New Seymour Duncan 'Jimi' handwound PUP's

Whitecat

How did Paul Reed Smith get backstage to show Carlos Santana a guitar in the early 80s or late 70s or whenever?

Blaggards used to be able to get away with that stuff easily, security wasn’t nearly as tight as it is nowadays.

 springhead said:

impmann said:

Sorry... but I call bullshit.

 Firstly, how did he get backstage before a gig.

That bit at least could well be true.  This was well before the days of security, backstage passes etc.  Probably wasn't difficult to walk in there.

OilCityPickups

Sadly for my chosen occupation, pickup making is loaded with bullshit that is composed of half truths and downright bollocks. I've been trying over the last seven or eight years to explode as many myths as I can, because I love what I do and I hate having what is a fascinating science and craft reduced to fairy dust and unicorn jizz. Can we all just stop? Pickup winding isn't magic, it follows pretty clear physical laws like the rest of electronics.   

gringopig

gringopig

.

Funkfingers

impmann said:

why is it only *now* that this story is coming out - is it because everyone that could corroborate the story is *DEAD*?

Q: Why now? 

A: Business politics. Seymour Duncan Incorporated is now controlled by Seymour’s ex-wife, her current partner and a tight circle of cronies.

Mr. Duncan pootles in his workshop, producing hand-guided machine wound pickups in small quantities. He is ably assisted by the legendary Maricela Juarez and his son, Derek.

When Seymour becomes too unwell to work, great fuss will be made about how Derek is the inheritor of his father’s tradition/legacy/whatever.

I can not point to the last pickup design that was exclusively the work of Seymour. The P-Rails was devised by Frank Falbo. The slew of pickups with Heavy Metal names are the work of others, including young Derek, apparently.

OilCityPickups said:

Sadly for my chosen occupation, pickup making is loaded with bullshit that is composed of half truths and downright bollocks. I've been trying over the last seven or eight years to explode as many myths as I can, because I love what I do and I hate having what is a fascinating science and craft reduced to fairy dust and unicorn jizz.    

Pablocrackers

Madness!
mite buy some and fit them in a £50 Argos guitar!

OilCityPickups

Funkfingers said:

impmann said:

why is it only *now* that this story is coming out - is it because everyone that could corroborate the story is *DEAD*?

Q: Why now? 

A: Business politics. Seymour Duncan Incorporated is now controlled by Seymour’s ex-wife, her current partner and a tight circle of cronies.

Mr. Duncan pootles in his workshop, producing hand-guided machine wound pickups in small quantities. He is ably assisted by the legendary Maricela Juarez and his son, Derek.

When Seymour becomes too unwell to work, great fuss will be made about how Derek is the inheritor of his father’s tradition/legacy/whatever.

I can not point to the last pickup design that was exclusively the work of Seymour. The P-Rails was devised by Frank Falbo. The slew of pickups with Heavy Metal names are the work of others, including young Derek, apparently.

OilCityPickups said:

Sadly for my chosen occupation, pickup making is loaded with bullshit that is composed of half truths and downright bollocks. I've been trying over the last seven or eight years to explode as many myths as I can, because I love what I do and I hate having what is a fascinating science and craft reduced to fairy dust and unicorn jizz.    

Some of the new designs are also very similar to older ones ... having rewound a Duncan Nasgul a while back I was struck by the fact it uses the same wire as a Duncan Distortion ... uses the same magnet as a Duncan Distortion, has the same DC resistance as a Duncan Distortion, uses all the same components ... aside from the extra copper shielding around the coils ... 

hotpickups

WTF 

Funkfingers

Reality check*

The list price for the regular Hendrix set is 279USD. Currency conversion, import duties, corporate greed and VAT will turn that into roughly 300GBP. 

That means that the additional 500GBP buys the box, a shaky signature and a piece of cardboard. 




* Yes, from somebody who posted a YouTube video about unicorn droppings!

JerkMoans

Can they be fitted in a Harley Benton?

earwighoney

OilCityPickups said:

Sadly for my chosen occupation, pickup making is loaded with bullshit that is composed of half truths and downright bollocks. I've been trying over the last seven or eight years to explode as many myths as I can, because I love what I do and I hate having what is a fascinating science and craft reduced to fairy dust and unicorn jizz. Can we all just stop? Pickup winding isn't magic, it follows pretty clear physical laws like the rest of electronics.   

