Seymour Duncan Little '59

Single coil sized humbucker.

I put it in a classic 60's strat. To get a nice tone in the bridge pickup.

I played it through my Matchless SC-30 (1992).

I don't like it. I feel that the description Seymour gives is a misrepresentation. I play rock, blues, jazz, and country.
Led Zeppelin and Hendrix are as heavy as I go playing wise.

If you have a natural sounding amp that doesn't color the tone of your favorite guitars (like a Matchless or Vox) you probabaly won't like this. If you go for that dimed Marshall sound, or have drastic tone controls on your amp or a heavily colored circuit ( Fender HR Deluxe, blues jr. etc.) maybe it'll work fine.

It's a weird beast. It has a similar feel and response to a real full sized PAF humbucker, but the over all resonant frequency is an annoying, ever present, underlying nasty high midrange.

I promise you, plug one in to something hi fi like your P.A., and listen to what your working with, it's nasal and awful. Believe me every little link in your tone should sound good, having to compensate down the line is NOT how your favorite artists recorded.

The ad says....
"designed to impart the warm, smooth tone of an old Patent Applied For humbucker" That's bull. It doesn't have the nice scooped mids of a strat pickup, or the brown sound resonant frequeny of a PAF...
It's not Ice picky, but it is FAR from sweet.
If a PAF had a nose and you put a closepin on it , and removed the protein from it's diet until it lost 70% of it's muscle. You'd be left with the little 59.

Been playing 25 years. Pro. Berklee Alum. From a family of recording engineers. I've owned tons of great vintage and boutique stuff. My favorite pickups are Lindy Fralin Paf, and Lollar single coils.
I paid just as much for this pickup from an "Online Ebay store" as I would have from the Guitar Center, and didn't realize there was a no return policy. Not too happy.

A good trick is to role back your volume knob until most of the mid hump is gone , Also raise ONE of the coils pole pieces into a staggered pattern, leaving the other coils screws FLAT. It will sound brighter, but way less Hi-mid rangey.

If you haven't bought one yet....
Do yourself a favor, Have a tech route out your strat and throw in a full sized Fralin. Have him put all 3 pickups on the neck PU's tone knob, and change the mid tone knob to your bridge pups volume control.

You'll sound like Robbie robertson instead of some weird fake "little 59" bullsh*t.

I'm taking off a couple more points for misrepresentation in ads.

Humbucker in SC-size.

I'm playing a "Tommys Special Guitars" - a custom strat from Viersen, Germany. Original: Neck=Duckbucker; Middle=Vintage Rails; Bridge=Jeff Beck Jr. Now it is: Neck=Little '59; Middle=Duckbucker; Bridge=Phat Cat.

The Little '59 is a very versatile and awesome PU. By splitting I reach an authentic strat-sound. The tone knob on 6 o'clock will result in a very fat jazz-sound, but I also use it for hi-gain lead sounds.

I'm very happy with my new PU. It has a similar output to the SD "Phat Cat", but is a lot more versatile. The "Phat Cat" will be changed with a SD "P-Rails".

Its a single sized humbucker pickup, passive.

Used on the bridge position of a California Fat Tele.
Replaced the tex-mex stock pickup with this one after it broke.
My other pickup is a SD Jazz Model on the neck. California Fat Tele's use a humbucker size pickup for the neck pickup.

I've been playing for 20 years. This pickup sounds amazing on my California Fat Telecaster on the bridge. I was looking to buy a Hot Rod but there were no more left on the store at that moment, so I got this almost by accident but I don't regret it. Great thick and powerful sound without a doubt, not very hot so no use for metal which I don't mind. Great for rock, country and blues. As single coil position it will give a clearer and trebly tone and at full use it will boost the bass. I use it only for distorted sounds, as I only use my neck pickup (Seymour Duncan Jazz Model) for clean sounds.

I have never tried it on the neck as some people suggest.. My Tele's neck pickup requires a full humbucker sized pickup. No need though, 'cause the Jazz Model gives me the clean tone I love and the California Fat Tele offers a 5 position switch therefore I enjoy a nice variety of sounds by splitting both pickups.

