Seymour Duncan has launched its new Rail Series of pickups, with fan favorites redesigned with modern-minded rails.
The extensive collection rebuilds its JB, Jazz, Hot Rodded sets, and the metal staple Nazgûl and Sentient pickup set, with magnetic rails instead of pole pieces.
Rail-style pickups are designed so that strings never leave the magnetic field when bent, and to counter string spacing issues some pole piece designs are met with.
Importantly, Seymour Duncan has kept the tonal recipe of each pickup the same, but adds that the rail pickups offer greater “clarity, tightness, and sustain,” compared to their progenitors. This, it says, means the Rail Series pickups can shine in high-gain settings.
Seymour Duncan’s JB pickups feature in Jackson’s new American Series Virtuoso and “race car guitar” Soloist SL3, and return in a new format while keeping their “full low end, crisp highs, and upper midrange bump.” The rails have helped accentuate their attack, with the Jazz Rails similarly complimenting its “glassy treble response” with a better string-to-string balance.
The Hot Rodded set pairs a JB (SH-4) and Jazz (SH-2) pickup for a versatile set up ready to crunch and scream through high-gain tones.
For modern metal players, the Nazgûl and Sentient humbucker set – bridge and neck pickups respectively – is a tireless old faithful. Seymour Duncan says the classic pairing now benefits from a more focused low-end and extra precise sustain in the rail format.
“Together,” it says, “the Nazgûl Sentient Rails Set offers blistering highs, cutting mids, and precise bass, capturing the essence of modern metal.”
Of the Rail Series, the pickup pros say they deliver “the revered characteristics of our originals while infusing them with the clarity, tightness, and sustain of rail design.”
The release comes just after its latest collaboration with Billy Gibbons, which has seen the duo recreate his Red Devil Strat pickup for Telecasters and add extra power and sizzle to his Pearly Gate Humbuckers, designed to replicate the magic of his 1959 Les Paul, "Pearly Gates".
The Seymour Duncan Rail Series is available now, with each pickup available for six- and seven-string guitars. Prices start at $119.
Visit Seymour Duncan to learn more.
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