NAMM 2010: New Framus Panthera, Diablo models

One of the coolest things about my NAMM visit was hanging out at the Framus display and checking out the revamped Panthera line. Each Panthera is loaded with Seymour Duncan pickups, and each is aimed at a different type of player. Framus has been working on the new line for over two years and have managed to strike a pretty impressive balance of playability, tone and finishing, while maintaining an independent style. You see one of these babies and you know it’s a Framus.

Models include a natural satin finished Panthera with SH-2 Jazz and SH-4 JB humbuckers; the Panthera Supreme with AAA flamed maple top and SH-1 ’59 and SH-14 Custom 5 humbuckers; the Panthera Legacy, a Bigsby-loaded version with PH-1N Alnico II Pro and SH-PG1B Pearly Gates humbuckers; the bolt-neck Panthera Studio with APH-1N Alnico II Pro, APS-1 RW/RP Alnico Pro II staggered single coil and SH-5 Custom; Panthera Studio Supreme which adds a AAA flamed maple top to the Studio; and the Panthera 7-string, sporting a set of active Blackouts Phase I AHB-1N 7 and AHB-1B 7.

I was quite taken by the 7-string – the neck wasn’t too chunky nor was it too thin, and the fretwork was spectacular – Framus makes great use of the PLEK system to achieve this. Seymour Duncan Blackouts are pretty cool too! But as much as I dug the 7-string (and the Panthera Studio Supreme) I was also into the Panthera Supreme with Bigsby – anyone who’s read this site for a while or has talked guitars with me over a few beers will certainly know how much of a Bigbsy geek I am, despite my predisposition towards shreddy guitars.

I also checked out the Diablo series, again loaded with Seymour Duncans. The models include: the swamp ash Diablo (SSCR-1N Cool Rail, SSL-1 RW/RP Vintage Staggered Single Coil, STB-4 JB Trembucker; Diablo Progressive (mahogany body, TonePros wraparound bridge, AHB-1 active Blackouts Phase 1, AHB-2 active Blackouts Metal ); Diablo Progressive X with Floyd Rose, SH-2N Jazz Model, STB-6 Distortion Trembucker; Diablo Supreme (mahogany body with AAA flamed maple top, TonePros wraparound bridge, SH-1 ’59 model, SH-4 JB model; Diablo Supreme X (Wilkinson by Framus vibrato bridge, SSCR-1N Cool Rail, SSL-1 RW/RP Vintage Staggered Single Coil, STB-4 JB Trembucker; and Diablo 7-string (mahogany body, TonePros Tune-o-matic bridge, Blackouts Phase 1 AHB-1N 7, AHB-1B 7.

The Diablo Progressive X was pretty cool – I couldn’t resist a few hyperspeed runs, hehe – and I was blown away by the traditional-yet-modern feel of the swamp ash Diablo.

Check out these pics from the Framus website. From top to bottom that’s:

Panthera Legacy; Panthera Supreme; Panthera Studio Supreme; Panthera 7-string; Diablo; Diablo Progressive; Diablo Supreme; Diablo 7-string

For more info visit Framus’s website.

NEWS: Yngwie auctions Seymour Duncan YJM pickups for Haiti

Lots of huge news from Seymour Duncan at NAMM this year, not the least of which is the endorsement of Yngwie Malmsteen, followed very closely behind by the new Slash signature pickup. All of Seymour Duncan's NAMM press releases are here, but first, check out this awesome effect by Yngwie Malmsteen and Seymour Duncan to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

On January 18, 2010, rock guitar icon Yngwie Malmsteen came to the Seymour Duncan factory for a post-NAMM factory tour. During his visit, Yngwie wound his first ever electric guitar pickups: a set of three true single coil pickups for Stratocaster® guitars. Tutoring him on winding technique was Seymour Duncan Custom Shop manager, Maricela Juarez.


The pickup's design is based on Leo Fender’s vintage pickups designs for the Stratocaster®. The magnets are sand-cast Alnico 2. The bobbins are hand-fabricated from forbon vulcanized fiber. The magnet wire is vintage-correct Heavy Formar. The d.c. resistance of the neck and middle pickups are 6.40K ohms each, which makes them vintage voiced. At 9.70K ohms, the bridge pickup is over-wound for a hotter, higher-output sound. Each pickup comes with an aged white cover and is ready to install into a Stratocaster® or similar type electric guitar. Each pickup has been wax potted by Yngwie for squeal-free performance. Yngwie signed the bottom plates of each of the pickups as well as the description labels for each (six signatures total).


You can hear Yngwie talk about his experience winding the pickups and even see Maricela giving him tips on the YouTube video that documented this very special day and these unique electric guitar pickups. Seymour Duncan's CEO, Cathy Carter Duncan also appears in the video. Whether you are a collector of rock star memorabilia or a guitar tone aficionado, this one-of-a-kind set of working pickups hand-wound by the King of Shred himself will be the crown piece in the winner’s collection.

As Yngwie mentioned on the video, all proceeds from the auction of this very special set of pickups will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the international humanitarian aid organization that is providing aid to Earthquake devastated Haiti. More than 700 MSF staff members are working to provide emergency medical care to survivors in and around Port-au-Prince. Yngwie and Seymour Duncan are doing their part to help out. You can too. And you’ll end up owning an amazing set of pickups.

CLICK HERE to see the auction on eBay.

NAMM 2010: New pickups from Seymour Duncan

There was lots of great stuff on show at the Seymour Duncan booth at NAMM this year, and I was pretty excited to meet Evan Skopp and Rick Turner. Unfortuntately my booth visit didn't coincide with Yngwie's, but hey, there's a great interview with Yngwie by Evan a little bit down the page here, so I'll just enjoy that instead.

Here are Seymour Duncan's NAMM press releases, interspersed with videos where available:

YJM Fury


Santa Barbara, California Relentless pursuit of the perfect tone. We've all experienced it. It never subsides. When Yngwie said he wanted to take his tone to the next level, we listened. No other guitarist unleashes the fury like Yngwie J. Malmsteen. His influence is undeniable. His technique is unparalleled. His pickups? Seymour Duncan. Yngwie needs a pickup that responds to his unique playing style. After hundreds of hours of intense tone pursuit, their labor or love yielded the STK-S10 YJM Fury.

Beginning with Seymour's original Stack® pickup design, these hum-canceling single-coil-sized pickups were designed to meet Yngwie's personal tonal desires. The YJM series includes a dedicated bridge pickup and separate neck/middle pickup. It's recommended for neo-classical, shred, hard rock, power metal, and heavy metal. Dedicated bridge and neck/middle pickups represent two highly customized voices. In the bridge position, Yngwie wanted more aggression, more power. The neck pickup needed to balance Yngwie's fluid left hand technique with his broad mix of right hand pick attack. The result is a pickup that's sweet and fluid, but with more articulation and responsiveness to dynamics.

The YJM Fury is available with white, off-white, or black covers and can directly retrofit most single-coil equipped guitars. It also comes pre-installed in the signature series Fender® YJM Strat® guitar but works well with any guitar that utilizes traditional single-coil-size Strat pickups.

All Seymour Duncan and Basslines pickups, are hand built in the USA and include all necessary mounting hardware.

Fender and Strat are registered trademarks of FMIC with which Seymour Duncan is not affiliated.

Alnico II Pro Slash

Santa Barbara, California He is, by many accounts, history's all-time greatest guitar hero. With the ubiquitous top hat and shades, mop of black curls obscuring his face, and a blazing electric guitar tone blasting through a wall of amps, Slash epitomizes the very reasons we first air-strummed a low-slung tennis racquet in the privacy of our bedroom. He is the seminal rock guitar god. And for over three decades he has relied on Seymour Duncan pickups for his guitar tone. Now Seymour Duncan honors their guitar hero with his first signature pickup, the Alnico II Pro Slash.

