Custom 5 is my hero

[mskguitars]

I just installed my first Custom 5 and I am blown away. I've never been so impressed with a passive humbucker.

The bottom end is so tight and there is so much detail. The high end is glassy and smooth without being brittle, and the mids are punchy and musical.

My first thoughts were "If I wanted a Van Halen sound I'd go straight for this", but it's so much more.

Full chords on high gain are so harmonically rich with loads of open string colour, riffing power chords are punchy and tight, but dial it back with a warm overdrive on the edge of breakup and it becomes this extremely pick sensitive and dynamic expressive blues machine. You can hear your skin on the strings.

Cleans are sparkly transparent and airy and not 'ice pick in the ear', and again, that bottom end is perfectly balanced.

I haven't coil split it yet, but so far I'm so impressed I'm going to say this is as close to the perfect pick up as I've ever heard, and I've heard a few.

10/10 juicy coils for this one.
Hats off Seymour. You've blown me away.

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

 

[AZ Picker]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

Yes, you've picked a beauty for that particular guitar!! I tried the custom 5 in my Charvel So Cal (tooo much bottom end, and guitar is direct mount, so you can't really slant it to compensate.). But it was perfect in my all mahogany PRS CE 22, cleaned up the midrange and gave it some much needed high end. If you have a middy, warm guitar the custom 5 is perfect for adding some top and bottom end to it.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

The Custom 5 is also wonderful in guitars that are super mid-heavy, too. The scooped sound really helped my poplar Music Man sound like it wasn't covered in 5 tons of mud. It sounds wonderful, now. But every pickup I tried in there before the Custom 5 sounded terrible.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

The C5 was my first bridge humbucker. I felt the same way you did.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

He is using Tasmanian Blackwood, similar to Koa.

https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/features/woods/body-woods/tasmanian-blackwood

This a fairly warm wood and explains a lot. Since the C5 is too brite in traditional Fender woods like alder with one piece maple.

 

[mskguitars]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

He is using Tasmanian Blackwood, similar to Koa.

https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/features/woods/body-woods/tasmanian-blackwood

This a fairly warm wood and explains a lot. Since the C5 is too brite in traditional Fender woods like alder with one piece maple.

You got it, Tassie Blackwood. I was going to mention that because I do believe it's why this pickup works so well in this guitar but refrained because I didn't want to start a tonewood war.

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

I've been on the SD Forum since 1999, and I came here because of my interest in finding the perfect Duncan humbucker....then learned a lifetime of pickup knowledge.

I was one of the guys who got the the C5 into production, and also own many variations of it and the C/59 Hybrid. I wanted the best A5 Duncan.

What I found is that the best variants of it are the Unoriented roughcast Custom 5, and any A5 Duncan switched to a roughcast magnet. What you end up with is the punch and power of A5, with a little bit of the sweetness and texture of A2. A3 and A4 don't do it quite as good, because they're a bit bland. Seymour himself will tell you that he prefers to use every variation of A5 and A2, before he'll go to another magnet.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

Seymour himself will tell you that he prefers to use every variation of A5 and A2, before he'll go to another magnet.

I'm with Seymour.

Never owned an A3 or A4 pickup I liked enough to keep...whether single coils or humbuckers.

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

"Custom 5 Is My Hero"

Me too!!! I've currently got my L.P. & Flying V loaded with a uncovered SH-14 Custom 5/SH-P.G.N. set & up until a couple of months ago I had the same set in my Gibson Midtown Standard Semi-Hollow. I also used to run a TB-14 off a 500K volume pot in a single humbucker/single volume Strat & it preformed equally as well! It really is a bridge pup for any situation IMHO!!!

Really the only reason I removed it from the Midtown was the fact that I had 3 guitars all loaded with exactly the same pickups & I wanted some verity? I ended up dropping in a full Pearly Gates set to give it a more vintage feel & sound but the Custom 5 was great in it! Plenty of grit but it never once gave me any feedback issues. If I had to choose a desert island bridge pickup to go with my desert island guitar it would definitely be the SH-14!!!

 

[JCM]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

I just put an Custom UOA5 in an ESP eclipse, and I'm really digging it. So far it seems to be able to handle anything I throw at it. I've been playing the DD for over a decade, and the C-UOA5 is the best compliment I've found to it. Between those two pickups I can pretty much cover all the music I like to play.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Custom 5 is my hero

It is pretty wonderful when it works out, huh?