59/custom hybrid praise

gimmieinfo

New member
As you may have seen, i just went thru a whole thing here trying to replace the super D in my HSS strat and bought a dimarzio 36th that i just hated. Then as i mentioned, i decided to put this 59/C H i had in as i had a while back, but while at that time i really loved it in many ways, it has some issues that bothered me enough to rip it out and go back to the super D. But I thought the magnet wasn't the original because at some point while in the parts drawer i had robbed the A5 to try in something else, and when i tried it again later on i put what i thought was the original back in. Long story short, this morning i started to think i might be wrong and it was NOT the original mag and searched the parts drawer and found what i believe IS the stock mag due to some scribbling on it. So i put that in and replied here in that other thread to say what i did. I don;t know what that mag was, could have been anything as i have a bunch of them that the markings worse off of in the parts drawer.

But i just had to start this thread simply to say, damn this pickup is good !!! I mean really really good, or to be more precise, seriously the best HB i have ever tried. Not kidding here. Granted, i'm mainly a single coil man for at least the last 40 years, but in all that time i HAVE used a number of HB's. I never seemed to get along with duncans aside from a few years of JB use in a HSS in the 80's. But man has this given me a whole new respect for SD!

It's kinda hard to explain why this pickup is so good, but i'll try. First thing is the harmonic complexity. At times it almost sounds like theres some sort of modulation effect going on as the harmonics swirl all over the place. No other HB i've had did this to this degree. Then theres the sustain. Hold a note and this thing breaks into harmonic feedback at the drop of a hat with any decent amount of gain. Then theres that squishy feel and that transparent midrange. And clarity....wow. Notes jump out and you hear every one clearly, a HUGE benefit ! And maybe the hardest thing to accomplish with a pickup it does w/o breaking a sweat.....the ability to be so balanced in all respects that it doesn't sound fat, doesn't sound thin, doesn't sound bright, it just sounds perfect in that respect to where you never find yourself thinking it's got too little or too much of anything. The ability to have all the top you could ever want without sounding like theres ever too much or too thin etc is almost black magic. It's one of the things guitar players fight for constantly, and there it is in perfect form. It's actually amazing how good this pickup is. I'm kinda surprised i don't hear a lot more about it. It's so good in so many respects that are general consensus things like sustain and harmonics and all those things pretty much everyone wants that i would think it would be one of THE most popular HB's out there. I've owned hundreds of pickups and this is easily one of if not the best i ever had of any type. It's that amazing feel when you put a pickup in a guitar and instantly know it's not just good, but very special compared to 99% of the pickups you ever used to date. Of course, as crazy as this will sound after such a positive post, it still remains to be seen if it will stand the ultimate test....band mix. We shall see next week.
 
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Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

Most underappreciated model in the Duncan lineup IMO, along with the Parallel Axis pickups. Of course, it's no secret here on the Forum, but most folks at large just don't know anything about the Hybrid.

They literally have no idea what they're missing.
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

The 59/C definitely solved a lot of the problems players have with bridge humbuckers. I put mine in an LP and it stayed in for most of the year while I tried to find the ultimate LP neck pickup. It's the Neumann mic of guitar pickups; it works with anything. The 59/C even helps crappy neck pickups start to sound like something worth keeping.
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

In the process of making a 59/c and a 59/jazz neck I ended up with a Custom/Jazz as the last pairing. This too is a great option - maybe slightly less bitey than the 59/C
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

Pretty good. It has that same more open tone of the bridge.
I found stock Duncan neck pickups quite 1-dimensional when paired with the C/jazz and c/59. So the neck being a hybrid too made it tonally less of a shift.

Additionally I had a bridge/trembucker 59 and a neck wind/spaced Jazz. So the coils on the neck hybrid look quite odd as 1 bobbin is longer than the other. The bridge and neck coils have a wider wind disparity too.
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

Played it for a while tonite with some Mp3's cranked up pretty loud so get an idea of how it will work in a mix. I liked it but I think it could use a bit more top so i'm thinking about a 500k pot. Of course with van zandts in middle/neck i'll need to parallel a 500k across the neck and middle or i'm gonna have too much top in neck and bridge/middle positions. Neck /middle will be 160k due to the 2 paralleled resistors but no problem, as thats my least used position. But question b4 i try this....how does this pickup sound with 500k vs 250? Is it much of an an improvement in the top end cut ? I'd just like it to cut a bit more in a mix.

EDIT: nevermind, tried it. Prefer 250k. better taper, better tone when riding the volume knob for in between sounds.
 
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It is currently my favorite bridge pickup, and I usually hate most bridge pickups. I have 3, I think. The last one I got altered the recipe a bit with a rouchcast A5, and double screws. I am amazed it didn't become a production pickup years and years ago.
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

Question for you guys.

The 59/custom specs very similarly to the dimarzio Norton. Mismatched coils, a5 magnet, etc.

Are they similar in real life?
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

I am also a fan. I put one in my 88 Kramer F3000 and it sounds fantastic. It is very articulate, throaty and a good amount of output for what i was looking for in this guitar.
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

Not sure the Norton uses coils wound with different wire. To my ear, they sound very different from each other- but my Norton is aired so it isn't really a valid comparison.
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

Not sure the Norton uses coils wound with different wire. To my ear, they sound very different from each other- but my Norton is aired so it isn't really a valid comparison.

It does i think. Dimarzio calls it "dual resonance" and i don't think itls just different amounts of wire, but different gauges like SD's hybrid. And i don't think it's aired because they have another norton called the "air norton".
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

I´ve tryed a lot of trembuckers in my floyd rose strat with yjm singles at mid/neck...

I love the cc sound, rich and dinamic with overdose mids, but the treble tone ruins the yjm match...

Then I tryed one perpetual burn, good pickup but loose the strat sound...

Dimarzios at-1 and air norton doesn´t like me, not for strat, not for yjm singles match...

And finaly 59/c is just my choose...I wiring 500k volume and 500k tone for yjm singles and 300k for 59/c and "voila"...matching perfect, true strat sound, dinamic and rich like cc but just to match with yjm...
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

Forgot to mention, love the split sound too, and the bridge+middle quack would make a duck blush.
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

It does i think. Dimarzio calls it "dual resonance" and i don't think itls just different amounts of wire, but different gauges like SD's hybrid. And i don't think it's aired because they have another norton called the "air norton".

The Air Norton is the one I have; that's why I can't really give an accurate comparison.
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

I have two 59/Custom Hybrids,
One of my top 3 favorite HBuckers in the world. The other 2 being the Seth Lover with an UOA5 or A4, plus the Jazz set, takes mag swaps great, as does the Hybrid and Seth.
Steve Buffington
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

Love it... Great description! I do prefer an A2 magnet in there, but Duncn felt the A5 would be more universal when they contacted me about marketing it. I really wish they would market the 59/Jazz Neck Hybrid... it's excellent!
 
Re: 59/custom hybrid praise

I actually like they haven't marketed the 59/Jazz. It makes it special. It makes it so a mere normie can't have one, it rr qqquires ability to obtain.
 
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