Seymour Duncan Seth Lover or SH-1n '59 Model 1 ?

[ranbush]

I'm planning to change the pickups on a '17 SF V. Looking around on this site and other sites, the Seymour Duncan/Seth Lover Humbuckers or Seymour Duncan SH-1b '59 Model 1's seem to be popular upgrades.

One thing I noticed is the Seth Lovers are not wax-potted. I don't play loud, it's usually just a few guys on a Saturday morning, playing blues and classic rock through small amps. Would the non-potted pups be noisy in a house with old tube-and-plate electrical wiring?

And the Seth Lovers come with mounting rings - are the spacing and mounting holes correct for a SF V?

The 59's don't seem to come with mounting rings - will they fit in the OEM Guild rings?

TIA for all information.

 

[wdboland]

To add confusion. You may want to consider a pair of Lindy Fralin Pure PAF's. I just put a pair in a Nightbird this past weekend. I think they have become my favorite pickups.

 

[wdboland]

Never-mind they may not fit. Did the 17 SFV come with 'Little Bucker' pickups?

 

[ranbush]

Thanks for the suggestion/confusion/option, Wayne. I've heard good things about Lindy Fralin products.

I think the '17 SFV are "standard bucker" size, they look about the same size as the '00 SFIII that I have. I've read GAD's article on dimensons but I have not compared the SFV to the SFIII or measured the rings or the mounting holes.

 

[Quantum Strummer]

Of the two SD pickups sets mentioned I'd go with the Lovers. More treble air in their sound. The '59s would be more accurately named '69s based on their tonality.

Lack of potting won't increase hum in an electrically noisy environment. The point of potting is to reduce/eliminate mechanical feedback caused by vibration inside the pickup (or sometimes by a rattling pickup cover).

-Dave-

 

[swiveltung]

I like the Lovers myself. But both those pickups are good. But will they fit?

 

[Guildedagain]

Unpotted pickups are thought to sound better, because of little vibrations, possibly even windings vibrating.

I've had to pot several pickups over the years with beeswax/parafin mix (60/40?) because of terrible microphonic feedback. Old Tele neck pickups are a common one, prob the cover vibrating. On the PAF style p'ups the German Silver covers are very solidly soldered, not likely to vibrate.

I have an incredibly old set of Seth Lovers in a 335. They are great great sounding p'ups. The neck p'up has a push/pull tone pot to split the p'up into a single coil, sounds so good I only play the whole pickup by accident or if I need a muddier tone, which is never.

 

[ranbush]

Just to follow up on this thread, when I talked to a local luthier about changing the pups on the '17 SF V, he suggested first changing to Orange Drop 600V 716P caps and 500K pots. The components upgrade made a big improvement on the sound of the OEM pups, and I'm going to play it this way for a while to see if I still want to change pups. Upgrade cost me about $280 USD parts and labor so it's not an expensive first step.

YMMV, FWIW, BYOB.

 

[ranbush]

Update: I like the sound of the new caps and pots that I had installed in the '17 SF V, so I plan to do the same upgrade in my '00 SF III. If anyone knows the specs and/or which pots and caps were used in the Westerly Starfires, I would appreciate the information.

TIA.