delay bass tone circuit eq frequencies pickups blackouts sd

Santa Barbara, CA (January 28, 2009) -- Seymour Duncan unveiled a number of pickups and pedals at NAMM. Here's what you can expect from the company in 2009:

Blackouts for Bass
These active four and 5-string soapbars and on-board Tone Circuits were designed by Seymour Duncan for the  aggressive bass tones of metal, classic metal, punk and heavy rock. SD says the Blackouts for Bass deliver the goods with less tweaking. The pickups use the popular Phase II over and are drop-in replacements for many basses. Comes with all necessary hardware including potentiometers on pre-wired harness, a battery clip and stereo jack. The Tone Circuit offers two focused bands of EQ dialed-in to the frequencies that metal players need, and it comes in in two versions: one with separate bass and treble knobs and one with a stacked, concentric bass/treble control. With both versions black anodized, knurled, dome-style knobs are included.  

MSRP:
Pickups, $146 each or $270 for the set
Tone Circuit, $79

SFX-10 Déjà Vu Tap Delay 
The Déjà Vu is a combination of the popular analog Bucket Brigade delay units of the past and new digital repeats. One of the secrets is the D/A Blend (digital-analog) control. Turn it one way and the digital delays are crystal clear,  and the other way is a pure analog Bucket Brigade. Other features include a Modualtion knob, a Tap Tempo Footswitch, and a Ratio mode which allows you to express the delay in five tempo subdivisions: half notes, dotted eight notes, quarter notes, triplets, and eighth notes. As with all Seymour Duncan stompboxes, the Déjà Vu offers full bypass switching, and a large range of sounds from the traditional, old-school delay tones to wild, sci-fi effects, says SD.

MSRP: $349

SFX-09 Double Back Compressor
Simply put, a compressor makes quiet passages louder and loud passages quieter, but sometimes they can get in the way of your guitar's natural feel, which is why SD created the Double Back. The SFX-09 Double Back Compressor allows some of the uncompressed sound – specifically the initial “snap” of the string - to “double back” into the compressor output, thus helping to preserve the sensation of a string being plucked. 

SD describes the Double Back as a a low noise, low distortion compressor-sustainer pedal with very wide-range compression, exceptional sustain, and simple, intuitive control of compressor dynamics. Additional features include a control knob that can adjust the compression ratio from 1:1 to over 20:1, and three special features that preserve the natural feel:  the “Double Back” control, the three-position switchable frequency filter, and the "Attack" control. For more info, visit seymourduncan.com.

MSRP: $225

Hot Rails For Tele, Rhythm
Hot Rails is a single coil pickup replacement. Seymour Duncan has made them for the Strat and, up until now, for the bridge position of a Tele. SD says Hot Rails drive your amp harder because they are designed specially for classic rock, garage, punk, heavy rock, thrash, and all metal styles. SD says the new neck-sized version delivers a fat, full sound with incredible output, like all Hot Rails. The powerful ceramic magnet, two steel blades and over-wound coils all combine to provide a heavy, raw, distorted tone with incredible sustain. They come in black only, with an “old school" Rails look, and include four-conductor cable.

