Good video on Seymour Duncan

[frankfalbo]

Seymour has always said he had to make up another name for JB. But that's how much respect he has for Jeff. Personally he has really tried to be gracious about avoiding the Jeff connection. He has to talk about it in interviews though and everyone knows the Blow By Blow connection. When he's been asked in the past he has said it was named for Jazz/Blues, but now he allows himself to complete the story by saying why.

[David Schwab]

Frank, I was hoping to see you in the video!

You are right, and that is the respectful thing to do. I don't think there was anything wrong with calling the pickup the JB under the circumstances. I'm actually surprised that Jeff hasn't worked more with Seymour since then. Seems like they would be a perfect match.

[copperheadroads]

But that's what it was named for, regardless what it means today. This is the legalese answer, not the real answer. We all know what the EVH pickup was, and who it was originally made for. Same is true of the JB.

And come on now, is this pickup REALLY good for jazz or blues? Not in the very least. If Skopp said it meant "Jelly Bean" would you believe that? Don't be naïve.

Christ!!!! everybody knows JB= Jeff Beck ,(this is probably a question on the show "So you think your smarter than a 5th grader" ) i was just saying they call it or refer to it as Jazz/Blues

[jmaf]

Christ!!!! everybody knows JB= Jeff Beck

I always thought it was Jim Beam. Jeff Beck brings equally good feelings.

[frankfalbo]

They are friends, and with the 35th Anniversary there have been some connections. Seymour gave him a "Thirty Five" guitar (non-serialized) at a Jeff Beck show in LA. He even shows up in one of our recent ads.

[freefrog]

For me, the best "picture" of Seymour Duncan is in this short story that I 've found on the Net:



"Here's the deal. I met with Seymour himself at a museum exhibit for the Duncan pickup line at the NAMM museum in Carlsbad, CA, and he got to talking about how he got the idea to look up Seth Lover and see what he was doing. Well, Seth was basically old and broke and living in a trailer park in Garden Grove, CA. Like most inventors working for a company, he didn't receive any ongoing compensation for his invention of the humbucker pickup, and after all the trading of ownership at Gibson he ended up down and out. So Seymour sat down and chewed the fat with Seth and his wife, the two pickup gurus came up the pickup that Seth would have made today, and Seymour made sure to name it the Seth Lover pickup and guarantee royalties off every sale to Seth. And now that Seth is no longer with us, (imagine who he's sitting with up there) his wife benefits. I don't see anyone else doing anything like this, other than Robert Keeley donating proceeds from some of his e-bay sales to Katrina victims and other charities. Seymour has never tried to profit from this, but I feel something needs to be said. Seth Lover is a hero to anyone that plays humbuckers, and Gibson never went out of their way to provide for his retirement. Hats off to Seymour, and people like Keeley, that go beyond the call to do more. When I play my Seth Lovers, and I've got more than this axe has, I feel a close connection to the beginning of all this. God bless."

Sources:

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Seth Lovers - Heritage Owners Club

Marketing? I don't think so. I personally believe this story to be true and it contributes to my own "affection" of European anonymous player for my SH55's. It also justifies somewhat my fidelity until now to Duncan, whose pickups are among those that I've the more used and tested as the "guitar pickups eater" that I am. :-)