The tone of this pickup will be familiar to all who have heard Slash's recorded tone. Though he has dozens of amazing guitars, since 1986 Slash has used pretty much one very special Les Paul® for all recording. The Alnico II Pro Slash was designed to give Slash's other Les Paul guitars-what he calls his "live guitars"-the exact tone of this legendary instrument.

Like the standard APH-1 Alnico II Pro, which he has used for years, the Slash model uses an Alnico 2 magnet. However, the Alnico II Pro Slash is wound with just enough boosted output to push a stock Les Paul toward the sweet sustain and rude crunch that characterizes Slash's sound as heard on hundreds of recordings. In addition, it comes with some of the same appointments found on the Duncan pickups in Slash's '86 recording axe, including single-conductor cable, long-legged bottom plate, and wooden spacer. For the true fan, or the player who wants to capture Slash's recorded tone, this pickup is a critical part of the tone chain.

While designed for use in a Les Paul, this pickup works well in any well-balanced humbucker-equipped guitar including hollow and semi-hollow body guitars. The Slash aficionado will use a pair of these pickups to capture that unmistakable tone. This pickup matches well with Seymour Duncan's SFX-04 Twin Tube Blue all-tube overdrive-distortion stompbox for singing leads and authoritative chording.

The Alnico II Pro Slash is hand built in Seymour Duncan's Santa Barbara, California workshop and including all mounting hardware.

Les Paul is a registered trademark of Gibson USA with which Seymour Duncan is not affiliated.

P-Rails Hot


Now, Seymour Duncan introduces the SHPR-2b P-Rails® Hot, delivering the same tonal flexibility as its predecessor, but specifically designed to provide a punchier, more aggressive tone in the bridge position. The P-Rails Hot features a beefed up coil wind and 2 powerful Alnico 8 magnets, which rival ceramic magnets in power but maintain the sweet sustain Alnico is known for. The P-90 coil in the P-Rails Hot is wound with a special wire type, selected for output and clarity. This P-90 is loud! The rail mode is hotter thanks to the power of the Alnico 8, and the series humbucker mode is huge!

P-Rails Hot are a direct humbucker retrofit and can be used in any guitar set up for a traditional humbucker or Trembucker spacing. To maximize P-Rails Hot's unique splitting capabilities and get the most tonal versatility, it is recommended for use in tandem with a standard P-Rails in the neck position with a two-way switch (push-pull or mini-toggle) to get both humbucker and P-90 tones. Use a three way switch (DPDT on-off-on) to bring in the single coil Rail tones. Or for the ultimate in versatility, use Seymour Duncan's Triple Shot switching mounting ring.

P-Rails Hot is recommended for all styles of music. They are built in the USA at the Seymour Duncan factory, come with black, white or cream covers

Vintage and Custom Staggered 7-String


Santa Barbara, California The Seymour Duncan Custom Shop has been custom-building 7-string electric pickups upon request for years. Now, to keep up with the demand for 7-string pickups, the company is introducing production versions of some of their most popular models, including the SSL-1 Vintage Staggered 7-string and the SSL-5 Custom Staggered 7-string, specifically designed with a modern stagger for the needs of the 7-string player.

The Vintage Staggered 7-string delivers a deep punchy tone with bright sparkle for single-coil strat.® guitars, recommended for country, pop, surf, rockabilly, blues, ska, classic rock and any player that wants to marry a vintage sound with the new era of 7-stringed guitars. Complete with hand-ground Alnico 5 magnets, it compliments a humbucker like the SH-4 JB 7-string in the bridge position, along with a neck pickup like the SH-1n '59 7-string. Add an all-tube overdrive like the Seymour Duncan SFX-11 Twin Tube Blue for the ultimate tone.

The Custom Staggered 7-string pickup provides a distinct vintage tone with greater sustain and full sounding harmonics that cuts through the mix, but cleans up nicely when you back off the volume. It's 6-string counterpart has been championed by countless artists over its long history for its strong, overwound Strat tone, most recently making an appearance on Fender's David Gilmour Signature Series Strat®. Pair this pickup with a high output bridge pickup like the SH-10 Full Shred 7-string, and a moderate output neck pickup like the SH-2n Jazz 7-string, for great tone when playing Texas blues rock, classic rock and heavy rock.

Both pickups come with a black cover, are produced at the Seymour Duncan factory in Santa Barbara California, and will make their debut in January at the 2010 NAMM show.

Fender and Strat are registered trademarks of FMIC with which Seymour Duncan is not affiliated.

Custom 5 and Full Shred 7-String

Santa Barbara, California Seymour Duncan is announcing the release of several of their most popular pick-ups, specifically re-designed to capture the deeper tones and wider range of sound found in the new generation of seven-stringed instruments, including the SH-10 Full Shred 7-string and the SH-14 Custom 5 7-String humbucker.

The 6-string Custom 5 was developed in part by contributors on the Seymour Duncan web user group forum who replaced the magnets in their Custom or Custom Custom with Alnico 5 magnets. The versatile Custom 5 7-string is a moderate to high output humbucker, perfect for pop, country, blues, classic rock and heavy rock with its deeper bottom end and expanded output. Recommended for the bridge position, add an SH-1n 7-string in the neck position for real deal P.A.F. tones.

Shredders and metal-heads will elate in the high output that the Full Shred 7-string offers. For years, the Seymour Duncan Full Shred has been revered for its top end clarity, crisp, well defined low end, and aggressive midrange, great for capturing clear, tight tone during heavy rhythms and speed riffs. Two symmetrical coils and short Allen head pole pieces produce a more intense, focused magnetic field while the Alnico 5 magnet maintains an organic attack and feel. The Full Shred is perfect for rock, heavy metal, speed metal, and any music featuring fast, aggressive, solo playing. It comes with a four-conductor hookup cable for various switching options, in both bridge and neck versions, and matches well with the SFX-04 Twin Tube Mayhem for ultimate heaviness.

Both pickups will debut in January at the 2010 NAMM show in Anaheim along with several other pick-ups redesigned by the Seymour Duncan company, to meet the growing fan base of seven-stringed guitar players.

Mick Thomson Signature Blackouts EMTY

Santa Barbara, CA -Seymour Duncan announces the release of the latest addition to our popular Blackouts Humbucker series the Blackouts AHB-3 Thomson EMTY. Like its predecessors (The AHB-1 and AHB-2), the Blackouts AHB-3 EMTY provides distinctive, screaming metal tones, packing a serious mid-range punch, thicker, darker chords than other humbuckers and hard-hitting driving leads. The 9-volt active Blackouts are designed specifically for more aggressive playing styles including players using extreme low tunings. The EMTY takes it a step further, created to meet Mick Thomson's personal specs and metal desires. Mick asked for tighter bottom, and more searing top end cut, and Seymour Duncan delivered.

The AHB series conveys a less compressed tone, with a more extended frequency response helping to cancel hum by using balanced inputs. Blackouts are up to 14dB quieter than any other active pickups, while producing more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, Blackouts have more tone than other active pickup. And players have noticed the benefits of the reduced hum, especially during recording. Thomson was already an avid fan of the Blackouts when he met Seymour Duncan Head of Artist Relations, Evan Skopp during a discreet backstage meeting at the 2008 Loud Park festival in Japan. Mick stayed involved every step of the way from the precise wiring configuration to the logo and printing on the pickup including his renowned "seven" imprinted right on the side of the cover. Now he depends on EMTY to execute his completely psychosocial tone that defines the Slipknot sound; because to play extreme metal, you need extreme metal tone.