I would buy it again or maybe get something else, who knows...
I've played this pickup mostly with Mesa Boogie Recto Recording Preamp and Mesa Boogie F-30 combo.
Very satisfied with this pickup.

This is a 4 wire humbuck made to fit a single coil faceplate.
I measured the impedence, if I remember right it measured out around 12k.

I put it in a bastard strat. I used a Mexican body, a Korean neck, and have replaced most of the electronics.
I originally had 3 EMG selects in this instrument.
I replaced the neck EMG with the 59, and the bridge pickup with a Lace Sensor. That being the situation, I can easily make comparisons between the three.

I like EMG pickups for recording, they have a nice tone quality and are deathly quiet. But they are just not spectacular live. They are good live, but I wanted to put a guitar together that does everything I need. I do a lot of rock era music, a lot of blues, and a fair amount of chicken pickin country, so I need versitility.
I also wanted a much hotter gainy sound.

The output level is really quite high for a passive pickup. It is probably a good 40% more than the EMG ( the EMGs are not very hot, they tend to be rather low output) and at least 25% hotter than the Lace Sensor.

I used this at a gig saturday night through an 80 watt Crate tube hybrid combo, 1x12.

The tone to this pickup is really kind of hard to define.
Years ago I had a Seymour Duncan invader which is the very worst pickup I have ever heard short of old Teisco pickups. The thing was all midrange, all output and no tone.
The Little 59 seems to sound a lot like the invader, but with much better tone. Rather than sounding all midrange, it has a very wide frequency range. It does sacrifice some tone to get the output level, but it has plenty of low end.
I can best describe it by saying that the low end is there, but the mids and highs have a great deal more presence. The lows almost no presence.
It is not really the ideal pickup for blues because it does not have the warmth. The highs need to be rolled back a great deal to get a blues kind of warmth.
On the other hand, its very high output makes for a huge sustainy type of sound. I played this at home while setting the guitar up through a solid state amp on the clean channel, and it sustained and grunted as if I was playing through a tube screamer.
This pickup can be made to be great for blues. I will have to rewire the dead tone control on my strat to it. I normally disable the tone contro to the neck pickup on strats, I will need it back now.
As it is, I can get something akin to a very early ZZ TOP kind of squack from it.

This guitar no longer sounds like a strat. It sounds like no guitar I have ever heard when I use pickup combinations.
I have my strat wired so I can have the neck and bridge on together, and the little 59 and the Lace Sensor compliment each other quite well. I can also have all 3 pickups on, and I get a very strange almost out of phase swamp tone that way.

This pickup would be great for getting rock era sounds like Humble Pie and the Stones and like that from, because it has that very in your face high gain presence.
I also think it would be good in the bridge pickup for country leads, because it has such a present high and midrange sound.
I split the coil with a toggle switch, and as a single coil it sounds pretty much identical to with both coils, just a little thinner and about a 25% drop in output. The drop in output was not as drastic as in most bucks that you can split the coils.

The highs are not overwhelming or biting in spite of their very obvious spike in presence.

Pretty good pinch harmonics. You gotta find them, but they are there.

I also noticed that in the neck position, it sounds more like a for a rough comparison, what a Les Paul sounds like with the switch in the center position, that kind of almost bright but almost bluesy sound at the same time. Which is why it would not be ideal for a blues purist.

I also couldn't get it to feedback with the amp cranked while standing right in front of it... which to me is a detriment. I like to use feedback to sustain notes.
This really suprised me, the pickup sounds on the verge of being microphonic ( which is what I love about it, that is a hard sound to find). It should go into unctonrollable feedback when close to the amp, and it does not. Which is good, but I wish it would be just microphonic enough to get some squeel.
For what it does, it is easily an 8.

