Re: What's The Deal With The SH-16
I have to post a new thread because some xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx got all xxxxxxxx...
Anyhoo - in my best Seinfeld impersonation:
"What... is the deal?" "I have SH-5s... what does the SH-16 do that my SH-5 doesn't?"
Color me inquisitive...
I have a vintage first-year of production Seymour-wound Custom, and an early forum-made 59/C trembucker. I've tried both in the same Les Paul Studio.
I don't play metal but I play Marshall Plexi sounds set at the edge of breakup. 70s hard rock, blues, country, anything from The Beatles to Rush. I use either hand-wired JTM45, Line6 Flextronic III, SansAmp PSA-1 or use a pedal: MarvelDrive, Carl Martin or Marshal Gov'nor) I set things so if I lay into the strings it howls like the afterburner of a jet, or play lightly and it's clean with some sparkles of grit. When I change and test pickups, I will set pickups heights to factory Gibson specs - fret high and low E at the 22nd fret, measure 3/32" between the top of the pickup and the bottom of the string. Neck low E set to 4/32" (or 1/8").
The best way I can describe the Custom and 59/C are in relation to other Duncan pickups. So given all of the above, my Custom in my LP Studio sounded in between a 59 and a Pearly Gates. 59B being good rock pickup, lots of mids (in my LP) but not a lot of top or bottom end in the bridge position - in my LP it is to pickups what Celestion is to speakers; Pearly Bridge being fuller than 59B, same sound with more top and bottom - like a wider range 59B. The Custom was somewhere in between both of those. Had some top end on it, more than a 59, bright, maybe harsh sometimes, but not clear/bright like a Pearly. I tend to need to keep the tone rolled back to 7-8 with the Custom. The Pearly I could run tone at 10 or 9. The Custom had more clear bottom end than a 59 but not the same kind of balls as my Pearly has. The Pearly bottom is thumpier, the Custom bottom is chunkier.
The 59/Custom was thinner by comparison to the Custom and more of a lead pickup. Great for individual notes, clear on chords, but not as much bottom end in comparison to the Custom. It's not lacking in bottom end, it's just very even and not outstanding in that area. I've found the 59/C to sound similar to a 78 Model, though the 78 Model is even thinner and brighter sounding. Both have some complexity and indescribable harmonic content and similar clear midrange. By comparison, the Custom midrange is slightly scooped in the lower mids and bright/harsh in the high upper mids. The 59/C is pretty even across the spectrum compared to the Custom. IME the 78 Model is the closest relative to the 59/C sound-wise, when in the same LP and SG played through rigs set as I described before.
Output wise, the 59 is weakest, Pearly noticeably hotter, the Custom a bit louder than that. E.g. without changing the amp settings, with a 59 the volume was on 10, the Pearly volume was on 9 and the Custom volume was on 7-8, a JB on 5-6 to keep the level hitting the amp/sim the same. Note however that I don't leave things that way when I play and audition the pickup - I will adjust the amp input/gain and tweak the amp tone knobs so that I can try to keep the guitar on 10 after I change pickups, to get the best sound of the pickup, and avoid the artifacts of what pots remove from the sound.
I haven't moved the Custom through other guitars yet, but what I can say about the 59/C is that it sounded the same across my LP and SGs, whereas the 59B, Pearly, JB, Seth changed sound/frequency response between guitars. Whole Lotta Humbuckers like the 59/C also sound the same across guitars - not sure what the common element is that makes a certain pickup stay consistent across guitars. But I believe the 59/C is one of them, in my limited experience with it.
