The ’59/Custom Hybrid humbucker
isn’t your typical Seymour Duncan
offering. At its root, it’s the offspring of
two very popular Duncan humbuckers.
The concept began with a fan talking on
the company’s online forum about how
he’d experimented with combining coils
from Duncan ’59 and Custom pickups.
The resulting blend of woody PAF tone
and modern humbucking power not only
impressed the forum member, but also
maestro Duncan himself—so much so
that the modified pickup was introduced
as a standard production model.
A Meeting of the Minds
The SH-16 is a true hybrid of the ’59 and
the Custom—it mates a ’59’s screws-side
coil with a Custom’s slug-side coil, and
powers them with an alnico 5 magnet.
It’s designed specifically for the bridge
position (Duncan recommends pairing it
with a full-size ’59 or Alnico II Pro in the
neck position), and has a DC resistance
of 11.5k Ω . The pickup also uses four-conductor
wire for coil tapping and out-of-phase switching, if that’s your fancy.
Interestingly, individual coils are
wound using different gauges of pickup
wire, which is responsible for much of the
pickup’s unique character. The ’59 coil
uses thicker, 42-gauge wire, which is commonly
used for PAF-style pickups for its
clarity and openness at lower resistance
(7k–9k). The Custom coil uses thinner,
43-gauge wire, which yields a crisper,
more immediate attack, tighter lows, and
additional compression when wound for
higher output (14.1k Ω in a standard
Custom). The coil mismatch can feel
and sound strange at first—especially if
you’re used to contemporary humbucking
tones. It’s a great setup if you need single-coil tones, however. Coil-tapping knocks
the ’59 coil out, leaving only the hotter
Custom coil, which rates at a healthy 7.1k
Ω for spanky, Strat-like tones.
A Whole New Ball Game
Compared to the stock ’57 Classic bridge
pickup in our Gibson Les Paul Traditional
test instrument, the SH-16 exhibited an
uncommon range of output and harmonic
content. Through a Fender Twin Reverb, the
Duncan sang with a familiar midrange growl
not unlike the stock Gibson pickup, but
with a more authoritative stance and attitude.
The alnico 5 magnet in the Duncan
likely has a hand in making the Duncan
bark louder than the Les Paul’s stock pickup,
which is built around a softer-sounding
alnico 2 magnet. Top end from the Duncan
also had a sparkling quality that made it
sound more alive—an attribute you can hear
loud and clear even when softly fingerpicking
progressions on the lower strings.
Combining the SH-16 with the Gibson’s
low-output ’57 Classic neck pickup provided
a beautiful contrasting tone. While
the ’57 Classic filled the room with warm,
thick lows, the SH-16 offered a bold contrast—a mix of rich mids and singing highs
that were wonderfully reactive to picking
dynamics.
The ’59/Custom Hybrid is even better
at dishing out overdriven rhythms.
Through a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier’s
orange channel, the Duncan opens up wide
with a rich growl that was very difficult
to muddy up—even with preamp gain
absurdly high. Pick attack cuts through
with extreme clarity that will be a godsend
for modern rockers who like to hear every
detail of a furious shredding salvo. In
these high-gain environments, the pickup’s
highs and upper mids aren’t shrill or overly
bright, though the attack and high end
sometimes felt a little pointed when playing
up high around the 15th and 17th frets.
The Verdict
If you’re after a vintage-tinged pickup that has
a unique edge and enough modern muscle to
play harder styles of music, then you really need
to try the ’59/Custom Hybrid. It masterfully
melds the robust and classic sonic elements
of the ’59 with the aggression of the Custom,
resulting in a very detailed and responsive midrange.
The Duncan’s more in-your-face nature
might take some getting used to if you’re accustomed
to more even, less-dynamic tones, but if
you’re looking for something different that can
handle both clean and overdriven sounds with
ease, then the SH-16 is a must-try.