SH-1b '59 Model Bridge 1-conductor Humbucker Pickup - Nickel Cover Review

Cleaned Up My Gibson SG - Even With Walnut Tonewood!

I had gotten a pair of SD Phat Cat's for my '79 walnut body SG, but the bridge just didn't take to the bright tonewood and ebony fingerboard as I had hoped (still a great setup for those who want a drop-in P90's for their mahogany humbucker guitars, by the way). I had looked at Saturday Night Specials, Whole Lotta Humbuckers, etc., can't go wrong with Seymour Duncan, but I wanted… read more to get back to the basics to be classic 70's - and I am very satisfied with the one-conductor '59 in the bridge. Sounds like a warmer, more responsive guitar under any overdrive situation, and I boost the gain through a Seymour Duncan signal booster pedal so it screams now - very cleanly, of course. The SD-1b won't make you sound like you have an EMG Hetfield, but it lets you play the guitar, not the other way around! For cleaner, more authentic blues, jazz and hard rock, get this pickup; you do the playing and and let the amp do the work like back in the day! Thanks as always to Mike Defraties at Sweetwater for making things happen!

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Solo replacement

Completed a solo lpk kit guitar. Sounded great. Researched pick-ups and decided on the Seymour-Duncan SH-1 59. Sounds great and I am very pleased.

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Pleased

Put this bridge pickup in a 2006 Epiphone super dot. Droppped in no problem. I also put in a mojo tone vintage taper pot. Very pleased with the sound and clarity. Saving up for the neck pickup.

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Unpotted version

I placed a special order through Sweetwater for an UNPOTTED '59 bridge. I've played Seth Lovers and the Bonamassa Skinnerburst sets which are both unpotted and they sounded fantastic in my Les Paul; wax or potting seems to subdue the sensitivity and harmonics at the cost of avoiding feedback - some say potting affects the midtone character the most. I didn't experience out of control… read more feedback issues with the Seths and Skinnerburst sets. Well, I installed the unpotted 59 in my Schecter semi-hollowbody that is wired 50s style, has vintage taper volume potentiometers and paper in oil capacitors. Vintage taper pots really offer more tonal variety and gain control compare to standard CTS pots.The tone sounds fantastic - especially sweet when dropping the guitar volume to cleanup the gain as heard through my Swart STR. The overall tone is warm yet very open with excellent detail and there are harmonics everywhere - very nice tone through tubes that are dancing between clean and gain via pick attack. By nature of its Alnico 5 magnet and eq, I dialed the height of the bass side slightly lower and the treble side at 4/64th from the poles. This pickup cost $8 more than the standard '59 and took about 3 weeks to arrive since it was a SD production floor special. It was well worth the wait. Sweetwater customer service is the best!

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59s are the best value true PAF out there.

Many companies including Gibson use dyed Poly coil wire in their PAF clones because its cheaper wire. Poly wire sounds completely different. I bought a set of these from Sweetwater and the cool thing is for the price you are getting 42 AWG Enamel wire like they used on the original PAFs. This is a great deal and pickup for getting that real vintage tone.

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