AHB-3 Blackouts EMTY are available as Mick's two-humbucker set, or in individual neck and bridge models to mix and match with other Blackouts and Livewires Classic II active pickups. All versions come with all necessary mounting hardware, including pots, jack, and a battery clip. For players with active pickups already installed, the EMTY can plug right into the quick connection harness, making it a snap to unplug the old pickup and plug in the new EMTY.

To celebrate this new release, Seymour Duncan is giving fans the chance to win Mick Thomson's signature Ibanez© MTM1 with Mick's new signature Seymour Duncan Blackouts EMTY installed. Ten second place winners will receive signed sets of EMTY pickups and a host of third place winners get Slipknot or Seymour Duncan swag. To win, contestants need to go to: www.seymourduncan.com/mickblackouts and enter into the drawing. The contest runs to midnight January 31, 2010.

Seymour Duncan 8-string Blackouts

Santa Barbara, California - When six strings seem too conventional and seven strings still just aren't enough, Seymour Duncan announces the release of the latest version of our hugely successful Blackouts series, the 8-string Blackouts for 8-string guitars. For the new generation of 8-stringed guitars, 8-string Blackouts provide more headroom while still generating thick and full lows without sounding muddy or dull. Designed from the ground up specifically for the need of 8-string players, these metal beasts contain ceramic magnets for both the neck and bridge versions, specifically voiced for heavy rock with greater dynamic range, less scooped mids, and less compression than other active pickups.

For anyone who has tried to record using an 8 stringed guitar, the biggest complaint has been that most pickups deliver a thudy sound, chopping off the dynamic range. The results can be clearly seen, like a "flatline" effect in the recording wave. 8-string Blackouts allows each register to have its own character, like you expect from any six string sound, but now with deeper bass lines and no flat-lining. It simply allows the player be more expressive.

The industry agrees that 8-string Blackouts are clearly an improvement, evident by the fact that many guitar makers like Schecter© Guitars, who are delving into the 8-string guitar world, are offering the 8-string Blackouts. Their latest, offering the Schecter BlackJack ATC-8 limited edition guitar comes with 8-string Blackouts installed.

Like the full line of Blackouts, the 8-strings provide a tone that sounds less compressed with a more extended frequency response. Blackouts active humbuckers are up to 14dB quieter than the competition, but they also have more lows, more highs, and more output.

Blackouts 8-string are designed to direct retrofit any 8-string electric guitars and are available in individual neck and bridge models, or as a two-pickup set. All versions come with all necessary mounting hardware, including pots, jack, and a battery clip.

Seymour Duncan Serves Up A Triple Shot!

Santa Barbara, California - Guitarists are always striving to conjure as many sounds as possible out of their instrument. One of the ways to do so is by altering the wiring of the pickups to split coils (also known as a "coil cut") or change from series to parallel. Typically, when guitars are modified to add different pickup routing and tonal options, it's necessary to add extra toggle switches and/or push/pull pots. These extra controls can be confusing, unattractive, and in the way. In some cases, permanent modifications may also decrease the resale or collector's value of an instrument. What do you do if you need these options but don't want to modify your guitar's construction or appearance?

Seymour Duncan has developed a unique stealth switching system to do the job--the incredible Triple Shot which cleverly conceals the switching system inside a humbucker-size mounting ring. Now there's no need for drilling holes for extra switches, pots or visible modifications to achieve your custom wiring wishes. Two small switches built into the mounting ring are all that's needed to do the job.

The Triple Shot is easy to install and works with any four-conductor Seymour Duncan humbuckers, and just about any other manufacturer's four conductor pickups. Simply connect the pickup's leads to a small color-coded circuit board which adheres to the guitar's inside cavity, then connect the ground and hot wires to the circuit board and you're ready to rock. No fuss, no muss, no permanent modifications. Triple Shot is available in black and cream.

LINK: Seymourduncan.com

NAMM 2010: Seymour Duncan YJM FURY - Yngwie Malmsteen signature pickups

Remember a few months ago when Yngwie Malmsteen abruptly left DiMarzio? Well check this out. While it's gonna be hard to adjust to Yngwie no longer being a DiMarzio guy, I find it endearingly hilarious that not only is the pickup called the FURY, but Yngwie's such a force of nature that they seem to be going with an official all-caps spelling of FURY.

Yngwie Malmsteen and Seymour Duncan create a brand new signature model pick up YJM FURY.

Yngwie Malmsteen will also be attending the Namm show. You lucky fans will get a chance to meet the guitar legend up close and personal..


Come meet Yngwie Malmsteen in person at the Seymour Duncan and at the Fender Guitar Booths:
Meet Yngwie Sat Jan 16th...
Fender Guitars Booth 4:00 PM Saturday, Booth 304 A 3rd Floor
Seymour Duncan Booth 5:00 PM on Saturday, Booth #4358 in Hall C.
When Yngwie J. Malmsteen set out on a quest to bring his tone to a higher level, he turned to Seymour Duncan. The result of hundreds of hours of intense tone pursuit is the YJM Fury: only available from Seymour Duncan.


Application
Hum-canceling single-coil-sized pickup based on our original Stack® pickup design. Recommended for rock, neo-classical, shred, hard rock, power metal, and heavy metal.


Description
The bridge pickup is aggressive and handles Yngwie's hard-hitting chordal onslaught. The neck pickup balances Yngwie's fluid left hand technique with his broad mix of right hand pick attack for a tone that's sweet and fluid, but with great articulation and responsiveness to dynamics.


Complete setup
The YJM series includes a dedicated bridge pickup and a separate neck/middle pickup. Pickups can be purchased individually, in a three-pickup set, or in a pre-wired pickguard ready to drop into your Strat guitar with an 11-screw hole "USA" pattern. The loaded pickguard includes a "no lube" volume potentiometer that meets Yngwie's demands for a very fast and responsive pot.


Guitars
The YJM Fury will directly retrofit most single-coil equipped guitars. Though originally designed for a Fender® Strat with a scalloped maple fingerboard, the YJM Fury will work well with any bolt-on guitar that utilizes traditional single-coil-size Strat pickups. The YJM Fury is the same pickup that Fender installs in their YJM Strat guitars.


Available Mods
Available in off-white, white or black.


Players
Yngwie J. Malmsteen

REVIEW: Cole Clark Hollow Baby

The Cole Clark Guardian is something of an Aussie guitar classic. Obvious nods to 50-something years of guitar history notwithstanding, it’s the little details that have made this guitar stand out from others in the field. Now Cole Clark is releasing the Hollow Baby, a variant of the Guardian which features, yes, an internally carved hollow body with a classy bass-side f-hole. I was lucky enough to get my hands on two Hollow Baby models.

Components include CTS pots, Switchcraft jacks, OAK switches, Dunlop frets, Graphtech nut, Grover vintage tuners and Elixir strings. The tremolo is a two point system (more stable than a vintage six-screw version) with push-fit arm, featuring a machined solid steel sustain block rather than a sintered steel sustain block. Wood options are Bunya or Queensland Maple for the body, maple or blackwood for the neck, and maple or rosewood for the fretboard. The finish is nitrocellulose lacquer, allowing the wood to breathe and opening up the tone that little bit more. There are three pickup types on offer: Seymour Duncan USA Vintage Flat SSL-2; Kinman Zero Hum ‘Blues’ Set; and Cole Clark ‘Ultrasound’ (w reverse bridge pickup). The latter, which I was unable to test at the time of review, has a reverse-oriented bridge pickup to pick up more treble from the bass strings while reigning in the high end of the treble strings. But whichever model you choose, each has its own character and is suited to a slightly different vibe. It’s also interesting to note that Cole Clark has chosen pickups with a flat pole piece stagger to suit the flatter 12” neck radii.

