Re: Who here thanks GOD for seymour?
For the longest time, he was one of very few guys, maybe the only guy, constantly trying to innovate and come up with something totally new -- in addition to recapturing or in some cases refining/improving classic designs, so yeah, I'm glad Seymour is there doing his thing. I don't know if he invented the stack, but his stacks were the first I'd ever heard of.
Fralin is the only other guy I can think of in his league in that regard, though pretty much all of his stuff is about vintage tones. You won't find anything like the DD or CC or Invader in his shop. (10k 'bucker is the most you can get out of him, according to his website anyway). But Fralin has come up with some very interesting and innovative stuff in recent years, like the Unbucker and the Split Single. Seymour ought to look into his own take on these ideas, assuming he can avoid copyright infringement.
What I would like to see Seymour do, as others have suggested in other threads, is look into what I call 'Tweeners, by which I mean humbuckers in the 9k to 12k range. (The only one I'm aware of is one of the parallel axis 'buckers, the Blues Saraceno, I think.)
He's not alone, though, because Bare Knuckle is the only pickup maker I know of that has really explored this range and taken it seriously. Everyone else, Seymour included, appears to have an either-or mentality -- either pure vintage or metalhead -- which is no doubt dictated by the market so I can't fault them for that. In fairness, Fralin will, as mentioned before, cover the 9 to 10 range, but probably more and more reluctantly the closer you get to 10.
But Seymour does appear to have everything covered in single coils. I can't think of an output or tone niche that he hasn't at least attempted to cover.
