Click to visit Sweetwater Click to visit Gearank

Seymour Duncan High Voltage Humbucker

Seymour Duncan reveals more information on the Custom Shop High Voltage humbucker used in Angus Young’s SG.

 Seymour Duncan High Voltage Humbucker

With AC/DC’s reputation for outstanding straight-to-amp rock and roll tones, many guitar players are curious as to what pickups they were using. The secret is now out thanks to a recent interview with the band’s guitar techs, who revealed intimate details about Angus Young’s main touring guitars, including the artist’s use of custom made Seymour Duncan pickups.

Without specifically name dropping, the company describes this pickup as being developed for one of rock’s most iconic guitar players. But we do know him to be Angus Young, and the story goes that he was looking of a dirty and mean sounding pickup with vintage style tonalities.

So Seymour Duncan custom made a set for him, with some similarities to their Pearly Gates pickup but substantially different. The press release describes the pickup as being very clean and bluesy, with some of the low end trimmed, ideal for driving cranked Marshall amplifiers – much like how Angus would.

Seymour Duncan expounds: “One of the keys to the High Voltage sound is the selection of specifically calibrated Alnico II magnets to provide an even response between the bridge and neck pickups. The neck pickup is wound to a DC resistance of 7.7k, with the bridge wound a little hotter at 8.6k for a little more sonic T.N.T.

Another important feature of the High Voltage humbucker set is the use of lightly aged chrome covers, that were prepared using a special process that’s different from their Antiquity series pickups. What it does is protect the components from corrosive sweat which many in the rock guitar style would be encountering. It also gives the pickup an slightly aged aesthetic, so it doesn’t look out of place when swapped with your existing pickups.

Being a Seymour Duncan Custom Shop pickup, ordering one will let you choose from a number of aesthetic options including the actual finish of pickup cover, the finish of the screws, type of hook-up-cable and many more.

While this pickup is especially designed for dropping into an SG, plugging into a Marshall tube amp and rocking out, it can also be used with any guitar designs that accept replacement pickup.

You can head over to Seymour Duncan for further details and the complete specifications of the pickup.

Related Article:

cheap guitar pickups
Click here for more Affordable Electric Guitar Pickups!

Leave a Reply