What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

With me it was a mate's Big Apple Strat, '59/PG combo. Thought the neck pu sounded damn good from memory, but I wasn't so much into modding at the time, so largely forgot about it. Fast forward several years: started reading this forum, learning about pups, remembering the SDs in that Strat. Fast forward some more years: joined the forum 5 years ago. Fast forward again: got a decent guitar in late '11 and eventually decided to load her with SDs last year after all those years of reading - a pair of SSL2s and made a 59/C - sweet.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

My first experience with Duncan was in the form of a Heavy Metal Live Wires humbucker that was in a Charvel/Jackson Model 5A my parents got me when I was in High School over twenty years ago. That guitar was scary loud. Still have it, too.

Ten years ago, I found and bought a pre-lawsuit Chandler Strat (one piece maple neck/fretboard, sunburst body, 22 frets) in a pawn shop that had a SD Hot Rails in the bridge position. It had lots of oomph and power which I found quite appealing.

Twelve years ago I picked up a Gibson Les Paul in another pawn shop that was totally abused by the previous owner, who painted the entire thing with a friggin' paintbrush. In fact, whoever painted it went so far as to paint the frets and even INSIDE the pickup bobbins, which -needless to say- ruined the sound completely. After stripping the paint off and refinishing the guitar (turned it into a Gold Top), I decided to put in some SD Pearly Gates pickups for the hell of it. That guitar remains one of the best-sounding guitars in my collection.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

I absolutely regret selling my (newly bought) Steinberger GR4 USA model in 1999. It wasn't a transtrem version buy it was seriously such a beautiful guitar. It had a graphite headless neck, maple body and came stock with a Seymour Duncan JB and 2 SD hot rails. That was a serious beast of a guitar, so smooth and balanced. That was my initiation into the world of Seymour.

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I owned it for about 5 years and traded it in for a Fender twin amp that I absolutely hated and sold after 6 months.

I constantly look to buy a transtrem Steingerger but they are either over priced or in atrocious condition :-(
 
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Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

Shortly after I got my first real amp (66 Bassman head) I was looking for the next logical step to improve my tone, Ended up taking my first guitar (MIM strat) into the shop and had them install 3 little 59s in it, I was amazed at the difference in sound....The next guitar I bought was a used MIJ strat that the original owner had modded to squeeze two HBs in, those HBs were a pair of Duncan JBs......

Right around that time I purchased a few pedals too, a Tube Screamer, A boss hyper fuzz, a boss xtortion, and an Ibanez Delay......oh and my first cab, a Mesa 2x12.....

Still one of my favorite tones to this day was the xtortion boosted with the tube screamer, I have to hunt one down again!
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

Don't recall exactly what my first Duncan was. I know I bought a few in '87/'88. Hot Stack Strat, Full Shred, Distortion, maybe a Jazz?

I had a used Kramer Focus1000 and a used Striker ST300 at the time, but don't recall what pickups were in those, as I wasn't as knowledgable about modding. Also had a used '76 SG but again, no idea what pickups. The guy I got those guitars from did mods fairly often, and if he did swap the pickups, either he didn't say or I didn't care enough to remember :lol:

I know I did a pickup swap from the ST300 to my LP copy, and the pickup that came out of the Kramer was 4-conductor, but that's all I recall about it. IIRC the Full Shred went into the LP first, then came out. I was expecting to get "Shredder" tones like all those Shrapnel Records artists I was hearing - you know, the tones that defined "shred"? I was under the impression the Full Shred was going to be hotter than the Distortion. Wrong.

The Hot Stack Strat went into a plywood Strat copy, and then into the bridge position (mounted at an angle in a humbucker ring) of an Aria Pro II XR body, which also got the Strat neck from the plywood copy, and the 6-screw v-trem (replacing the locking trem), and then got sold. Saw it in a local pawn shop about 15 years ago.


I have not used a DiMarzio pickup that I liked. SuperD, Super2, Super3, Evo set, TZ. I just don't care for their tone.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

JB and jazz set came stock in the guitar, never swapped them out. the guitar was sold without those pickups ,i liked them so much i kept them for my next guitar .
I actually love the JB/jazz set. I have not had any bad experiences with that set.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

My first SD pup was a Screamin Demon in my very heavy LP Classic. At the time I was looking for a bridge pup that would "scream" with bright piercing highs.

