Seymour Duncan Brobucker

11k Humbucker (normal brobuckers are 10k), passive, alnico-5 magnet'd, built as though it was a '59 that got to spin around on the leesona an extra 2,000 spins or so. Hum-cancelling to an extent, the coils are slightly mismatched in output to get that "vintage PAF" sound, while being hotter than a stock PAF. They come covered or uncovered and a lot of colors. Mine is double-black, open coils, no logo (I wanted it to fit in my strat without looking like an upgraded part, it works like a charm. 4-conductors with about a foot of lead comes stock. Built like a tank.

I installed this into the bridge of a 2007 Fender American Special Mahogany HSS Stratocaster to replace the standard Diamondback Humbucker that originally lived there. In the process I had to replace the entire pickguard due to my desire to eliminate the S-1 switch and be rid of that wacky 2 screws one side / one screw other side configuration Fender uses. Along with that, I replaced the stock tex-mex pickups with 2 Seymour Duncan SSL-1s to get a more "vintage superstrat" sound. (HSS, fairly low output pickups). Its purpose was to give a true Humbucker sound in a strat whose OEM humbucker sounded closer to a dual-coiled P90 than a true humbucker. A humbucker should sound like a humbucker, not a P-90 sized, dual coiled, strat pickup.

11k output with completely vintage correct specifications. (Think 42awg '59 style wire, wood spacers, correct plastics, etc.) The tone that it provides is a '59 that has a little less in the high-ends, some mids, but primarily is in the low-mid range department. I guess it's what you get if you mixed a JB and a '59, as it just about covers the difference between the two soundwise. The only problem is, that when one rolls back the tone control for it with luxe capacitors, you can quite easily roll off so much of the high-end that it sounds closer to a short-scaled P-bass than a guitar. This might be attributed to the fact that the luxe capacitors are far superior in their ability to function vs. the stock fender capacitors (larger, more vintage-correct, higher impedances, etc.) Otherwise this pickup is the PAF equivalent of a Peterbilt 379. It just pulls out every ounce of low-end that your guitar possesses.

I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. It's a hot, overpowered PAF that has enough brightness to cut through, but also enough power to push amplifiers hard. I've played for about 4 and a half years and it's my only strat, although I have a tiny terror on the way to improve my amplifier arsenal. I chose this pickup because when I had played a mahogany HSS with a '59 stuck in it, it seemed too chimy and too clean for whatever reason. (Maybe SD based the '59 off a bright LP, i'm not sure), but the brobucker added that low-end in spades and all in all you get a high-powered yet balanced PAF that pushes amps clean. If i could wish it to have one thing.... another one would be nice, although at $160 a pop they're quite pricey.