And what a neck. This flatter shape is ideal for extended playing sessions and chording, and is also great for faster styles. A more rounded radius may allow you to grip the notes a little more firmly but many players prefer the extra finesse that can be added with flatter designs. You also have far less chance of fretting out a note when you bend it. In all honesty, as someone who’s collected 80s-style shred guitars for half my life, I was very comfortable with this neck, and personally I’d love to see it on a two-pickup Guardian with a bridge humbucker, neck single coil, no scratchplate and a Floyd Rose – y’know, a stripped back screamer. The neck is topped off with Cole Clark’s iconic ‘Curlicue’ scroll-topped headstock shape, which recalls – without actually copying – the 1940s and 50s work of guitar pioneer Paul Bigsby. Fretwork is perfect, with no rough edges or file marks to offend the eye or hand.

The first thing you may think when you pick up one of these Hollow Babies is ‘Well, I’m pretty sure I can guess how this is gonna sound.’ After all, while there are many key differences, it shares some common traits with a pretty well-known axe. But, as they say in David Lee Roth videos, ‘Fugeddaboutit.’ Any preconceived notions you may have about the tone of these instruments will be immediately dispelled upon picking the first note. Even unplugged you’ll notice that you simply can’t judge the Hollow Baby on what you know about other guitars that look somewhat like it. The acoustic tone is lively and midrange-heavy, with restrained treble and round bass – pretty much the opposite of the tone you’d expect from a solidbody version of this design.

Plugged in, the difference is even more pronounced. We were loaned two Hollow Babies to review: one in two-tone sunburst with Seymour Duncan Vintage Flat SSL-2 pickups and one in black with the Kinman Zero Hum ‘Blues’ Set.

BLACK - KINMAN ZERO HUM ‘BLUES’ SET


The black Hollow Baby, equipped with Aussie-made Kinman pickups, actually sounds a lot brighter than the unplugged tone may indicate, and there’s not much bass – at least, not of the booming, overbearing variety. This clears the lower frequency range to make complex close-voiced chords ring clearly and without extraneous dissonance. My favourite pickup setting was the neck/middle combination, which had a steely treble and reduced midrange, but with all the sonic benefits of the hollow construction: extended dynamic range and a certain liveliness to the note.
Regardless of the pickup setting you select, the attack is very immediate and the sustain is quite pronounced, with a nice natural tail.

One of my favourite tones was achieved by turning the bridge/middle tone control all the way down. While this would muddy up the sound on most guitars, on this one it simply reigns in some of the strident treble, fattening up the pickup for big lead sounds. A lot of players tend to ignore the tone control altogether but here it’s so carefully and complementarily voiced that it would be a crime against music to not explore its usability.

My favourite settings all seemed to be achieved with sparkly clean and slightly dirty – but not overdriven or distorted – tones. There comes a point where the very things that make the Hollow Baby work so well – evolving midrange, lively dynamic response and delicate interactivity – start to work against it when you pile on the distortion. That’s in no way a criticism of the guitar. It’s just that it’s presented in its best light when you can actually hear what’s going on.

2-TONE SUNBURST (SEYMOUR DUNCAN VINTAGE FLAT SSL-2 PICKUPS)


The first thing that struck me about these pickups was that they are very quiet. At high gain levels you’ll hear a kind of ‘ksssh’ off in the background in positions 1, 3 and 5, but only in extreme cases. In normal playing conditions you’re not likely to hear any noise at all. Amazing. Like the Kinman-equipped Hollow Baby, the Seymour Duncan version has a very bright and stabby tone, but this time the tone control doesn’t cool down the bridge pickup in quite the same way. The tone overall is a bit more gutsy, with powerful but not harsh treble. My favourite setting was the neck pickup by itself. This pickup is very midrange-heavy, making it great for bluesy solos and ringing indie melodies. It’s especially happy when you combine fretted notes with open string drones. I was also continually drawn to the middle pickup, which was home to a lot of fat lead tones. In fact, the middle pickup on this guitar reminds me of a fat bridge pickup on some others. I also found a great overdriven tone with the middle/bridge tone control down about 3/4 of the way while using those two pickups in combination.

This Hollow Baby responds especially well to soft playing, either with a pick or the fingers. Notes have an immediate impact but then fade out gradually and musically. You can also get some great textures by picking with the edge of your thumbnail around the 12th fret while holding down chords around the 7th-9th frets. On some guitars this technique sounds a little ‘meh,’ while others really take the sound and run with it. This one bolts.

Surprisingly, I found myself drawn to this particular Hollow Baby for John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth style fusion. There’s something about the way the notes sustain which lends itself to that kind of ‘fast/slow, soft/loud, up/down’ phrasing you often find in fusion, and the tone itself sits very nicely as a solo instrument.

Both of these guitars are very well made, with lots of clever little design details - the fretboard radius, the wiring of the tone controls, the pickup selection, the neatness of the f-hole. The different pickup choices are a great way of demonstrating how adaptable this basis design is to different types of music. The Kinman-loaded model would be my choice for country and cleaner styles that require lots of spank and twang, while the Seymour Duncan model would be my pick for edgy blues and dirty classic rock. I wish I had the chance to try the Cole Clark-loaded version too, but whichever way you shake it, Cole Clark’s come up with a very unique take on what at first seems to be a traditional design. Strip away the preconceptions though and you end up with something altogether unprecedented.

LINK: ColeClarkGuitars.com

NEWS: Seymour Duncan Mick Thompson signature Blackouts

Here's some cool news about a new signature pickup release by Seymour Duncan for Slipknot guitarist Mick Thompson. These new pickups are based on the Blackouts, which you can read about in my review of the Schecter C-1 BlackJack ATX.

Seymour Duncan Presents Mick Thomson's signature Blackouts EMTY
November 09, 2009

Seymour Duncan announces the release of the latest addition to our popular Blackouts Humbucker series the Blackouts AHB-3 Thomson EMTY. Like its predecessors (The AHB-1 and AHB-2), the Blackouts AHB-3 EMTY provides distinctive, screaming metal tones, packing a serious mid-range punch, thicker, darker chords than other humbuckers and hard-hitting driving leads. The 9-volt active Blackouts are designed specifically for more aggressive playing styles including players using extreme low tunings. The EMTY takes it a step further, created to meet Mick Thomson's personal specs and metal desires. Mick asked for tighter bottom, and more searing top end cut, and Seymour Duncan delivered.

The AHB series conveys a less compressed tone, with a more extended frequency response helping to cancel hum by using balanced inputs. Blackouts are up to 14dB quieter than any other active pickups, while producing more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, Blackouts have more tone than other active pickup. And players have noticed the benefits of the reduced hum, especially during recording. Thomson was already an avid fan of the Blackouts when he met Seymour Duncan Head of Artist Relations, Evan Skopp during a discreet backstage meeting at the 2008 Loud Park festival in Japan. Mick stayed involved every step of the way from the precise wiring configuration to the logo and printing on the pickup including his renowned "seven" imprinted right on the side of the cover. Now he depends on EMTY to execute his completely psychosocial tone that defines the Slipknot sound; because to play extreme metal, you need extreme metal tone.

