Seymour Duncan has announced the launch of its new Jazzmaster Silencer guitar pickups. These, says Duncan, offer “classic tone with absolutely no hum.”
While “designed to preserve the unmistakable Jazzmaster charm while eliminating unwanted noise” is a promise we've heard (and been disappointed by) before, it's hard to deny the quality tones in Seymour Duncan's demo. Berkeley, California-based producer Bobbing lays down some of the juiciest Jazzmaster noises we've heard in some time.
The Jazzmaster Silencers follow in the wake of Seymour Duncan's highly regarded Silencer P90 pickups, which use a similar technology.
The Jazzmaster Silencer is available in Vintage and Hot versions.
The Vintage Silencers “deliver the bright, punchy cleans and warm, mellow growls that define the Jazzmaster sound,” claims Duncan, “perfect for surf-inspired riffs, shimmering indie textures, and pedal-driven soundscapes.”
The Hot Silencers, meanwhile, “provide all the Jazzmaster character you love, but with higher output and enhanced power. Ideal for gritty rock, shoegaze, or experimental tones.”
Duncan argue that noiseless designs are especially important because of how frequently Jazzmaster users employ fuzz pedals and other high-gain sounds.
“When you're stacking overdrives and fuzzes, which do pair very well with the Jazzmaster sound, you get that noise amplified throughout your signal chain. When it comes out of your amp, it can be quite harsh or interfere with the sound.”
While many hum-cancelling single-coil pickups exist, all with their own strengths, most fall short of the goal of replicating vintage tone without noise. Seymour Duncan explains why typical stacked pickups fall short:
“With stacked humbuckers, you remove noise, but you also have issues of phase cancelation, which reduces low end and reduces the overall output of the pickup. To make up for that, stacked humbuckers are traditionally overwound, which then reduces the high end response of the pickup.”
Seymour Duncan says Silencer pickups eliminate the dreaded 60-cycle-hum “thanks to a patent-pending triple coil design.”
“The benefit of this triple coil design is that all three coils are actually in phase with each other. That means no phase cancelation and no reduction in high or low end. The outer coils eliminate hum, while the center coil delivers true Jazzmaster tone.”
Seymour Duncan launched the Silencer range with the Jared James Nichols signature P90.
