I was lucky enough to visit the guys at Seymour Duncan's headquarters in Santa Barbara on the way up the coast between Los Angeles and San Fransisco - something I've always thought would be great to do when I had the chance, since meeting Seymour and his right hand man, Evan Skopp, at a presentation all the way across the seas in my holy homeland of Fitzroy, Melbourne, circa 2007.
I'd seen video tours of the factory online, and followed on with interest as the intricate processes of coil winding, wax dipping, and installation were detailed, but it was extra awesome to get a full on-the-floor tour from Scott, who took pleasure in pointing out all the juicy details to me and my cohort, Heather, and also to meet Seymour once again in person. He's really a totally swell guy!
Scott in the testing room:
The other great joy was having one of my old Hofner guitar pickups rewound - brought back from the dead, so to speak, by "MJ" - Seymour's partner in the Custom Shop. MJ is reputed to be one of the best pickup technicians in the world(!) and I was chuffed that she had my beloved old pickup totally re-jigged and ready for me to take with me at the end of my tour!
Here's MJ with my Hofner pickup, ready to roll once again!
Here is my post on the interesting old homemade guitar that this Hofner pickup comes from. Looking forward to trying it out with the custom rewind when I get back home.
Thanks MJ, Scott, Seymour and co!
More factory tour photo's from the Duncan website
Hey Ev,
ReplyDeleteThat would've been an ace day.
I've been using SD pickups for 15 years.
Hot rails in my tele, and the new P-Rail in my Surfcaster. Awesome stuff!
Cheers
A
Sweet mother mary, that is groovy Ev.
ReplyDeleteNice work MJ!
ReplyDeleteSo was it a Seymour pickup, or a Hofner pickup?
I enjoyed your post about the Hofner CrudBox, too. :)
- Muz
Hehe, is that a trick question, Muz?
ReplyDeleteI guess now you would say it's a "Duncan MJ rewound Hofner pickup"! I reckon it'll sound better than it ever did originally. Might be tempted to send the other one in for a rewind when I hear the two together. The originals were pretty lo-fi, so I'm hoping the rewind gives it a whole new personality.
Thanks also for the comments, "A", The Awesome Power Of Rockets!