Opinions on Seymour Duncan SH-1 59 pickups as a set

Dave_Mc · October 2014

siraxeman said:

(a) ^JB is wrong for a LP ? Seymour often cited his fave for a LP was a JB and a Jazz!

(b) Anyway better Q is which wins in a fight...59 or Jazz in teh neck?

(a) That's fair enough, but they're not mine

(b) Dunno... they're both pretty good.

stonevibe · October 2014

I've had the JB and a Jazz before in a guitar and I thought the JB was okay, just nothing special and the Jazz was not bad. But the hype surrounding this combo probably has a lot more to do with what type of guitar you put them into and amp, which in itself is a whole world of experimentation.

With me I like 'buckers that you can roll down and use the volume / tone controls with, as I like to get my lead from being on full tilt and my cleaner tones from being anywhere between 3 & 7 on the dial. Because I use fuzz pedals for drive this can also be a pain as not all fuzz pedals like a 'bucker.

So if it dials down nicely then I am more inclined to use it in my guitars.

Shugz has made me some great combinations of looms, matched with BK pickups in the past. Just this time I wanted to try something different and the price on this set was really reasonable.

ICBM · October 2014

I also much prefer the 59 to the Jazz - the Jazz is a bit too thin. The 59 is much more solid.

stonevibe · October 2014

Just loaded these into the guitar this evening, so will report back on my opinions of them in this guitar.

Probably be the weekend now as I want to try them out through a few different amps.

Samgb · October 2014

stonevibe said:

I've got BK Mules, Stormy Mondays, Steve Stevens & Nailbombs in a few of my guitars.

I've tried BK Black Dogs, Emeralds, War Pigs and Abraxas.

So looking for something different, tried loads of SD pickups in true past except these ones.

Done everything from SH-4, JBs to Invaders etc.

The guitar isn't a singlecut, so looking for something not to OTT and something that can handle being cleaned up with a volume control.

The 59s can do that for sure. you can really get some nice bloomy sounds with a bit of volume/tone off.

I also agree with most people here that the neck is a lovely thing. I found the bridge too bright until i adjusted the polepieces a bit(didnt really know what it would achieve so i thought id give it a whirl)and that seems to have slightly beefed up the mids.

Anyway, theyre worth a punt as an easy upgrade.

mike257 · October 2014

Will be keeping an eye for your report back mate - got me considering a switch in my Edwards now!

stonevibe · October 2014

Good balanced pair.

I think the bridge has enough bite and enough output for my needs and pairs well with the neck pickup.

Both react well to being dialled down (using CTS 500k audio taper pots and a Russian PIO 0.022 Cap) using Volume /Tone controls.

The sound is in the very same ballpark as my BK Mules.

PAF like qualities as in warm, rounded and medium output. They have definition and react really well to dynamics in playing, which again is something I was after.

Good value for money as a set as they work very well together.

Going to play them through a few different amps over the coming weeks and so will do a more detailed report having spend some time with them. Up till now for drive I've been using my Lonestar Special 2x12, a KOTv4 clone, an SHO and a Musket fuzz for drive. The cleans on the amp sounded very sweet with these pickups, not too compressed and very open sounding.

So I would give them a thumbs up.

meltedbuzzbox · October 2014

mike257 said:

Will be keeping an eye for your report back mate - got me considering a switch in my Edwards now!

Dont edwards come with these pups as standard?

Jeremiah · October 2014

People on the Seymour Duncan forums sometimes criticise them for having a boomy low end and not enough mids, but I think the neck model sounds great (not tried the bridge.)

stonevibe · October 2014

Jeremiah said:

People on the Seymour Duncan forums sometimes criticise them for having a boomy low end and not enough mids, but I think the neck model sounds great (not tried the bridge.)

I'd imagine the guitar itself would have a lot to do with this as well, so the combination of these in some instruments may not be great I suppose.

Dave_Mc · October 2014

Nice review, they sound good

meltedbuzzbox said:

mike257 said:

Will be keeping an eye for your report back mate - got me considering a switch in my Edwards now!

Dont edwards come with these pups as standard?

Normally a JB in the bridge, at least with the more standard models.

ab2014 · October 2014

I'm looking to get a set from Amazon. However I only want the neck humbucker. Would anyone wish to go halves on set plus postage. (£106/2= £53+post to send sh-1b)

mike257 · October 2014

Dave_Mc;377131" said:
Nice review, they sound good

meltedbuzzbox said:

mike257 said:

Will be keeping an eye for your report back mate - got me considering a switch in my Edwards now!

Dont edwards come with these pups as standard?

Normally a JB in the bridge, at least with the more standard models.

Yep, (as I'd posted further back up) I've got the standard 59 neck/JB bridge combo - love the 59 but underwhelmed by the JB and barely use it. Interested how this thread goes as if the 59 bridge is as good as the neck I'd be up for switching my JB for one!

meltedbuzzbox · October 2014

Mine has a sh-1 in the neck and the middle and a sh-4 at the bridge

stonevibe · October 2014

Mine are loaded in this thing, so not a Singlecut.

Its a Mahogany body and has an ABR / Nashville bridge though.

stonevibe · October 2014

Okay so after a week of playing these pickups in this guitar through various amps (large and small) valve and otherwise. My general consensus is that they are a good balanced set of PAF like 'buckers.

The balance in sound is very good, although I suspect a lot of people may require a bit more bite from the bridge pickup. Works fine for what I wanted, as I really didn't want that at all, in fact was hoping that the bridge would match the neck well.

I reckon if you like rock/blues you'd like a slightly hotter bridge pickup.

For me its worked out really nicely in this guitar. Partially because I wanted all the harmonics of the offset bridge to come through and also because I wanted to cut down on noise that the usual offset Jazzmaster pickups have in position 1 & 3. Was looking for a warm sound and not overly harsh. So these fit the bill well.

They clean up nicely when dialled back and the new pots / cap also have made the tone control very useable.

On average I'm playing with everything on around 6 or 7 and quite often with the tone on about a 2 or 3 and it isn't muddy at all on either pickup.

Its nice to be able to control my fuzz tone from the volume knob of my guitar, as it saves having to mess around with boost pedals / channel switching etc.

I understand why these are a popular pickup upgrade.

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Opinions on Seymour Duncan SH-1 59 pickups as a set

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