Installed a Duncan Custom SH-5 in my guitar!

Duke of Metal

Duke of Metal

New member
Hey guys,
I baught a Duncan Custom Sh-5 off a person from the board here and It arrived today and In installed it in my guitar (Epiphone Lespaul).

It didnt have a sticker but I meassured the resistance on it and it meassured around 14.0k. Which I believe it a Duncan Custom.

Anyways.. I gotta say, the Duncan Custom is just awsome. Has a little gritty (not sure if thats the right word) feel/sound to it but nothing bad. Tight sounding and has bite.

I plugged it into my rack setup:
ADA MP-1 3Tube Modded
Rocktron Intellifex
Peavey Classic 60/60 Tube poweramp
Yorkville 2x12 Cabinet with Celestion Classic Lead & G12H80.

It add that high-end that I always wanted in there without being harsh or not enough. Definitly gave me sound that little round sound that I like. When I cranked things up (all tube), it was just AWSOME. I couldnt believe I was missing out on this pickup before and using my epiphone pickup.

1 thing I noticed is that I sorta had to raise my Overdrives settings to get the gain I had with the Epiphone pickup. Not sure if thats a normal thing.

When I had my Epiphone pickup, I kept my overdrives settings at:
OD1 - 7.5
OD2 - 8.5

When I changed to the Duncan Custom, I had to raise OD1 to about 8.5, but the sound is still clear, punchy and round. Definitly love it. Is that normal with the gain?

Thanks to all those who recommended this pickup to me.

also, 1 last question, I only had to wire the Black and Green (ground) wires. Will the pickup work if I wired them the other way around??


thanks alot,
Duke
 
Last edited:
Re: Installed a Duncan Custom SH-5 in my guitar!

Duke,

I do agree. That Custom is a pounding muther. I put one in my LP and I really like it there. The leads have a real nice full sound to them, and not harsh, a real "round" sound like you say. And I do think they have alot of power to 'em. I think it cleans up pretty well also. However, mine's made for rockin'.

As for wiring in reverse, I don't think it will work. Keep the black onto the pickup selector and the green (and silver) to ground. I think I accidentally did it backwards once and it didn't make any noise.

-Matt
 
Re: Installed a Duncan Custom SH-5 in my guitar!

The Custom is pretty cool, isn't it.

Black to hot and green/plain to ground with the red and white connected to each other is the right way to wire, but you can reverse the black and green connections with little difference in tone, as long as you wire the pickups the same. If you wire one green to hot and the other black to hot, you'll have phase issues.

Also, wiring green to hot in a guitar that that uses split wiring will cause the screw coils to be left active instead of the stud coils.
 
Re: Installed a Duncan Custom SH-5 in my guitar!

I love the DC, tight, punchy but smooth, aggressive, pure, and most importantly well rounded. Congradulations on a life time tone investment!
 
Re: Installed a Duncan Custom SH-5 in my guitar!

Have any of you guys compared it to the C-5 and JB? I like the C-5 more than the Jb but the JB has the thickness I felt the C-5 lacked in my set up. That said, I have a Custom on the way to compare to my Rio Grande BBQ. :)
 
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