My Seymour Duncan Blackened Black Winter Review

[nienturi]

I haven’t really been into high-output pickups for quite a long time, so the Black Winter didn’t excite me at all when it first came out. But recently, thanks to one of my readers, I had the chance to try the standard neck and the Blackened bridge — and surprisingly, I really liked them. In my opinion, for ultra high-gain work, they perform much better than active pickups. If I were in a band that played this kind of music, this would definitely be my choice.

I’ve shared my impressions, measurements, and thoughts here — hope you enjoy it

https://www.tonejourney.com/post/seymour-duncan-black-winter-bridge-blackened-edition-review

 

[Mincer]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

 

[nienturi]

Thank you very much sir

 

[nienturi]

And its neck version;

https://www.tonejourney.com/post/seymour-duncan-black-winter-neck-review

 

[weepingminotaur]

I think the Winter bridge and neck are both very versatile, but hey, we all experience pickups differently. I enjoyed both the reviews.

 

[nienturi]

Thank you very much

 

[htrd]

Great article. But I'd like to add a few notes.

Measured C: -13.3nF (Series)/ -24.8nF (Screw Coil) / -22.9nF (Slug Coil)

This is obviously wrong. It should be in 140-150pF range or less if the cable was shortened. I've measured a few brand new ones with a default cable length.

For instance, considering that the regular version has about 1 henry higher inductance than the Blackened Edition (Antigua measured the standard model at 6.891H), it’s hard to imagine that they would share exactly the same resonance frequency.

I have measured even a ~1.5H difference between regular and blackened edition, but the regular was a trembucker.
But yes, their resonant frequencies are pretty close, like ~300Hz difference with the load (again, trembucker and humbucker), lesser inductance in blackened edition is caused by the smaller screw poles saturation. It will rise if you remove side magnets.

 

[nienturi]

Great article. But I'd like to add a few notes.


This is obviously wrong. It should be in 140-150pF range or less if the cable was shortened. I've measured a few brand new ones with a default cable length.


I have measured even a ~1.5H difference between regular and blackened edition, but the regular was a trembucker.
But yes, their resonant frequencies are pretty close, like ~300Hz difference with the load (again, trembucker and humbucker), lesser inductance in blackened edition is caused by the smaller screw poles saturation. It will rise if you remove side magnets.

You are totally right about the capacitance. My all measurements are wrong. Indeed the capacitance of humbuckers must be in the range of pFs, not nFs. I can't measure the capacitance by now with my gadgets. But i keep measuring and publishing those values just for comparing with other pickups.

Actually i am vert surprised with the similarity of the loaded resonant frequencies. I certainly expect a bit more difference. Yet i still am right about the better clarity of blackened version

Thank you so very much for your input, mate

 

[Frankly]

 

[Hsb]

Noce write up. I have both the reg BW bridge and neck, albeit in diff guitars, and actually prefer the neck over the bridge.

Think the issue I have with the bridge, is the guitar itself, ever pu thats been in the bridge has been honky

The neck is paired with a Distortion and as youre write up kinda guides us, it works quite well with the Distortion bridge.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Nice writeup!

To add to the discussion, I love the BW, both Blackened and normal.

The thing is with the mid-focused Duncans is they're usually voiced "right" in the mids. They're mid-forward, but they're not vocal, nasal, or have that "cocked wah" sound that some DiMarzios can have. At least that's my impression of the BW, the JB, and the Nazgul.

That being said, I suppose some people can hear them as "honky". I come from the world of actives where everything is pretty much a huge punch in the mids, LOL. So that's my point of comparison.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Nice writeup!

To add to the discussion, I love the BW, both Blackened and normal.

The thing is with the mid-focused Duncans is they're usually voiced "right" in the mids. They're mid-forward, but they're not vocal, nasal, or have that "cocked wah" sound that some DiMarzios can have. At least that's my impression of the BW, the JB, and the Nazgul.

That being said, I suppose some people can hear them as "honky". I come from the world of actives where everything is pretty much a huge punch in the mids, LOL. So that's my point of comparison.

I've never found the BW, JB, or Nazgul to be honky, but I am a mid-forward guy.

 

[Securb]

I have all three flavors. I have a BW in my 85 Ibanez Roadstar, a BWR in my ESP Eclipse and a BBW set in my Les Paul, The BBW set I added gold covers and changed the screw poles to gold screws. The have the vintage look and brutal sound. Seeing all three guitars are distinctly different they all have unique qualities while all having that Black Winter mid forward core sound in their DNA.

I should add the BWR is on a push/pull split, clean and split the BWR has a country twang to it, very weird but very cool.

https://imgur.com/2Dbsyak

https://imgur.com/Fj4CXrH

https://imgur.com/SMv9HsU

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I've never found the BW, JB, or Nazgul to be honky, but I am a mid-forward guy.

Neither have I, and do prefer mid-forward pickups too. I was more addressing the post before mine. Like yeah... I suppose a 'Winter has more mids than probably any of the Custom family members or most of the low-wind PAF-types if that's one's point of comparison. But to me, it's just voiced "right" in the mids, and, even if it does come across as "mid-focused", I have never found it "honky". But that's just me.

 

[weepingminotaur]

I have all three flavors. I have a BW in my 85 Ibanez Roadstar, a BWR in my ESP Eclipse and a BBW set in my Les Paul, The BBW set I added gold covers and changed the screw poles to gold screws. The have the vintage look and brutal sound. Seeing all three guitars are distinctly different they all have unique qualities while all having that Black Winter mid forward core sound in their DNA.

I should add the BWR is on a push/pull split, clean and split the BWR has a country twang to it, very weird but very cool.

https://imgur.com/2Dbsyak

https://imgur.com/Fj4CXrH

https://imgur.com/SMv9HsU

Very nice! As a Black Winter cultist, I am dying to try the BWR. Actually haven't tried the Blackened version either. But the regular Winters are in my LTD EC-1000 and they sound killer in Db. Great for melodeath and so on.

 

[AdrianSD]

I have all three flavors. I have a BW in my 85 Ibanez Roadstar, a BWR in my ESP Eclipse and a BBW set in my Les Paul, The BBW set I added gold covers and changed the screw poles to gold screws. The have the vintage look and brutal sound. Seeing all three guitars are distinctly different they all have unique qualities while all having that Black Winter mid forward core sound in their DNA.

I should add the BWR is on a push/pull split, clean and split the BWR has a country twang to it, very weird but very cool.

https://imgur.com/2Dbsyak

https://imgur.com/Fj4CXrH

https://imgur.com/SMv9HsU

Man, that TLA for the Blackened BW gets me every time, sorry but I just couldn't resist
@nienturi very good articles, thanks for taking the time to write them. I don't necessarily agree with the neck pup limited versatility statement, for cleans it sounds great both split, in parallel as well as in series with a treble bleed mod and the volume rolled off to taste.