Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

cyberpunk409

cyberpunk409

New member
Hey guys, will it be alright if i install a Seymour Duncan APH-1b (bridge) and a Gibson '57 (neck) into my les paul?

Do these 2 pickup companies get along inside a guitar?
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

There should be no reason why that would be any different to installing a duncan alongside a dimarzio or other such things that people do all the time...one of my guitars has two dimarzios and one duncan in it.

There would be no problem what so ever my friend...unless of course one is passive and one is active, then it gets complicated. I wouldn't think there would be too much volume inbalance between those two pickups either.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

Last time I tried to mate a Duncan bridge with a Gibson, they didn't jive together, and I was too lazy to flip the magnet, so I just bought a Duncan neck pickup. I'm trying to remember if the slug coils of each pickup are supposed to attract or repel. That's one way to test before you install.
Can someone answer that quickly here? On strat pickups, the middle is reverse wound reverse polarity, and it's supposed to attract to the other two. Maybe on humbuckers they repel, but I can't remember clearly.

To flip a magnet, you need to use a dremel tool to cut the nickel cover's solder points to get it off, then loosen the 4 brass bolts on the bottom of the pickup, pry up the tape if you can, and carefully use a tool to push the magnet out and grip it from the other side with pliers. Flip it around longways, tighten the brass bolts, straighten out the tape, remelt the solder points on the cover, and it's a good idea to give it a fast dunk in wax.
 
Last edited:
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

so thats 1 for YES and 1 for NO, can anyone else shed some light on this please?
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

A pickup is a pickup is a pickup. Unless you're going active as gear joneser said.

It will work fine, it's mathmatics. Will it sound good? Well that's an opinion.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

Mephis said:
A pickup is a pickup is a pickup. Unless you're going active as gear joneser said.

It will work fine, it's mathmatics. Will it sound good? Well that's an opinion.
Click to expand...

Ahem...I believe I mentioned the active/passive thing :blackeye:

I was however reaching for a slice of humble pie after reading Joneseys post about the different magnets doing different things between pickup brands, I was not aware of such issues. Someone should be able to chime in with a definite answer here.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

I'm running a '59 neck and 498T bridge ... seems to be working well ... no problem that I can see.

I also have never heard about a magnet problem, soI'm interested, as well. What would the symptoms be if the magnet was causing a problem?
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

well i put the GIBSON '57 into the neck and it works just fine with the Seymour Duncan APH1 in the bridge. so there ya go
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

Excellent...I actually really liked the Gibson '57. I had some in an ES137 Custom I owned for a few days once before returning it due to quality control issues with good old Gibson!
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

I put 490R into the neck pair with Seth Lover in bridge in my LP, since I can't get 498T for bridge. and I never regret this decision


my LP is second hand, and they replace pair of dimarzio
 
Last edited:
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

Glad to hear that, I'm about to put a Seth in the bridge of my Dot, and I was hoping it'd blend well with the '57 Classic in the neck.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

yep, the gibson '57 classic is a really excellent pickup. I was extremely happy with the SD '59 that it replaced, but the '57 sounds smoother and breaks up a lot nicer under high gain than the '59 did.

I'm also happier now that both pickups have alnico 2 magnets. I was like the ONLY person on this forum that had an A5 in the neck and an A2 in the bridge, everyone else goes the other way. The gibson '57 compliments the APH1 pup very nicely, a match truely made in heaven.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

All phasing problems are solved by flipping one of the magnets.

99% of all passive humbuckers are built so the south pole of the magnet is facing the screw coil and north facing the slugs. Buy a polarity tester from Stewmac ($7) and you will be able to quickly and easily solve all these problems.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

OK, the fast way to test them is to put the pickups face to face. They should repel. The reason they should repel and strat pickups should attract to the middle is because humbuckers have the screw coils on the outside, which means they're flipped around inside the guitar. You'll know right away if it's wrong because the middle position will sound thin and nasally.

If the humbuckers attract when they're put face to face, you'll have to flip a magnet in one of them. It drives me crazy that manufacturers do that. I wish they'd all agree on one thing.

Also, if the magnets are correct, but you still get hum in the middle position, I think you can change green/silver neg/black pos. to silver/black neg/green pos to correct it. If your middle position is out of phase because of the magnets, you'll have to flip a magnet in one.

Since it worked out for you, that's ideal. If you ever run into that problem, remember this post.
 
Last edited:
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

Gearjoneser said:
OK, the fast way to test them is to put the pickups face to face. They should repel.
Click to expand...

Putting pickups face to face can be confusing to folks because they might have the slugs facing the screws, which would attract when the two pu's in phase. If you're going to do it this way, make sure its slugs facing slugs and screws facing screws.

The faster way is just to use the polarity tester. Screw coils should be south, slugs north.

Even if the magnetic polarity is right on both pu's, they could still be wired out of phase with each other so beware of that. But that's also fixed easily by flipping one of the magnets.
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

No need to flip the magnet. Just reverse the hot and ground connections on one pickup only.
Zhangliqun said:
Even if the magnetic polarity is right on both pu's, they could still be wired out of phase with each other so beware of that. But that's also fixed easily by flipping one of the magnets.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Seymour Duncan AND Gibson pickups together?

most of you guys have mentioned a phase problem... now i havent noticed anything out of the ordinary with the Gibson and SD p'up combo, the middle position sounds just fine to me. maybe i dont know what i should be listening out for... so if the 2 pickups were out of phase and the gibson magnet did need swapping, what exactly should i be hearing in the middle position?

in other words, can someone explain this "phase" thing to me please
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top