What SD Pickup Is This?

[Negroni77]

Hi Guys,

Just to give you guys a little more info on the pickup... I recently purchased this pickup and installed it into my guitar. It reads 14.68 with perfectly balanced coils. The magnet is an A2. Seymour himself recognized it while he doesn't have specific details.

I play it through a vintage 68 Marshall Super Lead and it is real bright and wood with a 250k pot. It is very alive sounding. Feel free to ask any questions...

[Artie]

Welcome to the forum, and cool forum name. Have you ever had a Negroni? Equal parts: gin, vermouth rosso, and Campari. Supposedly kicks ass.

[Negroni77]

Thank you! I love a good Negroni. That is the mix. I recommend it.

[Securb]

Hi Guys,

Just to give you guys a little more info on the pickup... I recently purchased this pickup and installed it into my guitar. It reads 14.68 with perfectly balanced coils. The magnet is an A2. Seymour himself recognized it while he doesn't have specific details.

I play it through a vintage 68 Marshall Super Lead and it is real bright and wood with a 250k pot. It is very alive sounding. Feel free to ask any questions...

Welcome to the forum it is cool to get a hands-on view from someone playing a piece of Ed's gear.

[Negroni77]

Thanks Securb! Good to be here. I just got the pickup installed today, so I'm still adjusting to it. So far, I like it much better than a SH-5, also it is not as bright. The SH-5 causes ear fatigue after awhile (to me at least). This pickup just feels like everything is pushed forward. With a 500k pot, I think it would be too bright though.

[STLMTLHD79]

Sounds like the pickup that he would eventually use around Diver Down/1984 (Custom with A2 mag), which would become the Custom Custom.

[Negroni77]

I thought it would sound like a custom custom too but this pickup is just so much punchier. In the same guitar, the custom custom was flat sounding and a bit mushy. That is just me though...

[Negroni77]

I would recommend a JB with a short A2 over a custom custom.

[gsammo79]

You should throw together a little demo video and let us hear it

[Masta' C]

14.7K and A2 suggests it's possibly the O.G. "Custom Custom"...very nice!

Interesting that you think it would possibly be too bright with 500K pots.

Can I ask how you came to own this beauty? Definitely a cool find!

[Negroni77]

Give me a few days, and I will post a clip!

[freefrog]

I thought it would sound like a custom custom too but this pickup is just so much punchier. In the same guitar, the custom custom was flat sounding and a bit mushy. That is just me though...

To me, what you've got is an early Custom Custom, as supposed above, and the difference in tone is a question of era: IME, the very first Duncan's were wound differently with different parts, hence similar or same theoretical / measured specs but a different sound...

I've joined this forum on the same basis 12 years ago, after having got a couple of NOS early zebra P.A.F. clones whose measured specs and square paper sticker were saying "59" (IOW: "SH1", and both with the oval Seymourized stickers also shown in my avatar, which suggests it wasn't yet a label for rewound pickups, as stated earlier in this topic, but simply a way to mention they were the very first Duncan's, way before the use of engraved baseplates).

Anyway: welcome to the forum, thx for your contribution and enjoy! :-)

[Negroni77]

Hey guys, I hope every one had a happy new year.

So, I recorded a few clips with my iPhone, but they sound like crap. It really needs to be properly mic'ed to get the tone I hear standing in front of the cab. You will not be inspired by them. However, I can say after a few weeks of playing, it is great. Punchy and woody as I mentioned (like VH2).

I can't reallly speak to the history surrounding rewinds with SD pickups, but my pickup started out as a Gibson T-top that was rewound to have a reading of around 14.6k by Seymour. In terms on the tone, it doesn't have the softness of a custom custom. I think part of the reason is that it has a longer A2. The shorter A2 in my experience is less punchy and cutting.

[freefrog]

I can't reallly speak to the history surrounding rewinds with SD pickups, but my pickup started out as a Gibson T-top that was rewound to have a reading of around 14.6k by Seymour. In terms on the tone, it doesn't have the softness of a custom custom. I think part of the reason is that it has a longer A2. The shorter A2 in my experience is less punchy and cutting.

Thx for sharing.

So, it has two "T" capital letters on top of its coils?

Anecdotically, I wouldn't tend to attribute the difference with a Custom Custom to a specific part of the PU nor to a single characteristic of this part. According to their origin and age, long as well as short AlNiCo magnets can give rather different tones, whatever is their alloy... and in my understanding / IME, enough details have changed these last decades in materials + structure of pickups to make them different even when they perpetuate a same name. YMMV. :-)

[Negroni77]

Yes the pickup has 2 capital T letters on each coil. FWIW, experimenting with different magnets with 70s era SD pickups has been interesting. Using Throbak magnets, the short and long A2 magnets had noticeably different tonal character in the same pickup, much to my surprise.

Anyway, yes I think you make a good point about not attributing tonal differences to a single part. I don't actually know much more about the pickup other than the resistance, and magnet. I am sure there are other aspects of the pickup that are beyond my knowledge of pickup design.