It’s hard to believe that 2024 is already over! This year was full of exciting new releases, visits from special guests, incredible employee milestones, and more. Without further ado, here’s Seymour Duncan 2024—wrapped.

New Pickups

We kept busy in 2024, releasing new pickups that run the gamut from country to metal and everything in between. Here’s a look back on the new tones we unleashed in 2024. Check out the recap below, and to hear all of these pickups in action, watch the demo videos on our YouTube channel!

Brandon Ellis “Dyad” Parallel Axis

We kicked off the year with a new signature set from our Custom Shop: Brandon Ellis’ “Dyad” Parallel Axis. Designed with Brandon, Dyad combines the North coil of a Crazy 8 and the hotter South coil of a Parallel Axis™ Trembucker Distortion, along with the Alnico 2 bar magnet from an RTM. The result is a high output Humbucker with a sizzly bite and a super articulate pick attack.

“The Blonde Dot” Humbucker Set

Another Custom Shop offering, March saw the release of Joe Bonamassa’s “The Blonde Dot” Humbucker Set. “The Blonde Dot” is based on the P.A.F. humbuckers in his rare 1960 dot®-neck Gibson ES-335® with blonde finish. Joe describes the Alnico 2 neck pickup as “stratty and clear” and the Alnico 4 bridge pickup as “punchy and dark,” making a balanced set that he knew would sound good in any humbucker guitar.

Corey Beaulieu Damocles

Corey Beaulieu of Trivium is a longtime fan of Seymour Duncan Blackouts® Active Humbuckers, so when we started working on his signature set, our goal was to build upon what he already loved about Blackouts while crafting something uniquely his own. Released in April, The Corey Beaulieu Damocles™ Signature Blackouts® are tuned to a voicing specifically requested by Cory along with increased presence, balance, and clarity.

Eric Gales Signature Strat Set

Designed for Strat®-style guitars, The Eric Gales Signature Pickup Set delivers precise tone and dynamic expression. This April release is a lively set with A4 magnets and slightly overwound coils that ensure a perfect balance of vintage warmth and modern clarity.

alt.metal

Another April release, our alt.metal Blackout® active humbucker set was made for intricate, heavy riffs in lower tunings. Maintaining the massive crunch of our original Blackouts®, alt.metal enhances the low-end tightness, while the top-end has been refined for added cut without harshness.

Hot Chicken for Strat and Tele

In May, we delivered a double order of our Hot Chicken™ pickups. Available for both Telecaster® and Stratocaster®, these Stack® pickups were designed to meet the needs of modern country guitarists who want vintage twang, but need something more equipped for high gain applications.

Jeff Loomis Noumenon

Here’s one that no one saw coming—Jeff Loomis releasing his signature Noumenon™ passive humbuckers in late May. A call back to Jeff’s foundational experiences in sculpting his highly influential metal tone, which were forged by passive humbuckers, Noumenon™ delivers incredible dynamics and control. And, of course, powerful tone with a tight low end and smooth treble.

Phat Cat Silencer Vintage and Hot

June saw the release of two new offerings in our growing Silencer series: Phat Cat Silencer in Vintage and Hot voicings. Now, guitarists can enjoy our highly acclaimed P90 Silencer pickups in their humbucker-routed guitars!

Billy Gibbons Hades Gates™ Humbuckers and Red Devil™ for Tele®

The Reverend Billy F. Gibbons brought guitarists two new signature pickups in early September: Hades Gates™ Humbuckers and Red Devil™ for Tele®.

A hotter take on his popular Pearly Gates™, the new Hades Gates™ Humbuckers deliver Billy’s famed mid-forward punch with extra heat, while the Red Devil™ for Tele® delivers his hot Texas tone in a drop-in replacement for any Telecaster®.

The Rail Series: JB Rails, Jazz Rails, Nazgûl Rails, and Sentient Rails

September also saw the release of our exciting new Rail Series of humbuckers. Rail Series brings the popular rails treatment to some of our most popular humbuckers: JB Rails, Jazz Rails, Nazgûl Rails, and Sentient Rails. These pickups combine our most classic metal and hard rock tones with rail design for clarity, tightness, and sustain, perfect for high-gain applications and modern players.