AHB-3 Blackouts EMTY are available as Mick's two-humbucker set, or in individual neck and bridge models to mix and match with other Blackouts and Livewires Classic II active pickups. All versions come with all necessary mounting hardware, including pots, jack, and a battery clip. For players with active pickups already installed, the EMTY can plug right into the quick connection harness, making it a snap to unplug the old pickup and plug in the new EMTY.

Magnet: Alnico V Bar (neck)/Ceramic with Steel Blade (bridge)
Resonant Peak
Neck: 780Hz
Bridge: 610Hz
EQ:
Bass: 9
Mid: 5
Treb: 5
Cable: Three Con. Shielded

LINK: SeymourDuncan.com

NEWS: More info on the Dean ZERO Dave Mustaine model

Dean has now released some awesome close-up photos of the new Dave Mustaine model, the ZERO. CLICK HERE for more info including Dave's quote to me about the guitar a couple of weeks ago, but check out these specs:

25.5 inch scale
Mahogany body/neck
Ebony Fingerboard
6 In-Line headstock
Dave Mustaine Signature Seymour Duncan Livewire Pickups
Distressed Finish

The most surprising thing about this model to me is that it features a distressed finish. Interesting that Dave would choose to go this route on a brand new guitar. First of all, he's known for playing Vs, so the distressed finish isn't mimicing the wear on a particular much-loved road-warrior guitar. Secondly, he's quite well-known for graphic finishes and that cool metallic Mercedes grey colour.

Having said that, maybe it's because I'm such a Mustaine geek but I'm really really into this guitar.

Megadeth's new CD, Endgame, is out now on Roadrunner.

REVIEW: Godin Velocity

Godin guitars remind me of comedian Rodney Dangerfield: they both don’t get no respect. In Rodney’s case this was part of his shtick. For the Canadian guitar maker, it’s one of the unexplained mysteries of the guitar world. Why are their instruments so highly prized among top name players like John McLaughlin (read my interview with him here), Richie Blackmore and Bill Frisell, yet they haven’t broken through to the forefront of brand consciousness? It’s a bit of a mystery to me: through teaching and as a repair tech I’ve found their guitars to be brilliantly constructed, cleverly designed and very easy to play. I can only conclude that they’re that one standout model or endorser away from staking out a solid corner of the hallowed turf occupied by the Big Guitar Makers.

CLICK HERE to see Godin guitars on Amazon.com (may not ship to all countries)

The Velocity model may look like a bit of a shred machine at first glance, but look a little closer and it has more in common with the boutique output of makers like John Suhr than the hepped up metal axes enjoying a resurgence today. The pickup scheme is the first clue: a pair of Godin GS-1 single coils in the neck and middle positions, and a Seymour Duncan SH-5 Duncan Custom humbucker in the bridge. The current shredder’s market tends to favour neck humbuckers and often omit a middle pickup altogether, but the H-S-S layout is still in great favour in more, let's say, refined designs.

The next hint as to this model’s design heritage is its vintage-style tremolo bridge. While other Godin tremolo models feature either two point fulcrum bridges or Floyd Rose locking systems, the Velocity puts its faith in the classic operation and unique attack characteristics of this 50-something-year-old design. I guess the assumption is that the kind of player this guitar is aimed at has no need for wild whammy bar antics, but may indulge in the occasional David Gilmour or Hank Marvin moment. Certainly at this price point the Velocity doesn’t need to use a vintage bridge to cut corners, and it’s no surprise that tuning stability on this model is as good as can be expected as long as you don’t try to pick the guitar up by the bar to perfect your Steve Vai wiggle-stick tricks.

The Velocity’s body is made of a silver leaf maple center with poplar wings and a solid high-flame maple top. The neck is rock maple, with maple or rosewood fretboard. The 12” radius fretboard is comfortable for complex chords, yet won’t fret out on wild bends. Electronics consist of a 5-way switch, and master volume and tone controls. Tucked down by the tone knob is a small black switch. This is Godin’s High-Definition Revoicer (HDR). This circuit is powered by a 9v battery accessed through the back of the guitar, and when engaged it revoices the frequency range of each pickup, boosting the output and amounting to a conversion from passive to active pickups at the nudge of a button.

The single coils have plenty of bite and gutsier output than I expected, especially combined with the visionary HDR system. In fact, the middle pickup was more than adequate as a main pickup in situations where one might otherwise choose the humbucker. The Duncan Custom is fat and rich, and the HDR bumps it up to EMG-like levels of gain. Thanks to the HDR you can certainly get metal tones out of this guitar if you're seeking them, but the Velocity is also very happy with mildy overdriven crunch tones and smooth distortion. The tone is warm yet bright - just enough treble bite to add an edge to your sound, but with a full body too. There's good note separation for open chords, and some nice midrange overtones when you move up the neck to play single notes.

If you're using a valve amp, you can even use the HDR almost like an amp channel switch to push your crunchy preamp into overdrive. Turn off the HDR and back down a little on the guitar's volume pot and there's yer clean sound. Cool!

The Velocity is a versatile entry to the ‘SuperStrat’ stakes, and is a little more ‘Strat’ than its ‘super’ looks might initially appear. If you haven’t experienced a Godin before, the Velocity is a great place to start.

SPECS
BODY: Silver leaf maple, poplar, flame maple
NECK: Rock maple with rosewood or maple fretboard
ELECTRONICS: 1 volume, 1 tone, HDR switch, 5 way switch
PICKUPS: 2 X Godin GS-1 single coils, 1 X Seymour Duncan SH-5 humbucker

www.godinguitars.com

NEW SPONSOR: Atlantic Quality Design ZEROCAP Ultra Low Capacitance Guitar Cable

I'd like to welcome a new site sponsor, Atlantic Quality Design, makers of the ZEROCAP Ultra Low Capacitance Guitar Cable. My curiosity about these cables was piqued by a recent review in Premier Guitar. Here's some info about the ZEROCAP Ultra Low Capacitance Guitar Cable.

Not only that, check out Atlantic's awesome Guitar Pickup Tone Database, where you can listen to 199 pickups from brands including DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, Epiphone, Gibson, ESP, Fender, Ibanez, Joe Barden, Kent Armstrong, Lace, PRS, Peavey and many more, played through various cable lengths and types. You can even compare two pickup/cable combinations to each other.

The ZEROCAP ultra low capacitance cable lets you hear all the frequencies being produced by your guitar. Cable capacitance kills the high frequencies from your pickups, resulting in a muddy sound. The ZEROCAP cable makes your guitar think it is driving about one foot of cable, and the sound opens up in an amazing way.

The ZEROCAP consists of quality custom manufactured guitar cable and fully shielded metal plugs, plus special interface electronics housed in a tiny enclosure toward one end of the cable. Connect the ZEROCAP cable between your guitar and amp, turn it on, and you are ready to rock! It's battery powered so there are no power supplies to plug in.

What does the ZEROCAP cable do?

The ZEROCAP cable reduces the cable capacitance to near zero, typically 50 picofarads (in any length), which is effectively the capacitance of the connectors. Even the best guitar cables have 15 to 30 picofarads of capacitance per foot, amounting to a tone killing 650 picofarads for a 20 foot cable.
The ZEROCAP cable lets you use long guitar cables with little high frequency loss.
The ZEROCAP cable eliminates the "tone suck" when you roll back the guitar's volume pot.
The lack of capacitance eliminates the midrange gain boost caused by plain guitar cables.
The pickup is still connected with a straight through wired connection from the guitar to the amplifier.
The ZEROCAP cable does NOT buffer or amplify your guitar's signal with inline electronics.
The ZEROCAP cable does NOT change the output impedance of your guitar.
With the ZEROCAP cable, the guitar's sound is brighter and flatter. You hear the actual pickup sound, unfiltered by the cable, and you get more of the good sound that has been eaten by cable capacitance until now.

