What products are Duncan working on for the future?

[DreX]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

Believe it or not, us high gain guys can absolutely hear the difference in woods and pickups in the same way a jazz guy can. I suspect our ears are tuned to what we play, so I am far more critical of a metal or high gain tone than a jazz or classic rock tone.

I'll make a point to try high gain when I A/B pickups next time, although with this being said, it makes me wonder what the tonal appeal of a 48k humbucker would be.

[Rockstar216]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

And where did I even ask 'about making a PAF clone, not only in this thread, but in ANY thread since August 2006?????

I never said you did. I was responding to your question with another question. I welcome different flavors of all pups even if they aren't my thing.

Honestly i'm past the conventional designs of pickups wether they are Metal pups or P.A.Fs and more interested in future designs that implement new ideas and improve upon what is already out their.

[Rockstar216]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

I should probably note, the metal pickups (SLUG/Black Winter) are almost exclusively developed from a rogue new products team that operates outside the normal new products team. So, it's not a matter of deciding to do vintage or metal pickups, we really are doing more for each concurrently. There are some things being planned that I've seen some of the forum guys asking for a long time that may be coming to be available this year. I'm excited about that but it's a bit too early to be more specific than that.

I'm pretty sure at this point SLUG will not be Custom Shop. You can likely expect the price to be somewhere between a JB and a CS pickup.

Thats great to hear. Not that I don't appreciate all the other recent releases I just want to see or hear about something that new and innovative.

[ExplorersRock]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

Depends does the world REALLY NEED another P.A.F clone?

Serve returned! And quite handily I might add.

[darthphineas]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

Does ANYONE else want to see something released as part of the standard line up between a custom and jb other than me? The jb/c hybrid is already an idea to use.

That's a good point. Even though I have a home made one, many people don't want to break open a pickup and would like options like that. And that shouldn't have to be a CS option. All the parts are on the production floor to keep the cost down and the sales up for those types of options. Guys have been asking for that for some time now.


Sent from my armored battle station using Tapatalk

[ExplorersRock]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

I wanted to add some thoughts but didn't have time earlier. Please allow me to elaborate on them here.

Does the world REALLY need another Death Metal p'up?

Depends does the world REALLY NEED another P.A.F clone?

And where did I even ask 'about making a PAF clone, not only in this thread, but in ANY thread since August 2006?????

Pepe, come on. You asked a rhetorical question intended to make the statement that you find this pickup unappealing as the over-saturated market needs no more options. Rockstar216 answered in-kind by utilizing another rhetorical question to illustrate that the PAF-Clone-market could have the same statement made about it. He was showing the ridiculousness of your statement via a reductio ad absurdum. And as my previous point stated, serve returned! I'll take it one step further: does the world REALLY need another signature pickup/stratocaster pickup/telecaster pickup/broadcaster clone? All of these specific groupings are well represented. No one needs more, but the opportunity to explore our tonal options and try new things allows us to find a tone that better suits our palate. You mag swap to tweak the final product to your taste, do we need another mag-swap pickup suggestion? Hell, I was convinced that the Burstbucker 3 was the bridge pickup for me. And then along came the SH-18b, WLH. God bless Seymour! You get my point. Game, set, match.

I'm not even saying I understand metal players, I don't, but on the other hand, saying that metal players are highly critical of gear plays to my statement that amps and pedals are more crucial to metal tone than pickups relative to other genres. Blues players sometimes pride themselves on an attitude that "tone is in the fingers" and that the gear itself doesn't matter.

Thou accursed cork-sniffer, from the depths of Hell, I stab at thee! Seriously, that was pretty condescending. I agree, you don't understand metal players! No metal player worth their salt would disagree that the "tone is in the fingers." Different metal guitarists have different approaches. My palm muting has to change when i play Megadeth vs. Metallica. Their approach toward strum patterns differs as well. Style-to-style is different too. Thrash is not the same animal as Death, Doom, or Nu Metal. Trust me when I say that most metal players I know have specifics about their instruments no different than the blues guys I know. It's just a different style.

That's fairly vague, and the vagueness lends to my assertion that the finer nuances of aftermarket pickups are immaterial when you're dealing with metal levels of gain. What are the qualities of a "good" metal pickup?

I think that's a fair question, so I'll elaborate on what I like in a metal pickup. Before I get started, I should mention that my main style is rock/hard-rock/classic rock. I use three main pickups in the bridge for that tone: the SD WLH SH-18b, SD APH-1b AIIPro, and the Burstbucker 3. I also use the Custom, Custom 5, Custom 8, and the Antiquity HB (this one is great for classic rock). Unless I want to play really-heavy rock or metal, I prefer moderate output pickups with no more than a slight bump in output. To me it has a more open sound that allows more texture to come out at lower gain/saturation levels. I like a little bit of grit, dirt, and slight loose-type-sound throughout my normal tone. But when I want to play metal, that changes. To my ears those open-textured sounds get muddled and unclear. And any looseness becomes woofy.

