Seymour Duncan APS-1 Alnico II Pro

Pickup features: Passive Single Coil
Impedence or other specs: ?

Model of guitar or bass: MIJ 62 RI Strat
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Stock
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): Blues
Reason for pickup change: Wanted less shrill high end.

Perceived output level: Low
Tone: More mids, less high treble.
Sonic evaluation: Into pro jr, Rivera 55w. Found it too extra mids and compression detract from an authenic vintage strat tone. Not a bad tone by any means but lacked quack, and had more "bloom". Smooth tho. Nice for blues leads (thru cranked valve amp of course!) where more meat needed without more gain. But I replaced all positions with traditional kinmans.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: All that a strat wld do, but just differently.

Comments: Been playing for 10years. A nice sounding pickup but not for me. had a TBX pot wired which helped but that didn't cure the compression.

Pickup features: Passive Humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Customized Yamaha Pacifica
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Nameless Stock HB
Other pickups on guitar: Duncan Jazz, Armstrong vintage Strat
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Pop, Jazz
Reason for pickup change: ...want tone...must have tone...

Perceived output level: Slightly less output than the faceless slab-o-ceramic-magnet stock model
Tone: A nicely balanced tone with a little honk and a sweet vintage character. A very under-rated PU that nails the late 60's, early 70's humbucker tone from a million records.
Sonic evaluation: I evaluated this PU by recording straight on to my computer, through a 1x12 combo amp and with a POD and headphones. I used an alder guitar with a maple neck, rosewood fretboard and too many switches. This PU is great for old school rock. Used clean it sounds like those early Stones or Beatles tracks. With a little crank it is Tommy Bolin or Mick Ralphs. Overamped even more and it gives you instant Zepplin on demand. It can even do a good scooped, modern metal sound with the mids turned down a tad. This pickup does not get much attention, but it is the best team player in the Duncan line up.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play mostly pop, Jazz standards and vintage rock. I think that this pick up is highly suited to any style that calls for a classic gibson HB tone.

Comments: I've been playing for 20 years and have owned planty of guitars. If this PU was crushed by a truck I would buy another one. I agree with the SD ads - the Alinco II magnet gives this model a great sound that is sweet, smooth and never harsh. It would be a perfect match for a classic PAF neck pickup. You need this.

Pickup features: passive singe coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: 1985 Japanese 60's reissue strat
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: stock
Other pickups on guitar: stock
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): blues
Reason for pickup change: Stock pickup was really shrill at high volumes, wanted smoother highs

Perceived output level: Slightly more than stock, which are pretty low
Tone: Nice and smooth, less of the super-glassy/spiky highs as advertised, but still glassy. I've heard it described as having a deeper throat which I think is spot on. Makes it sound more a little more middy. Clear bottom end.
Sonic evaluation: Rivera 5512, Fender Pro junior, guitar to amp direct. I was worried that this pickup would be too smooth on the highs, and this may be the case for a totally vintage tone, but I have a TBX tone control on the neck which gives it a bite more bit when needed. Clean tone is beatiful, and overdrives smoothly, with less of that noticeable treble spike higher gain. Also somewhat compressed due to the alnico II magnets. Nice and smooth but has softens attack when you really want to dig in.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Would suit most styles, but maybe not jazz, or high gain rock.

Comments: Been playing for 10 years. I love its sweet tone, slightly put off by the compression. Maybe higher value pots? different capacitors? If stolen...hmmmm. Might consider fralins or kinmans instead, but if they came up second hand again I'd grab em. This is a really nice pickup, but there's always something better out there, right! My plan though is to stick in in the middle posiiton and get p90s in the bridge and neck...that would be interesting.

Pickup features: Passive single coil
Impedence or other specs: ???

Model of guitar or bass: Yamaha Pacifica 112
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Stock
Other pickups on guitar: Fender Tex-Mex - middle Stock humbucker - bridge
Artists using this pickup: Me (Slash uses the humbucker version)
You musical style(s): Blues, rock, blues-rock, classic rock (you get the idea)
Reason for pickup change: Stock sounded, well, bad. Hollow ringing in midrange, brittle top end, bottom end had no character.

Perceived output level: Slightly less than stock of Yamaha
Tone: Seems balanced
Sonic evaluation: I use an Ampeg Reverberocket with my Yamaha, and this pickup sounds really nice with it. This pickup is not about high output, overwhelm your audience with growling, barking, biting, whatever. This pickup is about sweet, beautiful tone. It's top end is sweet, the midrange is tasty, and the bass is buttery (that's not to say muddy). Chords flow out, with all notes of the chord discernable. With overdrive, it sings beautifully, but doesn't scream at you. It just sounds pretty.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This pickup works well for the blues I play, maybe not hot enough for straight on rock, but that's what my humbucker's for. The APS-1 works VERY well for the neck position.

