Diabolus in Musica

Seymour Duncan's El Diablo humbucker has a single appeal; it feeds on distortion, the more the better. Is it worth buying? Well, considering it's made with a very narrow objective in mind & it's a custom shop model, the immediate answer here is no. However, if you've been through several high output pickups & love distortion more than anything else, the El Diablo would offer a good variation to a certain extent. Unlike the Dimebucker, this one has more bottom end on board but do not raise it too close to the strings as notes get muffled at high gain/ high distortion settings. That's right, it suffers from poor single note separation. I had to lower mine more than the default Ibanez pickup height recommendation. Thereafter, the El Diablo is a beast as the name implies.

The El Diablo is paired up with a Hot Stack & the latter simply could not match the beast in terms of output & distortion.  Anyway, I require less aggression & more clarity in the neck to prevent my tapped notes from sounding like trash. Thanks to Davis GMC for their continuous commitment when it comes to having Custom Shop / Custom Floor models available every once in a while. 

DYAD

Something new from the Duncan camp - the DYAD humbucker.

Firstly, it's a signature product, designed by Brandon Ellis (The Black Dahlia Murder). Secondly, it's a Custom Shop model. Putting these two considerations together, you know it's not gonna be appealing price-wise.

Anyway, the DYAD is half Crazy 8 & half PATB Distortion. This was the  original tinkering of Mr. Ellis himself; putting two single coils from two different pickups together. It's also the reason why that reversed Seymour Duncan label is there - it was like that back in his tinkering days so that was left intact. For the record, I don't listen to TBDM but I'm interested in this pickup because it gives off that inherent top end boost which is basically what black metal is all about. Based solely on this attribute, I won't mind giving this a go. It's like Mark Holcomb's Alpha / Omega pickups; I don't listen to Periphery but I'm darn happy with those humbucker.

Pic: Seymour Duncan CS

Theo

Latest from Gibson - Theodore. A design manifested from the manufacturer's 1957 records. By the way, this was the idea of then Gibson President Ted McCarty. Ted, is of course, short for Theodore & now you know why it's called that. There are only 318 units made & these are Custom Shop instruments listing for USD4,999. 

Pic: Guitar

Fatigue Sunday

 

I bought this quite some time ago. I was gonna fix it into one of the Gibsons but held back & saved it for one of the single humbucking guitars. Then it got misplaced, was MIA until recently when I went looking for my keys. It's a Custom Shop Alan Holdsworth humbucker, the AH1B otherwise known as the Metal Fatigue, proudly wound by MJ herself. The thing is, it's given a relic look at the production end, the rusty  pole pieces are definitely not my thing. Since this approach worked for me for one of my SGs, I bought a plastic cover to give it a blackout look.

It looks like the Kiesel Holdsworth now sports a serious active humbucker but you know what's going on, really. Why did I swap the Kiesel humbucker out for this one since Kiesel custom voiced its pickup according to Holdworth's specs? I think you know by now that I'm a Duncan fan & I somehow believe that this version has something for me. It's that unspoken magic or just mere understanding of what the Seymour Duncan name has to offer when it comes to tone. Both pickups are capable of capturing the signature Holdsworth tone, that deep, bass inclined, semi-alien voicing which is almost synth like in its qualities. However, unlike the Kiesel version, the Duncan version is richer in harmonics & would serve metal dweebs like me when it comes to extreme distortion & quick solo bursts. So that was yesterday's indulgences. It's a quick trip to Beez's to get this installation done, was home in a jiffy to enjoy the 'new' tone.

Size matters

This is pretty much the only Black Friday deal for me this year. Good discounts happened at Gravity Picks so it was an easy decision since I'm a fan. I'm currently favouring the 003 XL version (left), this time I spec'd a smaller manifestation very close to a Jazz III, devoid of any grip enhancing features. The objective was to find out if size enhances grip. If it does, grip enhancements are unnecessary.

Verdict: Size influences grip. Two things: 1) Psychology 2) Picking style. 

• I'm too used to bigger picks so half the battle here was telling myself it isn't difficult dealing with something smaller, something out of my comfort zone. I failed miserably. Even before any picking happened, I dropped the darn pick.
• Many of us get along with the Jazz II-esque picks (regardless of the brand) because of our playing style. If you are not peddling bass notes furiously all the time, it would be a winning outcome. It was definitely not the case for me. More energy was expended trying to hold the pick in place & I got tired very quickly.

