Three "mismatched" Duncan pickups in an off-the-rack Mexican Strat. (Left to right: Lipstick Tube for Strat, Alnico II Pro Staggered, Twang Banger) As previously threatened, here’s the first installment in a series on unusual Strat pickup combinations, inspired by a big box of Duncan pickups and a couple of prewired “BYOP” pickguards. I […] I've got a box of strat pickups and I'm not afraid to use it! Okay, this should be an interesting experiment! I’ve scored a box stuffed with wildy varied Seymour Duncan replacement pickups for Strat™ guitars, plus a couple of the company’s just-announced BYOP Liberator Pickguards. (These are prewired pickguard assemblies, minus the […] 
Seymour Duncan's 59/Custom Hybrid humbucker is a compromise between a vintage PAF and a higher-output pickup. My ears perked up when I heard about Seymour Duncan’s new 59/Custom Hybrid bridge humbucker. I’d never tried a pickup that combined coils from two very different pickups — in this case, the ’59, a vintage-accurate PAF, […] 
Amazing things at NAMM, #1,287: Bootsy Collins's right hand. Just got back from a couple of days at the 2012 NAMM convention in Anaheim. And I’m glad to be writing about it rather than talking about it, because I have no voice left from screaming over several days of unbelievably loud ambient noise. […] 
An iPhone photo app makes this new Squier Tele look old. Duncan’s Vintage Broadcaster Set makes it SOUND old. Sometimes an antiquated idea can acquire new relevance. Example: The ancient Fender Broadcaster wiring scheme, in which the guitar has no tone control per se, but the second knob acts as a pickup-blend control. […] 
We got into a discussion about buzzing single-coil pickups over in the lipstick tube thread. Reader Matthew Seniff chimed in with some well-informed observations and remedies. I’ve moved them here so more folks will see. Another reader had written: “Every time my kids turn on my kitchen light my amp starts buzzing. It’s due […] 
Sadly, the Mutant Beauty Pageant ended weeks ago. But I suspect you’ll enjoy the pics I received from Lithuanian reader Dmitrij Timofejev. Dmitrij, what does that sideways humbucker sound like? BTW, the is the less radical of Dmitrij’s two guitars. […] 
Put more ELECTRIC in your guitar! Lately I’ve been obsessed with mounting boosters inside my electric guitars. Why bother? Especially when you can just get a clean-boost stompbox and use it on all your guitars? Because: a) certain guitars just seem to sound best with a particular boost circuit; b) you can “play” […] 
A while back a couple of readers brought up Jimmy Page’s Les Paul wiring scheme, which made me want to set up a dual-humbucker guitar with lots of those tricky series, parallel, and split-coil tricks. Meanwhile, I wanted to do a sequel to my last cheap guitar makeover, but this time with a solidbody instead […] 
Nothing says “low budget cool” like a lipstick tube pickup. Maybe it’s their humble but sweet sound. Maybe it’s the quirky housing. Or maybe just the fact that, for countless Baby Boomers, the lipstick tube pickups of the ’60s provided the formative electric guitar experience. Whatever the reasons, it’s been a loooooong time since […] |
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