Joe Bonamassa’s 1950 Broadcaster® Set

Our last release of the year was October’s Joe Bonamassa 1950 Broadcaster® Set. This set was modeled after Joe’s 1950 Fender Broadcaster®, which has a truly remarkable tone. Joe describes the neck pickup as bright and perfectly balanced with the punchy flat-pole bridge pickup. Authentic to Leo Fender’s original design, these pickups evoke the early days of blues, rock & roll, and country.

Other Cool Stuff!

New Pickup Covers for Popular Models

In 2024, we released brand new, ready-to-order cover options for a few of our most popular humbucker sets—our Hot Rodded Humbucker set, our Nazgul/Sentient set, and our Invader set. Classic cover options are still available, but now you can show off your personal style with Stargazer, Toxic Yellow, Crimson Red, Lime Green, and Frost White.

PowerStage in Black

The colorway that’s so good, we can’t keep it in stock! In late 2024, we released the PowerStage 100 Stereo in this stunning black finish and we immediately sold out, though some of our dealers may still have a few in stock. If you missed out of this run, don’t worry, we have more on the way!

Antiquity Strings

In 2024, we released our Antiquity Strings in Light and Extra Light. The perfect start to your signal chain, our Antiquity Strings cover the most popular modern gauges, but are pure nickel wound, which gives them a rich, warm tone—a crucial ingredient to the sounds of classic blues and rock & roll.

Camo Hats and Guitar Picks

It’s always fun for us to launch new merch, especially when the response is overwhelmingly positive! Two of our 2024 releases were especially big hits—the Seymour Duncan Camo Hat and our official Seymour Duncan guitar picks!

27 Custom Shop Runs

Headed by Derek Duncan, Our Custom Shop has delivered inventive, bespoke pickups to guitarists for decades. In recent years, we’ve offered special limited runs of pickups to guitarists. These are a fun way for us to show off some of our custom enclosures and sound signatures in small batches. And, considering they almost always sell out on the first day, it seems like guitarists are enjoying them, too!

Here are a few of our Custom Shop limited runs from 2024.

Crimson Red Invader Humbucker Set

Look familiar? Our first Custom Shop run of the year was our famed Invader Set under Crimson Red covers. These were such a hit and led to so many requests that we now have this exact combo—and several others—available ready-to-order on our website.

Lap Steel for Tele Lead

MJ—the heart of our Custom Shop—captured the emotive and haunting tone of a ’50s lap steel in a Tele lead pickup for this Custom Shop run. It was such a popular offering that we added the Lap Steel Lead for Tele to our Custom Shop lineup!

Signed Jared James Nichols Signature P90 Silencer

This was a fun one! In celebration of Jared James Nichols’ birthday, we were able to offer a few extra special signature JJN P90 Silencers—autographed by the man himself!

Blackened Duncan Distortion

With a powerful ceramic magnet and a hot wind, Duncan Distortion has been a go-to pickup for hard-hitting crunch rhythms and blazing lead tones since 1980, and we served it up “Blackened” in one of our Custom Shop runs this year.

Son of Slug for Strat (and Tele)

Our original Slug humbucker is a gnarly and insanely high-output humbucker that’s perfect for stoner and doom metal, and this year we were able to do Custom Shop runs of Slug – sized for both Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars. If you missed out on the drops, you’re in luck—both are available made-to-order through our Custom Shop.

Exciting Partnerships with Guitar Brands

We’re honored to work with so many remarkable guitar builders and manufacturers, providing pickups for their incredible guitars. We saw our pickups loaded into dozens of guitar models from some of our favorite brands, including Fender, Ibanez, and more.

A few notable releases include Fender’s blink182 collaborations in 2024. The Tom DeLonge Signature Starcaster was loaded with a single Duncan Custom in the bridge, while the Limited Edition Mark Hoppus Signature Jaguar Bass came equipped with our Quarter Pound split-coil P Bass pickups.

