Re: Help Replace LPaul Pickups: No More BB3 and Classic 57!
People talk so much about magnets that it seems the magnet is the pickup itself instead of the magnet being part of an equation that is in the pickup. Also, sometimes it seems that all pickups in the Seymour line are made with the wrong magnet. if that was true, it would be a really bad company, don't you think? Since none of its pickups are good right outside the box...I think the magnet swapping advice is valid when someone already has a pickup and is not liking the sound. But, a lot of times, I see people asking for recommendations and the answer is something like: get the *name a model here* and put a *name a magnet here*. Sorry, but it just doesn't make sense to me.
Most of the time when magnets are brought up, people already have a PU, aren't thrilled with it, and it's far faster and cheaper to try a different magnet. That should be discouraged? There have been people here who've bought PU after PU, chasing the tones they want, and sometimes it was already in their hands from the beginning. The free exchange program is nice, but the average player is paying someone to swap the PU's, and they're out that money. Plus Duncan's are often just one brand of the PU's someone is trying. Over the years there have been a number of members very thankful to learn about replacement mags, as it's saved them a lot of money in their tone quest. I don't see that as a bad thing. If some of us suggest trying different magnets, is that something to get upset about; does that effect you personally?
There's another assumption that you referenced, that should be addressed.
No one's saying Duncan's used the 'wrong magnet' in any of their PU's. Duncan can't possibly test all the guitar/wood/amp/genera combinations their PU's wind up in, and in some situations a different magnet gives us the tones we want, but didn't get with the stock magnet. That's
not any shortcoming on Duncan's part. We give their PU's infinitely more testing than they have the time or money to do. There's thousands of us. We have tons of gear. That's one reason this forum exists: we test and tinker, and they listen to us. There have been a number of 'forum' PU's created from our ideas, and some are even in regular production. The SH-11 and SH-14 were created because so many of us swapped A2 and A5 magnets into our SH-5's. Certainly the introduction of the Alt-8 was influenced by so many of us using A8's in a variety of Duncan PU's. We've got a forum member '59/Custom hybrid in production and another one in the works now. Do all these things mean Duncan did something wrong? Or does it mean that they recognize that for some of us, their PU's are a foundation we continue to build on?
Looks like they're pleased to see members do this, and they have been putting member-modded PU's into production, along side PU's Seymour's created on his own. If that's not a validation of the mods we do, what is? For decades A5, A2's, and ceramics dominated HB's. Gibson's using A3's now, DiMarzio has an A4. Fralin's a die hard A4 fan. Maybe other magnets are coming of age. I don't see that that's anything to moan about. Look at all the choices we have with micro breweries and specialty coffee's.
Seymour will be the first to tell you he's a mere mortal, and that the deification of him and his PU's is taking things too far. There's a number of guys worldwide that wind excellent PU's, Seymour's one of them. To get defensive or hostile about anything said about Duncan PU's are less than 100% perfection is ridiculous. The forum isn't here for Seymour worship or to stroke his ego. It's here for us to talk candidly and share ideas and opinions with each other. There's some pretty knowledgeable members here, luthiers, electronics wizards, professional musicians, etc that they want to hear from. With the bulk of members being players and hobbyists, we're the biggest segment of members buying aftermarket PU's; Duncan
definitely wants to know what we like, what we don't, where it works best, where it doesn't, and what we're looking to buy next. That's invaluable market research. They don't want to filter or restrict that. They're big boys, we can tell them what we think about their products.
