Timelines on celebrity pickups

[Mark Abbott]

I usually am suspicious of any company offers celebrity pickups who hasn’t got some sort of documented history with them. I have seen numerous Peter Green humbucker sets with different specs, while not wanting out of phase pickups it fuels my distrust.

I recently saw a comment about SD Jimmy Page set and to be honest I can’t pin point a time when Page started using Duncan pickups. I could be wrong, but I recall reading online (historically inaccurate) that the LZ guitar didn’t have the switching options and may have even had a T top humbucker, from the Norlin era which some people have some distain for.

The same can be said about the SD Jimi Hendrix pickups. Seymour really doesn’t say too much other than he wound a set of pickups and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity for Hendrix to try them. However we don’t really know what Hendrix thought of them, he could have treasured them or he could have smashed and burnt the guitar glad never to use those pickups again. Even construction wise, the wire would have been available, but the formers and magnets would have been an uncommon item back then. The question of what test equipment Seymour had available to him at the time also would have influenced his work.

I hope people don’t find this offensive (though some people seem to be born offended) but I’m after more of the back story and timelines.

Regards

Mark

[beaubrummels]

So, is there a question there, or are you just voicing your distrust of pickups sets that have an endorsement or history behind them?

Any Duncans with a celebrity name attached does have a documented history with that artist. You might want to do further reading.

Seymour wound humbuckers that were used in Page's guitar but they were installed later, after the peak of the LZ heyday.

It's true no one knows what Jimi thought about the pickups. But Duncan doesn't claim anything other than those are wound similarly to a set Seymour did that was used by Jimi in the mid 60's.

The Greenies are an approximation of the sound of that particular guitar, basically a set of aged PAFs with one reversed magnet. I don't believe Seymour wound anything for Peter Green directly or had his endorsement (but I could be wrong on that.). But that is also why they were never represented as 'The Peter Green Set'

If you want to try any of them, go for it. If you don't think they would work for you or do anything for your sound, skip 'em.

[JamesPaul]

I think if you go check the pickup descriptions on the main site, most give a year(s) when the pickups were first (re)wound/built. There are also some pics and background for a few, in blogs/articles on the main site.

There are also some that no direct relationship is claimed. The High Voltage and Green Magic come to mind as just being designed to give those tones.

[beaubrummels]

I think if you go check the pickup descriptions on the main site, most give a year(s) when the pickups were first (re)wound/built. There are also some pics and background for a few, in blogs/articles on the main site.

There are also some that no direct relationship is claimed. The High Voltage and Green Magic come to mind as just being designed to give those tones.

Actually, the High Voltage set IS a set the Custom Shop did for Angus Young. Darth got his facts from MJ directly.

https://darthphineas.com/2022/05/seymour-duncan-high-voltage/

[JamesPaul]

Actually, the High Voltage set IS a set the Custom Shop did for Angus Young. Darth got his facts from MJ directly.

https://darthphineas.com/2022/05/sey...-high-voltage/

Good to know and I appreciate the correction. Unlike the 78 Model, that does not appear to have carried over to the production description.

[Mincer]

I believe SD is very careful in their wording of the descriptions. There is a big difference in the ad copy for the YJM set, and the High Voltage set.

[Aceman]

Yeah - I'd be pretty comfortable that anything Seymour said is gospell about who & how it was done.

[JamesPaul]

All the info is on the main site. Let the student seek it out.

[Mincer]

Also, Seymour and MJ take meticulous notes on designs.

[Mark Abbott]

The reply I agree with most is that SD is being careful with his wording. I’m not here to demonise Seymour, I have had my share of SD pickups. Though I think I’d scream if I read someone talking about another set of Duane Allman Hot Atlanta or Fillmore pickups, knowing no one has actually measured them. I admire Jon at Throbak pickups for his efforts to educate his clientele, I don’t think anyone has gone to that much effort.

I get the impression that in the early days Seymour was largely over winding pickups for more output (which is fair enough as there was/is demand for it.) so I assumed the Hendrix pickups would be following this philosophy.

I’m not disparaging the Hendrix pickup set, I suspect they would have been better than the set that he originally put in Hendrix’s guitar, as he has had so much more experience since then. I don’t mention the JB humbucker as Jeff Beck does have history with Seymour.

The Page pickups are the ones I question, are they copies of pickups in Page’s vintage Les Paul’s (whole lotta Humbucker would suggest so), or the pickups Page likes in recent times?

