Can you share any info about the SD Black Backs?

[KiteIgniter]

Hello,

Around 24 years ago I scheduled an appointment to meet with Ed Roman about discussing a prospective custom guitar that very quickly spiraled out of my price range.

In the short time I met with him, he seemed down to earth and reasonable and told me flat out the custom inlays I dreamt up would make the price of the guitar skyrocket lol

Well, I didn't want to leave empty handed, I ended up buying a Heritage Les Paul with what he called at the time "Seymour Duncan Black Back humbuckers" which he explained at the time, i think, if I remember correctly proprietary pickups with secret sauce.

Well...I like these pickups! Clean or through an overdrive box. I know my ears are not as discerning as some forum members here so I was wondering if anybody could share some info about them like magnet, eq, do they compress?
How do they compare to the APH-1 (Slashers right?) which i also really like in a swamp ash body with 24 3/4" scale. And how do they compare to Pearlie Gates Bridge and 59 bridge (I've heard Trey Anastasio uses 59's?).

I know we could be here all day with all the different models but those are the ones I'm most interested in.

Oh also, how does age affect pickup tone? Is there a thread you could point me to?

And thanks for your help

 

[RanchManSandy]

I remember a long time ago somebody confirming they were merely tweaked versions of the Custom Custom & Jazz models, with the black baseplate, but who knows. Some speculated they had Neo Dym magnets but Ed's own web page debunked that.

 

[jeremy]

trey does use 59s in his langudoc guitars. theres a lot of bs thrown around about ed romans black backs

 

[Mincer]

If you have a meter, you can post the DCR of each pickup to confirm what they are. I've heard the Jazz/CC thing before. I bet Ed himself painted the backs and then charged 5x the price.

 

[superpete]

yeah ed roman was the king of slimy snake oil. i highly doubt the black backs were anything more than a black backplate on a standard model, custom custom being the one often named.

 

[jeremy]

ive heard some people say the blackbacks were pgs, i wonder if there were different models. an 8k pgb and a 16k jb are pretty different

 

[Masta' C]

Black backs were nothing special. They were an OEM finish option. Many pickups have been produced with black backs for many manufacturers over the years. I've had a set of Ed Roman's pickups and they spec'd the same as the standard pickups. I have yet to see anything confirming that Ed's pickups were actually modified at all from the original designs. It's possible he had mags swapped, effectively making them a "shop floor custom", and that was the "secret sauce", but they were marked with regular production labels. If they were completely different winds, they probably would have been given their own model designation, like the PG vs the PG+. My guess is that you like the pickups because they are Duncans and they are great pickups to begin with!

 

[Ascension]

Grover Jackson ordered the humbuckers on the US Chicago Custom MG series Washburn guitars, all with black backs. The reason was they were direct mounted and the tabs didn't show as much. This was the early to mid 90's. Otherwise, they were standard Duncan's. Most used a 59 in the neck with 4 conductor wiring, and he used a JB, Custom Custom or a PG+ Trembucker in the bridge on all these guitars I have ever owned or seen that were stock. There was no magic in these pickups other than the baseplate color except for maybe a tweaked wind that was slightly hotter in the PG +.

 

[Sam SG]

I have a black back pickup I just put in the neck of my budget Charvel desolation.
It had single conductor shielded lead. Measured in the low 7k.range and had long pickup ears.
The forum determined.months ago it is most likely a 59.
In the neck it definetly sounds like an paf.
Special?? I dunno seems to sound the same as my DiMarzio DP103 in the neck of my O"Hagan Shark. But i dont gnit pick pafs...well besides A2 vs A5.

 

[Mincer]

Being that Ed and his company have been DOA for years- I wonder if any NDAs expired for the Duncan company- like can they answer questions about them now?

 

[Ascension]

I have a black back pickup I just put in the neck of my budget Charvel desolation.
It had single conductor shielded lead. Measured in the low 7k.range and had long pickup ears.
The forum determined.months ago it is most likely a 59.
In the neck it definetly sounds like an paf.
Special?? I dunno seems to sound the same as my DiMarzio DP103 in the neck of my O"Hagan Shark. But i dont gnit pick pafs...well besides A2 vs A5.

May have been out of one of the early Wasburn MG guitars as they used black back 59's with the single conductor.

 

[Sam SG]

May have been out of one of the early Wasburn MG guitars as they used black back 59's with the single conductor.

Yes actually it did come from a USA Washburn. Dont know the model. I gutted it for the Duncans and Schaller tuners and traded the rest to a freind.