Are SD and DM watching each other?

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Which is the last pup that Seymour made,apart of the antiquites,and what year?Could anyone know if there are thoughts about launching something new?
It seems that the commercial opponennt(DM) offers a wider tonal range with his products...
Now,in case I'm right with this detection,I'd be very interesting to know whether this is a conscious choice due to musical criteria or something that involves marketing and stuff...
Not complaining,just...imagin a Liquifire enriched with the Seymour 'air'!
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Do GM and Ford watch each other? Every company watches its close competitors, and makes decisions accordingly. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Not they everything they do is based on their competitors, but they do keep track of what their competitors are doing. That's only good business sense.
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Yea I'd say they certainly are. Each have their own business model and approach, but no doubt they watch to see what/how the other is doing and whether things succeed or fail.
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Only makes sense that someone would pay attention to their competitors but that doesnt mean that just cause a competitor does something that it needs a response.

Though i think your wrong on the narrower tonal choice. DM doesnt offer actives where SD has multiple versions. DM doesnt really offer anything like the antiquities or some of the other stuff that SD does. Sure they have some things that SD doesnt but thats just normal for 2 companies to not have exactly mirrored product lines.

SD also has a custom shop which DM doesnt for any needs you have outside of the normal pickup range for all the things you can "imagin"
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Edgecrusher said:
Only makes sense that someone would pay attention to their competitors but that doesnt mean that just cause a competitor does something that it needs a response.

Though i think your wrong on the narrower tonal choice. DM doesnt offer actives where SD has multiple versions. DM doesnt really offer anything like the antiquities or some of the other stuff that SD does. Sure they have some things that SD doesnt but thats just normal for 2 companies to not have exactly mirrored product lines.

SD also has a custom shop which DM doesnt for any needs you have outside of the normal pickup range for all the things you can "imagin"
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Nice point,there.Although my main objection remains unanswered.Seymour doesn't offer a choice of a (passive) modern sounding neck p'up containing progressive elements(thus the Liquifire example).Leave the custom thing apart,it's not for everyone.I believe there's a whole bunch of players who are after that sound...
It seems to me that SD neck p'ups are more focused on the 'vintage' side, with great results non the less.
So, what a Seymourizer should do if he wants to (try to) sound like that freak from Dream Theater?
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

grey said:
Which is the last pup that Seymour made,apart of the antiquites,and what year?Could anyone know if there are thoughts about launching something new?
It seems that the commercial opponennt(DM) offers a wider tonal range with his products...
Now,in case I'm right with this detection,I'd be very interesting to know whether this is a conscious choice due to musical criteria or something that involves marketing and stuff...
Not complaining,just...imagin a Liquifire enriched with the Seymour 'air'!
Click to expand...

Dimarzio has a lot of model numbers. That does not however mean they have a broader tonal range. I have test driven several Dimarzio high output models for example and I don't hear significant differences between them
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

no modern neckpickups? get real. the fullshred (bridge goes well in the neck and there's a dedicated neckversion) the distortion-neck pickup... there are some. the jazz-bridge makes a kickass neckpickup too for heavy metal. imho the liquifire eats the jazz-b's dust!

if it were to have an a8 magnet (a jazz8 so to speak) it would work even better.


so... yeah, there's plenty to go round.
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Who cares as long as DiMarzio abuses the intellectual property system that the US happens to have to eliminate competition in particular submarkets?
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

DM strikes me as more of an endorsement-centric company (corgan, gilbert and petrucci all had new pups released with their names alongside the product), as opposed to SD who seem to offer it all and innovate a fair bit (triple shots, modular preamps, solderless systems, p-rails).

Imho both companies have some great pickups on offer. I'm not a sworn believer in any company/product line until I get at least a sammich for free from them.
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

grey said:
So, what a Seymourizer should do if he wants to (try to) sound like that freak from Dream Theater?
Click to expand...

As a blues/classic rock guy, I like more Duncan's neck PU's than DMz's; there will always be a stong demand for PAF's. But many guys here use bridge Duncan's in the neck position with excellent results, you're only limited by your imagination. You can put a PU into any slot on the guitar.
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

I'm sure they are watching each other and here too. IN GENERAL, DM seems to have been focused more on high output/ceramic magnet stuff over the years with the dual resonance thing. SD has been more focused on vintage stuff with alnico magnets and traditional matching coils and pole pieces. There are many exceptions for both of course. Having many choices is a good thing. ;)
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Well, if you look at the active pickup development few years back. Sure EMG ruled the market in the 80's and through 90's. Then SD came out with this new "differential" preamp, which according to them cancels more hum and sound better and more like passive pups with the advantages of active preamp. Then all of a sudden EMG came out with the X-series which had almost identical "new" properties as the blackouts. The SD came out with metal covers for blackouts and then, surprise surprise, EMG came out with metal covers, because "only now was it possible and not any sooner". BS I say. They probably could have done it before (and they with the 25th anniversary 81's) but just wouldn't do it for some reason. And when SD did it they just had to push it out to compete.