The circumstances discussed above might not hold true for some of us because we were conditioned to prefer a certain pick type regardless of our music genre. This is especially true if we started with a certain pick type & went on with it for a very long time before trying something else for variety's sake. For my case, I was with the Stubby 2mm for a long time & moved on to the 3mm version. Then on, I couldn't get along with something thinner or smaller. 

Might be giving away those failed picks 😔

Bats!

This one's been featured on some sites lately. The primary highlight would of course be those bats inlay. There are some extras at the headstock as well.

A closer look at those bats...

And we know who had been there with bats way before this happened. Have a good midweek, everyone.

Raijin

I have a love/ hate relationship with MXR's Custom Shop models. Love- because some of them are good for the money. Hate- because there are indeed ordinary sounding units with excessive price tags due to the Custom Shop label. As for the Raijin Drive above, watch this & decide for yourselves (forgive the Teen Spirit-esque vibe, yes?):

Got spare change?

Hey. You got spare change? Maybe $10K? It's available here.

Perry's single

Was trawling cyberspace recently looking for more Les Pauls with a single pickup. It seems that Joe Perry did a subsequent singlecut model with Gibson. The gold top finish is bliss but that whammy bridge... 🙈

Dogged

This is a Custom Shop piece by Gibson, commemorating the Chinese Year of the dog. Strangely, the news of its debut came after the Chinese New Year so the wisdom of this marketing move is questionable. Yours for only USD6.7K...

MJ @ SDCS

This is Maricela Juarez, otherwise known as MJ at Seymour Duncan's Custom Shop. Yesterday marked her 35th anniversary of unwavering service for the company & she's carved a name for herself in this light.

Must say that I'm a proud owner of what she handled 👍

Borrowed freshness

If you detected the whiff of a new Gibson Flying V recently, you were right. The details are now official, images are made plain for all to see. 

However, if you think the design is a fresh perspective, then be informed that the Jackson Roswell Rhoads happened in 1996/1997. We note the very influential outlines seen in the new Gibson Flying V but we do not infer downright cloning. However, we cannot unsee what we saw. The new V has a steep list price of USD4,999 owing to its custom shop origins. We give it to Gibson for moving away form the traditional outlines but can't quite forgive the fact that its running on borrowed themes. Maybe it's just me. 

Damaged Inc.

This was a recent flak over at Gibson's Custom Shop web page- a damaged instrument on show. There's a clear chip there which was ignored & the instrument made it through the photo shoot. Maybe this is the problem with having relic runs in the line up, those not versed in the details would get terribly confused. 

PS: The pic had since been replaced by the politically correct, chip-free, custom shop-worthy version.

Under the lash of gravity- the custom kind

My friend, brother Fabian, alerted me to a Gravity Picks promo- the manufacturer waived shipping costs for a period of time but I'd already gotten my hands on whatever GP model I'd wish to try through Davis GMC. Subsequently, the good people at GP extended it till the end of August so I thought why not try the Custom Shop selection this time round & the picks you see above were in the mail after 6 working days. 

Through this experience, I was able to select the pick size & to me, this was crucial. The texture & grip choices were cascaded from my previous preferences. So the big mini option is definitely my go-to reference & I'd say, this was a very pleasant custom shop experience, so to speak. It won't be my last custom shop episode though, just waiting for another 'No shipping charges' promo to come by (evil grin). 

My BIG thumbs up to Chris & the GP team.

Super V

The Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Super V is a signature product for George Lynch. Despite its celebrity status, it features an Alnico II magnet & 2 conductors only.

The Super V is a current resident in my PRS S2 Standard Singlecut's bridge position. As the magnet on board is the weaker Alnico II, the pickup has limited volume performance & that's all too natural. In fact, it struggled to keep up with the Seymour Duncan Phat Cat you see here in the neck position & there was a need to reconcile their respective heights for optimum performance in this aspect. So why bother, you ask? The Super V was conceived to propel sustain & harmonics in mind. As such, the magnet should not over-power string vibrations too much & Alnico II was the right magnet for the task. As such, the sustain available was impressive. The harmonics are true to claim, especially so if you are at high gain settings. Speaking of gain, the Super V is drive-inclined through & through. You'd aspect a weaker magnet to shine in clean mode but the Super V isn't as stellar in this consideration as expected. A celebrity pickup with lots of superb potential but limited by price & availability- pity.

