Duncan Custom SH-5

[Micah]

Ok, So I got my SH-5 in last night and threw it in my SG! Got to play it for a little bit and....man!! What a great pickup!! Chunky and very harmonicaly rich! The notes had this honky-snap to them that I really like in conjunction with the chunk! The top-end is very clear and chords ring out like classic rock and roll! Love this pickup so far! Very strong and bold. Single notes are compressed and sing into controlled feed-back. Its more of a powerful scoop instead of a sterile punch like some pickups with a mid-spike. I got about 30 minutes of playing in on it before my low E string broke.......:smack:

So Im off to the guitar store @ lunch to grab a couple sets of strings to continue my venture into this pickup. Great pickup for the likes of some. Not incredible clean, but definatly workable! More so IMO than the Duncan Distortion. The DD is a great pickup too for some but just didnt have the note-bounce that this one does.

Oh! You'll probably want to back the amp gain off a touch from what your used to with this pickup. The compression and bottom/mids are soooo great that you really dont need as much gain. Its great to have a pickup do what your looking for in the EQ instead of having to artificially do it with the Gain and tone controls. Its like theres soooo much of everything that now I can use my tone controls/gain as limiters on the pickup itself instead of "adders" or "colorers" of the tone. Its much more organic and less mush.

This pickup is a beast! It has the qualities of the Custom 5 that you'd probably like: the great upper-midsy top end and huge bottom end, but in addtition it gives you more midrange to control the huge bottom end and also give you the mid-range crunch you probably missed in the C5 without ever getting harsh to my ear.

Big-Spanky(grungy)-Crunchy-Chunky-Clear-Singing highs-compressed scream

If your looking for these qualities--try the Custom SH-5. Also, listen to Every Time I Dies' new album. First few songs on their MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/everytimeidie

Andy Williams uses one in an LP and a Marshall to get those bigger tones. Theres also a guy playing EMG's next to him-but theres a definate distinction between the 2.

Anyone else tried a Custom out there??

 

[bigheadood]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Yep. I pulled a ceramic mag out of an old OEM junk pickup, and tried it in my C5.
It was definately a beast of a pickup. It compressed the mids too much for me, and was a bit brittle on the high end. I had to go back to the C5, though. It's much more controllable for me.

Strangely, I now have a Gibson 500T in that guitar, which sounds almost exactly like the Custom did, just a bit hotter. I guess that is my Nu-Metal guitar, so it almost never gets played.

 

[Micah]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Yep. I pulled a ceramic mag out of an old OEM junk pickup, and tried it in my C5.
It was definately a beast of a pickup. It compressed the mids too much for me, and was a bit brittle on the high end. I had to go back to the C5, though. It's much more controllable for me.

Strangely, I now have a Gibson 500T in that guitar, which sounds almost exactly like the Custom did, just a bit hotter. I guess that is my Nu-Metal guitar, so it almost never gets played.

Coo man! You know, Ive never played a Gibson with a 500T in it--I did think to myself last night though, that if Gibson were to make a ceramic magnet pickup (which they do) this is what it would sound like! Sounds great to my ear.

On a side note--I mailed that pickup off this morning through work (to let you know) but I probably wont have a tracking # till this afternoon. You should have it by Friday Id think--

 

[theodie]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

The SH-5 is one wonderful pickup for sure! Roll the volume back a bit and do classic rock too!

 

[bigheadood]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

I think of the Gibson 500T as "right in between a Custom and a Distortion, tonewise".
Tightest sounding pickup I own for metal. But doesn't have much on the C5.

That sounds good on the norton. I look forward to it. I'll mail out the CC during my lunch break today. Tried to this morning, but fedex wasn't open until 8am.

 

[Mr. Mom]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

I have the SH-5/TB-5 in a couple Kramers for some great rock tones. Killer pickup! Articulate and smooth at the same time. Sounds great w/the series/parallel switching for some of the single-coil type tones...same character - articulate and smooth, but a bit brighter w/the obvious change in output. A bit more versatile to me in this application than the JB (JB has so much output and the bigger mid presence).

Funny - everytime in the last 10 years I put a Duncan in a guitar everyone starts commenting on how much better the rig sounds.

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Yeah. The Custom is great for overdriven and distorted tones, chunky power chords, big riffs, from Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath (Dio-era) to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest to Metallica and Testament. Very versatile pickup, if you know how to use tone and volume pots. Tight big bass, huge mids, and bright highs.

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Custom 8 might be very cool, if it's like Custom with sweeter highs and perhaps even more mids.

 

[karpathion]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

my sh-5 came today its at my wifes office right now, i cant wait to hear it in my explorer pro its got t be better than my dimebucker, that thing just has way too much highs. i'm hoping the sh-5 will be a little calmer in the high end

 

[millsart]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Cool, glad it worked out for you. Nothing better than helping a forum brother find exactly what they are looking for in a pup.

A little to modern and metal influenced for my liking but as I said, if your into chuggy low E palm mutes I don't think theres a better pickup on the market.

It sounds both huge and very tight at the same time on the lows. Its right there in your face and you can't make it take a back seat.

 

[Micah]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

I think of the Gibson 500T as "right in between a Custom and a Distortion, tonewise".
Tightest sounding pickup I own for metal. But doesn't have much on the C5.

That sounds good on the norton. I look forward to it. I'll mail out the CC during my lunch break today. Tried to this morning, but fedex wasn't open until 8am.

Coo man!

 

[Micah]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Cool, glad it worked out for you. Nothing better than helping a forum brother find exactly what they are looking for in a pup.

