Seymour Duncan 5 String Pickups and STC-3 Preamp

[jlaplante]

Up for sale are custom Seymour Duncan 5-string pickups and a preamp removed from a Dingwall Z1 that I recently purchased used from Paul Slagle (I believe he is a TB member, not sure of user name).

Paul knows Brian Beller personally (Duncan engineer and co-founder) and had the pickups and preamp custom built for him. Paul described his goal as to get a very clean modern sound, which indeed this setup does very well. Very clear articulate mids and highs, smooth lows. Great sheen.

The pickups are soapbars 1.25" x 4.25" x .75"D. Single screw holes on either side 4" ctr-ctr. The Dingwall is 18mm effective string spacing so 18m is guaranteed to work. However most Duncan pickups are blades so string spacing may not be a real issue. Three-conducter wiring with plus/minus and shield alowing flexible wiring of pickup phase.

The preamp is basically today's Seymour Duncan STC-3 with the addition of a 3-band mid freq selection toggle switch. It was wired for 18volts, not sure if it can be used with 9v. The preamp include vol, balance, bass, mid (3 selectable bands) and treble. The volume has a pull switch to enable a great slap mid-scoop sound. The preamp includes the original 5 black knurled metal knobs. All wiring has been meticuously documented with masking tape labels.

The STC series preamps were just being developed at the time this preamp was made. Brain Beller later used Paul's suggestions for the preamp voicing in the final STC-3 design.

STC preamps

$200 plus $15 shipping for all.
$125 plus $15 shipping for both pickups.
$125 plus $15 shipping for preamp.


More Photos: http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/d...and%20pickups/

[tubby.twins]

Please tell me more about the pickups. Are they passive or active? Are they labeled for "neck" or "bridge" positions (i.e. one of each)? Do you have any DC resistance measurements?

[jlaplante]

Originally Posted by tubby.twins

Please tell me more about the pickups. Are they passive or active? Are they labeled for "neck" or "bridge" positions (i.e. one of each)? Do you have any DC resistance measurements?

Good questions:

1. Passive
2. Yes, they are labelled, you can see if you link over to the other pictures
3. See DC readings below, both pickups are roughly equal measurements

Ohms between all three wires:
RED - WHT = 2.2M
WHT - CLR = 1.1M
CLR - RED = 550K

[tubby.twins]

OK, with DC resistance measurements like these, the pickups are almost certainly active. I tested an active Basslines pickup of similar construction, and got values close to yours.

A passive pickup should get somewhere between 5K and 20K DC resistance between the signal and common, and should have no connection between the shield/ground wire and either of these other wires.

The other thing I noticed in your pictures was that both pickups' red wires were connected to another red wire, which came from somewhere else in the body. I'd bet this was the battery box.

I'm still interested in the pickups though...

[jlaplante]

OK, with DC resistance measurements like these, the pickups are almost certainly active.

Well fancy that - I appreciate the input. I guess that leads me to wonder if I should sell this all as a set and not split up. I can't be clear on what other pickups would work with this pre and vice versa...