SD Green set sounds good, but I don’t think it’s as authentic as the Bare Knuckle set (I thought they had some access to the guitar) or the Monty’s guitar set where he has had access to the guitar, and incorporates the formvar wire in the neck pickup and the pickup is wax dipped etc.

Anyway, thanks for your interest in my question, much appreciated.

Regards

Mark

[JamesPaul]

Only my opinion, but the Page pickups were uniquely wound by Seymour. Who knows if you ever heard them. I think they went in Jimmy's guitars after LZ made it big. beaubrummels noted that above. It does not imply they are poor pickups.

[JamesPaul]

I'll go rouge with my thoughts on the Green Magics. You know how to wind '59s. All that magic was a flipped wiring or mag '59, so how hard can it be? Flame off!

[freefrog]

I'll share my unrequested POV of already old fart, in the name of relativism.

The reply I agree with most is that SD is being careful with his wording. I’m not here to demonise Seymour, I have had my share of SD pickups. Though I think I’d scream if I read someone talking about another set of Duane Allman Hot Atlanta or Fillmore pickups, knowing no one has actually measured them. I admire Jon at Throbak pickups for his efforts to educate his clientele, I don’t think anyone has gone to that much effort.

As much as I respect Jon Gundry, I don't think he educates customers for free. IMHO, his educational videos are indirectly a way to prove how much care he puts in his pickups and to sensibilize to details that people would have neglected... which potentially justifies the high price of his products.

But many other makers don't put less care in their pickups and many of them have lower prices than Throbak's.

For example, Seymour has one of the Leesona 102 Gibson Winders but Duncan's wound on it are not as pricey as the Throbak PU's wound on the same machine.

I get the impression that in the early days Seymour was largely over winding pickups for more output (which is fair enough as there was/is demand for it.) so I assumed the Hendrix pickups would be following this philosophy.

Yes, there was a demand for it. Aftermarket pickups appeared in the late 70's / early 80's, when high gain amps didn't exist yet but while we were in the Fender CBS and Gibson Norlin era. To limit the costs, these brands mounted low resistance transducers, creating a market for more vintage and/or more high gain recipes (like the SSL1, SH1 or SH4, all meatier than CBS single coils or Norlin T-Tops) . I clearly remember my first Duncan flyer illustrating that +/- 40 years ago - and how we compared his pickups to those from DiMarzio or "Bill Lawrence", who did the same than Seymour for the same reasons.

I’m not disparaging the Hendrix pickup set, I suspect they would have been better than the set that he originally put in Hendrix’s guitar, as he has had so much more experience since then. I don’t mention the JB humbucker as Jeff Beck does have history with Seymour.

The Page pickups are the ones I question, are they copies of pickups in Page’s vintage Les Paul’s (whole lotta Humbucker would suggest so), or the pickups Page likes in recent times?

SD Green set sounds good, but I don’t think it’s as authentic as the Bare Knuckle set (I thought they had some access to the guitar) or the Monty’s guitar set where he has had access to the guitar, and incorporates the formvar wire in the neck pickup and the pickup is wax dipped etc.

AFAIK, most winders sell sets "inspired by" famous artists. For example, there's boatloads of "Green sets", creating the OOP sound in various ways: Some include a reverse wound neck PU, some are sold with a simply flipped mag in it...

Few of these artisans have actually worked on Greeny. And even though Jim Wagner, at WCR, has measured the specs of this axe @ the Dallas Guitar Show, can we claim his set is more authentic than others, while he winds humbuckers by hands and while P.A.F.'s were machine wound? This objection stands for Bare Knuckle as well, albeit all the winders that I mention offer really fine PU's, IMHO.

Weither or not he has met famous people / instruments in person, any winder only offers HIS take on guitar pickups and that's the interest of these products IMHO : each artisan is like a master cooker with his own idea of each "recipe" and this diversity is a bonus for our musical life...

Last but not least: for any brand, advertising is advertising and I humbly think most customers do spontaneously relativize it. :-)

I don't plan to argue about these statements: life is too short. At least I'll have devoted my morning coffee time to a message that I hope potentially constructive... ;-)

I wish you all a nice day and much pleasure with music, whatever pickups you use.

[maug2122]

Yeah - I'd be pretty comfortable that anything Seymour said is gospell about who & how it was done.

I seen the pictures of Seymour Duncan giving his pickups to Jimi and they're not a photo shopped pictures.

Jimi probably had Abigail Ybarra back engineer Seymour's pickups back at the winding both at the Fender plant.

[Mincer]

Let's not forget that back then, the idea of replacement pickups was really unheard of. That anyone currently working today actually talked to those legends is pretty special.