ZEROCAP cables sound the same regardless of length? Yes. There is no passive 'premium' cable that can make that claim. Say you buy a 10 foot 'premium' cable for club use, and a 20 foot cable of the same brand for large stage use. The longer cable will have double the cable capacitance and will further murder your tone. All ZEROCAP cables have the same sound, regardless of length, as if they were not there!

What about all the other cables in my rig? If you have a pedalboard with cables connecting your pedals, make sure they are as short as possible. There are stomp box connection cables that are only inches long, or less. These have very low capacitance. Understand that stomp boxes all have capacitance as well, so don't insert any more effects than you need in the signal path. And when a stomp box is switched out using "true bypass," the capacitance of the cable and box next in line adds to all the capacitance before it. (This is a disadvantage of true bypass pedals!) So use the shortest cables possible. You can purchase a short ZEROCAP cable to connect your pedalboard to your amplifier. Here's a diagram to help you decide where to use ZEROCAP cables. Basically, any cable after a buffered or powered pedal can be a less expensive plain cable.

But the ZEROCAP sounds different. Yes, it does! The more even sound and lack of artificial midrange boost means you may have to adjust your amplifier's tone controls. When you want that extra high end, it's there for you, open and not nasal. Think of it: You have been playing through 500 picofarads of choking cable capacitance since you were a kid. Not any more!

You'll notice that the volume control no longer kills the high frequencies in your guitar's tone. Previously, the resistance of the volume control conspired with the cable capacitance to ruin your tone at lower volumes. Since the cable capacitance is now gone, that does not happen and your guitar shimmers as much on 5 as it does on 10.

SOUND CLIPS: Compare popular cables to the ZEROCAP in our TONE SHOOTOUT!

To understand how cable capacitance affects tone, read our article.

REVIEW: ESP Michael Amott Ninja

Why am I reviewing a guitar that has been discontinued, with Amott shifting allegiance from ESP to Dean? Well, cos the secondhand market exists, and in the spirit of my Cool Guitars The Don't Make Any More series (see the links at the bottom of this post), sometimes it's fun to talk about a guitar that's no longer in production. Also, this review sitting was first published in Mixdown Magazine in October 2006, and it was getting lonely sitting around unread for nearly three years.

CLICK HERE to find the ESP Michael Amott Ninja on eBay.

So. Arch Enemy. Featuring the hottest female singer in metal, at least since Poison stopped wearing makeup, the band’s other attention-grabbing focal point is the one-two guitar punch of guitarists Michael and Chris Amott. Also a member of legendary death metal band Carcass, Michael Amott’s style is rooted in the classic metal of the past but filtered through cybernetic precision. Dude also has pretty cool hair.

The ESP Michael Amott Ninja (Custom Shop model reviewed) is based on the classic Flying V design of the 50s. Many of the same specs are present here: set neck construction, a Gibson-esque and very bending-friendly 24.75 inch scale lenth, a pair of humbuckers, and a tune-o-matic style bridge mated to a stop tailpiece. But the Ninja, like its namesake mysterious assasin of the night, is mad, bad and dangerous to know. Gone are the smooth, rounded edges of the old design. In their place is a sharp, aggressive cut at the base of each of the V tips. The subdued dot inlays of the old design are quietly dispatched by a series of intricately inlaid ninja stars, which serve the dual purpose of helping you know where you are on the fretboard and also warning others to keep their dirty hands off your guitar – nobody messes with a ninja twice. The body is made of mahogany, and is surprisingly light considering its size. The pickguard is made of a mirrored material and, like pretty much everything else on the guitar, is accentuated by sharp angles.

The neck, also mahogany, is capped with a rosewood fretboard and 22 extra jumbo frets. The headstock is of the three tuners per side variety (in this case Sperzel brand tuners), with a sharp outline reminiscent of some kind of medeval weaponry. Basically, there is no edge of the Michael Amott Ninja that is safe for encroaching stage divers, and this is a guitar that means buisiness.

Electronics consist of a pair of Seymour Duncan humbuckers, a JB at the bridge and a 59 in the neck. Interestingly, the Ninja’s three way toggle switch feeds a volume control for each pickup, but there is no tone control. Personally I like this decision. A tone control usually functions as a treble rolloff, and even if it’s set to maximum treble in the ‘unused’ position it is still filtering the sound, resulting in the sapping away of a small amount of treble and gain. Removing it from the circuit completely allows any guitar to sound just that tiny bit more in your face, certainly an asset for the metal tones this guitar is designed for.

And what tones they are. The JB has long been used for metal, most notably by Dave Mustaine, who used it until quite recently until the release of his new Seymour Duncan signature Livewire pickup set, which includes an active bridge pickup based on the JB’s trademark tone. The basic sound of the Amott is a little bit like the Dave Mustaine DV8 due to their shared characteristics, but it sounds a little fatter and darker to my ears. High gain rhythms have an enormous amount of drive and cut, with an addictive thickness to the high midrange that just made me want to chug out midtempo riffs for hours.

The neck pickup sounds round and full, and is especially suited to those slow melodic minor melody lines and E Dorian solos. The tones reminded me a little of the classic sounds of Michael Schenker or Gary Moore, but much more metal.
One of the real surprises of the Amott Ninja is its playability. Despite its sharp looks and aggressive tones, it actually feels a little bit like a more conventional classic type of guitar rather than a modern thin-necked shred machine, and those who are a bit scared to step beyond the designs of the 50s would feel as at home on this axe as the metal bretheren would. It’s just as comfortable with box pattern pentatonics and power chords as it is with fretboard wandering arpeggios and thick chunky downtuned chords.

The ESP Michael Amott Ninja Signature guitar can handle any style you throw at it, its sharp looks and sharper attitude will definitely make you stand out on stage, and the mirror pickgard will allow you to either blind your audience or check your hairstyle with comfort and ease. The classic playability and modern tones will appeal to a wide variety of players, and the construction is absolutely faultless in every respect.

BODY: Mahogany.
NECK: Set neck, mahogany, rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, ninja inlays.
ELECTRONICS: Seymour Duncan JB bridge pickup; Seymour Duncan 59 neck pickup; 2 volume; pickup selector.
HARDWARE: Chrome; Sperzel locking tuners; TonePros locking bridge; Stop tailpiece.

Cool guitars they don't make any more
Cool guitars they don't make any more 2
Cool guitars they don't make any more 3

Cool guitars they don't make any more 4

VIDEO: G&L Jerry Cantrell signature series

Whoa! Check out this Premier Guitar video about the G&L Rampage Jerry Cantrell model. The guitar will be available in Tribute and US-made versions in 2010.

Look at the specs of the Tribute version.

Kahler 4300 bridge
Alnico 5 humbucker designed with Jerry
Soft maple body
Maple neck
Ebony fretboard
Matching headstock

The US-made version will have a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker and an upgraded Kahler bridge.

REVIEW: Schecter C-1 BlackJack ATX with Seymour Duncan Blackouts

Just as there are many different schools of metal – heavy metal, stoner metal, death metal, thrash, death-thrash, grindcore, gore-grind, industrial metal, black metal, TRUE black metal - there are also many different schools of metal guitar design. Radical shapes and extreme colours compete on the shelves against stripped back, simple but deadly designs. Active or passive pickups, fixed or floating bridge, 22 frets or 24 (don’t even joke about building a metal guitar with only 21 frets. How can you possibly be evil if you can only reach a high C#?). In many ways the C-1 Blackjack ATX FR is almost too classy to be a metal axe, with its carved top and chunky neck profile that are more likely to remind blindfolded players of a Les Paul than a day-glo heavy metal meat-axe. But don’t worry, there are still plenty of badass features in here for shredders and rhythm chuggers alike.