Comments: Well, I don't see how it could get stolen, but if anything happened to it, I would buy another. I didn't really have a preconceived idea of the perfect sound when I bought it, but this pickup may have changed that. If I knew exactly what I was searching for, chances are that this pickup would satisfy my craving. It just sounds sooooooooooooooooooo sweet to my ears, and it's so pleasing. I couldn't stand that brittle icepick treble of my other pickups, and this completely cures that. Figuring in the price just makes this pickup that much more attractive. I definately recommend it.

Pickup features: passive single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Am. Standard. Strat 93
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: stock
Other pickups on guitar: APS on bridge, and stock Fender on middle
Artists using this pickup: Jeff Beck
You musical style(s): Modern Pop music, electronic, blues.
Reason for pickup change: Stock pickups sounded fairly good, but wanted a more pro sound

Perceived output level: Maybe the same, I don't know exactly
Tone: It has midrange, it's very sweet and musical, you can add lots of treble in your amp and still sound warm.
Sonic evaluation: I've used it through a Fender Champ and it was tone heaven.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I only use a little overdrive, in different colors. A Boss Blues Driver, Super OD, and Tube Screamer all gain low.

Comments: I've been palyng for ten years now, and recomend buying these pickups, also get a Wilkinson bridge and Sperzel locking tuners, and you'll end up with a new guitar. It sounds fuller, richer, rounder, and with lots of harmonics. This guitar doesn't need a great amp to sound good. Cool.

Pickup features: Single, Passive
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: 1998 American Std. Strat.
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Neck & Middle
Other pickups on guitar: JB Jr. In the bridge.
Artists using this pickup: Don't care.
You musical style(s): All but real heavy stuff.
Reason for pickup change: The stock pickups had a brittle spike in the 2k range and was very sharp to the eardrums.

Perceived output level: Very close to stock strat pickups.
Tone: Very balanced from low to high. The top end is soooo, soooo sweet.
Sonic evaluation: I have 2 systems I use the most. A Triaxis/290/2112 rack system and a Line6 AX2 212. The Rack is very revealing and the unbearable treble response from the stock pickups made my rack sound like a big solid state hi-fi piece of trash....yuk! They sounded o.k. through the Line 6. The Duncans bring a whole new dimension to both and I am surprised at how much more musical these gems are!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play a lot of pop, rock, fusion and blues. These are a perfect match! I have found good tone works for all styles.

Comments: I would definately replace these if stolen. I have been playin 28 years.
I have a total of 22 guitars and 8 different amps, and a studio in my home. What I love most is that I don't have to fight my guitar or amp to achieve what I want. Too much treble just kills a good tone, and I have found that turning down the treble knob or cutting the undesirable frequencies with a graphic does not fly either. The pickups have to respond correctly to make the amp sing. Don't overlook this! With these AP1's you can really dig in and I like that!

Pickup features: Passive single coil
Impedence or other specs: Resistance 6.4k, resonant peak 9khz, magnet Alnico II rod

Model of guitar or bass: 50's reissue Strat, Japanese made, Basswood body, maple neck/fingerboard
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: stock Japanese 50's Strat bridge
Other pickups on guitar: stock Japanese 50's in neck and middle
Artists using this pickup: don't know
You musical style(s): blues, jazzy melodic rock, minimalist ambient
Reason for pickup change: dissatisfied with stock in bridge, just too bright, almost shrill, no sustain...

Perceived output level: pretty much the same as stock, have it set up the same way, and I can't really tell the difference between this pickup and stock
Tone: less "ulta-high-end" than stock, smoother, good mids and bottom, smooth high end, good sustain for a single coil, still sounds like a vintage strat absolutely
Sonic evaluation: I am using a Crate Vintage 3012...it uses 12ax7's in the preamp and el84's in the power amp section....use a DOD stereo flanger, sometimes use a Zoom 505 but only for the chorus and delay effects...The Tone on the APS-1 is pretty much what I was looking for, and pretty much as advertised...less screechy high end, smoother over all tone, a bit more mids, better sustain...guess I 'd have to give it a 10, because this one really delivered on every level...in fact, I'm getting into playing totally clean, with just some reverb, with my bridge pickup now, which is something I didn't do with the old pickup...its really sweeter sounding and doesn't need a lot of processing to have a pleasing sound....with the effects turned on its awesome...in the crunch channel its ballsy with lots of sutain, and if you roll off the tone and add some flange it almost sounds like a gibson, really fat....a lot of tonal possibilities that I am only starting to explore..keep in mind tho, that this is NOT a totally different sort of sound from a vintage strat...instead its a rather subtle refinement, and the guitar STILL has the very distinctive Vintage strat tone....notch positions still clear and bell-like with a bit of "quack", very Knoffler-esque on the clean channel....bridge-middle sounds awesome, especially with my maple finger board, just enuf bite, but not so much as too be offensive...the best thing about it is that the pickup fits in very nicely with the other stock pickups that I kept in the neck/middle..I like the extra brightness in the middle position, especially, so I didn't want to dump the stock pickups there...I was goin for a more subtle change, and now I am very satisfied...eventually I MAY replace the neck as well, but I am going to wait on that, and let my ears adjust to the way things are at the moment..if you just want to get a slight mid boost, and reduce the screech, this is the way to go...want a TOTALLY different tone, look elsewhere..

