Seymour Duncan
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effects pedals | |
Number of employees | 120 |
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Website | seymourduncan |
Seymour Duncan is an American company best known for manufacturing
History
Seymour W. Duncan became interested in guitars at a young age. After lending his guitar to a friend who accidentally broke the pickup, Duncan decided to re-wind the pickup using a record player turntable to hold the pickup in place and rotate it while spooling wire around the pickup bobbin. Seymour was then inspired by how the guitar's tone improved, inspiring him to learn more about pickups from Les Paul - guitarist/inventor - and later mentor, Seth Lover: inventor of the humbucker. After developing considerable skill working on guitars, Duncan gained employment at London’s Fender Soundhouse.
After moving to California he met and married Cathy Carter and decided to start a pickup rewinding service. With demand for his services growing, Duncan and Carter started offering custom
From the 1980s until 2013, Seymour Duncan made bass pickups under the Basslines brand name, before rebranding them under Seymour Duncan; without redesigning the pickups.[1]
Seymour continues to create pickups in Seymour Duncan's Santa Barbara factory in California.
Notable users
The first artist signature pickup was the SH-12 Screamin' Demon model, created for
Seymour Duncan's best selling pickup model is the SH-4 "JB Model" humbucker, that originated from a pickup Duncan made in the early '70s for his hero Jeff Beck who had the PAF pickups switched out of his guitar by a dishonest guitar tech. Beck used the pickups in his seminal release "Blow By Blow" in a guitar built for him by Seymour, dubbed the Tele-Gib, which featured a JB pickup in the bridge position and a "JM" or Jazz Model pickup in the neck. The JB was never an official signature pickup, and Duncan cannot use the name Jeff Beck.
Other artists known for their use of Seymour Duncan pickups include, but are not limited to:
- Kurt Cobain of Nirvana used Seymour Duncan pickups on a variety of his guitars.[2]
- Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day uses a Seymour Duncan JB model in his Fernandes Stratocaster copy known as "Blue".
- blink 182uses a Seymour Duncan SPB-3 "Quarter Pound" in his signature basses.
- Angels and Airwaves used a Seymour Duncan SH-8 "Invader" in his Fender Stratocasters and later an SH-5 "Custom" in his Fender Starcasters.
- Dave Mustaine of Megadeth collaborated with Seymour Duncan to produce his very own signature set of active humbuckers, "Dave Mustaine Livewires".
- Randy Rhoads used Seymour Duncan Jazz and JB pickups on his Jackson custom (now Rhoads style) guitars.
- Linde Lazer of HIM uses a White Gibson SG with Custom Seymour Duncan pickups.
- Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold uses Custom Seymour Duncan Invader pickups.
- Mick Thomson of Slipknot uses Active Seymour Duncan Blackouts (his own signature set called the AHB-3s), which he switched from the combination of EMG 81/85.
- Fredrik Akesson of Opethmost commonly use Seymour Duncan Full Shred pickups.
Products
Seymour Duncan produces a large range of pickups for guitars in several formats including
Some of their most popular guitar pickups include the '59 Model, the JB (bridge) and Jazz (neck) set, Duncan Distortion set, and the Pearly Gates set.
For almost every kind of pickup, Seymour Duncan manufactures a vintage, modern, and high output version, and an antiquity model based on the vintage version but with an aged appearance. As of 2013, the company has moved into the 7 and 8 string guitar pickup market. They also produce a line of active pickups.
Seymour Duncan also produces a line of Korean-made "Duncan Designed" pickups for
They also manufacture a range of effects pedals, including the 805™ Overdrive, the Vapor Trail™ Delay and the Dark Sun Digital Delay + Reverb, made in collaboration with
Seymour Duncan produced a small line of guitar amplifiers during the 1980s and 1990s.[5] Although the effort was short-lived due to the company's lack of reputation as an amp builder, Seymour Duncan amplifiers are well respected and sought after today.[6] At Winter NAMM 2017, Seymour Duncan announced their PowerStage family of pedal amplifiers by launching the PowerStage 170 and the PowerStage 700.[7]
References
- ^ "Basslines Pickups Become… Seymour Duncan Pickups".
- ^ Kurt's equipment
- ^ "Guitar Pickups, Bass Pickups, Pedals". Guitar Pickups, Bass Pickups, Pedals.
- ^ "Duncan Designed". Seymour Duncan. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
- ^ [1] Archived January 9, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Paul Marossy. "The Seymour Duncan Convertible 100 1x12 Tube Amp". Diyguitarist.com. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
- ^ "NAMM 2017: Seymour Duncan to Expand Offerings at Winter NAMM". Guitar.com | All Things Guitar. January 19, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2022.