Logical that I would buy a pup called "Screamin Demon", right?

I was TOTALLY disappointed. So I returned it. Don't recall what replaced it, maybe the StagMag, which I loved when split. I put a Pearly Gates in the neck and was completely happy for many years. About 4 or 5 years ago I started to learn a little more about SD pups and realized that maybe I was a bit too hasty in getting rid of the Demon and that maybe I was looking for the wrong tone in the wrong pup and using it in the wrong position. So I replaced the PGn (which I absolutely LOVED) and took a giant leap of faith and replaced it with a new Demon.

OMG!! ........Perfection!!!
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

My very first Duncan was a brand new hot rails I got at the same time as my first good new guitar; late 80's early 90's am standard strat. The rails was fairly new and the band I went to try out for was hesitant when they saw me take what at the time looked like a blues or even country guitar. Not quite pointy enough for that era. Opinion changed when I plugged up! LOL!

Shortly after I got a LP studio with a JB and both have been my favorite single & hb sized pickups ever since.

Sure miss both of those guitars......
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

GuitarDoc said:
My first SD pup was a Screamin Demon in my very heavy LP Classic. At the time I was looking for a bridge pup that would "scream" with bright piercing highs.

Logical that I would buy a pup called "Screamin Demon", right?
Click to expand...

I made this same mistake. I remember when the ads came out with Lynch and the Skull and Snakes ESP. I remembering having the music store order it and it was like 25 bucks more expensive than other humbuckers. I got it in the guitar and just went..... Wasnt so much that it was a bad sounding pickup just not at all a Screamin Demon.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

+1

Around 10 years ago I decided to up grade my stock pickups in my Peavey EVH special. After lots of reading and time spent contemplating, I bought the Demon for the bridge thinking it was going to be as big as George's hair in the 80s. Sadly I was mistaken.

I now wish I didn't sell it. I am really intrigued how it will sound as a neck pickup.
 
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Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

It was a Custom in a Charvel back in the 80s. Maybe it was JB, but it was either that or the Custom. I seem to recall it was the Custom though.

What really converted me though was when a band mate installed surfers into his American Standard strat. They totally transformed that guitar. Another guy I jammed with actually replaced the original pickups in his 63 strat with surfers.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

Oddly enough, . . . I remember. I had a somewhat unique USA Peavey Predator. Not like the ones you see today. I asked the forum what they recommended. They said . . . C5 bridge, 59 Neck. It was a killer combo. I was hooked. The pups are long gone, but I still have that axe. I need to get another pair. (Of "them", I mean.)

;)
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

'59 bridge humbucker for my Epiphone Les Paul as a Christmas gift in 2000. The guy at the store suggested emg's but I hate emg's. Then he suggested a Full Shred, which I was going to go with. I was looking for a more traditional 70's crunchy hard rock sound for AC/DC and Aerosmith. The 59 sounded okay through my Marshall VS15, but amazing (for the time) through my Spider 210, which I got about a year or so later.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

Justin Read said:
I absolutely regret selling my (newly bought) Steinberger GR4 USA model in 1999. It wasn't a transtrem version buy it was seriously such a beautiful guitar. It had a graphite headless neck, maple body and came stock with a Seymour Duncan JB and 2 SD hot rails. That was a serious beast of a guitar, so smooth and balanced. That was my initiation into the world of Seymour.

e3a5aqar.jpg


I owned it for about 5 years and traded it in for a Fender twin amp that I absolutely hated and sold after 6 months.

I constantly look to buy a transtrem Steingerger but they are either over priced or in atrocious condition :-(
Click to expand...

Tch tch, young man; well, you live and learn. JB probably perfect for a maple/graphite guitar.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

Sad but true. We do live and learn.

Reminds me of an ex I lost back to her home country. Sometimes the good ones get away.
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

About 25 or so years ago in my P-Bass.

Active P-Bass Pickups with switches (not my pic): (I lived in Santa Barbara so these were easy to get and used by a lot of locals) Great sound. Cheers!

View attachment 43161
 
Re: What was your first Seymour Duncan pickup or experience?

Antiquities Texas Hot set for Stratocaster, though I only used the bridge pickup out of the set to replace one in a 1966 Stratocaster. It matched perfectly, and I've sworn by Seymour Duncan pickups ever since.
 
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