I don't know if I would replace it or not. I got it very cheap in a swap. I don't see the point in putting a gazillion bucks in pickups, I have had a good reputation as a local musician for years using stock pickups. I have an active EMG loaded strat and this one had passive EMGs and now this, but I still sound pretty much the same no matter what I use.
I have been playing for I think going on 44 years now, and have a ton of gear.
I like the pickup as it is, I did expect it to have fatter tone, and wish it had a broader and darker sound. But the sacrifice in tone is worth what I have gained in overall beef and reaction. It is a very reactive pickup.
I don't think there is a "that sound" in a pickup.
That sound comes from my mind and fingers, pickups can only embellish it a little. This one does not do so any better or worse than anything else I have, from stock korean pickups to my 300 bucks worth of david gilmour active EMGs ( I got a deal of the entire setup on ebay, I wouldn't have payed 300 bucks for it).

I wouldn't pay 90 bucks for any pickup. I wouldn't have this one if not for a trade I made. I like the guitar as it is and will keep it as it is, but I have tons of guitars and wouldn't go out of my way to replicate this one.

This is a passive humbucking pickup in a single coil format, no cover needed necessarily. Model name is SL59-1. Like PAF in single coil format. Ment to be a replacement for stock pickups or for a guitar builder as a (single) part. Impedance DC is 9.86k for the neck model and 11.78k for the bridge. Resonant peak is neck 5.8 KHz and bridge 4.6 KHz. Can be used in parallel and as a single coil because there are 4 connectors. According to specs the EQ is quite moderate 7/5/6 (Treb/Mid/Bass) so no any particular con??s or pro??s but can be little trebly in the bridge.

I have a Squier Deluxe series satin trans strat and I have this pickup in both neck and bridge. The first one was already in the bridge when I got the guitar. It sounded so great that I decided to take another along although the Everything Axe set was in mind. I replaced the stock pickups that were quite ok but I wanted something more edge and punch to my sound as a 2nd guitarist in our band. The middle pickup is Duckbucker. I also have an another Fender Lite Ash Strat with quite similar setup Everything Axe so this is ideal for the bridge for brighter sound or to neck as a solo sound. Fits perfectly with the Duckbucker. Don??t use only Duckbuckers necessarily! I have no opinion about those all in every positions, but I quess Little ??59 is better in neck/bridge.

I think this is very widely used replacement pickup at the moment. players Bill Frisell, Audley Freed / Cry of Love & Black Crowes, Courtney Love, Jake Kelly / Gary Allan, Jon Hudson / Faith No More, Brad Fordham / Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Kelly Willis, Ron Laster / James Brown, Glen Campbell and me!!!

The output is reasonable, not too bright in bridge, very good in neck and in every tone settings that I use in my modeling amp Line6 Flextone III XL. I have bunch of effects and works fine with them. Perfect tone balance for both bridge and neck. I play mostly dance music, pop/rock/blues. I think you could set your guitar with these in every slot but especially N/B setting is good. Maybe I wouldn??t place this in middle, maybe too much output.

If this was destroyed I would put another in the bridge or maybe Jeff Beck junior model SJBJ-1.
I have been playing for 20 years actively and I own also acoustic and quite similar electric with Everything Axe set that I am going to review later after having played for few gigs. But in all this is more better pickup than the reviews here or somewhere else tell you. The price is reasonable and there aren??t too many manufacturers in this kind of models. If you like good sound but like no hum this could be your choice in mind.

Single sized humbucker.

Used in each position of a American Standard Stratocaster. Replaced the stock pickups. I bought two of these, and left one stock pickup in at at time, first in the middle, and then switched to the neck.

Love the feel of Strats, but sound a little thin compared to my humbucking guitars.

I was hoping to be able to play jazzy stuff on the neck pickup, and some crunchy old R&R on the bridge.

Output--balanced with the stock PU well.

Used with Fender Hot Rod Deluxe & Mesa F30 & Music Man RD112 Fifty.

Tone--A little muddy at the neck, not nearly as defined as a larger humbucker. I have an Epiphone G400, not a 59 Les Paul, but the difference was still clear. These basically sound as big as single coils. It's not a bad sound, just not what I felt was advertised.

