So I got my first Custom Shop Duncan - I came full circle.

[Rex_Rocker]

So you know the struggle I've been having with the Custom. I mean, I like it, but it isn't 100% what I want.

I was regretting getting rid of the JB that came stock with the guitar. I didn't like it much less than I like the Custom, honestly. It had stuff that I liked much as the Custom does. It just needed some work. But I think I could've gotten it to work by either removing the cover, disconnecting the tone pot, swapping the volume knob for 1Meg and/or swapping the magnet for Ceramic. But I didn't want to be the dumbass who sells a pickup just to buy it again less than a month later...

... or am I?

LOL, in my defense, I got it in a trade. I was selling a bunch of stuff on Facebook Marketplace to fund another pickup, and I found this to trade.

https://www.long-mcquade.com/382476...n-Maricela-MJ-Juarez-Bridge-Pickup-Black.html

It's not actually custom-built for me, so that knocks some coolness factor points off, but it's still CS wound by MJ herself! It's a Long and McQuade anniversary thing. It has 2 conductor braided wire, long legs, a baseplate without the Duncan branding other than the sticker, and MJ's signature. I see the potting is lighter than what you see on the production ones (I'm not to excited about that, but we'll see) and it looks like it has a roughcast magnet. So I think it's essentially a 35th Anni JB.

I'll install it tonight, but I'm excited to see if this JB gets lifts my LTD up. Honestly, it's such a fancy pickup I'm considering saving it up for my Les Paul and dropping the 500T on the LTD. We'll see.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Cross that. The magnet doesn't really look roughcast. I hope it's not degaussed. I certainly wouldn't like that. But I doubt it. They'd advertise it.

 

[skelt101]

Cross that. The magnet doesn't really look roughcast. I hope it's not degaussed. I certainly wouldn't like that. But I doubt it. They'd advertise it.

It is listed as an Antiquity JB under the specifications. Wouldn’t that imply an aged magnet…?

 

[beaubrummels]

It is listed as an Antiquity JB under the specifications. Wouldn’t that imply an aged magnet…?

These are the descriptions I saved from when they were on the web site (the parenthetical tone description was my impression from a comparison video):

Antiquity (fat, loud)
long-legged bottom plate
single-conductor wire
hand-aged roughcast alnico V magnet, custom degaussed
maple spacer
butyrate bobbins, aged, impregnated with dust
D.C. Resistance 16.4k

35th Anniversary (biting)
long-legged bottom plates featuring a special laser-engraved 35th Anniversary logo
single-conductor wire
rough-cast alnico 5 magnets
butyrate bobbins
The bridge model is designed for bridges with traditional string spacing of 1.925" or 48.9mm measured over the bridge pickup.​

 

[gsammo79]

I'm a duncan custom shop fan. Hope this pickup is the right one for the job. These small batch special orders are cool

 

[Rex_Rocker]

It's certainly not an Antiquity. The pickup looks brand new. Shiny without any tarnishing on the polepieces. And the specs are vintage-y, but they never mention anything about it being aged or whatever.

Anyways, I installed it. Certainly not an Antiquity. It's around the same output as the Custom. It's higher output than the OG JB that came with the guitar. But that pickup did have a cover, it went through lower value pots, and it was almost 20 years old. Who knows what it went through.

Initial impressions: It sounds like a JB. And that's not a bad thing. Through the single 1 Meg knob, it sounds infinitely less choked on the highs than the previous one sounded. The low-end on this one is just "right". It's not as thuddy as the Custom. It has less lows than the Custom, but it has the typical chunky low mids JB's usually have. The attack is softer than the Custom, but not by much, but we'll see how I get along with that longer term.

I mean... I like it. First impression was good. But so was the Custom's. We'll see in time!

 

[Rex_Rocker]

(the parenthetical tone description was my impression from a comparison video):

I remember that video! I loved the Anniversary. It out-JB'd the production JB, LOL. I'd love one.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

View attachment 458916824_1...fna&_nc_gid=AkZ6oIuR0lAMMkW2nbm4LlB&oh=00_AYBWZ0dV_x0M02FyONPvNLWBrpvDp0sywIdv49umS7-U
View attachment 458937299_1...fna&_nc_gid=ANZwYAJs_fGCxnS13mAyTAv&oh=00_AYCcFd_wxu32lQbnlMLcch9aDJPRuaYgpCBLBENyYqlX

Gave it some more playtime today. I like it! Haven't directly compared it to my other two guitars.

I think I'm moving the Custom to the Strat. I kinda like it better than the Nazgul, to be honest.

 

[Mincer]

I've only gotten custom one-offs from the Custom Shop, but I've seen some really cool small-batch pickups over the years. I love that they have exclusives for certain retailers.

 

[jeremy]

hope you found the pup thatll work for this guitar!

 

[Seashore]

hope you found the pup thatll work for this guitar!

It's not the destination, it's the journey

 

[Mincer]

It's not the destination, it's the journey

I hate the journey. I just want to get there.

 

[Seashore]

I hate the journey. I just want to get there.

I don't like making constant adjustments and eating up playing time but I have to admit there's some amount of fun to it as well. I enjoy hearing and feeling the different vibes that different pickups have. Beats reading any number of descriptions. If I had the money there are some pairings I would probably try just for the heck of it.

As it stands, my main players are all squared away, so I can only live vicariously through Rex's pickup swapping addiction.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Honeslty, for me, the fun of playing guitar is 50% the tweaking, 50% the playing. I've just kinda fixated on pickups lately.

But I enjoying turning knobs, swapping tubes, trying speakers, cabs, or IR's, and, probably the most, swapping pickups as much as I love chugging like a maniac. And I enjoy playing more when I know I've worked hard to get the tone I'm getting.

I've always thought I'd make a better production engineer than I do a musician.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

At this point, I'm considering ordering one of those Mojotone winding machines and starting to make my own stuff. I bet it's fun.

 

[Seashore]

I just read an article by some people experimenting with neodymium who mocked up a winder off the side of a sewing machine. They made a turn counter with a sensor wired to a calculator. Good clean fun for nerds.

I've been interested in trying it too, but I think I'd get burned out on it quickly.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I just read an article by some people experimenting with neodymium who mocked up a winder off the side of a sewing machine. They made a turn counter with a sensor wired to a calculator. Good clean fun for nerds.

I've been interested in trying it too, but I think I'd get burned out on it quickly.

I haven't really gotten one becuase the machine itself and getting the raw materials isn't cheap, and I've not got that many guitars, so I probably wouldn't get as much mileage from the machine for my own stuff.

I'd love to sell pickups I make to other people, but I'm just some dude on the internet. I don't know how many I'd actually sell.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I just triple checked, BTW. The magnet is DEFINITELY rought cast. It's bumpy and it almost looks darker than the polished Alnico in my neck '59.

 

[beaubrummels]

At this point, I'm considering ordering one of those Mojotone winding machines and starting to make my own stuff. I bet it's fun.

Some guys on here do that. Jeremy winds his own. Before you do, you might want to read Seymour's old Q&A from archive.org (some of it is on the current site but the tables and images are broken.). Seymour dives into some deep elements regarding wire, magnetism, specs, etc. that are worth knowing if you are going to get into winding.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150408224340/http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faq/seymours-q-a/

 

[jeremy]

it is fun, but its not a cheap hobby. its not all that hard to wind a pup, even one that sounds decent. to consistently wind a great sounding pup is almost magic.

i started by buying a few magnets here and there, and small spools of different types of wire. terribly inconsistent. eventually i bought five pound spools of wire and magnets in batches of 100 or more. itll take me a lifetime to go through all the wire and magnets i have, but thats ok with me.