A little to modern and metal influenced for my liking but as I said, if your into chuggy low E palm mutes I don't think theres a better pickup on the market.

It sounds both huge and very tight at the same time on the lows. Its right there in your face and you can't make it take a back seat.

Absolutely man!! Its a great find...and to top it off..the thing has been around a few less years than I have! Right in front of my eyes the whole time had I known what I was looking for ;-)

 

[Micah]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

my sh-5 came today its at my wifes office right now, i cant wait to hear it in my explorer pro its got t be better than my dimebucker, that thing just has way too much highs. i'm hoping the sh-5 will be a little calmer in the high end

I bet its right up your alley! Its weird, its so crunchy but @ the same time it has just the right amount of a dip in the mids that its like it never sounds harsh! Great combo and Chunky too!

 

[kcrknp]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Much like yourself I had my first SH-5 experience just a couple days ago. I had it put in my Epi LP Custom and man what a difference! The highs are beautiful, not shrill like the stock Epi pickup. The lows are awesome for the heavy music I play, just the right amount of bass without being boomy. The thing I really love about this pickup is how clear it is compared to stock. I can hear everything I'm playing much more articulately, it's like a whole new realm of frequencies I wasn't getting out of my LP before. The harmonics are ridiculous. What a pain in the ass trying to coax harmonics out of the standard pickups, just didn't happen. They basically leap off the neck with little effort now. I'm loving this pickup more than I thought I would. I think I'm going to get addicted to Duncans real quick.

BTW I play punk and classic hard rock/metal like Scorpions, Zeppelin, Maiden, you know the good stuff.

 

[Micah]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Much like yourself I had my first SH-5 experience just a couple days ago. I had it put in my Epi LP Custom and man what a difference! The highs are beautiful, not shrill like the stock Epi pickup. The lows are awesome for the heavy music I play, just the right amount of bass without being boomy. The thing I really love about this pickup is how clear it is compared to stock. I can hear everything I'm playing much more articulately, it's like a whole new realm of frequencies I wasn't getting out of my LP before. The harmonics are ridiculous. What a pain in the ass trying to coax harmonics out of the standard pickups, just didn't happen. They basically leap off the neck with little effort now. I'm loving this pickup more than I thought I would. I think I'm going to get addicted to Duncans real quick.

BTW I play punk and classic hard rock/metal like Scorpions, Zeppelin, Maiden, you know the good stuff.

Definatly man! The SH-5 is sick!!

 

[Rydock]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Nice review. Glad you like this pup. How is the brightness compared to lets stay a JB? I keep hearing that one or the other is brighter. Same with the output; some say it's has more and some say less.

I never heard anybody saying anything good about it's single note tone, but I always assumed it should be fine with the right amp settings.

 

[heymcz]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

I've owned about three Customs so far...one of my favorite Duncans! Glad you like it! It screams "Rawk"...be sure to do some windmilling.....

 

[Micah]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

Nice review. Glad you like this pup. How is the brightness compared to lets stay a JB? I keep hearing that one or the other is brighter. Same with the output; some say it's has more and some say less.

I never heard anybody saying anything good about it's single note tone, but I always assumed it should be fine with the right amp settings.

Hello Rydock! Heres' my perception of the JB and the custom: I never really had an issue with the JB's top end, I had an issue with its bottom end/mids. The way I see a pickup is that I could always use plently of all frequencies B-M-T. This allows me to use my amp tone controls as "limiters" of the intensities instead of the pickup always lacking something and trying to add to it all of the time with the tone controls--from my expirience, you never really get what your looking for when you have to fake it, or pretend the pickup has something that it doesnt. The Custom (14K) in nature isnt as "overwound" as the JB (16K), but the big difference is the ceramic mag in the Custom verses the Alnico 5 magnet in the JB.

Custom= brighter wind and powerful magnet

JB=darker wind and brighter magnet

The custom is has this contrast that seems to combine power with a brighter wind. Still a high output wind, but almost twice the wind of a PAF (about 8K to 9K) which is utimate bright but less power. This gives the custom a certain brightness to it, but the power of the ceramic magnet causes the bright notes to compress the front stage of the amp because your hitting it with so much current (compared to a typical output pickup). So its like its bright and big, but then it compresses the notes when you dig in. This compression causes the notes to sing and feed-back. The brightness in combination with the compression causes harmonics to pull off really effortlessly. The powerfull bottom end and mid-range cause chords to stay full and huge. The only downfall I can really see with this pickup are the cleans. Your notes will really just about always have some dirt on them. This in mind, its good to have a good clean neck pickup to use in conjunction with this pickup for anything clean your looking to play. Hope you can hear what Im describing here as Im saying it! If not, check out Every Time I Dies' new album--a couple songs can be heard on their myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/everytimeidie

Andy Williams uses an SH-5 in the bridge of his paul through a Marshall set on a more classic, crunchy gain magnitude to get the great tones on these songs. There is also another guitar playing next to him with EMG's-but there is a great audible difference between the 2--any big, crunchy chords are Andy, any sterile mid-range tones are the EMG's ;-)

 

[Micah]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

I've owned about three Customs so far...one of my favorite Duncans! Glad you like it! It screams "Rawk"...be sure to do some windmilling.....

You betta believe it!

 

[karpathion]

Re: Duncan Custom SH-5

installed my custom last night i think this is what im lookng for. all those crazy highs are gone from the db. distortion is great cleans are amazing. my crunch is so thick, i think i almost $#!% myself. only one thing though i dont think it matters but my stringds dont line up with the screws. its the same size as all the other pups. the just dont match up. hell that may be what makes it sound so good. it will make you clean your playing up some. all in all i'm in love.