Seymour Duncan's JB Model still going strong at 30.
IN 1974 A 20-SOMETHING American blues American Blues were a 1960s Texas-based garage band who played a psychedelic style of blues rock music influenced by the 13th Floor Elevators. They are most famous for including two future members of the band ZZ Top in their ranks, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. guitarist named Seymour W. Duncan Seymour W. Duncan is a guitarist and luthier best known for starting the Seymour Duncan company, was burning it up in London's bars and clubs by night. During days, he performed guitar repair for Ivor Arbiter at the Fender Sound House on Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road is a road in Central London, England, running from St Giles' Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road) north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden. It was during those days that Seymour struck up a friendship with his all-time guitar hero, Jeff Beck.
After Jeff's assistant sent his favorite Les Paul to a shady repairman who switched out the P.A.F.'s for newer, squealing pickups, Jeff came to Seymour for help and advice. Seymour repaired Jeff's Les Paul, and then set about creating a special guitar for Jeff with a pair of pickups that would capture Jeff's amazing ability. The result was a guitar that Seymour gave to Jeff as a gift. The body and neck were clearly a Telecaster, but the pickups were two rewound humbuckers made from broken P.A.F.s Seymour rescued from a destroyed Flying V previously owned by Lonnie Mack. Seymour called the guitar a "Tele-Gib," and nicknamed the bridge pickup "JB" and the neck pickup "JM," after the hot rod racer, "John Milner," in the classic film American Graffiti. (Eventually, "JM" would change to "Jazz Model," which is what it's called today.) Jeff used the Tele-Gib on his amazing 1975 release, Blow By Blow, where it gained notoriety for the haunting volume swells heard on "Cause We Ended As Lovers," which Jeff dedicated to Roy Buchanan.
The JB bridge pickup became very popular very quickly. Soon, many of England's top guitarists, including more than a few legendary names, sought out Seymour's "JB Mod" for their guitars. They found that the JB gave increased output (16.4K ohms) without sounding harsh or dark like other high-output pick-ups of the mid-'70s owing to special Alnico magnet. When Seymour returned to the USA the next year, his reputation as a pickup designer and the JB's reputation as a great pickup preceded him. And the rest was history.
