In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

[ACG]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

hey gearjoneser thats a great idea! I think that if I paid the shipping there should be no problem with them trading for another model.... thanks for the thought...if this set dont work out I will go that route.... so I wont copper tape them inside that would probabbly void the return policy..

thanks again

 

[jmcorey]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

The only person in the world that makes the most noiseless pickups with the articulation and clarity in the neighborhood of Barden pickups is Bill Lawrence. And not bill lawrence usa, but www.billlawrence.com.

I play in a church with transformers that dim the lights by clipping. Those transformers are 10 feet behind where I play. Noiseless single coils are great, they didn't buzz, but the side-by-side pickups buzzed like mad - not 60 cycle, but all across the spectrum (the square -wave clipping from the transformers). Looked and by divine intervention found www.billlawrence.com. Tried an L-500 L and NO HUM when the gain is maxed out in that high electromagnetic field environment. Don't tell me to shield, shielding did nothing (copper does NOT sheild against magnetic fields, only electrostatic fields).

Now when I read that overdrive and distortion effects are noisy, I just shake my head. Typical sideways magnets reject only about 70% of the hum. I can cascade GAIN GALORE in front of a computer and NOTHING but the string vibration gets through.

Furthermore, Bill will tell you personally how to add resistors, capacitors, etc. to the pickup to get you exactly the tone that you want.

Duncan pups are great, and I love their sound, but the naivety of the people who designed the building where I play makes it impossible to use them there. So I discovered Bill and that's what I've found. It may work for you. Check out his website and give them a call.

 

[ACG]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

jmcorey God bless you and your church.... Thanks for the info I will check it out...

I have never use a Bill Lawrence but have read a few good things about them in some forums that I read to keep abreast of pup technolgy....

In all good faith I want to say one thing about the Seymour Duncans that I have played... "the tone is there" .... they sound sweet and have a wonderful delicious batch of harmonic coloring that is a joy to manipulate while you play...

Having said that I want to restate that I like the flavour of Seymours pups but when driven at "over normal" distortion I have personally experienced some squeal...

So there is no Seymour bashing intended here on my part... I like the tone I'm just trying to figure out to use them "my way"....

I will deffinately check out your info .. thanks Corey

 

[jmcorey]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

...In all good faith I want to say one thing about the Seymour Duncans that I have played... "the tone is there" .... they sound sweet and have a wonderful delicious batch of harmonic coloring that is a joy to manipulate while you play...

Yes...it is a SHAME I cannot use them!!! ARRRRGHHHH!!!!

 

[TattooedCarrot]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

If you're processing them and driving them that much, perhaps try a lower output PAF style pickup like a 59. That way you get more tone and more articulation than the hot pickups as it sounds like you're driving it with processing anyway.

 

[ACG]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

The 59 was one pup I tried many years ago.." squealed again" ...
But then again it too was fitted with gold metal covers... maybe thats the fault...
The low powered pups sound great with a good boutique tube amp, I've been down that route but choose to create a unique sound that had a signiture... just as Blackmoore used his old reel to reel tape preamp to get his fantastic fat tone I too went the alternitive route.... the Bardens "were perfect" for what I was doing... I was just on ebay they are up to about 3 bills each now... jeez thats spooky...Joe must be laughing now.... anyway I cant aford that its just way out of proportion.. (besides I got 2 stash sets put away on my main axes... this custom beauty needs its own identity I will try to find a way to work around the squeling problems and excess fizz noise... because like I said with the duncans the "tone seems to actually be there" .... I just need to figure out how to intergrate it into my system...

Hey Tatooed carrot hey buddy thats an amazing pic under your name.... is that some one you know?

 

[Robert S.]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

Three pages in a day, this is interesting.

ACG, I understand your frustration and with all the opinions and insites into tone and funtionality out there it can be hard to sort things out. Believe me, it's a road I've been down many times before.

As for noise and hum, Seymour Duncan pickups are no better or worse than any of the other top name brands out there. You may find noisier pickups but short of active models you'll be hard pressed to find a quieter passive humbucker on the market. Improper wiring and faulty components are the most common causes of noise and the pickups whether SD or others are usually not the problem. I don't know how many times I've cured a noisey guitar by replacing the pots but it's a fairly common thing. A good tech will hook you up, a poor one will blame the pickups.

Squeal can be caused by loose covers or faulty potting but often thats not the problem. I have an Antiquity set in a Les Paul that I run full bore through a Mesa Triaxis/2:90 combo and I don't get squeal. Trust me when I say this rig has the ability to generate over the top gain. I have found that bad tubes and over ambitious amp/effect settings are as much to blame as a bad potting job. I had a Custom Shop C-5 that was giving me problems with squeal and low end feed back and I tried everything to cure it. A new #1 preamp tube fixed the problem. It seems that the resonant frequency of some pickups can react to a bad tube and make it appear that the pickups were at faulty when actually it was tube failure.

