Limited Edition Duncans

badco33

badco33

New member
My set came today! I wasn't sure with everything going on if I wanted to keep them but I was going crazy so I decided to install the neck pup (I don't know if this means I can't return them now if I decide to but with everything that has happened so far who knows).

I installed the neck in my 2004 Les Paul Standard replacing my Seth Lover neck. Let me say that I am mostly an alnico II guy but bought these because I thought they would be a good mix between the seth lovers (my favs) and the 59's.

I have it in and have been noodling around for about an hour and I have to say- It does seem like a cross between a seth and 59. I have been playing blues and rock licks on my Peavey classic 30 and it sings. The clean tones sound really nice and ring out and the overdriven tones have a very rich sound with no mud. Response and tone on the low E and A seem very seth like but the higher strings are much more articulate and snappy. I have to say I really like it. I have 59's, Pearly Gates, and Seths. I owned a Antiquity neck pickup at one time but didn't care for it too much so I sold it. It didn't have the snap I like and seemed kind of dead. I never tried putting a full strength magnet in it. This pup just seems to have a bit more snap to it than those others mentioned. It's just kind of alive- articulate is the best way to describe it. Even more so than the seth neck. I'm gonna play around with it some more tonight and I'll post some more info tomorrow. If I get a wild hair I will install the bridge but I always use the neck pup as a bench mark cause I tend to play it more and really know what I want.

Also, I believe the neck is a double cream and the bridge is a zebra. (I removed a couple of the baseplate screws and took a quick peek). The engraving on the covers does not stand out as much as It did in the MF website and I am happy about that. From a good distance you can't really tell they are engraved especially with the strings over the top.

Anyway, I'm gonna log off and try it out some more. I'll report back tomorrow. I think a couple other guys are getting theirs tomorrow so we should have some more reports.
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

Thanks for the nice review, it's good to get some real world feedback. There has been a lot said so far about these pups, but the proof is in the pudding.

Sounds like a +1 for the tone factor....and that's what really matters.
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

Dang, I can hardly wait! I've never bought a $300 set of pickups in my life, and I bought these for tone, moreso than for anything else. I'm popping them in a LP Std. Premium Plus, which I believe has 300K pots and I haven't added any caps.
After I install them, and hear them, I'll see if I need to move to 500K pots, and may experiment with caps.

There's even a possibility I may lightly pot the bridge only.
I use my Bogner's red channel pretty loud for solos, so I gotta make sure there's no microphonics on the bridge. I've never had that problem with the Seth neck.
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

I played for a few more hours last night and I still think the tone is a cross between the seth and 59. The E and A are seth like while the high strings have the snap and articulation of a 59. I still haven't installed the bridge yet. I'm still deciding weather or not to keep them. I've never bought $300 pickups either and I bought them for the tone but also for an investment if I ever wanted to get rid of them I thought they would hold their value. I'm trying to decide if I should keep these or go the true custom route and return these and order exactly what I want fromt he Custom shop. Right now these are kind of sounding like "what I want" so that's why the choice is so difficult.

Just to let you know, I have 500K CTS pots in my Les Paul and orange drop caps.
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

Gearjoneser said:
After I install them, and hear them, I'll see if I need to move to 500K pots, and may experiment with caps...
Click to expand...

There is a quick way to test how your guitar would sound with a 500k volume pot instead of the 300k (EDITED) : remove the ground wire from the CCW terminal and insert a 180k or 220k resistor between the terminal and ground (often the pot case). That will change the load of the pot to ~500k. However it is only a temporary test because when you set it to "0" it will not be completely muted.

HTH
 
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Re: Limited Edition Duncans

BlueGuitar said:
There is a quick way to test how your guitar would sound with a 500k volume pot instead of the 300k: remove the lead from the wiper and insert a 180k or 220k resistor between the wire and the pot. That will change the load of the pot to ~500k. However it is only a temporary test because when you set it to "0" it will not be completely muted.

HTH
Click to expand...

Thanks for that tip, I'll try it that way first, before deciding if I want a 500K pot. I don't like bright bridge pickups, so I'll probably leave the 300K in there.
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

Actually, its the terminal of the pot that goes to ground, where you need to insert the resistor.
Not the wiper. :)
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

If you're doing some testing and want to experiment with different values, you can also rig up a switch or a push/pull pot to switch between different cap values.