Spec check
This bad boy features a solid mahogany body with a carved top and aged binding, and a 3-piece maple neck with 24 jumbo frets and a rather flat radius. The fretboard is ebony, the grain of which is extremely tight, giving the fretboard a very smooth feel, especially combined with those huge frets. The only inlay on the face of the fretboard is an ‘active’ symbol at the 12th fret, although there are side dots too so you can still find your way around. The neck is glued in, but carved with Schecter’s ‘Ultra Access’ shape, which makes it feel like a neck-through. The back of the neck is painted, which some players will love, and others, not so much. If it bugs you that much, a good tech can scrape it away neatly, but even though I’m a player who likes a good chunk of unfinished maple, I didn’t find the painted neck to be obstructive or distracting at all. The headstock is Schecter’s pointy 3-a-side design, which looks traditional and hard-edged at the same time.

The review model has an original Floyd Rose locking tremolo bridge. There’s also a fixed bridge version available in 6 and 7 string but frankly, as a shameless 7-string noodler and whammy bar abuser, I feel the range is just that little bit empty without a Floyd Rose-loaded 7-string version. There, I said it. Schecter, please don’t send Zacky Vengeance after me to enact his namesake.

Pickups
The pickups are Seymour Duncan Blackout actives, with a volume control for each and, a global tone control. There’s a three-way pickup switch which selects between each humbucker or a combination of both: no split coil settings here, so the Blackjack’s clean tones lean more towards Metallica than Dream Theater. Seymour Duncan describes the Blackouts thusly: “The ‘other’ USA-made active humbuckers use unbalanced inputs in a differential preamp. The problem is, an unbalanced differential preamp is not very effective at cancelling hum. Our engineers figured out how to capture the tone that players want in an active design, but using balanced inputs. The result is 12dB to 14dB less noise, plus more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, Blackouts have more tone than other active pickups.”

Sound
The C-1 Blackjack ATX FR plays like a much more traditional guitar than a shredder’s plank thanks to the combination of the arched top and the neck carve, which is deeper and rounder than the majority of guitars oriented towards the speedier side of axemanship. The Blackout pickups are an interesting spin on the expected active metal pickup sound. They’re a little blunter and a bit warmer than you might expect, with more midrange and ‘woodiness’ than traditional actives. You can really hear the personality of the guitar, which isn’t always true with actives. The bridge unit has plenty of articulation and chunk – you’ll hear plenty of crunch and grind, which is especially great for ultra-fast, muted thrash riffage, while legato techniques have a real sense of movement and dynamics as overtones jump out. The neck pickup sounds round and vocal, responding especially well to huge vibrato, and again there’s a very musical pick attack. You know the kind of pick attack that sounds like an integral part of the note, rather than just a percussive bassy thud at its beginning? Well that’s what this baby excels at. Awesome. Both pickups are ideal for metal, but due to the warmer character they can be used for softer styles too. You may turn a few heads showing up at an indie gig to plug the C-1 Blackjack ATX into a small Fender combo for some ambient jangle, but it’ll fit the bill sonically, no problem.

My only niggle is the placement of the controls. The neck pickup volume is closest to the strings, with the bridge volume in the middle and then the tone control. This makes sense from one perspective – after all, it mirrors the placement of the pickups themselves – but practically, the bridge pickup will probably get the most use and it’s difficult to turn it down with the control in the second position. Easy enough to flip around if you know what you’re doing though if it becomes a problem, but I think the vast majority of players would prefer it to be swapped around to begin with.

Conclusion
This is a very powerful, great sounding and playing guitar with killer features and construction. While some guitars lend themselves more to either rhythm or lead playing, the C-1 BlackJack AX seems to cover it all pretty easily. It takes a lot to drag me away from my beloved neon shred axes but this monster could well do it.

Musician's Friend shopping links:

Schecter BlackJack ATX C-1 FR Electric Guitar Aged White
Schecter Blackjack C-1 Electric Guitar Black

Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Set
Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Neck
Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Bridge

Links
Schecter
Seymour Duncan

NEWS: Lace Alumitone Deathbucker

I find it pretty interesting how pickups are such simple yet such complex things. Essentially just a bunch of wire wrapped around a magnet, the creative possibilities are practically endless and so, therefore, are the adjectives used to describe them. So as a result you end up with some very cool names for pickups: names like Tone Zone, Humbucker From Hell, Blaze, Liquifire and Crunch Lab from DiMarzio; War Pig, Nailbomb, Mother’s Milk, Black Dog, Abraxis and Holydiver from Bare Knuckle. Full Shred and Screamin’ Demon from Seymour Duncan. So you’ve gotta dig the appropriately named new Deathbucker from LACE.

Oh, it also looks pretty cool.

LACE Unveils the Alumitone Deathbucker Electric Guitar Pickup

Using patented and patent pending Lace "current driven" technology, the Deathbucker was designed by Jeff Lace, for high output with a heavy metal drive. Extreme output with thunderous bottom end, yet crisp highs allow the player the most versatile of high output pickups.

This new "current driven" technology is only available from Lace. It is considered one of the most revolutionary concepts in pickup design today.

Celebrating 30 years this year in business, Lace is known as the most innovative pickup company today. Products include the world famous Lace Sensor.

"This passive design yields active pickup performance with absolutely zero noise and no need for a battery" stated Jeff Lace. "In split mode, the unique Alumitone design is dead quite with full range" further stated Lace.

Another Deathbucker advantage is there is no volume drop in split mode and working as a single coil; noise is virtually eliminated in comparison to standard old style humbucker designs.

Deathbuckers are compatible with all guitars and other pickups. As an easy drop in replacement, the 4 conductor design needs only 250k pots. It is excellent for any playing situation from live to direct to board recording.

Deathbuckers are available in black and are shipping now.

For more information, visit their web site at http://www.lacemusic.com/.

NEWS: Seymour Duncan DeJa Vu delay pedal

I got an email last night from the Australian distributors of Seymour Duncan, Dominant Music, telling me about this killer new Seymour Duncan delay pedal. If you read this site regularly you'll know I'm a sucker for a good analog delay, and this looks like a monster. Here's some info:

SFX-10 Deja Vu Tap Delay

This revolutionary pedal combines digital delay with real analog delay and adds tap tempo for incredible versatility. Recommended for all genres of music

application

While the Deja Vu includes the standard wet/dry blend control and the required delay time adjustment, the DejaVu also features an analog/digital blend control, to achieve any desired level of balance between the warmth of a real Bucket Brigade delay and the squeaky clean sound of a microprocessor-based digital delay. There's also a Feedback control, which allows you to dial in a runaway recycling of your sound in the style of an analog tape echo.

Also features two insert jacks. The Feedback Insert jack allows an external processor to be included in the recycling path, so that the processor's effect becomes more intense at each regeneration, thus continuously morphing the delayed sound as it recycles. The Wet output/loop jack works on the sound after it leaves the recycler, allowing custom tweaking of the overall character of the wet signal before it recombines with the dry signal.

description

The Deja Vu has Tap Tempo to match the delay time to the tempo of the music. And a Ratio Control that gives you multiple delays for each press of the Tap Tempo footswitch. And a tempo "Heartbeat" red flashing LED to keep everybody honest (or, at least, in time). And a "Modulation" control that lets you add a flange/chorus effect to the time delay.

mods

Both insert jacks can connect directly to a standard volume pedal so the Regen Insert jack becomes a foot control for the level of regeneration, and the Wet Insert jack becomes a foot control for the Wet/Dry mix. And you can connect two foot pedals at the same time for ultimate control of the delayed sound.