In the realm of jazz boxes, D’Angelico reintroduced their flagship Excel EXL-1 in January, a 17”-wide, 3”-deep single-cutaway archtop that comes loaded with a full-sized Seymour Duncan ‘59 Model humbucker.

ESP Guitars came out with their LTD Deluxe EC-01FT, one of 19 guitars added to their LTD Deluxe Series this year, back in February. It features 24.75” scale with a smooth set-thru heel construction and is loaded with our flexible and dynamic Custom 14, a new custom pickup designed exclusively for ESP.

Another February release was the Cort KX707 EverTune. Featuring our uber-popular Nazgûl/Sentient set, the KX707 EverTune features a gorgeous 5-piece roasted maple/walnut neck, stainless steel frets, an ebony fingerboard, and high-quality staggered locking tuners for ultimate tuning stability.

June saw Ibanez release a gorgeous new Grey Metallic finish for their AZ2402, which features our Hyperion humbuckers, and their AZ2204N, which comes with our Fortunata HSS pickups.

Also guitar released in June was the Charvel Pro-Mod Relic San Dimas® Style 1 HH FR PF, which Guitar.com called “near perfect” in their glowing review. Its worn-in feel and modern features make for an excellent axe, and the inclusion of our JB TB-4 in the bridge and ’59 SH-1N in the neck means it sounds great, too.

Nearly a year after they released their American Series Virtuoso, Jackson announced the new American Series Virtuoso HT back in August. As the name implies, the American Series Virtuoso HT is a hardtail version of the popular American Series Virtuoso, both of which come with our JB TB-4 in the bridge and our ’59 SH-1N in the neck.

Solar Guitars released their X1.6FRFBB Baritone+ six string baritone guitar in November. This metal machine boasts 22 frets, a 26.5” scale length, and our Duncan Solar+ (Plus) high gain pickups, which feature Alnico 8 magnets for maximum impact, grind and aggression.

In late December, Schecter released the C-1 Ink Bomb. The stunning new finish for the S-Style guitar is uniquely hand-splattered so each one is different. Adding to the high-contrast aesthetics are our alt.metal Blackouts, which are perfect for those intricate, heavy riffs in lower tunings.

Special Visitors

We were honored to be visited by dozens of artists and industry legends at our Santa Barabara office, including Brad Paisley, Don Felder, Darryl Jones, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Philip Sayce, Eric Steckel, Corey Beaulieu, Duff McKagan, Jeff Loomis, and even famed pickup winder Abigail Ybarra!

These special visitors didn’t only stop by to say hello—many of them filmed with us for our #RiffSchool and #MyDuncanMoment videos, which you might have seen on social media.

Here are just a few photos and videos from their visits.

Joe Bonamassa played his signature 1950 Broadcaster set

 

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Eric Gales showed off his signature pickups

 

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Darryl Jones of The Rolling Stones posed with the team

 

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Brad Paisley tried out our Hot Chicken for Tele set

 

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Eric Steckel spent time with our Custom Shop team

 

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Abigail Ybarra dropped by with her daughter

 

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Company Milestones

We’re proud to be the kind of business where people can build lifelong careers. In 2024, we celebrated Kevin Beller’s 45th anniversary at Seymour Duncan. Kevin is our esteemed VP of Engineering and is responsible for countless innovations in the guitar space.

A few of his designs include some of our most well-known and beloved pickups (including Nazgul / Sentient passive guitar pickups, APB-1 Active P-Bass pickup, Wavelength acoustic guitar pickup), amplifiers (our modular Convertible Amp and pedalboard-friendly PowerStage amplifiers), guitar pedals (805 Overdrive and Pickup Booster), and noiseless pickup designs (including the Stack Plus and P90 Silencer).

Looking Ahead to 2025

2024 was an incredible year for Seymour Duncan, and we already have so much in the works for 2025. To stay up-to-date with our new products, Custom Shop limited runs, company news, and more, join our email list. We’ll see you in the new year!

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