Seymour Duncan embraces the '70s with Saturday Night Special guitar pickups

Pickup giant Seymour Duncan has added to its wide-ranging roster with the Saturday Night Special humbucker, which uses Alnico 4 magnets.

Voiced to be hotter and fatter in the bridge, and clear and less wooly in the neck, the Saturday Night Specials are more aggressive than PAF-style models but without the compression of high-output pickups.

This tonal middle-ground nails late-'70s arena-rock tones, reckons Seymour Duncan.

Four-conductor wiring comes as standard for series/split/parallel configurations, and a maple spacer, metal cover and short mounting legs are also included.

In addition, the pickups are wax-potted to reduce squealing at high volumes, and available with nickel covers, gold covers, black uncovered bobbins and zebra uncovered bobbins.

Session ace Doug Rappoport sure makes these 'buckers sound sweet in the demo above - a two-pickup set will cost you $249.

Michael Astley-Brown

Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.