GEAR REVIEW
JIMI HENDRIX™ SIGNATURE LOADED PICKGUARD � Michael Hodge
I ’ m a big fan of the Fender Strat , so I was eagerly anticipating the opportunity to review these new signature pickups I ran across at the Seymour Duncan NAMM booth . I had no idea Seymour actually hand-made custom pickups for Jimi Hendrix back in 1968 . That ’ s a sweet piece of music history . Hendrix changed pretty much everything about modern guitar playing . His tone was somehow magical , and guitar players have been trying to re-create it for the past 30 years . From the upside-down Strat , to the vintage pedals , Marshall stacks , & coiled guitar cables , it ’ s all part of his Legacy .
OUT OF THE BOX : The Jimi Hendrix signature pickups come in three variations . The Standard and Voodoo style both are preloaded in a 3-ply white pick guard with pickups , knobs , and switch already installed . The Voodoo style will only fit guitars with either a swimming pool or humbucker routing , due to the reversed angle of the bridge pickup . The pickups themselves are the same in both sets . The third option is to order just the pickups themselves . Also inside the packaging are an installation guide , a nice little memorabilia booklet , and a Jimi Hendrix sticker for inspiration .
For this review I chose the Standard Signature Loaded and pre-wired Pickguard . It features the three custom wound signature Jimi Hendrix pickups with Alnico 5 magnets . There are three 250K pots , a five-way selector switch , a . 047 µ F capacitor and a pre-wired ¼ ” female jack .
INSTALLATION :
Key Features
Fully wired white Strat pickguard , including knobs and switches
Recreations of pickups Seymour Duncan wired and played by Jimi Hendrix in 1968
Authorized by Authentic Hendrix LLC
Installation is pretty easy because the
pickguard and pots and switch are prewired , so after taking the strings off and removing the old pickguard there ’ s just stripping and cutting a couple wires and soldering the new ones on . The installation guide is straightforward as well .
The tools required to install this are going to be a Phillips screwdriver , a soldering iron with solder , a quarter inch jack socket wrench , and a wire stripper . At a leisurely pace it took under an hour , start to finish . Surprisingly , the way the pickups are mounted , they ’ re already well balanced with each pickup being equal in volume to the others . You may , however , need to raise or lower them a little depending on your guitar . The key is getting all three to be consistent volume wise .
TONE FOR DAYS : I was excited to finally hear what all the hype was about . One thing I notice about good pickups is they usually have an extended highend , an extended low-end , and do tend to be a bit louder overall . These are single coils , and though they ’ re coated with wax for noise
and stability , you ’ re going to have a little bit of normal hum . What ’ s interesting on a Strat is that in the in between pickup positions sound scooped and a little thin , but with less actual hum . The first thing I noticed is that the guitar sounded really sweet . I know that might sound weird . I didn ’ t have a way to scientifically tell if the pickups are louder than the previous pickups , but they sound amazing . The neck pickup has a nice low-end . It ’ s a little scooped and has enough high-end chime to get that classic Strat sound . Cranked up with the pedal , it nails that Hendrix tone . In a clean setting it could also pass for a nice jazz tone . The middle pickup works great for picking and tight , poppy , choppy rhythm .
The bridge pick up is very bright , but still balanced tonally with the other two , with the pronounced upper mid range .
The in between switch sounds of two pickup combinations is as scooped as I ’ ve ever heard , and in a good way . Instant Dire Straits tone for days .
CONCLUSIONS : If you ’ re a fan of the true Jimi Hendrix tone , or are just looking to upgrade to some killer Strat pickups , you ’ re going to find it here . Are they exactly the same pickups Seymour Duncan made for Jimi Hendrix almost 50 years ago ? I don ’ t know for sure , but chances are they ’ re pretty darn close .
I have a couple of Fender Strats and custom Strats , but the guitar with these is now my go to . I really like them , and I would recommend them to anyone .
To get the pickups , the pickguard , and all the pots and switches totally pre-wired is a great value .
Jimi Hendrix™ Signature Loaded Pickguard : $ 379.00 Pickups separately : $ 279.00
www . SeymourDuncan . com
18 May � Jun 2017 CollectibleGuitar . com