So when I go metal (and I should state that I am thrash-style player with a slight leaning towards Megadeth-type tone), My three main factors are tight, clean, and sharp. I want tight articulation that keeps the notes focused and allows each to be heard clearly under heavy gain. By clean, I mean there is no muddled textures, no grit, no dirt, with great string-to-string seperation, especially when clean! I hate metal pickups that don't clean up well and lack a certain "ring" to their notes. And finally, I want a sound that cuts through. No woofiness or massive amounts of bass. Metallica (to my ear) has more scoop and thus more bass. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not my personal taste.

I have a Black Winter set that is awesome, but has a little more clutter and bass than I prefer. Still, very awesome tone, and it sounds great for Metallica IMHO. My favorite metal pickup is hands-down the Nazgul. It has all the qualities I mentioned above, and one magical one. While a lot of metal pickups crank-up the output to achieve their goal, the Nazgul has just enough extra output. It goes right to where you need a good swift kick and no further. This allows for more clarity and character, making more of the (WAIT-FOR-IT) guitarists individual playing style to come through from their fingers. I am eagerly awaiting a six-string version to put into my Gibson Explorer. The 500T is good, but hotter and not as much feel comes through. I hope this answers your question. POST ON, MY BLUES AND METAL BROTHERS!

[Jocelyn]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

Does ANYONE else want to see something released as part of the standard line up between a custom and jb other than me? The jb/c hybrid is already an idea to use.

I would... Something like a JB light / or say a JB Pearly gates hybrid.

I am not metal player. But I used to listen to a lot of metal in the past. It is just not waht I wanna play . I would prefer more stuff like vintage output and medium output stuff. More tele and strat pickups. Especially tele. But I do understand Metal players too need pickups, to suit their styles more, and need flavors of them just like diff flavors of the PAF. The argument that you can play Metal with PAF style pickups does not hold in IMO, Of course sure you can, a good buddy plays Slayer with a strat with single coils, and he sounds very very good. But then there is a demand for pickups to suit metal better, and only some playing metal would know how it would work for them.

[xxxplorer]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

I want a SLUG. Take my money now.

[ItsaBass]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

I look forward to the new stuff every year.

What I'd like to see in the near future:

- Strat and Tele pickups that are built like P90s (Fralin SP42 and SP43 copies)
- A pickup that looks like humbucker, but sounds like a P90 (DiMarzio Bluesbucker copies)
- A humbucker set (or two or three) that is truly trebly and attenuated on the bottom end. (Think Humbucker from Hell, Super 2, EJ Custom.)

And what would really be cool would be more options on regular production pickups, or minor variations on them. For instance:

- An alternate set of Seth Lovers that are built around A4 magnets.
- An alternate Seth Lover pickup that is wound somewhere in between a Seth neck and bridge. Two matching Seths with an average of the current neck and bridge winds would sound better than the current calibrated set IMHO. For instance, instead of having the neck's resonant peak at 8Khz, and the bridge's at 6 KHz, go for a non-calibrated set with both pickups at 7 Khz. (Not really well thought out numbers - just an illustrative example.) This, together with the A4 option, would make the Seth set not only even sweeter sounding (subjectively), but even more authentic (objectively), as randomly matched neck/bridge sets were the norm, and A4 magnets were used in 70 percent of P.A.F.s.
- A Twang Banger that has the "modern" stagger for a plain 3rd string (no way in hell one measly magnet substitution should make this a $140 Custom Shop job)
- In the same vein as the above, how about a Stag Mag that has the modern stagger?
- For that matter, any Fender-style pickup should be available with the modern stagger at no additional cost, in addition to the old-school stagger and the no stagger options that are already there on many singles.

I like what SD has, but I also go elsewhere for pickups...quite often. I would pretty much an exclusive SD user if these things were in the lineup.

[orpheo]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

When a couple of guys were in SB a couple of weeks ago, we were allowed to try the Sludgebucker of whatever it's called. It's got SO MUCH clarity. Sure it's super hot but it's not overwound. or at least, doesn't 'sound' overwound. It's just a super, super, super hot pickup. I recall Derek just laughing at the idea. It was just a bit of fun, but it turned out to be such a fun pickup: it sounded really great. I don't play like Keith (technique nor style). I'm much more 'vintage' oriented (70ies and 80ies) and it worked super for my style as well...