It's easy to blame the pickups and many people make the improper assumptions that new pickups will either solve all their problems ar they are causing all their problems. It's been my experience that neither of those assumptions are nessessarily true and often there are ather factors involved.

Good luck in straightening your situation out and if there is anything I can do to help you along, just ask.

Robert

 

[ACG]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

Thanks for the insight Robert you sound like some one that I would want to vote for. This is why I posted here ( I usually never post on music forums "only fishing forums" I posted here to get the inside scoop on what the cause may be.. cause Like I said the tone aint half bad... in fact they sound sweet and interstingly usable...

I will make a trouble shoot list of the items you mentioned and have some one qualified check it out... thanks for your input Robert.. much appreciated.

P.S: I used a triaxsis through a 2/90 for one suımmer and there is much gain there you are right.... the setup I use now has about double that gain "but" its more usuable"... I loved the triaxis when the notes popped when you speed picked the flurries.... it was too rich for me though.... to thick to play through... I had to fight the preamp distorsion "WALL" to get to the power tubes "Vocals"....

Put the gain down to 7 on that rig and run the output from the 2/90 into a groove tubes speaker emulator... run the line out from that into a marshall JMP 1 (set on skull melt distortion) set the out put from the JUMP to "instrument leve -5db) run the out put from that into a class a 30 watt combo and thats my "tone"...

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

Part 2..

The Architect.. to the remarks made that “this thread is starting to smell funny” well I am very sad to hear that.. During this entire thread I have said nothing that deserved that remark and I just pointed out that the info given to me by some of the posters here was “dead wrong” which I have proven it was.. I did not say this with any malice or bad intent.. later I repesented an explantion that it was “just my New York accent” so I have kept a civil tone throughout this thread... if anything does smell funny here it the overall intolerance and preconception towards a guy who is having a problem with Seymours pickups... excuse my candor but all I wanted to do was to solve my problems with these pickups by seeking information on this forum. Is that a mistake?

[/

That comment was directed at the fact that you have all of these heavyweight industry connections building your guitar but come here for this issue? We are a knowledgable group to be sure but with the pedigree you claim no one could get Seymour or MJ on the phone for you? Surely with "trade secrets" to protect there is a better route than a public forum?

 

[frankencat]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

Hey man, I apologize for my part in perpetuating the "smell" thing. To me, the tone of some of your posts seemed little over the top and like Robert S said...3 pages in a day...Wow. BTW, I am from NY and yeah, I have some "tone" in some of my posts too so welcome to the party . Anyway, this is a cool place and you will find information here. Just remember that school is out so...

I posted above that I had a DD that was microphinic and I don't use high gain, just high volume. It made the pickup unusable for me and I ended up using that pickup for "experimentation" because I got it cheap. That said, that is the ONLY Duncan pickup I have had that was microphinic and I have probably bought over 100 pickups from them in the last 20 years or so so that's a pretty good ratio. At any rate, you should send them back to SD for replacement. I am certain they will make you happy. Let us know how it turns out. Peace -Frank

 

[jmcorey]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

=
As for noise and hum, Seymour Duncan pickups are no better or worse than any of the other top name brands out there. You may find noisier pickups but short of active models you'll be hard pressed to find a quieter passive humbucker on the market. Improper wiring and faulty components are the most common causes of noise and the pickups whether SD or others are usually not the problem. I don't know how many times I've cured a noisey guitar by replacing the pots but it's a fairly common thing. A good tech will hook you up, a poor one will blame the pickups.
Robert

In my post above about Bill Lawrence, I was mentioning my problem. There always can be improper wiring, faulty pots, etc. In my case, I am essentially playing near a power station.

With all due respect to Robert S, whose opinions I value extremely highly, Bill Lawrence pups are designed differently from the usual humbucker that has the magnet in the bottom of the pup. The permeability of Alnico magnets in the bottom of the pickup result in some loss of the humbucking effect.

I might add that I never tried a SD pup with a ceramic bar magnet in the bottom, such as the Custom. That could have helped me, possibly. I've heard that they hum a lot less than pups with Alnico bar magnets.

Hey, that gives me an idea :wink:

 

[\m/(00)\m/]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

hmm this tone is somewhat interesting

anyway i can hear it?

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

ACG, I'm sorry you're having such problems with your pups. I will admit it is possible that you got a badly potted pup. That said I doubt it but it IS possible. There was a run of JB's a while back that were microphonic, it is possible that you got one of those. I've seen/used the vaccum potting machine (when I potted my distortion/custom hybrid) and I just don't think the wax is a problem. If you are certain that the problem resides in the pup then call SD and tell them the problem/s and ship them back.

You have to overlook musicians, very passionate people.

