Seymour Duncan 59 series bridge and neck difference

[Iroccopz28]

Hello folks, I have a set of Seymour Duncan 59 series pickups and I am curious what makes them different. One says 59n on it and the other 59b and I'm assuming that means neck and bridge however what makes them be neck and bridge? If I didn't find the sticker on the bottom that said those numbers how would I know by just looking at them. I know this may seem like an abbious question for some of you so I hope it doesn't sound too much like a dumb question but I am just trying to learn everything I can about these pickups before they find their new hom in my SG custom
Build that I am doing... they came out of an epiphone LP that my friend replaced with a set of Salk Wild EMG's...

Thank you for any and all help... Jim

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Seymour Duncan 59 series bridge and neck difference

There are more windings of wire on the Bridge pickup coils to compensate for the lower volume you get in this position. Therefore you can measure the higher resistance of the bridge pickup with a multimeter.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Seymour Duncan 59 series bridge and neck difference

A bridge PU in the neck slot will be warmer and louder, with more mids and lows. For some guys that works. For myself, I prefer necks to have plenty of clarity and a sharp high-end (rather than rounded).

 

[Iroccopz28]

Re: Seymour Duncan 59 series bridge and neck difference

There are more windings of wire on the Bridge pickup to compensate for the lower volume you get in this position. Therefore you can measure the higher resistance of the bridge pickup with a multimeter.

Ok, thank you, that makes a lot of sense, so the pole pieces aren't spaced different then? I had some guy I was talking to yesterday at a store that said that the pole pieces were different and I didn't think that was the case because I was getting the same measurements, however I don't have the best measuring equipment so I thought maybe I was still wrong...

Anyways, thank you for the quick response, I appreciate it...Jim

 

[Iroccopz28]

Re: Seymour Duncan 59 series bridge and neck difference

A bridge PU in the neck slot will be warmer and louder, with more mids and lows. For some guys that works. For myself, I prefer necks to have plenty of clarity and a sharp high-end (rather than rounded).

Thank you for your response to this as well. I noticed that they were in the wrong locations on the LP when I took them out and found that odd but it's all starting to come together in my head now what they may have been thinking when the guy before me owned it...

Thank you again, Jim

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Seymour Duncan 59 series bridge and neck difference

There are different polepiece spacings available in our days. But vintage Gibson chose 49.2 mm as Standard for full size humbuckers. Those 59 are made as copies of the vintage Gibson P.A.F. Humbucker with the vintage standard spacing.