Sticky for list of Duncans that are the same wind with different magnets?
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beaubrummels
Well-known member
Just curious, when did you buy yours? (Wondering if they changed the recipe. There was a custom shop first run, then production. Stock, they should be rough cast, which is part of how they get their texture and complexity and work so well split, parallel and out of phase.)
To the JB-Distortion question...
I've tried the JB with several different magnets (I believe they were A2, A5, UOA5, A8), and I've tried the Distortion with those same magnets (including the ceramic) in the SAME guitar with nothing else changed. I could never get the two pups to sound the same. The JB always sounded like a JB with that annoying upper mid hump no matter what magnet I tried in it. The Distortion sounded different with different magnets but it NEVER sounded like a JB!
To my ears, the JB and the Dist could not be the same pup.
I've tried the JB with several different magnets (I believe they were A2, A5, UOA5, A8), and I've tried the Distortion with those same magnets (including the ceramic) in the SAME guitar with nothing else changed. I could never get the two pups to sound the same. The JB always sounded like a JB with that annoying upper mid hump no matter what magnet I tried in it. The Distortion sounded different with different magnets but it NEVER sounded like a JB!
To my ears, the JB and the Dist could not be the same pup.
DeathMetalRob
New member
Would I be correct to say that magnets make no difference to resistance?
^ Correct. Resistance is the measure of what the wire dimension and length are. The magnet will change the pickup tone......and output too if you go from one on the weaker end to say an A8 or Ceramic.
None of the mag swaps from A2 through 5 have done anything other than eq shifts to my ears.....even to A3 which is a weak magnet.
None of the mag swaps from A2 through 5 have done anything other than eq shifts to my ears.....even to A3 which is a weak magnet.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
Did you buy used? Because even the web site has rough cast in the specs:
"The recipe for this pickup set begins with a rough cast alnico 5 magnet, plain enamel wire, and Seymour’s unique winding pattern. The bridge is a vintage-hot 8.78k DC resistance and the neck is similarly beefy at 8.20k. The rough cast magnets add warmth and balance so everything sounds bigger. What is sonically unique about the Whole Lotta Humbucker pickups is the way that they push your amp and add a very slight natural compression and sustain to your sound."
https://www.seymourduncan.com/single-product/whole-lotta-humbucker?pa_strings=6&pa_position=set,set
FWIW - I absolutely love the box-stock WLH. I’ve got one in my northern hard-ash strat with a non-locking trem and it just works everywhere. Surprisingly warm and smooth where one would realistically expect it to be thin and shrill. Lows are soft, but not flubby or mushy. I know pickups are 100% guitar and amp dependent - a pickup that sounds killer in one guitar through a specific amp can sound like ass in another piece of wood plugged into another amp. But the WLH really has my attention. I thought I had found my ‘grail’ pickup when I swapped an unoriented rough A5 in a ‘Custom’ wind - but A/B’d against a box stock WHL - I prefer the WLH.
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Clint 55
OH THE DOUBLE THICK GLAZE!
The wlh and ant were new. They lie. I might be forgetting one too. Lew was saying that the majority of his ants came with rcs tho.
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Rex_Rocker
Well-known member
The wire insulation is clearly different. The JB and the Distortion both have the standard copper-y-looking one, and the Black Winter has bright red insulation.
frankfalbo
In Fluence Y'all
This is true. I did this while I was an employee so it can be considered canon. At the time, as well as now, I've always been of the opinion that the company should have the right to trade secrets. Now that I haven't worked there for some years (and to make matters more complicated I work for a competitor) I still believe that to be the case. So what I do is sometimes I confirm (or correct) statements that people make, but only based on information that has been shared before by Duncan employees, whether myself during my employment, or by others.
In this case, yes I had felt it was important to make people know that the FS neck isn't the same wind as the Jazz. But we at some point confirmed that the Full Shred bridge is part of the Custom wind family. And if anything, it's a testimonial to how "dialed in" that Custom wind is, that it can be used for all the Custom magnet swaps AND the Full Shred's very different magnetic circuit, and have such distinctly different and usable sounds between them all.
The A2Pro/Jazz thing was already confirmed, neck and bridge, and then of course that the A2Pro Slash is completely unique, different kind of wire even. That's all stuff we said when it was launched.
For the others, I heard through the grapevine that someone from the company had confirmed the answer on the JB/Distortion/Invader but I have not seen it first hand, so I still remain silent on that. I must admit watching people on both sides of that argument act like they are 100% convinced that they either are, or are not the same wind has me chuckling sometimes. Obviously only one answer can be true, but furthermore passive wire wound pickups have like a 5% tolerance at least. So unless/until someone wants to do what Seymour did back in the day, and physically unwind some coils taking notes at every turn, you can't say you know.
My advice for everyone on both sides is to argue the point like you might be wrong, and be prepared to be wrong haha.
Well, I think it was originally in the context of magnet swapping to get other models. The idea was that since the Custom was like that, what if all other SD pickups were just a few different coils with the magnets swapped? Turns out, that's not the case at all.
Well magnet swapping, I think, started with people just experimenting. I don't think anyone was trying to find a secret formula as much as a new sound different that what they had, without spending a lot of money.
I don't recall the making of hybrids anything other than people just experimenting at first. Maybe they stumbled on something and wanted confirmation, but I think the initial drive was just curiosity.
I don't recall the making of hybrids anything other than people just experimenting at first. Maybe they stumbled on something and wanted confirmation, but I think the initial drive was just curiosity.
Luke Duke
PRSlustologist
Right, you were a member in the old days when the C5 was something we had to build because it wasn't offered. The reception was warm enough SD made it a standard offering.
I also remember the MONSTER BachToRock thread about Hybrids and SD saw the desire was there for that pickup and decided to make it. That thread was around the better part of 10yrs I think.
Lucas
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