MSRP $114

Hot Stack Plus For Strat
For Stratocaster players, it’s the challenge of the ages: keep the tone, but ditch the annoying single coil hum. A few years ago, SD came out with the patented Classic Stack Plus pickup that addressed answered the call. But what about those players who want a Strat tone that’s bigger, beefier, ballsier, and brasher than vintage? For them, we are happy to announce the release of the Hot Stack Plus, the latest advancement in the quest for hum-free Strat tone. Like our Classic Stack Plus pickup, the Hot Stack Plus uses a top coil that is significantly larger than the bottom coil–it’s almost the same size as a traditional Strat pickup coil. This, together with the staggered, sand-cast, Alnico 5 pole pieces, and the custom wound, high-output coil, delivers a hot and thick Strat tone. Use a Hot Stack Plus in the bridge position together with two Classics in the neck and middle for a versatile setup that covers all tones from vintage to high-output. The top coil is shielded with a “flux transfer plate” which attracts hum and “injects” it into the much smaller bottom coil, whose sole purpose is to eliminate the hum. The top coil gets the tone. The bottom coil kills the hum. In addition to the unique design, we use a device seldom seen outside a physics laboratory called a Helmholtz coil, to calibrate each individual Hot Stack Plus pickup for maximum hum cancellation. The Helmholtz coil generates an extremely uniform magnetic field that allows our engineers to accurately simulate, on the test bench, the noise conditions found in a typical performance environment. This type of testing and calibration, in addition to the unique magnetic structure of the Hot Stack Plus system, allows it to achieve extraordinarily low levels of 60-cycle hum. The Hot Stack Plus works great with all of our stompboxes, especially the new SFX-11 Twin Tube Blue and SFX-10 Déjà vu Delay. For most Strat guitars, the Hot Stack Plus is a direct retrofit. The Stack Plus is .995” (25.27mm) tall, which makes it .175 (4.45mm) taller than a vintage pickup for Strat guitars. Each Stack Plus is built and tuned, by hand, in our Santa Barbara, California workshop and includes mounting hardware and detailed wiring instructions. Recommended for bridge position.

MSRP $110

Triple Shot Switching Mountain Ring
For years, guitar modders have known the secrets of getting vastly different tones out of an electric guitar by changing the wiring of the humbucker pickups. Typically humbuckers are wired in “series,” for the “loud and proud” sound that most folks associate with these popular pickups. But there are additional tonal options available. For example, one can make a humbucker sound more like a single coil pickup by splitting off one the coils – some people call this “tapping a pickup.” Or, some arrange to have the pickup wired in “parallel,” which lowers the output, raises the resonant peak, and retains hum-cancelling. How is this electronic sleight of hand accomplished? Usually by mini-toggle switches, push-pull potentiometers, or “super” lever switches. All of these methods have disadvantages: either they offer limited switching options, or they require drilling holes in the top of your guitar. Seymour Duncan comes to the rescue with the Triple Shot switching mounting ring. This stealth device functions as a standard humbucker or Trembucker mounting ring, but it cleverly hides two small “rocker” switches that allow for a humbucker to be wired in series, parallel, or split – and when split, either coil can be active, it’s up to you. Now, you can make wiring changes without touching your knobs, pickup selector or toggle switches. Triple Shot is easy to install and works with any four-conductor Seymour Duncan humbucker – or just about any of our competitor’s pickups. Just connect the pickup’s leads to a small color coded circuit board which adheres to the inside cavity of your guitar and connect the circuit board to your ground and hot connection. That’s it. Triple Shot requires no permanent modification to your guitar.

MSRP: $69 set

SFX-11 Twin Tube Blue
The new SFX-11 Twin Tube Blue is the perfect stompbox for the no-compromise blues player. You know the type. They have to have the best tone possible and they’ll spend any amount of money to get it. Fortunately, this boutique quality “secret weapon” pedal won’t break the bank. Like the Twin Tube Classic and Twin Tube Mayhem, the Twin Tube Blue is a high-quality, two-channel, guitar preamp. However, this one is voiced for the blues. We’re talking modern blues, Chicago blues, Texas blues, and classic rock. Unlike its Twin Tube brethren, it features a duet of premium, mil-spec, subminiature, USA-made Phillips-Sylvania® 6111 dual triode tubes. These tubes are voiced similar to a familiar 12AU7. Speaking of tubes, too often, inexpensive tube gear runs in “starved plate mode,” where the tubes function like clipping diodes and do not actually amplify. The Twin Tube Blue’s high-plate voltage and 100% vacuum tube signal path allows the tubes to operate at their fullest potential and provide maximum dynamic range. The means you get the most gain and all the smooth, bluesy tone you expect from a high-quality tube preamp. Two channels provide versatility. The Rhythm channel offers up sparkly chords and bright and punchy leads. The Lead channel starts with familiar Texas blues and goes all the way to the heaviest blues tones you’ll ever need. The Twin Tube Blue is true bypass and features a heavy duty chassis and a fully encapsulated toroidal transformer for quiet operation.

MSRP: $325

For more info, visit seymourduncan.com.