Seymour Duncan embraces the '70s with Saturday Night Special guitar pickups
Humbucker set uses Alnico 4 magnets
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.
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Mike has been Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com since 2019, and an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict for far longer. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and 15 years' experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. His writing also appears in the The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock as Maebe.
