom 5 but a bit overwound with a little more output and more mids. The Custom 5 feels a bit scooped to me, and this pickup has more mids which aren’t just more pronounced but are also a bit more chewy and supple, making this pickup very easy playing and forgiving. The Alnico 8 magnet lets the mids get a bit tighter and with a bit more crunch, while the lows firm up a bit and the highs are still smooth and easy but with enough presence to cut through the mix. I love to use this pickup with either magnet for classic rock and old school metal. Maybe even some blues-rock or more modern metal, but that depends on your playing and amp of course.

By the way, here’s the original PATB-1 in action:
The PATB-2 is a completely different animal. I like to compare this pickup to the Duncan Distortion. The overall character is aggressive like the Distortion. The mids and lows are extremely punchy and tight, but they scream more on the Distortion where the PATB-2 has a bit more roar. The highs of the Distortion are also aggressive, tight and screaming, but the PATB-2 has softer highs, albeit a little more than the PATB-1. The unique coils and polepieces of the PATB series ensure an open tone even under extremely high gain. This pickup is very useful for the modern, new kinds of metal and rock.

But the pickup nut I am, I still wasn’t satisfied. In the spirit of the Seymour Duncan User Forum group, I decided to turn these pickups into a hybrid. This article isn’t the right place to explain how to make a hybrid, but sufficive to say, making the hybrids was a lot of fun. Usually, you take two pickups with a voicing you like, and a hybrid will match those voicings in one pickup and forgo with the features you are less fond off. For example, the 59/Custom Hybrid has the tightness of the Custom and the openness and airyness of the ’59. But this pickup was something completely different. It didn’t just have the chewyness of the PATB-1 and the output PATB-2. This hybrid had a huge, broad and dynamic tone. The dynamics are immensely sensitive. Hard or soft picking makes a huge difference, changing the entire voicing, not just the output. The airyness should not be confused with a lack of tightness, because this pickup is really tight if I want it to be.

The biggest surprise was when I used the second hybrid, using the same coils and magnet, in the neck of the Les Paul. The openness and airyness showed themselves again, and this pickup seems to feel right at home in the neck spot. Where I expected the tone to be extremely warm, bordering on mushy, this pickup has a great clarity combined with warmth. Leads are warm and smooth, cleans are lush and harmonically rich. The look of the PATB series humbuckers may not be for everybody, but the tone, the tone… These pickups are some of the finest Seymour Duncan has to offer. They may not be for everbody, but the players who chose to adopt these pickups will not be disappointed!

Want to know more about Alnico magnets? Here’s a video of Seymour Duncan explaining the differences.