They DO buck hum, but they don't have the tone. I found they had more tone in the mid position, and the Bridge was a pretty good fit for higher gain stuff.

When combined, I found they had quack. Again, not bad, but are 2 humbuckers supposed to quack? I don't think so.

I'm taking these out. I may put the Bridge back in (I'm not wild about the stock fender bridge PU), it performed okay but I'm not thrilled overall with these. They don't have a very rich tone.

If Hum is your main concern, these will work fine. If you want a Fender that sounds like a Gibson, it's just not going to happen with the Lil 59. In SD's defense, I recently played a double fat Strat with full sized humbuckers, and that sounded like a Strat, too, not a Gibson. So maybe it's not the pickup's fault, but the wood, scale, hardware, etc.

Again, these don't sound bad, but they are muddier than single coils and weaker than full sized humbuckers. Better to go with the Strat's strength & get a good set of single coils (I'm looking into Fralin Vintage Hot or Blues Specials) if you want to upgrade, and get a Gibson if you want a Gibson sound.

I've been using these for about 9 months now. All in all, they didn't really perform as advertized. Even if it's not the pickups fault entirely, I was disappointed in the end. Particularly in the neck & mid position.

single coil with coil tap on tone pot

yahmah pacifica 612v fitted in neck position.replaces stock single coil.Bridge pickup is j.b. full size humbucker and middle has a hot strat stack fitted.Changing the pickup for a fatter higher output.

average output.Playing through a line 6 spider11 150watt combo with express floor pedal.The tone of this pickup has clear highs subdued midds and strong bass.I play in a covers band so nead to get a good cross section of tones.I would recomend this pickup for neck psition only.Not suitable for heavy metal tones.

I would experiment with another pickup if the guitar was stolen.
I have been playing now for aprox 35 years and have tried lots of pickup selections on various guitars.I own a gibson les paul,Two yahmaha pacificas, Yamaha RGX 820Z, fender strat and an old washburn active electric. My inital reaction to this pickup was one of disapointment as i am very familiar with the sound these pickups claim to emulate. However, is does not. It does'nt have the sustain or the fatness of its full size brother and it sounds more like a P90 by nature than a humbucker.This pickup grew on me the more i played it and find its glassy P90 tone perfect for blues as it cuts through nicely without the mushyness from some neck humbuckers.Disapointing and weak when coil tapped but sounds suppisingly good mixed with the middle position. I think this pickup should be called a Mini P90 for strat for a more accurate discription. Of course you need to take into account the guitars tonal contribution also.If you are looking for a distincive P90 sound from your strat this might be the pickup for you.

Humbucker with coil split. I think the impedance was around 8K.

I had these on one of my earlier strats in the neck and middle positions. They replaced the stock strat pickups when I was experimenting with humbuckers. There was a JB Jr in the bridge.

This is definitely not a humbucker tone. Out of all the SD humbuckers I have tried, this sounds more like a sweet old single coil pickup than anything else. Yeah it's fatter sounding than true single coils but it's no way close to a HB sound. There's quite nice definition of the bass and treble notes, not mushy or boomy like other humbuckers. It's ok with mild overdrive, but doesnt like heavy fuzz type distortion.

I used to play it thru a Blues Jr with an OD and a delay in the chain. Sweet sounding pickups.

Nice pups, but I wanted something with more true single coil sound, so I ultimately ditched these. BUT... these pickups sound sweet and nice in their own way, and they are great to fatten up the sound of a very bright strat.

Pickup features: Passive Single Coil
Impedence or other specs: Single Coil-Sized Humbucker

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez SA160QM
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Stock AS-1 Neck Pickup
Other pickups on guitar: SD Full Shred in the bridge and a stock AS-2 in the middle
Artists using this pickup: Can't think of any from the top of my head
You musical style(s): Progressive Metal, Rock, Blues, Jazz, anything.
Reason for pickup change: Wanted a better pickup in the neck with some character in it. Wanted to eliminate annoying hum.

