Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster review

Turn single coils into humbuckers

  • £109
  • €117
  • $143
Reviews
By
( )
published
Flick the resonance switch to position 1 and it changes a single coil a humbucker sound

MusicRadar Verdict

Such is its tone shaping and boosting potential, you may even find yourself wanting more than one...

Pros

  • +

    It works and the results are impressive. Top-notch build. Easy to use.

Cons

  • -

    Very little.

MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.

Not only the home of a huge range of retro-fit pickups, Seymour Duncan has, in recent years, produced some rather good stompboxes.

Its original pedal was the Pickup Booster, which has been out of production for a couple of years; now it's back - slightly upgraded, but essentially the same.

"The new spec offers a footswitchable gain boost from 0dB to a pretty substantial 25dB lift"

Now assembled at SD HQ in Santa Barbara, aside from a lighter, more generic rectangular box, the new spec offers a footswitchable gain boost from 0dB to a pretty substantial 25dB lift.

On unity gain (0dB), with the resonance switch set at 0, it's a low-impedance line driver that'll clean up long cable runs, or simply raise gain to add crunch to the front-end of your amp and/or a full-on solo boost.

Flick the resonance switch to position 1 and it changes a single coil to the smoother, rounded top-end of a vintage humbucker.

In position 2, the effect is enhanced, simulating a darker 'bucker - in either position, you still have the full range of the gain boost.

With a vintage-spec Strat, for example, it's like adding a humbucker to your guitar - in vintage or high-gain flavour - while the boost potential will really get you heard.

Dave Burrluck
Dave Burrluck

Dave Burrluck is one of the world’s most experienced guitar journalists, who started writing back in the '80s for International Musician and Recording World, co-founded The Guitar Magazine and has been the Gear Reviews Editor of Guitarist magazine for the past two decades. Along the way, Dave has been the sole author of The PRS Guitar Book and The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance as well as contributing to numerous other books on the electric guitar. Dave is an active gigging and recording musician and still finds time to make, repair and mod guitars, not least for Guitarist’s The Mod Squad.