Connect a second amp to the stereo output to hear an incredible, ethereal, space-filling stereo effect. Or use the stereo output by itself to get a sound with a totally different timbre.



More info at the Seymour Duncan website HERE.

You can also see a great Premier Guitar sneak peek of the DeJa Vu Tap Delay and some other Seymour Duncan pedals HERE.

REVIEW: Seymour Duncan SHPR-1 P-Rails pickup

The Seymour Duncan P-Rails SHPR-1 pickup is one of the latest entries to the company’s increasingly broad pickup offering, and it looks like nothing else the company has ever made. While most pickups tend to look quite similar to each other on the outside, the P-Rails looks like bizarre hybrid of a P-90 style single coil pickup and one half of a mini, single coil-sized humbucker.

CLICK HERE to see Seymour Duncan pickups on eBay.

NOT YOUR ORDINARY PICKUP

The strange visual presentation is a clue that this is not your ordinary pickup. Designed to be wired into either a 2 or 3 way switch, the P-Rails can be either a regular humbucker, a Fender-style single coil, or a Gibson style P-90.

I tested a matched P-Rails set in a Framus semi-acoustic guitar, with two-way mini toggle switches discreetly installed underneath the pickguard, and wired for humbucker and P-90 modes. A 3-way switch would also allow for standard single coil mode using the mini rail-style portion of the pickup. Seymour Duncan says that when this mode is engaged on both pickups, the tone is similar to the ‘quacky’ positions 2 and 4 on a Stratocaster.

In the bridge position, the P-90-inspired portion of the pickup sounds warm and edgy, but not too over the top compared to some other such pickups on the market. Note separation is nice and clear, even with complex chords and a good dose of distortion. In the neck, the tone is full and warm, with pronounced pick attack, and is especially good for blues soloing.

HOW’S IT SOUND?

In humbucking mode, the bridge pickup is not a particularly high gain affair. It’s great for crunchy, supportive barre chords and voice-like solo tones, and the smooth, rounded midrange and slightly muted treble response make it especially good for banging out power chords in a more traditional rock style, rather than a downtuned, chugga-chugga metal way. The neck pickup sounds juicy and lyrical in humbucker mode, with great sustain and dynamics. It sounds especially good when its output is boosted by an overdrive pedal or clean boost.

It’s also a lot of fun using the mode switches almost like amp channel switches. If you set your amp just on the edge of crunch when the guitar is in humbucker mode, you can then switch to P-90 mode for a cleaner, brighter tone.

Since the test guitar had individual volume controls for each pickup, I was able to bring in a small amount of the bridge P-90 to add a subtle little high end and pick attack to the neck humbucker mode, or change the ratio between the two pickups to add a little roundness to the bridge P-90 by fading in a small amount of the neck humbucker sound.

Seymour Duncan recommends another wiring option for the pickup: Normally, in humbucking mode, P-Rails are wired in series, for a high-output sound suited to classic rock and heavier tones. However, when the coils are wired in parallel, the mismatch produces a P.A.F.-style humbucker tone with less phase cancellation associated with standard parallel wired humbuckers, with present upper-mid bloom responsiveness and pronounced string articulation.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The P-Rails is the ideal solution for players who want a maximum number of options with the minimum amount of fuss, and it’s an especially handy studio tool, effectively tripling the number of available sounds from the one guitar.

Music 123 shopping links

Seymour Duncan SHPR-1 P-Rails Neck Humbucker Electric Guitar Pickup Standard

Seymour Duncan SHPR-1 P-Rails Bridge Humbucker Electric Guitar Pickup Standard

REVIEW: Seymour Duncan SH-15 Alternative 8 humbucker

Not content with releasing the Blackout and Livewire active pickups with unprecedented power, Seymour Duncan has unleashed the Alternative 8 passive humbucker. The 8 in the Alternative 8’s name is derived from its Alnico 8 (Aluminium/nickel/cobalt alloy) magnet, and this pickup marks the first time this magnet has been used by Seymour Duncan.

CLICK HERE to see Seymour Duncan pickups on eBay.

PICK ME UP

The Alternative 8 has a DC resistance of 17.68k, making it one of the hottest passive humbuckers in Seymour Duncan’s history, almost stepping on the toes of the mighty Distortion Parallel Axis, a ceramic magnet humbucker which weighs in at an imposing 21.3 k. The pickup features hot coils wound for maximum output, enhanced further by the natural qualities of the Alnico magnet. While a ceramic magnet might sound tight and bitey, Alnico adds warmth and presence to the true midrange as well as the upper mids, while taming the fizzy buzz factor.

Seymour Duncan rates the pickup’s tonal response as Treble: 9; Midrange: 8; and Bass: 7, with a resonant peak at 4.46 KHz. In contrast, the famed Alnico II humbucker favoured by Slash has a DC resistance of 7.6k, and its tonal response breaks down to Treble: 8; Midrange 4; and Bass: 7, with a resonant peak at 7.1KHz, resulting in a more open, airy tone more suited to bands with multiple guitars.

I LOVE TO HAVE A RIFF WITH DUNCAN

I tested the Alternative 8 in a Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul Standard through my Marshall DSL50 all-valve half stack. I usually keep the Marshall’s gain at about half way, and goose the input with an overdrive pedal for a little extra fullness and body depending on the guitar and pickups. This certainly wasn’t needed with the Alternative 8. This pickup is loud, chunky and gutsy. It’s ideally suited for single guitar bands, especially when the guitarist really wants to be noticed. The tone is bright and full, with lots of midrange ‘poke,’ making it a great pickup for lead playing. The dynamic response is a little squashed at medium gain levels – picking harder doesn’t increase the volume, but it fills out the bottom end of the tone response nicely. The pickup’s natural compression also makes it great for legato techniques.

Options include a nickel or gold plated cover, if you don’t like the exposed coil look, and the pickup can be ordered in standard or trembucker size, the latter spaced for Fender-style or Floyd Rose-equipped guitars. It’s important to buy the right size for your guitar, because if the pole pieces of the pickup don’t line up with the strings, you risk a cataclysmic mismatch in volume from one string to another.

THE BOTTOM LINE

This is one of those pickups that rewards the player for putting in a little more detail and finesse. Every little phrasing choice is presented loud and proud for the audience to hear, which can be either intimidating or liberating depending on your approach. But if you have the guts to take on this monster, it’s well worth the tonal payoff.

SPECS:
Bass: 7
Middle: 8
Treble: 9

Resonant peak: 4.46KHz
DC Resistance: 17.68k
Options: Gold, nickel covers, standard or trembucker size.

Music 123 shopping links:

Seymour Duncan SH-15 Alternative 8 Trembucker Electric Guitar Pickup Black Trembucker
Seymour Duncan SH-15 Alternative 8 Trembucker Electric Guitar Pickup Zebra Trembucker
Seymour Duncan SH-15 Alternative 8 Trembucker Electric Guitar Pickup Reverse Zebra Trembucker
Seymour Duncan SH-15 Alternative 8 Humbucker Electric Guitar Pickup Black
Seymour Duncan SH-15 Alternative 8 Trembucker Electric Guitar Pickup White Trembucker
Seymour Duncan SH-15 Alternative 8 Trembucker Electric Guitar Pickup Nickel Cover Trembucker
Seymour Duncan SH-15 Alternative 8 Humbucker Electric Guitar Pickup Gold Cover