Duncan Quarter Pound Love

[UberMetalDood]

In my recent tone quest to find a great single-coil pickup, I discovered the Kinman Woodstocks (not true single coil but the closest you can get) which I have in a strat now. However, one pickup I recently came across which caught my attention was the Duncan Quarter Pound. This pickup never gets talked about but DESERVES a good discussion every now and then. This is one great sounding pickup. I was playing it through my Reeves Custom head and I think it's a tone that David Gilmour would even appreciate. I kicked on my tube screamer and the Quarter Pound had a nice output for a single-coil. It's also a bit quieter than other single coils.

Due to this recent discovery, I had to order some parts and begin a new strat build. This is going to be a real classic, candy apple red, strat with a tint gloss flame maple neck, plain white pick guard, and a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds.

My only question is what's the deal with the stagger? I wasn't planning on getting the staggered ones, but what's the advantage? I heard from a renowned pickup builder that the stagger commonly used on single coils isn't correct anyway, so what's the deal with staggering and does it actually have any real difference? For instance, the neck and middle pickup in the YJM set I think is only different in the way they're staggered, but I tried the middle pickup in the neck of another guitar and didn't notice anything different.

 

[DreX]

Re: Duncan Quarter Pound Love

IMO, stagger works better for lower output pickups. Giving more emphasis to the G and D strings with a darker, high output pickup drowns out the contribution of the B and high E, and makes the pickup even darker and less balanced overall. With vintage output Strat pickups, it matters less because there's enough brightness to go around. Tele pickups are flat stagger and it doesn't seem to bother anyone.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: Duncan Quarter Pound Love

The Stagger was for back in the day when guitars were played with heavy strings with a wound third and a rounder radius. If you play with a wound third then the stagger could be beneficial but if you play with a plain third 3rd you will probably want the flat stagger.