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: As I said earlier, I play blues, jazzy melodic rock, minimalist ambient...do a lot of home recording on my PC....this pickup is great for these styles, and probably good for anything but thrash....I could definitely see replacing ALL the pickups on a strat withh APS-1's, even tho I have not..I am quite certain that a Strat with all Aps-1's would sound outrageous, ands I am surprised that more guitarists have not discovered this pickup...its really a great refinement on a traditional sound.

Comments: OK, overall....I would definitely buy this pickup again....as usual, before making a purchase I did a LOT of research, talked to a LOT of guitar techs, called Duncan, Fender, and DiMarzio, and visited stores all over Portland and in New York City..so I was REALLY careful about this purchase...I am not in the financial position to be buying and swapping out pickups all the time....I did the same trip when I bought my Crate, I tried a LOT of amps and did a lot of research to make the best purchase possible....I am not into spending my time buying and selling gear, I want to spend my time playing...
I have been playing about 14 years total...
as I metioned earlier, my axe is a 50's reissue Strat, Japanese made, Basswood body, maple neck/fingerboard, vintage hardware....amp is a Crate Vintage 3012...it uses 12ax7's in the preamp and el84's in the power amp section....use a DOD stereo flanger, sometimes use a Zoom 505 but only for the chorus and delay effects...I always have a bit of reverb going...
As I said before, I love the tone, its the perfect refinement of the vintage Strat sound, they have the high end rolled off just enuf, with a bit more mid range....still classic strat...whats the down side??? the pickup IS a bit noisy, about the same as the stock item, but what do you expect?? Its a vintage style single coil pickup, and it goes with the territory...BTW, features include cloth braided wire like the originals, and laquered coil windings....Problems?? yes, one in fact...after consulting with both Fender and Seymore I establised that the neck/bridge (NON-middle) position pickup(they only make 2 models of the APS-1, neck / bridge and Middle, which is reverse wound for hum canceling) was the correct model for me....this has in fact opened a can of worms that I was not prepared for.....It turns out that there are more variables in this department than I was aware of.
It turns out , first of all, that Fender support is not always able to be certain of the configuration on your particualr Strat...they have made a lot of strats over the years, and a lot of different pickups...earlier Jap strats apparently did not use a reverse wound pickup in the middle, however, mine, a 1998 model had a reverse wound pickup in the middle....also, the tech was sure that my magnets were magnetic north UP, which is what SD claimed their pickup was...so as it turns out, its not just the direction that the coils are wound in, but the polarity of the magnets(North up or north down) that matters...turns out that my new APS-1 was NOT the same as the bridge pickup that it replaced, but was infact the same as the MIDDLE pickup on my guitar...this was not obvious of course until it was installed and I realised that I had lost hum cancelling on the bridge/middle position. I would like to thank Pete at the 12th Fret here in Portland for clueing me in on how to figure out the polarity/winding direction issue and set it up properly. Heres the hot tip(if you install yourself as I did)....Take the extra pickup, the one being replaced, and hold it over the other 3 pickups on the guitar...polarity will cause it to attract or repel....you will have 2 that do one, and one that does the other...in this way, I discovered that now my bridge and middle were the same magnetic polarity, and my neck was the reverse...as a result, I ended up having to not only install the new APS-1 but also switch the neck and middle pickups...I basically had to re-wire the entire harness....fortunately, that is not as difficult as it sounds..I have a soldering iron, and SD privides a wiring diagram with the new pickup....but you get my drift....be careful when you replace pickups, especially when you are nor replacing the entire set, and even if you are careful, be prepared for problems...
In any event, once done I did have hum cancelling in the notch positions, and I don't seem to have any phase problems, the guitar sounds great....as I said, the best way to avoid a problem i

Pickup features: Single coil, direct Strat replacement
Impedence or other specs: 6.25k

Model of guitar or bass: Mexican 60's Strat reissue w/'aged' hardware
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Stock yucky cheapo-s
Other pickups on guitar: Stock yucky cheap-o's (which I like in the middle/neck position)
Artists using this pickup: I dunno
You musical style(s): Pop Rock/Blues
Reason for pickup change: Cause the stock ones were yucky.

