Seymour Duncan Trivia

[darthphineas]

Re: Seymour Duncan Trivia

John Milner (for the American Graffiti character).

HTH,

Pepe, FTW

 

[LLL]

Re: Seymour Duncan Trivia

2 - What was the first humbucker to ever be in EVH's Frankenstrat?

Technically, a Mighty Mite 1300 - but since we are speaking Seymour here:

(Assuming the white & black Franky...)

A prototype utilizing a rewound Gibson PAF and smaller ceramic magnet... which Seymour cloned to become the SH-5 Custom.

(not the "'78" - that was for VHII album)

This best explains it:

Right before the first VH record came out eddie was using a Mighty mite pickup
that is a clone of the dimarzio super d (MM 1300).
It was told to me by a reliable source that eddie took this Mighty mite to
seymour duncan and told duncan he wanted that type of pickup
with a more traditional PAF look.
(the MM's and dimarzio's have those hex poles and do not look at all like a PAF by gibson)
Eddie also wanted it to clean up better when he rolled off the volume knob on his strat.
Duncan made eddie what is now called the Duncan SH-5 Custom.(14K ceramic magnet)
I believe this is what ed used on the first record and the following tour in the Home made Black/white strat.
In 1979 after eddie was no longer using the custom duncan tried to sell it as the VH model in guitar player.
Eddie saw this and almost sued seymour over it and so in the very next months issue of guitar player the same ad omitted VH's name.

In late 78 and for the VH II record eddie wanted something closer to a regular PAF, The VH II record tone is cleaner overall.
Seymour made him what is now being sold as the duncan 78 it was formally called the EVH model for evenly voiced harmonics.
This was used until the floyd rose was put on one of eddies strats and then he had seymour make him a a pickup very similar to the
duncan custom-custom(alnico II, 14K)
this pu is now being sold as the EVH frankenstein pickup.

both chip ellis(guy who made the 25K franky relica's) and chris cannella(EVH gear inc.) have confirmed that in 1977 eddie took
a gibson PAF to seymour to rewind the PAF to the same basic tone as the mighty mite 1300(super d clone).
For me it is case closed as to what was in that B/W strat.
The duncan custom is real similar to the MM1300 so it makes sense and why would they lie telling everyone eddie was using mighty mites before he had seymour make him a "custom" one right?
thats all the custom is, it is a customized mighty mite 1300(or super d).
they all use the same wire and use a ceramic magnet but the duncan has a smaller ceramic to clean it up some and of course it looks just like a PAF where the MM1300 and super d dont.
Eddie was a slick dude, he had me and many others thinking he had a gibson PAF in the strat.:bonk
He really did not lie though, cause the duncan IS a rewound PAF.
rewound to 14K with awg 43 and uses a ceramic mag for more power, punch and sustain.

 

[LLL]

Re: Seymour Duncan Trivia

3 - What is the purpose of a Variac in relation to guitar.

EVH used one way back when (I use one myself with my modded JTM45) as a sort of volume control.

As it turns out, Van Halen picked up a secondhand amp without understanding the wiring — “I had my 100-volt Marshall. I bought one through the recycling or the newspaper that was from England, and it was set on 220 volts. I didn’t know.” He ended up buying what amounted to a “super duper light dimmer” — a Variac transformer — to get around the problem:

On the dial you could crank it up to 140 volts or down to zero. So I figured, if it’s on 220 and it’s that quiet, if I take the voltage and lower it, I wonder how low I can go and it still work. Well, it enabled me to turn my amp all the way up, save the tubes, save the wear and tear on the tubes, and play at clubs at half the volume. So, my Variac, my variable transformer was my volume knob. Too loud, [makes knob turning sound] I’d lower it down to 50.

It also affects the tone of the amp in ways I can't really describe... more crunch, I suppose.