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I've been using Duncan pickups for over 20 years, but unfortunately the last two years have revealed major issues with products bought new.
Almost two years ago I got a Hot Rails bridge, that turned out to be microphonic. Got it replaced, no issues so far.
A few months ago I got a Full Shred trembucker. Noticed it was prone to feedback, due to its inherently bright EQ, so I tried amp and noise gate settings to no avail. Brought the guitar to my tech, and it turns out the pickup wasn't potted. My tech got to it, brought the guitar back today, so I still have to play it my rehearsal to see if it has been fixed.
The last drop for me was a brand new Lil '59 neck I bought about twoo weeks ago. I got it wired for series/parallel switching, and last week at rehearsal when in series there was hardly any volume, but in parallel it worked fine. Got it to my tech, and while multimeter readings are around 5 ohms in parallel, in series readings are around 1,5/2 ohms. Since cables are fine, it should be an internal issues, but since it can't be opened, I have to buy a new one and replace it.
It would be all fine and dandy if I lived in the USA, since SD would probably acknowledge the issues and replace the pickups at no charge
But unfortunately I live in Portugal, Europe, and there's no official SD dealership here, so I have used german stores to get the pickups I want.
Since a few years back I never had any issues, has anything changed in the manufacting process? If my issues concerned 3 pickups of the same model, bought at the same time, it could be a production batch defective. But since that's not the case, it seems these issues come up avross the board.
Unfortunately, all of this leads me to question if I should stay faithful to SD, since I really like the tone, or change to a different brand. As a matter of fact, my tech told me other clients have had the same issues with other SD pickups.
At least some words from someone in the company would be nice. I will also e-mail the company through its official contacts, so that these news get through somehow.
Almost two years ago I got a Hot Rails bridge, that turned out to be microphonic. Got it replaced, no issues so far.
A few months ago I got a Full Shred trembucker. Noticed it was prone to feedback, due to its inherently bright EQ, so I tried amp and noise gate settings to no avail. Brought the guitar to my tech, and it turns out the pickup wasn't potted. My tech got to it, brought the guitar back today, so I still have to play it my rehearsal to see if it has been fixed.
The last drop for me was a brand new Lil '59 neck I bought about twoo weeks ago. I got it wired for series/parallel switching, and last week at rehearsal when in series there was hardly any volume, but in parallel it worked fine. Got it to my tech, and while multimeter readings are around 5 ohms in parallel, in series readings are around 1,5/2 ohms. Since cables are fine, it should be an internal issues, but since it can't be opened, I have to buy a new one and replace it.
It would be all fine and dandy if I lived in the USA, since SD would probably acknowledge the issues and replace the pickups at no charge
But unfortunately I live in Portugal, Europe, and there's no official SD dealership here, so I have used german stores to get the pickups I want.
Since a few years back I never had any issues, has anything changed in the manufacting process? If my issues concerned 3 pickups of the same model, bought at the same time, it could be a production batch defective. But since that's not the case, it seems these issues come up avross the board.
Unfortunately, all of this leads me to question if I should stay faithful to SD, since I really like the tone, or change to a different brand. As a matter of fact, my tech told me other clients have had the same issues with other SD pickups.
At least some words from someone in the company would be nice. I will also e-mail the company through its official contacts, so that these news get through somehow.
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