Perceived output level: Hot, but nowhere near as hot as a Hot Rails
Tone: Bassy, fat, warm, but has the perfect mids and treble to give crisp lows and warm highs. NOT a Humbucker Sound!!
Sonic evaluation: As of right now, I am running this guitar into an Ernie Ball 6166 Volume Pedal into the FX Loop of a Spyder 2 212. The tone I am getting from this neck pickup is pure bliss to my ears.
Although SD claims the Lil' 59 to have a humbucker sound, it really doesn't. The thing I love about this pickup is that it has that great single coil attack, bite, and warmth, but can also get some great dynamics of a humbucker. Here's a short description of the type of tone I'm getting using a Hi-gain setting:
Strings 4-6 (D,A,E): Has that "Hot Rails feel" to it. Very crisp, bassy, but warm, fat, and clear. All the notes cut through perfectly and the harmonics sound great!
Strings 1-3 (e,B,G): Very warm, can get a woman-like tone if you roll the tone knob back a bit. Once again, crisp, clear, fat notes. Sounds a bit like a DiMarzio Air Norton on the higher strings, but with that single coil bite and feel to it. Very sensitive to dynamics and cuts through the mix well.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Progressive Metal, Rock, Blues, Jazz. This pickup can do anything. It may be too bassy for people searching for a twangy tone, but for anything else this pickup can do it with ease.

Comments: If this pickup was destroyed or stolen, I'd hunt that thief down and destroy him. This pickup is incredible, and completed my quest for my "Dream Tone." Currently, I have the perfect clean, rhythm, and lead tones and I am extremely satisfied with my decision to purchase this pickup. I have been playing for almost 4 years and I have done my research, this pickup can do anything you want it to do. As far as something I hate about it, there really isn't anything considering I have my dream tones, but I wish it sounded a little more full when split.
My recommendation, if you are looking for a Hot Rails sound, but don't want to sacrifice your other pickup's output, get a Lil' 59.

Pickup features: Passive single coil hummy based on '59 PAF
Impedence or other specs: n/a

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Strat
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: Fender noiseless
Other pickups on guitar: fender noiseless
Artists using this pickup: don't know
You musical style(s): Rock, Shred, Blues, some Jazz
Reason for pickup change: Fender single coil a bit weak in for rock, though it is an EXCELLANT pickup but not for my style. If I want bluesy sounds I can use the Neck and Bridge.

Perceived output level: Hotter than single coil not as hot as the full size PAF. I don't know if this is hotter than the Fender noiseless HOT pickup
Tone: Tone on this PU is a lot of things. It reacts to its adjustment height, any change changes the character of the sound
Sonic evaluation: When using SD PU height suggestion, I HATED the sound of this PU. Way too mush shrill on high E. Too grainy not enough delineation of tones from each string as I would expect from a PAF and a Strat. BUT once it's adjusted it sounds very near a PAF, I tried it! MY LP has a PAF in the Bridge, the Strat sounds similiar with some differences.
The first difference the little PAF does not distort as easily as its big brother. Because this PU is on a Strat , it's not a biggie. When in distortion the sound is well articulated, more so than on my LP. I'm thinking this is because of the guitar being a Strat, and maybe the PU. Clean the PU has a bell like quality like a single coil. I couldn't be happier with the sound of this PU.
As I stated earlier, when the PU was first played it was a sonic horror - too much noise, too shrill, not enough clarity.
To take care of the noise, I wrapped all the hookup wires behind the pickguard with alunimum foil and then insulated with electrical tape. I even lined the routing where the input jack attaches with foil.
The height of the coil was adjusted -- Treble side is 3/32" from the pickguard, Bass Side is 3/16" from low E string. The individual pole screws are set staggered as Fender coils.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Blues, Rock, Shred and some Jazz,, Great for most music styles except metal

Comments: Yes I would repace this PU if anything happened
Been playing for 5 years
Compared to Fender noisless , no contest
My LP with PAF, the other LP with P90 and this Strat with the little '59 nails the sound I'm looking for.To be honest, I didn't know what to expect from this PU, but IT sings to me.