Duncan Custom - My initial review

[Artie]

Funny, the CC is my fav bridge pickup. I don't know if I'd call it polite, but it does occupy a lot of sonic space.

Mine too, at least among the Custom series. It's perfect for clean pentatonics along with a smooth jazz backing track.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I really like the custom with allen head screws on one side of the bottom 3 strings.

Question though... where can I get the silver allen screws that they use on those Full Shreds that they use on Charvels?

I got some allen screws off ebay recently, and the head was slightly too wide and didn't fit my pickups.

 

[Aceman]

Speaking of the Distortion, I think I could have also gotten a Distortion and be happy. But it's always nice to try new ways of getting a tone that I like. It's a nice pickup for sure. Better than Distortion? No. But not any worse either. I'm happy with this one too!

Of course you would have been happy. It's basically a 500t. More than basically if you ask me.

 

[Aceman]

Funny, the CC is my fav bridge pickup. I don't know if I'd call it polite, but it does occupy a lot of sonic space.

It occupies the RIGHT guitar space in a mix.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Of course you would have been happy. It's basically a 500t. More than basically if you ask me.

Pretty much, yes, just with less ceramic.

IME, the 500T is kinda halfway in between the Custom and the Distortion. Kinda the best of both worlds in a sense.

 

[Aceman]

Pretty much, yes, just with less ceramic.

IME, the 500T is kinda halfway in between the Custom and the Distortion. Kinda the best of both worlds in a sense.

I will agree to disagree with that. But as I have often said, I would not swap a 500T if it came in the guitar.

That said, I also find it funny that Gibson will put a 500T in a Wine red Les Paul. Because, you know, all the death and darkness spikes and leather crowd love a Wine Red guitar...

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I will agree to disagree with that. But as I have often said, I would not swap a 500T if it came in the guitar.

That said, I also find it funny that Gibson will put a 500T in a Wine red Les Paul. Because, you know, all the death and darkness spikes and leather crowd love a Wine Red guitar...

They did put those on Les Paul Classics too. Not very "classic" of them either.

But those Les Paul Classics were Metal shredder beasts with the super thin neck and the hot ceramic pickups. You just couldn't tell from the looks, though.

 

[Mincer]

Gibson doesn't stick to tradition enough on their normal guitars, but their 'modern' versions aren't nearly as modern as they should be.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Just thought I'd report back.

I think I'm past the honeymoon period, and I LOVE the Custom. It took some tweaking, and I really started loving like full-on once I removed the tone pot and added a 1 Meg pot, but I don't think that's the Custom's fault such as the acoustic quality of the guitar being kinda fat and thuddy.

But what I really like about the Custom is the high-end is open and detailed. It's not quite as airy as say, a '59, but I can totally hear the "PAF on steroids" vibe in the pickup. The low-end is bigger than a PAF-type, and the nature of the high-end is distinctly Ceramic, but what I love the most about the Custom is there is no hint of stuffiness, cloudiness, or honkiness in the mids, thus leaving a very open nature to the pickup. The "good" kind of mids for me, the high mids, are still present and aggressive, but they're not like a JB where it's where that pickup punches the hardest. The Custom is more balanced throughout. Not to downtalk on the JB, though, but I think the Custom is a completely different kind of pickup which I've come to really bond with.

I'm glad I gave the Custom a try.

 

[jeremy]

glad a little tweaking got ya where ya wanted to be! the custom is a great pup for a lot of things