Perceived output level: Nice vintage Strat crunch. Beautiful, affordable replacement pickup.
Tone: Crisp, crunchy highs but not too much 'twang', nice chunky bottom.
Sonic evaluation: Playing the Fender Mexi Reissue thru a (slightly) modified Marshall 50w JCM 900 running English E34LS-e power tubes and English 12AX7-e pre-amp tubes, with a Morley Pro-Wah <-(great deal too! $50 at Guitar Center)

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Mostly pop now, but going for that &quot;Blackmore&quot; tone. Pickup not suitable for 80's-90's metal/thrash

Comments: Just popped in this pickup. Had only about an hour to run it thru it's paces, and very happy with it so far. IMMEDIATE and OBVIOUS change from the stocky's. Slightly more output than Fender 57's. Crunchy highs without being too 'tinny', sweet warm low end too. Very responsive, and a helluva bargain at just slightly over $50.00. I couldn't find a retailer for Duncan Antiquities anywhere in Milwaukee, so I slapped this Duncan Alnico II in it's place, and not sorry for a moment. I bought the guitar used w/a Hot Stack humbucker (yuck, in my opinion), and the person who did the wiring obliterated the phasing of the pickups, so when I bought it, it sounded absolutely horrific. I love position 1 (bridge),2 and 4 on Strats, and the slightly hotter output of the Duncan coupled w/the stock ceramic pickups in position 2 (duck-quack) round it out really nicely. Definately worth the $$$$, and then some.

Pickup features: passive single coil
Impedence or other specs: 6.25K ohms, staggered Alnico II magnets, middle p/u RW/RP

Model of guitar or bass: '95 American Standard Strat
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Fender Texas specials
Other pickups on guitar: Duncan Jerry Donahue Tele Lead
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): none
Reason for pickup change: wanted warmer, sweeter, less brittle sound

Perceived output level: about American Standard level, less than Texas Specials
Tone: standard Strat brightness, with a tight bottom and rich but scooped mids
Sonic evaluation: Playing an alder American Standard Strat modified to non-tremolo with GHS Boomer .011's straight into Solid State Crate Gx amp. The tone is very sweet and "tuby" with just enough sparkle. It has clear bell like tone without getting into the biting top end. Chords shimmer and reverb is a natural mate. This pickup has a lot of character and senses lots of subtle nuances and string movements. If you make a mistake, this pickup won't hide it. At the neck or middle it makes a great rhythm or clean sound and the combo of the two is classic rhythm funk. With the Donahue pickup, the middle/bridge combo is warmer than usual but still clucky. It also gets a very smooth subtle overdriven effect at higher volumes.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: blues, Hendrix, Dead, Menudo, Air Supply, early Vanilla Ice

Comments: I am very pleased with this pickup. It replaced Fender Texas Specials which just were not suited to my playing style. I can't/don't play superfast, so I wanted a pickup with a sweet sustain. The Texas pickups were all little too biting and overwound for me. The tradeoff with the Alnico II Strats is the magnets are not a strong as the more commonly used Alnico V, so you get less output out of the same size coil, but less pull on the strings for more sustain. These pickups sound like late 50's/early 60's Strat (not SRV though). Seymour Duncan himself says that machine wound pickups just can't sound as good as handwound, but these pickups have about 95% of "That Strat Sound" to me, just neded a bit more output and mids-Duncan tells me the Custom Shop could do this so we'll see... I've played many Strats old and new and imitators. Only Tom Anderson's larger magnet Strat pickups had a sound comparable to these Duncans. I haven't heard Lindy Fralins which some people speak of with a mythical reverence, and I think he handwinds, so maybe he's got the last 5%. Until I hear better these are a 10, especailly for the price. PLUS, these pickups were the "keep the guitar or sell it for firewood test" b/c it had no tone and many, many defects (thank you for the twisted neck, Fender) but now it's a keeper. ***P.S. - There are more reviews under Duncan "APS-1 Alnico II Pro" but some humbucker reviews are mixed in there, too***

Pickup features: Passive Humbucker
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: LP Copy
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: I Dunno?
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Slash
You musical style(s): Blues Rock
Reason for pickup change: Feedback

Perceived output level: Not to hot for a Humbucher
Tone: Great, Clear notes on chords and good sustain
Sonic evaluation: Im using a 66 blackFace Bassman, with a 2 Humbucker guitar and I just love it, you can also split the coils and it makes for a decent single coil sound. I recommended to all except for those seeking a real distorted sound. It feedback nicely with no microphonics

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Especially nice for blues & classic rock

Comments: I found the sound I was looking for, I would definetly buy it again, It stays clear and responds nicely