IMO, there's a lot of snake oil in a lot if not all guitar related making divisions, be it pickups, electric guitars or acoustic guitars.  For electric guitars, everytime I see a 'Masterbuilt' instrument being advertised for a 5 figure sum, I get a little perplexed..

Thank you though Ash for your 'insights' as an industry insider.  I believe for guitars, pickups etc we are in a golden age not just because of the choice/quality but the consumer for the first time is able to have access to a wealth of knowledge they would never had before. 

Whitecat

The funny thing too is how they insert “1st run” vaguely here and there in the sales copy. Implying that there could be a virtually unlimited amount more in the future...

axisus

The son of Jimi's 3rd cousin twice removed wants a new house.

I'd like to chase Seymour down with a camera crew and demand he justifies this cost ON FILM. I went off him after he swapped his amazing wiring diagram website for the sh*te one he has now.

OilCityPickups

earwighoney said:

OilCityPickups said:

Sadly for my chosen occupation, pickup making is loaded with bullshit that is composed of half truths and downright bollocks. I've been trying over the last seven or eight years to explode as many myths as I can, because I love what I do and I hate having what is a fascinating science and craft reduced to fairy dust and unicorn jizz. Can we all just stop? Pickup winding isn't magic, it follows pretty clear physical laws like the rest of electronics.   

IMO, there's a lot of snake oil in a lot if not all guitar related making divisions, be it pickups, electric guitars or acoustic guitars.  For electric guitars, everytime I see a 'Masterbuilt' instrument being advertised for a 5 figure sum, I get a little perplexed..

Thank you though Ash for your 'insights' as an industry insider.  I believe for guitars, pickups etc we are in a golden age not just because of the choice/quality but the consumer for the first time is able to have access to a wealth of knowledge they would never had before. 

Thanks @earwighoney ... as well as a maker I'm a consumer too and I hate being bullshitted as much as anyone else. 

I don't buy pickups, because if I want one myself I make it ... but I know the limitations of my craft, and claiming that any pickup will make you sound like a particular hero of yours ... without their complete signal chain and most of all without their own life and musical experience is hogwash. 

Octafish

Simply laughable, idiot tax in action again. A cheap fuzz face clone, a wah pedal and some practice will get you far closer to a 'Hendrix sound' if one is motivated that way....

OilCityPickups

Octafish said:

Simply laughable, idiot tax in action again. A cheap fuzz face clone, a wah pedal and some practice will get you far closer to a 'Hendrix sound' if one is motivated that way....

And practising till your fingers bleed ... and possibly a head full of LSD ... 

mbe

Come on chaps!

Don't you think Andertons are getting a free pass here? I wonder how much Lee is making on them. Even the taxman is in on it, he'll pull £160 thank you very much.

Poor old Mr. Duncan will be lucky to make minimum wage on these.

peteri

Slightly off topic, but he’s not alone. 

I notice Matt’s Guitars in Paris is selling a set of Spot replica pickups. For the bargain price of 590euro

Spot is the 59 burst which used to belong to Bonamassa, but how this can be justified is beyond me - they’ve not dismantled the originals to count every twist of the wire. At the end of the day I’m sure it’s a decent guitar and all. But is it that special?

Seems pickups are about to get much more expensive as this pricing ripples down

Whitecat

It’s just boomer milking now. It can’t possibly be sustainable for more than a few years tops. 

Funkfingers

axisus said:

I'd like to chase Seymour down with a camera crew and demand he justifies this cost ON FILM. 

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, control over SD Inc. has not been in the hands of the man himself for several years. This marketing campaign may not be his doing.

The original “Jimi used my pickups” story dates back to Seymour’s time at the Soho Soundhouse. Young Seymour probably repaired something belonging to Hendrix. He might have had the nous to take a few meter readings while he had the opportunity. The significance of all this *may* have been exaggerated ever so slightly.

axisus said:

I went off him after he swapped his amazing wiring diagram website for the sh*te one he has now.

Again, not the doing of the man himself. Blame the current management.

Five or six years ago, an outside contractor was hired to revamp the SD website wiring diagram section. Unfortunately, the few improvements that the process brought were vastly outweighed by the errors and omissions scattered randomly amongst the diagrams.

In short, nobody did the equivalent of proof reading. The user group forum is full of grumbles about this. Few of the errors have ever been corrected.