True, DM probably has more modern high-gain pickups and SD more vintage pups in their catalogue. DM doesn't even have any pup's with A2 mag's. But the SD Custom shop can NOT do "anything you can imagine". I threw them an easy bone with: "Can you do the Parallel Axis humbucker with white coil covers?" Well, they couldn't or for some reason won't do it. Too bad...
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Zhaggy said:
But the SD Custom shop can NOT do "anything you can imagine". I threw them an easy bone with: "Can you do the Parallel Axis humbucker with white coil covers?" Well, they couldn't or for some reason won't do it. Too bad...
Click to expand...

It would be more accurate to say they could do it, but assumed you didn't want to finance a full production run of bobbins with an alternate color for 1 pickup. Lets get realistic here
 
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Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Zhaggy said:
Well, if you look at the active pickup development few years back. Sure EMG ruled the market in the 80's and through 90's. Then SD came out with this new "differential" preamp, which according to them cancels more hum and sound better and more like passive pups with the advantages of active preamp. Then all of a sudden EMG came out with the X-series which had almost identical "new" properties as the blackouts. The SD came out with metal covers for blackouts and then, surprise surprise, EMG came out with metal covers, because "only now was it possible and not any sooner". BS I say. They probably could have done it before (and they with the 25th anniversary 81's) but just wouldn't do it for some reason. And when SD did it they just had to push it out to compete.

True, DM probably has more modern high-gain pickups and SD more vintage pups in their catalogue. DM doesn't even have any pup's with A2 mag's. But the SD Custom shop can NOT do "anything you can imagine". I threw them an easy bone with: "Can you do the Parallel Axis humbucker with white coil covers?" Well, they couldn't or for some reason won't do it. Too bad...
Click to expand...

They probably can, but the cost would be prohibitively expensive. To make a set with white coil covers they probably have to use enough resin to make 20, so there must be a demand for maybe 20- just as the limited edition pickups that were made for the forum members here.
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

blueman335 said:
As a blues/classic rock guy, I like more Duncan's neck PU's than DMz's; there will always be a stong demand for PAF's. But many guys here use bridge Duncan's in the neck position with excellent results, you're only limited by your imagination. You can put a PU into any slot on the guitar.
Click to expand...


I've ordered a Slash A2p bridge for the neck position.I think it might work...
Allow me to submit a tone report once installed.
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

jmh151 said:
They probably can, but the cost would be prohibitively expensive. To make a set with white coil covers they probably have to use enough resin to make 20, so there must be a demand for maybe 20- just as the limited edition pickups that were made for the forum members here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, probably true, but what if I was Slash or Eddie Van Halen... Could they do white parallel axis humbuckers... Hell Yeah!!! Seymour would sell his mom if Slash asked him to sell her to him. And the Custom shop says that every customer gets the EXACT SAME treatment and services as these high profile artists. Apperently not. They didn't even ask my how much I was willing to pay for. What if I wanted to buy 20 of those pup and had all the money they would dare to ask for it. Nope. "No, we can't do that." Well I would have bought only one, but now I can't unless EVH orders the other 19...
 
Re: Are SD and DM watching each other?

Welcome to the forum, Zhaggy. For us to mold the parallel axis bobbins in white would require us to run a minimum number of bobbins. Most injection molds don't even warm up until they've gone through several hundred and maybe more than a thousand shots. Yours was the first call for that product we've ever received. We weren't going to run hundreds or perhaps thousands of bobbins just for a one piece order, or even a 20 piece order. And we wouldn't do it if Slash or EVH asked for it either. If Gibson or Fender asked for it because they were going to use it on a new model and they guaranteed us a certain amount of pickups over the first year, we would consider it.

It's not about who you are, it's a business decision that has to do with recouping tooling costs.

And I'll assume, because of differences in language and culture that your comment about Seymour's mother was not intended to be as offensive as it came off.

Hopefully that ends this hijack.
 
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