Old school Seymour Duncans.

[DaNextSlash]

I have a DCJ labelled Seymour Duncan pickup in my 80s ESP. It looks like a Duncan SH-5. I was wondering if these "stickered" series pickups are handwound? How would it compare to my BareKnuckle VHII in an alder body superstrat?

UNfortunately I don't have a decent amp to run it atm to compare by ear..but how would they compare by theory?

[robnobcorncob]

I have a DCJ labelled Seymour Duncan pickup in my 80s ESP. It looks like a Duncan SH-5. I was wondering if these "stickered" series pickups are handwound? How would it compare to my BareKnuckle VHII in an alder body superstrat?

It's definitely worth trying out... did you find anymore info on those VS-1 single coils in there?

Btw there are 9-46 gauge on there at the moment. 11s were just too intense.

[DaNextSlash]

Haha...yea I was wondering if they really were 11s...I was over bending like crazy..
How did the humbucker sound when you had it?

The only thing I know about the VS-1 is that Ibanez Prestige and some J-Custom models use them. They sound decent clean through the J-station so thats all good by me.

[robnobcorncob]

Well originally I disliked it because my boogie has midrange for africa. So when using the single coils I'd dial in heaps of mids but then when you switch to the humbucker the increase in volume and midrange was overwhelming. So after a while I started scooping a bit more and it sounded great. I just don't like the H/S/S thing due to the mid vs. scoop thing. Or maybe it's just me?

It does early Van Halen growl very well though. Lots of 'bite' with that maple neck. Kinda bright.

[sgt mukuzi]

the 80`s ESP`s acording to the internet had SD`s pick ups in them but if you look at them the bobbins dont have the SD tell tail small holes at the top of the coils. they possibly were made by SD but made slightly differently.
i`m a bit sus on all the latest hype though, matching pre amp tubes and hand wound pick ups, i`m not knocking it, just not sure what it has to do with "tone"

[Aquila Rossa]

I'd call a Laney AOR head a decent amp, are you at uni now.
Take them to ash, he will know what they are.

[ash]

I have a DCJ labelled Seymour Duncan pickup in my 80s ESP. It looks like a Duncan SH-5. I was wondering if these "stickered" series pickups are handwound?

DC is for Duncan Custom. SH-5 in other words.

The letter stickers were what they used until fairly recently. The letters don't always seem to have anything to do with the name of the pickup. Even now that they use SH-? stickers, they still have other undecipherable codes on them. All SD humbuckers are machine wound.

[sgt mukuzi]

i had a convo (it was recorded on video so hopefully one day it will be on you tube) with a friends dad, he worked at burns from the making chess boards days. he said the guys who wound the pick ups were using newspaper with masking tape holding it on to their hands. to understand what im saying hold your left hand out in a Chop style, as if you are about to face off with Fb and picture a slice of newspaper around the knuckle area covering from above the knuckle to the first joint on the fingers. masking tape holding it on and backwards masking tape holding the wire to stop it going everywhere the guys winding away. he said Burns used HUGE round magnets on the trisonics, he had loads of square ones in his shead. he had a few examples of the original old ones . i could see the wood used as spacers in one model pick up wound around a bar magnet, the tape and wire then wood spacers then a bar magnet construction was prototype madness. i`m interested in finding out what method Lollar and others are using

[DaNextSlash]

Apparently the J labelled (DCJ, JBJ etc etc) are wound by Maricela Juarez? I believe that MJ is the current head of SD Customshop? Does this make this SH-5 any different to the current SH-5?

[ash]

Yeah, she presses the start button on the machine in a subtly, but very significantly different way. Of all the things that affects, the pickup is not one of them

No, it makes fuck-all difference. None, in fact. Zero.

Seymour Duncan doesn't wind humbuckers with hand guided machines, so the operator's identity, experience or talent is totally irrelevant.

[DaNextSlash]

Ahhh....so its all placebo. Sweet thanks ash.