Seymour Duncan introduces the Saturday Night Special humbuckers, designed to replicate classic ’70s era rock tones.
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With so many pickup manufacturers focusing on vintage ’50s and modern tones, this new set is a welcome variation, designed to produce tones the sit between old school and new school. It is meant to be fatter and hotter than vintage pickups, without the compression found on modern ones.
The new Saturday Night Special Set is made in Seymour Duncan’s facility in Santa Barbara, California. They feature four-conductor wiring with a maple spacer and they come with short mounting legs, which should make it an easy replacement for a wide variety of dual passive-humbucker configuration guitars.
Instead of just making a one-size-fits-all pickup that can be used in both the neck and bridge positions, Seymour Duncan designed this set to have distinctly different sounds that complement the position. The bridge position is described to be a little fatter and hotter, great for classic rock riffs and cutting leads. The neck position on the other hand is fine-tuned to be less “wooly” and a little clearer, meant for singing solos or for clean tone playing.
According to Seymour Duncan SVP of Products and CRO Max Gutnik, “Alnico 4 has a generally flatter, more even frequency response compared to other magnets, with less cut in the high end and a sweeter overall tone compared to Alnico 5. It’s great for classic rock when you need a clean or semi-distorted tone with plenty of character.”
Instead of taking their word for it, you can hear the new Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special Humbuckers in action below:
It is available either in sets of two or individually in case you want to mix one of them with other pickups you already like. Cosmetic options include black uncovered bobbins, nickel covers, gold covers and Zebra uncovered bobbins.
The four-conductor wiring of each pickup allows for series/split/parallel configurations, in case you want to expand your tone options with a push/pull tone knob or an extra switch. To ensure quiet operation, each of the new humbucker pickups are wax-spotted right at their US facility.
The Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special pickups are currently retailing for just under $250 per set. You can visit Seymour Duncan for more information and other details.
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