We get a lot of
questions about our two Seymour Duncan
Custom Shop Hand Scatter-Wound SSL-1C DG
pickups. So we thought it would be a good
idea to run through the details about these
two pickups and why our pickups are being
made the way they are.
We are having two
versions of this true single coil Strat
pickup custom manufactured for us by MJ in
the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop, she signs each
of these pickups that she has personally wound for
us.
Our first version is the
SSL-1C DG (Original).
Our second version is the
SSL-1C DG
Rw/Rp
(Reverse Wind / Reverse Polarity).
Both of these pickups
are hand scatter-wound (traversed), vintage
staggered height and beveled Alnico 5 pole
pieces, cloth tape wrapped coil with a
target DC resistance of 12.9k.
There are a few
factors we considered when having these
custom pickups built. First thing we took
into consideration is that predominantly
these two SSL-1C DG pickups are destined to
be installed with two of the Fender Custom
Shop pickups, the Custom ‘69 in the middle
position and the Fat 50 in the neck
position. And with Fender and Seymour
Duncan’s “normal” wind direction of their
single coil pickups are the opposite of
one-another, however they orientate the pole
pieces the same direction we set out to make
sure both of our custom wound SSL-1C DG
pickups are 100% compatible with Fenders
Custom Shop pickups winding direction and
pole piece polarity orientation. This is to
prevent a pickup from having to be installed
with its hook-up leads reversed in order to
prevent phasing issues when a Seymour Duncan
single coil pickup and Fender pickups are
selected together.
 Our first version,
the SSL-1C DG
(Original) pickup is reverse wound in
reference to how Seymour Duncan normally
winds their single coil pickups (Clock-Wise),
but it is wound the same direction as
Fender’s Custom Shop pickups (Not their
Rw/Rp). The pole piece polarity orientation
of the SSL-1C DG is the same as Fender’s
with South up.
 Our second version,
the SSL-1C DG
Rw/Rp
(Reverse Wind / Reverse Polarity) pickup
is wound the same direction as how Seymour
Duncan normally winds their single coil
pickups (Counter
Clock-Wise), but it has the pole pieces
orientated with
North up
which is a reverse
polarity to Seymour Duncan’s normal single
coil pickup construction. This creates a
Reverse Wound / Reverse Polarity pickup in
reference to Fender’s Custom Shop pickups
(Not their Rw/Rp).
For a point of
reference. A standard Seymour Duncan
SSL-5 is wound the opposite direction as a
Fender Custom Shop Custom ‘69 and a Fat 50
(not their Rw/Rp) but has the same pole
piece polarity orientation, so when a SSL-5
is installed with a Fender Custom Shop
Custom ‘69 and Fat 50 you must reverse the
hook-up leads on the SSL-5 in order to
prevent phasing issues when it is
selected with the Custom ‘69 or Fat 50.
Reversing the leads means you have to hook
up the black lead to the selector switch and
the white lead to the ground. By reversing
the leads solves the phasing problem when
two pickups are selected together but can
create another issue. This other issue is
caused by how these single coil pickups are
wound. There is no insulation or bobbin
material in-between the winding wire and the
metal surfaces of the pole pieces, the coil
winding wire winds directly around the pole
pieces, the only barrier between the copper
winding wire and the pole pieces is the
enamel insulation on the winding wire,
however sometimes this enamel insulation is
not sufficient enough or breaks down and
causes the copper winding wire to make
contact with the pole pieces and if the
pickups hook-up leads are reversed the pole
pieces can be energized since the start of
the winding of a single coil pickup is
connected to the black wire but now with the
reversed leads it is now connected as the
hot lead. This will become noticeable when
a guitar string is pressed down into the
pole piece of the pickup and it acts as a
kill switch, completely shuts down the audio
signal. This is because the guitar string is
connected to ground and the now energized
pole piece is hot. This is obviously a bad
occurrence, that is why we have our SSL-1C
DG pickups both wound the correct direction
so that when combined with Fender Custom
Shop Pickups both of our SSL-1C DG pickups
will always have their black (or start
winding hook-up lead) wire connected to
ground.
Since these two
versions of the SSL-1C DG pickups are assembled or
built different, the question always comes
up will they sound different? The answer is
no. They are essentially the same pickup,
it is only the winding direction and pole
piece polarity orientation that is
different, this does not effect output,
tonality, harmonics or sustain. The only
thing that is different is that when the
SSL-1C DG Rw/Rp pickup is installed with a
Fender Custom Shop Custom ‘69 in the middle
pickup position and the Fat 50 in the neck
pickup position you will gain two pickup
selection positions of hum cancelling. When
the bridge and middle pickup are selected
together in selector switch position #2 you
achieve hum cancelling, also when the bridge
and neck pickups are selected together via
the recessed mini-toggle switch you also
achieve hum cancelling.
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