Luke

 

[ACG]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

Quote from The architect "That comment was directed at the fact that you have all of these heavyweight industry connections building your guitar but come here for this issue? We are a knowledgable group to be sure but with the pedigree you claim no one could get Seymour or MJ on the phone for you? Surely with "trade secrets" to protect there is a better route than a public forum?"

I called MJ about 8 days ago she wasnt available I left a voice message and asked her to drop me an email so I could order some pickups.... she never got back to me so because Duncans were easily available here I wanted to give them another chance in my axes so I came straight to the forum for info to buy stock ones... You gentlemen are my fellow peers the guys who use these pickups... I think you should give yourself more credit... I came to the "end user my fellow players" thats the best unbiased info.. as far as trade secrets I used to give away all my secret stuff ( the stuff that took me sleepless hours and years of obsessed experimentation to stumble across) now I am getting older and realize how very personal and vauable that info is... it is your signiture tone... its like a fingure print... (I will use another example to explain it to you Architect.... as a fisherman I will tell you what secret lures I use, and how I work them in the water, what knots I use and what scent ı spray on the plug, but I wont tell you where I fish or when.... thats my trade secret ı dont want to be swamped off my secret spot by friends I'm trying to help be better fisherman) so its a love thing and sharing is involved but after 37 years of trying this and that us older farts should keep a secret or two... but as I look back at the posts I have made here today it seems I spilled some beans along the way... I am just a sharing guy... sincerety makes a better player..

Hey Frankencat... your from New York too? Yoh howya dooooooooon?" whats the NY alphabet? Freeken A, freeken B, Freeken C, hee hee hee... no problem buddy... thanks for your kinds words I apreciate your post.... I see your 41 thats a great playing age... the mind has just gotten over the drug years, arthritis hasnt set in yet, hands are still hot yet seasoned, ya got your tone under control, you dont drink as much yet are still a banshee in bed ( with the help of those little cute blue pills) yup 41 is cool.. I passed that platue a decade ago.... I am now an official Old fart.... But I still smoke on the guitar... so does that make me OLD FART SMOKE? Sounds too funky to me and I dont even wanna go there...

JM corey I visited the site you recomended and will give those pups a shot thanks for the heads up I'll letya know how it turns out...


Quote from \m/(00)\m/ "hmm this tone is somewhat interesting

anyway i can hear it?"
__________________


Your 16 years old?


NO YOUR TOO YOUNG I DONT WANT TO MESS UP YOUR LIFE LIKE I DID MINE::::

Once you taste the "Rich Coffee tone" you spend the rest of your life trying find that elusive columbian pickup called "Juan Valldez"... I messed up my life with that quest I'm not gonna infect you youngblood. Save yourself take up profesional contact sports with single girls. Anything is better than spending every hour of the day trying to get "more distortion" :burnout:

 

[Davey]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

Anything is better than spending every hour of the day trying to get "more distortion" :burnout:

ROFL!!!

you know how easy it is after you realise you dont need THAT much distortion at all.

 

[ACG]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

Thanks Luke Duke... apreciate your input and support...

Nothing wrong with passionate musicians Luke.

With the way music is today with a drum machine and a thug cursing at our mothers Passionate musicians is what this world needs more of lately dont you think?

 

[ACG]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

Davey your right... one does not need that much distortion "all the time" but there is "one special tone that makes note sound like rapid fire crackers" I love that sound and the only way to get that sound is to fry the bank and the home and the gear.....

 

[Davey]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

LOL

try not to fry your head using it too hehe.

well, good luck on your pup quest.. i'm off to the maiden gig

 

[Pierre]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

If you wanted a more sympathetic reply you maybe could have asked 'what's wrong with the pickups' instead of saying something which could easily have been indentified as a generalisation of Seymour Duncan pickups.
Now I've been playing guitar for 4 months and I do not use SD pickups yet. But even from your first post I knew what was wrong (the Custom + Screamin' Deamon set). I don't know much about wiring and input theory to comment but indeed switching them would probably be the wisest thing. Or else if you have individual volume controls on your guitar, keep the volume down at all times on the neck pickup, and maybe indeed use less gain.

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: In all due respect and honesty I am dissapointed with these Duncan pickups

With the way music is today with a drum machine and a thug cursing at our mothers Passionate musicians is what this world needs more of lately dont you think?

Too true, unfortunately. Leave the woman that gave me birth out of it! :laugh2:

Really interesting you mentioned that. I was at Firehouse subs the other day and the owner was explaining to his employees what longevity was in music, then why thug music was no acceptable for children to listen, probably not even adults with the way women are viewed and spoken of.

On topic though, I remember replying to your thread and you saying you were set on the Demon for the most part, but I don't recall a part about the custom in the neck. If I misled you in any way I'm sorry. Also I realize I'm not using near as much gain as you but standing in front of a raging stack I haven't had problems with antiquities even. With my other Duncan's in front of half stacks, or my Z I haven't had any kind of noise that wasn't the "nature of the beast"

Luke