There are so many guitars out there, it’s hard to keep track of it all. Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, SGs, Vs, and just as many cross breeds. All unique guitars with a unique look and unique voice. But what if you want to have the look of one but the tone of another? Sure you can try to have a guitar build with the look of one but specifications of the other, but if that’s not something you’re willing to do because it might be too expensive or too much of a hassle, what can you do? To cater the needs of players who want wildly different tones of their guitars, Seymour Duncan offers some pickups that enable players to have a guitar that looks and plays like one model, but sounds like the other.
One of the first pickups to enable players to hybridize different models was the Twang Banger. Many players loved the twangy, ballsy tone of a Telecaster but also liked the clean, quacky tone of a Strat. The Twang Banger is essentially a Telecaster pickup in a Strat casing. Designed to fit exactly in a Strat route, the Twang Banger allows you to have the ballsy twang and quack all at the same time without modifying your guitar.
Sometimes you want to coax more tones out of your guitar, because it simply doesn’t cut it on stage. You don’t want to tag along more than one or two guitars, so what can you do? Suffer in silence and accept your disposition is one option. Buying P-Rails, preferably with a set of Triple Shot pickup rings, is another. Now you don’t have the limit of just a humbucker. Instead, you have one full sized P-90 and a rail coil next to each other per P-Rail. The P-90 coil gives you a raunchy, ballsy tone exactly like you’re used to. The rail coil offers a clean, spanky sound. Put together in series you’re left with a hot, sizzling tone that cuts through the mix with plenty tightness and sustain. So if you’re in need for a wide range of pure tones, you may want to take a closer look at the P-Rails.
Designed for players who crave a true single coil tone, the Stag-Mag is two true single coils put together on the baseplate of a humbucker. When wired in series you can expect a medium hot, smooth and fluid tone with enough chunk and tightness in the bottom end to be versatile enough for a whole plethora of tones. Cut one coil, though, and you get a lovely clean, sparkly tone reminiscent of a single coil tone of years gone by.
Sometimes you are just fed up with the tone of a humbucker. You love the output but grew tired of the smooth tone a humbucker generally delivers. A tele suits your fancy more, but you don’t want to spoil the looks of your guitar or reroute the guitar to fit a real soapbar or dogear pickup. That’s where the Phat Cat comes in! Designed to be a pure, true p90, the Phat Cat fits right in the position of a humbucker but with the true grit of a real, vintage voiced P-90!
One of my personal favorite guitar brands is Danelectro. The immensely versatile tone of the U2, for example, lends itself extremely well for so many styles and tones: jazz, funk, soul, rock, blues… You name it. The lipstick pickups for Strat give you a bit of that versatile chime in your standard, well known Stratocaster. In its three-pickup-configuration, expect an even wider range of diversity than the start usually delivers!
Sometimes you just need more power, more dirt, more ‘oomph’. A super hot single coil only goes so far, sometimes you just need a humbucker. If it’s not because of the hum cancellation, it’s because of the added output a humbucker has. The Hot Rails offers the output levels of a full sized humbucker but in the size format of a single coil. Because, sometimes you just don’t want to route your favorite 1963 Strat!
To offer an even wider range of tones and retrofitting, Seymour Duncan offers a special, dedicated line of pickups made in the Custom Shop. Pickups These pickups are made with the highest attention to detail and built specifically to each guitarists requests using only the finest materials.
Custom Shop Pickups
Humbucker under P-90, Dog Ear and Soapbar
Just take the tone of your favorite humbucker, the form factor of a P-90, and you get the ‘Humbucker under a P-90′. No more routing, no mismatched pickups or pickups that barely fit! This pickup is available as either a soapbar or a dogear!
The other single coil that cemented Gibson’s fame in Pickupland, the Staple. Uniquely shaped with its five adjustable square polepieces, the Staple offers a warm, lush tone with a bell-like ring. Unfortunately, many guitars simply can’t hold them because the Staple pickups are so strangely shaped. But no more! The Seymour Duncan Custom Shop offers a faithful recreation of the Staple pickup, but in a humbucker shape. So wait no longer and dive in the lush, rich tone of at the Staple pickup in your favorite humbucker-guitar.
I love Strats. I really do. That neck pickup can get glassy, flutey and shimmering. In the fourth position the Strat has a great quacky tone. With the tone pot rolled down slightly and the volume backed down too, I think the tone you’re getting is one of the finest sounds one can wish for. The bridge pickup on a Strat is unfortunately often a shrill contrast to the other pickups. It’s harsh and trebly and lacks many times power and balls. To negate the issue (and spawned by the minds of the wise men and women of the Seymour Duncan User Forum!), the Stra-Bro 90 was developed. A P-90, but in the casing of a Stratocaster pickup! It has all the power, balls, juiciness and fullness you want from a P-90, but without having to route a huge hole in your favorite Strat.
Custom Mini Humbucker For Mandolin
Many people tend to forget that the mandolin can also be an electric guitar. Even more people seem to not realize that Seymour Duncan creates amazing pickups for those mandolin-guitars. For players who want a humbucker tone for their mandolin, the Custom Shop offers the Custom mini humbucker for mandolin. All you have to do is just choose the tone you want!
Humbucker Under Jazzmaster Cover
A Jazzmaster is an amazing guitar. The shape feels super-comfortable and the tone is sparkly and slightly clunky. But what if you want to have a hot, sizzling humbucker tone out of your Jazzmaster? Surely, you can fit it in, but often you need a new pickguard and sometimes you even have to route a bit. The humbucker-under-Jazzmaster-cover is the perfect solution if you feel you need a bit more! You choose the tone, they make it!
Designed to give a firebird or a Les Paul Deluxe more sparkle and chime. This pickup is a direct replacement, so no routing or other modifications are needed.
Just like the Custom Mini-Humbucker, but based on the classic P-90. A mandolin with a raunchy, huge tone, right under your fingertips.
Strat Pickup Under P-90, Jazzmaster and humbucker cover.
Who doesn’t love a great strat tone? Clean and sparkly, chimey and quacky, the strat tone can’t be beat. But not all guitars can be equipped with Strat pickups. The Seymour Duncan Custom Shop offers the great strat tones but in the form, shape and size of a P-90, Jazzmaster or Humbucker.
Pearly Gates for Strat and Tele
The sizzling Pearly Gates has huge, bold mids, chunky lows and smooth highs. These pickups give you exactly that tone, but in a shape ready to drop directly in place in a Strat or Tele. All you have to do, is just ask!
Rhythm for Tele with Strat tone
A great pickup for Tele players who crave the tone of the neck pickup of a strat. Warm and lush, this pickup offers a great way to get that tone without having to permanently modify your guitar.
An amazing collection of pickups, ready to give you the tone you want in the guitar you want to play. Bass players can also get the tone they want. All they have to do is visit the Custom Shop where you can either customize and existing model or get your own custom guitar pickups. You dream it, they can build it. All you have to do is just ask!