I bet an A5 bridge/A2 neck set would be killer. Anyone know if both pickups will be the same except for the magnets, kind of like the Custom series? Or will Seymour be reworking the design for the A5 magnet models?

Ryan
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

I got the pickups by UPS, just now. They actually look pretty sweet! The engraving is clean and perfect, although it'a a little different than I thought. It says
50th Anniversary Musician's Friend across the top!!!!!!! OK, that's my early April Fools Day joke!! hahahaha Actually, it is different from the picture here. Both pickups are actually engraved with 50th Anniversary 1955-2005 They look great!

I have to wait till this evening to install them, but what I DID notice is that the specs look a bit hotter than both the Seth and 59 Model......closer to Pearly Gates.
My Anniversary set is Alnico II, with a resistance of 8.52 Bridge 7.48 Neck.
The regular production Seths are 8.1 Bridge 7.2 Neck
The 59's are rated at 8.13 Bridge 7.43 Neck
Pearly Gates are rated at 8.5 Bridge 7.3 Neck, so it looks like the Anniversaries are closest to those.
The Antiquity humbuckers are also A2 and rated at 8.52 Bridge 7.8 Neck.

I guess I'll find out tonight if these Anniversary Seths resemble PG's or Antiquities.
I'm putting them in this Honeyflame Premium Plus. The Goldtop has pullup tones, so I need to keep my 4 conductor C-5/59 in that one.
gj-2-GT-honey.jpg

300301.jpg
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

Here is a quick follow up that should help resolve any issues on the Alnico II
and Alnico V magnet mix-up. As Billy Gill stated in his post there will be 150 sets
made for each option.

Alnico II fans will need to order item # 300080 (now in stock)
Alnico V fans will need to order 300301 (available in about 4 weeks)

Thanks everyone for your patience.

Sincerely,
Brad Hochstetler
Musicians Friend
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

ArtieToo said:
Actually, its the terminal of the pot that goes to ground, where you need to insert the resistor.
Not the wiper. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, Artie, you are 100% correct! The wiper trick will work for a typical TONE control, but not for the volume control. :smack:
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

Gearjoneser said:
Thanks for that tip, I'll try it that way first, before deciding if I want a 500K pot. I don't like bright bridge pickups, so I'll probably leave the 300K in there.
Click to expand...

Just making sure that you got the correction from Artie... for a volume control you need to interrupt the GROUND circuit on the CCW terminal and insert the added resistor there.

We're all waiting for your reports on these pups! :32:
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

I installed the pickups in my bone stock 2001 LP Std. Prem. Plus! The above description was pretty accurate, about these 50th Anniversaries sounding like Seths with some characteristics of 59's. Actually, that's what I was hoping for. What I hear is a Seth Lover set that is crisper and tighter sounding.

I listened to them extremely clean on the Matchless Chieftain and Jubilee clean channel, and am really taken by the warm clarity they have, especially in the neck and middle positions. Even thought the neck is very warm, you can still hear the stringy nuances, and the lows seem just a tad tighter than the regular Seth that was in there before. The highs seem a little chimier and clearer, more like a Pearly Gates neck. Because the pickups are unpotted, they possess that 'open' sounding character, that reacts very well to light picking or digging in with your fingers.....in the same way a single coil does. Normally, I'm not a big user of the LP middle position, but with this pickup set, I may spend more time there, than before. The pickups blend in a way that you don't get with higher output pickups. I noticed how often I've heard that sound from 60's and 70's recordings, when using the middle position tonight. I'm thinking of changing my stock 300K pot for a 500K, just to accentuate all the things I liked about the neck pickup.