I really hope they're gonna release the fullshred/JB hybrid. I demoed that pickup and I got some great responses from the fellows who tried it. It's got more clarity than the custom/jb. not brightness, but clarity, articulation and the harmonics... oh baby those harmonics just POP. I love that pup to death. it's my main, to-go pup. I love it with an alnico 2, 5 or 8.

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

A couple of points that were missed:

1. The quick-connect system has been around for a long time. No disrespect to SD, but EMG had been using it for at least 10 years prior. Yes, the Liberator system is different than the EMG system, which can be viewed as being innovative on those differences, but it still falls under the classification of "quick connect". It's not an incorrect statement per se, it's simply worded incorrectly.

2. I have yet to see Metal players bash non-Metal players as vehemently as the non-Metal players bash the Metal players. From choice of amps to tones to guitars and their shapes and woods, the Puritans seem to always feel "Led By The Spirit" to voice their condescending opinion on how much better their choice of music is. Words like "honest" and "pure" are reserved for their particular forte`, while Metal players, who are generally well-versed in a much wider range of musical styles, as well as musical theory, are denounced as knuckle-dragging CroMags who only chug-a-chug and jig-a-jug in between meedlies through a RectumFryer with all the knobs turned fully clockwise.

Perhaps it's high time Metal players join together against the non-Metal players with the same level of condescension?

Nah. The interwebs could not withstand the onslaught, and would collapse under the crushing stampede of the War Horses as the Puritans were trampled underfoot.


3. Innovation is not a "must". Not every new product has to be innovative, it merely has to be not the same as any of the old products. Innovation is nice, and one can always resort to the lowest definition of "Innovation" for marketing purposes (i.e. "doing the same thing you've always done, but in a slightly different way") - "we wound these pickups while not listening to the radio, so there's no external influence on the tone", that sorta thing - but it is not mandatory. If one can have continued success without a new product, I see nothing wrong with that. If you have made the Industry Standard for years already, there's some guarantee of continued success. New-and-different for the sake of New-and-different is not Innovation.
The TripleShot was definitely innovative.

[Rockstar216]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

When a couple of guys were in SB a couple of weeks ago, we were allowed to try the Sludgebucker of whatever it's called. It's got SO MUCH clarity. Sure it's super hot but it's not overwound. or at least, doesn't 'sound' overwound. It's just a super, super, super hot pickup. I recall Derek just laughing at the idea. It was just a bit of fun, but it turned out to be such a fun pickup: it sounded really great. I don't play like Keith (technique nor style). I'm much more 'vintage' oriented (70ies and 80ies) and it worked super for my style as well...

Does it compare to a XL or L 500 or maybe L-90 in terms of clarity and output? I was saving up for a set of those but might look toward the Slug.

[ExplorersRock]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

I have yet to see Metal players bash non-Metal players as vehemently as the non-Metal players bash the Metal players. From choice of amps to tones to guitars and their shapes and woods, the Puritans seem to always feel "Led By The Spirit" to voice their condescending opinion on how much better their choice of music is. Words like "honest" and "pure" are reserved for their particular forte`, while Metal players, who are generally well-versed in a much wider range of musical styles, as well as musical theory, are denounced as knuckle-dragging CroMags who only chug-a-chug and jig-a-jug in between meedlies through a RectumFryer with all the knobs turned fully clockwise.

Perhaps it's high time Metal players join together against the non-Metal players with the same level of condescension?

I would agree with this wholeheartedly. I might point out that I know more metal guys who can play blues than blues guys who can play metal. As the Dr. points out above, who is looking down their nose at who, and which side demonstrates more versatility in their musical range? Haters gonna hate I guess.

[dominus]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

Haters gonna hate I guess.

[orpheo]

Re: What products are Duncan working on for the future?

Does it compare to a XL or L 500 or maybe L-90 in terms of clarity and output? I was saving up for a set of those but might look toward the Slug.

Totally different. And when I mean totally it's like formula 1 versus indie 500. both fast, but really different animals all together. The slug is much thicker with good note separation. the XL500 is extremely articulated and extremely, extremely sensitive. The XL500 would be the formula 1: you need great chops to keep this beast in line. The Slug is much more relaxed and loose. Not loose as in saggy loose, but in its character. The XL500 is my favorite pickup by far for a bridge because it works so extremely well with the volume and tone pot. It goes from cutting, crunchy and biting to fluid with enough brightness to cut through, to 'sledgehammer'. The Slug isn't like that at all... Love both, though



PS: when did this become a metalbashing thread?! Some of the NICEST guys I've met, ever, play almost exclusively metal and their playing chops are amazing. So clean and tight and whatnot. I mean, Keith Merrow is one of the nicest, kindest and most gifted guys I've met. Ever. And I can list a dozen more. Let's value people on who they are, not the music they play.