NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

[Lewguitar]

Just got back from NAMM and it was great meeting up with Evan, Seymour, MJ, Scott and others at the Duncan booth. For me, the Seymour Duncan Pickups Booth was my favorite of the entire show.

Best vibe!

To me, Duncan products sound like the way the people who represent Duncan Pickups feel to me: warm, unpretentious, inclusive and welcoming!

My ex-wife used to say that there are two kinds of people in the world and you can tell which is which by the way each type walks into a room:

#1 would be the self centered type who walks into a room with a "Here I Am" kind of vibe.

#2 would be the type who walks into a room and makes it evident that they're glad to see YOU...a "There You Are" kind of vibe.

It's alot nicer to meet a "There You Are" kind of person than it is to meet a "Here I Am" kind of personality.

I was knocked out by the enlightened vibe and warm and genuine welcome energy projected by Seymour, Evan and the entire gang at Duncan Pickups.

And I feel that that warmth is evident in the warm and natural tone of Duncan Pickups.

Sorry for gushing a bit guys, but that's just what I felt. Very much a loving vibe and a family vibe that I felt honored to be included in...and that vibe seems to start right there with the man himself: Seymour.

Every single person who I saw make eye contact with Seymour was rewarded with a genuine "Hi!" or "Glad to see you!" or similar recognition. Seymour's definately one of those "There You Are!" kinda guys...

Lew

 

[John Wymore]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

All the people at Duncan are real folks ..... right from the top down!!

Lew, I wish I'd known you were going to be there. It would have been great to meet you. I stopped by the booth several times but never got to meet any of the forum members. Spent a bunch of time playing with the new SFX-03 though!! I also got to see Scott Miller perform under pressure when he was asked to demo the SFX-03 for all the GC brass with about 30 seconds notice!!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

Thanks! Yes it would have been nice to meet more forum bothers. Curly and I hung out together for most of the NAMM show but although I did get to meet R2D (Brenden) at the Duncan booth, those were the only two forum members I met at the show.

Scott put on a pretty good show through that old Super Reverb huh? And and the JB humbucker in the bridge of his Strat bore out what I've alwasy said about the JB: in the right hands, it is not a the overly bright pickup so many claim it is. Scott sounded killer and had great tone!

The pedal I was most knocked out by wasn't the Duncan Twin Tube Classic...although it was mighty impressive. But even more impressive was the Rick Turner designed Mama Bear which allowed any guitar with a piezo pickup to emulate any number of fabulous acoustic guitars.

I have got to have one of those. I have never heard better acoustic guitar tone and the guitars we tried it with were nothing special at all! An entry level Ovation Balladeer and a entry level Strat wannabe with fishman bridge saddles.

Very impressive acoustic tone when those guitars were plugged into Mama Bear. Did you get to check it out?

Lew

 

[John Wymore]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

Did you get to check it out?

No, I guess I was so into the hype of the tube pedal I glossed completly over the acoustic stuff. Here I am in the dark again!!!

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

Nice post Lew....I Know everyone of the Duncan folks and alot of other folks could say the same thing about you.

 

[Curly]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

when I got my Taylor in April last year, I was on the Acoustic Guitar Forum and DTAR forum quite a bit, and there was a lot of anticipation out there for the Mama Bear

there was a delay while they worked out engineering from users' input, so Evan was probably under quite a bit of pressure to get it released, but they wanted to "do it right" too

I'd say it was worth the wait. A great product, and as Lew said, we heard it with just average instruments. It's got to sound a lot better with a good acoustic.

 

[Artie]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

I've never met anyone at SD, although I've talked to Evan a couple times on the phone. You can tell how the company "spirit" is by this forum, but its always nice to hear (more) confirmation of who these cool folks are.

Sounds like you had fun Lew. A "February" pickup sale would be a nice celebration of that event.

Artie

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

I was at the UGD and everybody was very cool.

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

That is the exact feeling I got from meeting the whole crew at UGD, it was like being with family that you actually wanted to be around.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

Great perspective Lew. Thanks for that.

Yep, you gotta love a guy and company like Seymour Duncan. What you see is what you get, in a really good way.

Way to go, SD!

 

[gripweed]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

I've worked for a few different places in my 41 years. One of the best had a real family attitude. The director was an a**, but he had the smarts to stay out of the way. Then a new director was hired. A friend of mine who worked there said at the very beginning "that man is evil." I ignored his evaluation of the director because I thought it was premature. My friend was right. He changed the entire feel of that magical place.

It may sound trite, but I think the whole thing starts with Seymour. Lew alluded to it. Seymour had a warm greeting for everyone. I hope that the Duncan company remains in family hands for that very reason. I agree with Lew that it *is* reflected in the sound of their products.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: NAMM based reflections on the Seymour Duncan Company.

Reminds me of a very "passionate" discussion I had with a certain dealer of fine guitars....

I own several Martin guitars (and many other fine guitars), and had just bought a new 2003 Taylor 710CE to use for live performance.

He sold Martin and Gibson. (Personally, I have never cared for any of the Gibson acoustics I have played over the years, and I do not own a Gibson acoustic.)

His comment? "Taylors are over-rated junk. They have no soul."

(I thought, "Hmmmm. Interesting. I think I know what he means, but my new Taylor is really 'special', at least to me--and anyway, this is not what I want to hear after I just spent $XXXX on a guitar!")

Well, flash forward a couple of years. Things change. He lost his Gibson franchise.

Wanna take a guess what kind of guitars he's selling now? (Hint--Starts with a "T...", and ends with "...aylor".

No soul? No credibility!

Bill