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Duncan Designed Vs. Seymour Duncan


DaveGrima

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OK. I have a Squier Tele Custom with 2 p-90s. Im not real happy with the sound. It doesnt sound terrible but a little dull and muddy at times. Im thinking of upgrading to real USA Duncan p-90s. Can I expect a real improvement on the tone? Whats the difference between the 2 besides one being made in Korea? I mean pickups dont have a lot of parts to em. Plastic bobbin, copper wire and some magnets. What makes American DUncan pups better? Anyone ever A/B the 2? Thanks :thu:

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To answer your question, Duncan Desgined pickups are more or less a budget copy of actual Seymour Duncan's. their stock in a lot of mid-range guitars. If you replace them with actual Seymour Duncan's, I'd say you'd definitely see a change in your guitar tone. Check out the link below to see how much better an actual Duncan sounds:

 

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/audio-samples/humbuckers_and/

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Check Duncan's website. They have info about their "Duncan Designed" pickups. The short answer is, yes--you should be able to hear a slight improvement in clarity and balance.

 

I would definitely check out a bunch of P90's like BG, Duncan, and especially TV Jones! You might even consider putting a P90 sized Powertron in the bridge of your Tele for some serious vibe (think Billy Gibbons).

 

From TV's Website:

 

We are proud to introduce the all-new TV Jones P-90

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The cool thing about upgrading your pickups to something really special (read, not GFS) is that if you decide to sell your Tele, you can put the old pickups in and you'll have the upscale pickups for another guitar.

 

By the way, I have nothing against GFS, but going from Duncan Designed to GFS is like going from a Kia to a Hyundai.

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The real difference IMHO?

 

I think that the difference is about pricing. It can't possibly cost them more to make a good sounding pickup over a mediocre one when you break it down. A lot of companies do this type of crap where they purposely downgrade one product in order to inflate the price of the 'better' one.

 

PC component manufacturers do this stuff better than anyone. They'll design a card and build like 4 different models out of that same board. The only differences between them maybe a couple of resistors, some firmware or some circuit traces, so the cost to buld them is negligible. But they can crap out an entire product line that hits several targets of consumers from one factory.

 

Pickups and {censored} are a bit different, but the basic components as you stated aren't that different.

 

If the DD pickups sounded exactly the same as the SD ones when who in their right minds would pay more money? And the sound has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that overseas manufacturers aren't capable of building a good product; it's all about the specs of the product. The parts may be a bit cheaper in quality to keep costs down, but I just don't think that if they used the exact same design that they'd be worlds apart in sound.

 

And to me the DD pickups are absolute mediocre crap. I just don't think that they have to be.

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The cool thing about upgrading your pickups to something really special (read, not GFS) is that if you decide to sell your Tele, you can put the old pickups in and you'll have the upscale pickups for another guitar.


By the way, I have nothing against GFS, but going from Duncan Designed to GFS is like going from a Kia to a Hyundai.

 

 

considering the variety of GFS pickups available, I don't think that is a fair statement. I have a set of their strat pickups in my daughter's guitar and really like them. While it may be a fair assessment on many of their humbuckers, I do believe they have quite a few models that are very good for the low cost and still a huge improvement over Duncan Designed.

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I have a tele custom 2 as well and I A/B'd it with my Gibson LPDC faded. To me, they sounded very similar, in fact i preferred the tele because it was a little bit brighter. Funny thing is I specially picked out the LPDC faded after comparing it to a lot of other p90 guitars (an expensive flame topped LP, dont know what it was, an GOW SG with p90s and a PRS SE) and the faded came out on top. :idk:

 

A lot of people (here) say that the quality of the duncan designed are all over the place, so maybe you got a dud set and i was super lucky? :idk:

 

The QC on the real duncans should be a lot tighter so id say go for it if youre not happy

 

PS- i cant believe that you think the telecustom sound muddy! :eek: You got super old strings on it or something?

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Check Duncan's website. They have info about their "Duncan Designed" pickups. The short answer is, yes--you should be able to hear a slight improvement in clarity and balance.

 

I would definitely check out a bunch of P90's like BG, Duncan, and especially TV Jones! You might even consider putting a P90 sized Powertron in the bridge of your Tele for some serious vibe (think Billy Gibbons).

 

From TV's Website:

 

We are proud to introduce the all-new TV Jones P-90

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If it is a P90 guitar and it has 250k pots, which it perhaps might, it might sound totally different with a 500k pots and a better capacitor.

 

Sometimes it is the pickup and sometimes not and the other wiring could be part of the dull and muddy.

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^^ Several amps. Marshall JCM800, Fender Champ, some SS practice amps etc, DOnt get me wrong. It doesnt sound BAD. Just kind of meh. I just cant help but think that it could sound better with a PUP upgrade seeing as how DD pups are really not held in high regard around here. So I was wondering if anyone had played SD p-90s and compared them to the DD's. It would be nice to get some Fralins, or Lollars or something but like I said im not gonna spend more on pickups than I did on the fricken guitar.

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If it is a P90 guitar and it has 250k pots, which it perhaps might, it might sound totally different with a 500k pots and a better capacitor.

 

 

Don't know about the difference capacitors make, but changing the pots might be worthwhile (and cheaper than replacing the pickups). If it doesn't do enough, you can then replace the pickups. Oh - and it's hard to believe that a lot of people want to put lollars (total cost for two pickups - $200) into a Squier II custom (total cost - $250). It doesn't make a lot of sense to me!!!

 

BTW - I have a Godin LG with the SD Custom Soapbar SP90-3 pickups, and I have to say that I think they (P90s) are a little more particular regarding amp settings, etc. than other SCs I've used, so it makes sense to take some time and really work on getting the amp settings right...

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No idea on the DD P90 models but I've never had a DD HB that was even remotely decent. Dull, muddy, lifeless.

Yep.

 

I made the mistake of swapping a set out and putting some GFS Crunchy PAT's in....sounded almost exactly the same. Ended up selling the guitar like an idiot. Should have just went with something I knew that was going to do what instead of being cheap and lazy.

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