Seymour Duncan Custom Custom

Pickup features: Passive humbucking
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: PRS Custom
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: PRS standard
Other pickups on guitar: PRS standard neck
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): Gospel, jazz, rock
Reason for pickup change: Old pickup was weak sounding-very little bass

Perceived output level: Quite a bit more output than the stock PRS, not too hot though
Tone: No treble at all. Way too muddy sounding to be useful. The overdrive tone sounds strange to me because of the midrange spike. Bass is OK.
Sonic evaluation: The equipment I use; 4X10 Bassman, 1984 Fender Concert, rack w\ADA MP-1 preamp, Tube Screamer. To me, this pickup is too thick sounding to be useful. The PRS has a cap on the volume control to bring in some highs; when turned down the pickup was still too muddy. Duncan pickups all have a strange midrange to me; the Custom Custom has this quirk in spades. I tried this pickup in a Les Paul Custom; it remained in there about 1 hour. Not good there either.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Not good for anything that needs any brightness.

Comments: I would not buy this pickup again. If you're guitar and amp are really bright, you may like it. I tried lots of things to liven up the pickup and only one thing worked. I replaced the magnet with a ceramic one out of a kit that was available some time back to hot-rod Gibson humbuckers; I forgot the name (Did Alembic make this?). With the ceramic magnet, the highs appeared, along with some dirt. I actually like it a lot now. It's probably now just like a standard Duncan Custom with the ceramic magnet.

Pickup features: humbucker, passive
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez 470
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: stock
Other pickups on guitar: bridge - Seymour Duncan Custom (HB), mid - Seymour Duncan Hot Rails (SC)
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): various; rock, blues, pop, metal, etc.
Reason for pickup change: stock pickups (as they usually are) are horrible!!

Perceived output level: hotter than stock pickups, much more clarity
Tone: very good balance for clean stuff
Sonic evaluation: I'm going into a peavey tube-fex pre-amp to marshall 9200 tube-amp to marshall 2x12 cabs.
Usually I put the guitar through a DOD juice box before that chain to give the sound more
body, I found that with this pickup in the NECK position, there's no need for the juice
box at all. If you're looking for a pickup for you neck HB that'll give you great tones
without sacrificing clarity and getting muddy, pick this up! (understanding that a lot of
of guitarists tend to stay away from the neck pickup... ) With this one, you'll want to
go to the neck pickup (or between the neck and the middle) - nice for clean, fat solos.
It really helped to make my Ibanez warmer.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: It's a good match for more jazzy styles, lots of body in the sound. Also good for blues in combination with middle pickup (out of phase sound).

Comments: I was looking to help my guitar to be more versitile, this pickup
did the trick! I was able to get a warm, clear, clean sound (yes,
it is possible even for an Ibanez RG). I would definitely get this
one again. It's also hum-canceling (well... less hum than stock
pickups). 6 of the poles are adjustable (screws) - I haven't found
the need to do so but it's nice that the option is there.

Pickup features: passive hb
Impedence or other specs: unsure

Model of guitar or bass: Hamer Californian Elite W/solid flamed maple body
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: stock hamer (also seymour duncans)
Other pickups on guitar: duncan hot rails
Artists using this pickup: ?got me
You musical style(s): rock,blues,rock...did i mention rock?
Reason for pickup change: too clean of a sound,the neck p-up was pretty good,the bridge lacked bass and tone

Perceived output level: well,this p-up sounds like the stock p-ups,but a little hotter.it still doesn't do what i want,but overall,a very clean,punchy,bit high-ended sound
Tone: more treble,ok bass,not bad mids
Sonic evaluation: i'm using a peavey trans-tube unit....not too shabby.sounds better if turned up to 8

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: i think this pickup would be better for jazz or other clean styles..it works ok on rock,but just doesn't cut it.needs more

Comments: i am about to put different pickups in the bridge position,but i don't know what to try yet.
on a rating scale(1 being mellow 10 being outrageously hott)i would have to say about 5.it's a versatile pup but needs more meat behind it..

Pickup features: passive f-spaced humbucker - 4 conductor wiring
Impedence or other specs: Alnico II magnet and ca. 13 Kohm ( I think)

Model of guitar or bass: tried on 2 "superstrats", both with FR, ebony boards + maple caps
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: comparisons made with a number of pickups
Other pickups on guitar: SD '59 etc
Artists using this pickup: no idea
You musical style(s): blues rock, funk, jazz
Reason for pickup change: I like the warm sound from Alnico II magnets and at the time I
thought that at least on paper this would be the bridge
humbucker to balance with an SD '59 trembucker in the neck
of a mahogany bodied, 24 fret, ebony board "superstrat"
(actually a Palm Bay tidalwave III).

Perceived output level: nasal and to my ear unmusical. Volume is hotter PAF, less than JB
Tone: what's nasal ? - middy I guess with lack of bass and nauseating highs
Sonic evaluation: I hated this humbucker in the bridge position - it did nothing for me
at all apart from annoying me. However inline with information I'd
read in a "Guitarist" humbucker shootout I tried this pickup in the
neck position of the same guitar. The result was amazing - a completely
different character to the pickup. Just a full warm round tone full of
mids, bass and with a really buttery treble. A tone predestined for
blues. Distorted lead tones were just wonderful. Fairly good jazz tone
too. This pickup gave me a lot of bottom end despite it's position
( 24 fret rather than 22 fret neck). Volume was however quite high and
overpowered the '59 which I had installed in the bridge position
(great humbucker - v versatile). I lowered the pickup as far as it would
go and it was still a bit loud ( would probably balance well with a
JB in the bridge), so I removed windings from both coils to get
5 Kohm /coil - [ ca. 1 ohm per turn]. This brought the volume down
and gave a bit more treble bite. Fine, I lived with this for 18
months or so until recently when as an experiment, I tried this
pickup in the bridge of an alder,22 fret "superstrat". I kept the
pickup in this guitar for a total of about 30 minutes. Again I hated
it - just a pinched nasal noise that grated on my nerves. So I
popped it back into the neck position of the original guitar, back
to tone heaven - it's staying there. Incidentally in this neck position
( and bearing in mind that I now have a reduced impedance) I get a
really rather good single coil sound when I split off one coil. OK
it's not really bell-like but it is clear, musical and unmistakably a
single coil sound which thickens up dramatically when I switch to
standard humbucker mode. the one word I would use to describe this
pickup in the neck position is "warm".

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Blues and jazz (in the neck position). I wouldn't use it in the bridge

Comments: I give this pickup a "2" for the bridge position and a "9" for the
neck. I personally have never heard the characteristics of the sound
of a humbucker change so dramatically when swicthing from bridge to
neck positions as with this pickup. Now that I have reduced the number
of windings this pickups may be approaching the sound of an Alnico II
Pro - unfortunately I have no experience with this pickup and don't
know of any construction differences ( wire gauge etc) between the
pickups. To anyone who buys this pickup be prepared to use SD's
exchange policy and do try this in a neck position before returning
it. There are of course people who love the Custom Custom as a
bridge humbucker, (for example, see the previous review ), I'm just
not one of them.

Pickup features: humbucking passive
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Les Paul Std
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Custom 57' humbucker
Other pickups on guitar: SD Pearly Gates
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): varied
Reason for pickup change: was dissappointed with 57 and wanted a fuller yet clean sound

Perceived output level: clean rip
Tone: well balanced treble and mid-range
Sonic evaluation: high quality sound

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: versatile pickup

Comments: would buy it again