The bridge pickup is 8.52, and like the neck, it's tighter, sweeter, and more focused sounding than what I remember the Seth bridge to sound like. I took out a CC, and replaced it with this 50th Ann. bridge, so I expected it to be similar, but less output and sweeter. I think it's pretty similar to a Pearly Gates Bridge, in a way. Instead of sounding mushy in the lows, like many A2 pickups, it sounds just as tight as a APII or Pearly Gates. It's right at the edge where it's bright enough to sound nice and present, but if it had more highs, I'd find myself rolling the tone back. What I love most is the actual tone itself. It doesn't have any frequency overpowering another.
Nice, sweet, smooth, and tight, just like one of my other favorite things in life! LOL

When clean, it has an even more pleasing tone than my regular C-5, but the real test for me was how it'd compare to higher output pickups under gain. When installing it, I had the idea of potting it in the back of my mind, but decided instead to put a piece of black foam under it, making contact with the base and cover, just to eliminate some of the pinginess associated with unpotted vintage pickups. I gotta say, the highgain tone it produces is fat, smooth, and tight in the lows.....tighter than the regular Seth, and also clearer in the highs, similar to a 59. Regular Seths tend to have that bit of fuzziness in their sound, but these really don't. They really do sound like a cross between the Seth and 59, as stated in an earlier evaluation.
 
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Re: Limited Edition Duncans

It's ironic that so much has been said about the disappointment of these NOT being Alnico 5, because the truth is, they kind of blur the line between the two. That's good news for everyone who buys this first 150 A2 set. I've heard from others that changing the magnet in Seths or Antiquities to A5 hasn't been as desireable as leaving the A2's in. I might agree with this, now that I've heard these. I'm thinking that an Alnico 5 may tighten the sound a little, but it may cause them to lose mids and be brighter. A little bit of brightness added to the neck may not hurt it, but I'm not sure I'd want the bridge brighter. It's sitting right where it should, tonewise, IMO.

As an added note, I think I'm going to put a 500K pot in the neck volume, but I'll leave the 300K in the bridge, just to keep it as is.

So far, I haven't encountered microphonics in the pickups, even under extreme gain on my Vox Valvetronix on the Recto setting. I also cranked it a bit on the Jubilee gain channel with a Slash/Wylde type sound. These pickups have such a great overall sound, that you soon forget that it's not a high output pickup. Maybe it's the lack of magnetic string pull, compared to high output pickups, but they seem to sustain better, making them seem like higher output pickups like the CC or C-5.
The true test will be hearing them full blast through my main amp, the Bogner Ecstasy.
I'll get to hear them on a clean Bassman sound, a cranked Plexi tone, and a full highgain onslaught. I have a feeling they'll sound great on that, but I've only heard them at moderate volumes, so far. I'm very pleased with them. They're basically refined, and tighter sounding Seths with clearer articulation. They look friggin great too! They really added a touch of class to my Les Paul......like a beautiful engraved silverware set, sitting on a nice livingroom table.
 
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Re: Limited Edition Duncans

I wish these were not engraved because this sentence...

They're basically refined, and tighter sounding Seths with clearer articulation
Click to expand...

basically describes exactly what I'm looking for to put in my new Gibby.

I just don't like the look of the engraving :sigh:
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

JeffB said:
I wish these were not engraved because this sentence...



basically describes exactly what I'm looking for to put in my new Gibby.

I just don't like the look of the engraving :sigh:
Click to expand...

You can always swap the covers for standard nickel covers, especially since there's no wax potting to worry about.

Ryan
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

badco33 said:
Did you check to see what color bobbins you have under the hood?
Click to expand...

I could only see the screw pole sides. The bridge was black, and the neck was cream, although they could be solid or zebra....I dunno.
 
Re: Limited Edition Duncans

Gearjoneser said:
As an added note, I think I'm going to put a 500K pot in the neck volume, but I'll leave the 300K in the bridge, just to keep it as is.
Click to expand...

Good idea! If you need to cut the highs on the bridge any more than that you can add a second tone capacitor in parallel with the first one. Like when I had Seth Lovers in my Heritage H-535 I thought that the bridge pickup was too bright with a 0.022uF tone cap so I soldered a 0.01uF cap in parallel which brought it up to 0.032uF. (Caps in parallel add up like resistors in series, and vice versa.) One advantage in adding two capacitors together (as opposed to using a single cap) is that you can mix different types to create a blend of their characteristics. Like adding a smaller ceramic cap in parallel with a larger poly cap seems to work well...
 
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