
charvelstrat81
Member
lll":2h1eemab said:To test my theory, I decided to find as old an SH-5 that I could on Ebay at the time.
I also bought a new SH-5.
I used Voxengo CurveEQ and captured the freq response for both.
With maybe two very very slight frequency exceptions, they matched.
lll":2h1eemab said:From what I've heard, ceramic mags do not weaken over time, but AlNiCo mags do. So old pickups with AlNiCos just
might actually change tone over the years.
But yeah, I tried to get a really old SH-5 (as that SD "VAN HALEN" pickup advertisement was from 1979); figuring
the closer I got to '77 (when 1st VH album was recorded), the closer in tone the SH-5 would be. Turns out
in this case for this particular pickup it doesn't matter.
Ok, but then how do you explain my 1979 custom being only 13.4K and all the newer ones are wound to 14.1K or higher?
The custom i has was bought when that ad was in GP magazine.
Unlike you and chubtone when i A/B'ed my old one from 79 to a newer one and even a DCJ from the 80's the one from 79 DOES sound different, enough to make a difference

The DCJ i bought is 13.9K and the newer SH-5 is 14.3K,
My old one from 1979 sounds a lot more like a hot PAF than the newer ones, it is more open and warmer and does not have as much output.
this is what the bottom looks like,it has a "Seymourized" sticker on it and just says Duncan custom
