Seymour Duncan

Talks About
Electric Guitar Pickups

By the time I was sixteen I was playing guitar eight or ten hours a day. I played lead at clubs and in concerts on the East Coast, but I was frustrated because I couldn't get the sounds I wanted out of my Telecaster.

Then one night we played on the same billing with another group that had Robbie Robertson on lead. He was a fantastic player, and soon after that became famous as a member of The Band. He had a Telecaster, too, but when we played between sets, trading off licks, I couldn't match his unique sound.

I asked him if he would open up his guitar and show me what he had inside. He did, and the first thing that I noticed was that his pickups were different from mine.