Devil's throat (2)

Seymour Duncan's El Diablo is a custom shop unit, the chances of one offered in stores as a regular production unit is slim. This one here is a special offering to SD's distributors & it costs $100 more than a standard production model. Despite being touted as a distortion monster, the El Diablo features an Alnico II magnet which is the highlight of the pickup itself- a monster based on tamed essentials. Jumping right into the driven territory, the El Diablo has no issues delivering impact; all manner of drive/ distortion is supplemented by a very crunchy voicing, meaning, it has a treble highlight but nothing repulsive. Imagine your tone being supplemented by a treble boost unit but not set to stun. Moving over to the opposite end, the El Diablo pomises some of the best & tightest bass notes delivery especially for those of us who palm mute our notes. With these in mind, expect a scooped overall response but it's made rather undetectable due to the top end emphasis somewhat. 

Where does the Alnico II advantage come in? It's for those of us who further trim our tones via the volume pot or we have a tone control which is aptly supplemented by a named capacitor. This is where the the El Diablo shines, subtle dialing in of tones but not one that relents when distortion is concerned. 

From a personal perspective, the El Diablo is a little differentiated because of the afforementioned magnet in use, otherwise, we would be hard pressed to recognize its subtleties considering what the Nazgul, Black Winter & Distortion could do in this turf.

Amps used:

• Marshall JCM800 Anniversary 1W
• EVH 5150III
• Randall LX20R

CS Duncan

I always have this urge to try something new, something a little different, something with a healthy tinge of waywardness so I forked out good money (this costs 50% more than its regular sigling) for this Seymour Duncan Custom Shop humbucker (available at Davis GMC). What's so wayward about this one? It sports a double row of slotted pole pieces which isn't featured in the standard range. The manufacturer did a relic finish which was irksome to me so I did away with that by cleaning it up, making it as regular as it should look. 

It features an Alnico V magnet so it has an above-average clean response which is enough for me. The drive tone was what I was looking for; a good midrange definition with great bottom end boost. Yes, it does incline towards the vintage tone but not excessively. In fact, it sounds rather biting with a very high gain distortion dialed in. This pickup is now resident in my Melody Maker SG whose default pickup, ironically, sports a stronger ceramic magnet but that didn't appeal to me tone-wise.

Duncanized: MM SG

This Gibson Melody Maker SG was going to be on my regrettable acquisition list. Slowly but surely, I disliked it every time I plugged it in. However, after some considerations, I was actually bothered by its tone & this, somehow, made every playing experience objectionable.

There's actually a simple reason why that happened; there's a Gibson pickup in there. Despite being a ceramic based humbucker, the default pickup wasn't as likable as I hoped it to be, with high gain settings. This pretty much sums up my episodes with other Gibson pickups as well, I dislike what Gibson has to offer tone-wise (less the 500T/496R combo). So what took its place, as depicted above, is one of Seymour Duncan's Custom Shop offering. Ironically, it's only sporting an Alnico V magnet but it made the difference. There's a more pronounced single note definition & I find that important because my ideas are based on single notes run as opposed to hearing chords in action.

Thanks to Beez once again for his mastery in electronics make-over.

Floyd Rose: Custom Shop

A worthy move by Floyd Rose- a custom shop option. Since many other manufacturers are shifting their production considerations to the buyers to enhance desirability, the good people at FR are following suit. This way, you can get a customized genuine article according to your specs. Before you embark on this journey, it's good to read up on the different materials available out there because this, together with the weight of the components, affect tone & sustain. I've done up a simple custom order form just for illustration here. The price is reasonable & not too far off the ready made ones available off the shelves. Thumbs up to the CS Floyd Rose option.

All that jazz

I don't usually give guitars from any custom shop a second look- they are quirky & cost too much to be true. But here's something that struck a chord (no pun intended) with me; Fender's CS Limited Jazzmaster Pro. It's a simple, one pickup guitar from Fender's 'lesser limelight' design, the Jazzmaster. There's a slight variation in the bridge & pickup. Top that with an ash body- a really no-frills guitar, this one. The catch? It's not one for folks with shallow pockets.