Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom Special Van Halen pickup 1979

P

pittbull

Active member
I found this article about the Seymour Duncan sh5 custom which I already knew BUT it wasn’t designed for Eddie.
“It’s not really old news to some people that Eddie Van Halen appears to have been one of the earliest big-name fans of the Duncan Custom. In an October 1979 issue of Guitar Player magazine, the Custom is advertised as “(Van Halen)”. The same ad was seen in the December 1979 issue, sans the “(Van Halen)”. LOL! That Eddie! For a guy that didn’t want people to copy his tone, he sure sells a lot of gear with his name all over it. HaHa!

But to be clear, Eddie was digging the Custom as an existing product and it is not a design that was made for him. The origin of the Custom model has more to do with how someone that was ordering some parts slipped up. Seymour made the best of the situation and came up with a new design to make use of an oddball purchasing snafu.”​
 
pittbull said:
The origin of the Custom model has more to do with how someone that was ordering some parts slipped up. Seymour made the best of the situation and came up with a new design to make use of an oddball purchasing snafu.”​
Click to expand...

Link or quote please
 
Seymour-Duncan-EVH-Custom-1979-1.jpg


All i know is that adv.
 
pittbull said:
I found this article about the Seymour Duncan sh5 custom which I already knew BUT it wasn’t designed for Eddie.
“It’s not really old news to some people that Eddie Van Halen appears to have been one of the earliest big-name fans of the Duncan Custom. In an October 1979 issue of Guitar Player magazine, the Custom is advertised as “(Van Halen)”. The same ad was seen in the December 1979 issue, sans the “(Van Halen)”. LOL! That Eddie! For a guy that didn’t want people to copy his tone, he sure sells a lot of gear with his name all over it. HaHa!

But to be clear, Eddie was digging the Custom as an existing product and it is not a design that was made for him. The origin of the Custom model has more to do with how someone that was ordering some parts slipped up. Seymour made the best of the situation and came up with a new design to make use of an oddball purchasing snafu.”​
Click to expand...

WHat am I missing? I am not seeing anything that proves one way or the other that the SH-5 was made for EVH. By the time that ad came out, it existed. It does not speak in any way how it came to be
 
I don't know how much I trust those articles. There's a lot of incorrect language and unsupported claims that make me not think the author is a trustworthy source. I will also say that SD didn't really have "production pickups" as we it until much later than 78. Back then they were still operated very much like the SD CS of today or any other boutique winder.
 
The seymour Duncan company started in 1976 Seymour was doing rewinds production models stated in 1979 and the Duncan Custom Sh5 was a production model in 1979 it wasn’t made for Eddie Van halen
 
The article is incorrect.

The '78 Model was introduced much later, in around 2004, originally as the "Evenly Voiced Harmonics" Model and was based on the first PAF rewind Seymour did for EVH. People referred to the EVH Model as the 78 Model and later the name was changed. When it was the EVH Model by default it was 8.75k Alnico 2 long leg humbucker 2-conductor. When it become the '78 Model it defaulted to 9k Alnico 2 short-leg Trembucker 4-conductor.

The Custom was supposedly a joint experiment after that first rewind where EVH wanted more output but still sound like a loud PAF. It was Seymour's first ceramic pickup. Seymour tried to market the Custom in 1979 as a joint development, but EVH shut him down on using his name, though Duncan has continued to sell the model. The Duncan Custom in the 1979 ad is the ceramic-mag Duncan Custom, designated SH-5.

Also Seymour Duncan never tried to clone the DiMarzio Super Distortion for anybody.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/78-model-humbucker

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/forum/the-pickup-lounge/8202-duncan-78-model?p=400579#post400579

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...-frankenstein-humbucker?p=2493338#post2493338

https://darthphineas.com/2017/07/seymour-duncan-78/

https://darthphineas.com/2018/09/seymour-duncan-custom-humbucker/
 
Thiis thread got me thinking this is the first time in years my Super 70 is not in one of my guitars it is sitting in a box in the basement.
 
pittbull said:
I found this article about the Seymour Duncan sh5 custom which I already knew BUT it wasn’t designed for Eddie.
“It’s not really old news to some people that Eddie Van Halen appears to have been one of the earliest big-name fans of the Duncan Custom. In an October 1979 issue of Guitar Player magazine, the Custom is advertised as “(Van Halen)”. The same ad was seen in the December 1979 issue, sans the “(Van Halen)”. LOL! That Eddie! For a guy that didn’t want people to copy his tone, he sure sells a lot of gear with his name all over it. HaHa!

But to be clear, Eddie was digging the Custom as an existing product and it is not a design that was made for him. The origin of the Custom model has more to do with how someone that was ordering some parts slipped up. Seymour made the best of the situation and came up with a new design to make use of an oddball purchasing snafu.”​
Click to expand...

I think you can stop posting now. All your questions have been answered.

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...van-halen-1-sound-duncan-59-or-dimarzio-vhpaf

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...-seymour-duncan-custom-custom-van-halen-sound

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...an-custom-custom-vs-dimarzio-super-distortion

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...-seymour-duncan-special-van-halen-pickup-1979

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...ncan-custom-sh-5-or-dimarzio-super-distortion

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/for...8-duncan-custom-sh-5-special-van-halen-pickup

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/forum/the-pickup-lounge/292099-seymour-duncan-jb-van-halen
 
pittbull said:
The Seymour Duncan company started in 1976 Seymour was doing rewinds production models stated in 1979 and the Duncan Custom Sh5 was a production model in 1979 it wasn’t made for Eddie Van Halen
Click to expand...

It's the same story as the Jazz/JB, originally wound in 76. The artist name was attached for advertising purposes, the name was removed. Granted, that story is substantially better documented than anything about EVHs stuff. The guy really liked being mysterious and misleading about the gear he used.
 
“Stop posting your questions have been answered” WHAT I knew the Duncan SH 5 custom WASNT designed for Eddie
 
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