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Thread: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

  1. #1
    Forum Member smitty_p's Avatar
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    Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    I'm in the research phase of doing my own Strat build.

    I'm wanting to stick with single-coils, but I want a heavier sound than the Vintage Reissue pickups in my current Strat.

    The Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders have my interest.

    Thoughts?

    http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/...calibrated-set

  2. #2
    Forum Member chuckocaster's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    My only experience is with the SC P bass version, which I liked a lot. Know that doesn't really help you but maybe you can get a used set? That'd keep the cost down in case you don't like them and decide to sell them.
    "don't worry, i'm a professional!"

  3. #3
    Forum Member smitty_p's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    I appreciate the input, Chuck.

    They're surprisingly inexpensive for a set. I'd probably buy new.

    I already have the vintage, traditional territory covered with my current Strattykaster.

    I want to add a Strat that has some more snarl to it, and the Quarter Pounders seem like decent option.

  4. #4
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    Try steel instead of nickel with your current Strat and see if that fattens it up a bit. Don't forget too, that pickup height has a substantial effect on how "fat" a pickup sounds.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

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    Forum Member smitty_p's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
    Try steel instead of nickel with your current Strat and see if that fattens it up a bit. Don't forget too, that pickup height has a substantial effect on how "fat" a pickup sounds.
    Thanks, Offshore Angler. However, I actually like the way my current Strat sounds. I'm not disappointed in it, at all. But, I want to ADD the element of a heavier sounding Strat, for a harder rock sound. The operative idea here is "adding a Strat", as in, getting another!

    I already have all the territory covered with humbuckers for the sounds I want from them. But, I also like that high-gain, single-coil Blackmore-ish sound, too.

    Getting another Strat isn't a bad thing, is it?
    Last edited by smitty_p; 01-28-2017 at 07:37 AM.

  6. #6
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
    Try steel instead of nickel with your current Strat and see if that fattens it up a bit. Don't forget too, that pickup height has a substantial effect on how "fat" a pickup sounds.

    Is there a general height--further, nearer? Or is it more dependent on the strength of the pup?
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

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    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
    Try steel instead of nickel with your current Strat and see if that fattens it up a bit. Don't forget too, that pickup height has a substantial effect on how "fat" a pickup sounds.
    Plus as counter-intuitive as it may sound, having the pickups closer to the strings actually does not 'fatten' the tone, the opposite is more likely as the increased magnetic pull slows the vibration of the string faster. Try dropping the pickups and see what changes that makes.

  8. #8
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    Quote Originally Posted by DanTheBluesMan View Post
    Plus as counter-intuitive as it may sound, having the pickups closer to the strings actually does not 'fatten' the tone, the opposite is more likely as the increased magnetic pull slows the vibration of the string faster. Try dropping the pickups and see what changes that makes.
    Sorry brother, but that ain't true. Dropping will clear them up, raising will fatten them up until you get the "wolf tones" from some things that happen. The closers they are, the more magnetic field lines the strings cross leading to higher the output and thus the more slam on the front end of the amp which is where the "fat' comes from. As the magnetic aperture widens you get more overtones, leading to the clearer, chimer tone of low pickups. As for the damping effect of the magnetic field, nope - doesn't work quite that way. There's different Br's for different magnets and permeances for pole piece geometries too.

    Since nickel and steel have different coercivities they respond differently.

    I should add, I'm an engineer for the company that makes the rare-earth magnets for guitar pickups. If there's anything you want know about magnets or magnetics let me know. :) I don't claim to know everything, but between me and my coworkers we're pretty well able to answer anything about magnets!

    Chuck
    Last edited by Offshore Angler; 01-29-2017 at 03:08 PM.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  9. #9
    Forum Member FrankJohnson's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    Quote Originally Posted by chuckocaster View Post
    My only experience is with the SC P bass version, which I liked a lot. Know that doesn't really help you but maybe you can get a used set? That'd keep the cost down in case you don't like them and decide to sell them.
    I think I have that set ! :)
    Kenny Belmont
    >:^{I)>

  10. #10
    Forum Member smitty_p's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    Just so everyone understands what I'm after...

    I don't want to change the sound of my current Strat. I love it for what it is and how it currently sounds. I'm not disappointed in it.

    But...

    I want to ADD another Strat to the herd. I want to add a harder, rockier, single-coil Strat. I'm pretty much expecting to build it.

    Also, just in case anyone is wondering, I'm not trying to get a humbucker sound from a single coil. Five of my six electric guitars have humbuckers. I have a '74 SG with mini-humbuckers, a Washburn HB-30 (sort of an ES-335 copy) with Seymour Duncan '59s, a Les Paul with 498T/490R humbuckers, a 2014 SG with 57 Classics, and a Jackson with a Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz set. So, I have humbucker territory pretty well covered.

    But, I also like some of those high output single-coil sounds. Ritchie Blackmore comes to mind...though I'm not necessarily trying to copy him.

  11. #11
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: Anybody use Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders?

    Methinks you may be trying to get the sound of completely different amps by changing the pickups.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

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