Seymour Duncan Black Winter Bridge

I'd already played the Black Winter pickups in a Schecter KM6 I had tried out and thought they were fantastically tight but a little too bright without a slightly darker sounding rig. They were however fantastic for tunings from E standard all the way to C standard without changing gauges which was very impressive. I picked this up to replace a Bill Lawrence USA500xl that sounded icepick-like and muddy at the same time in a Dean ML I wanted to upgrade. My Dean is also a naturally warm sounding guitar, which is what led me to the Black Winter bridge. Upon getting the guitar back from the tech and plugging it into my various rigs, I noticed several things immediately.

Firstly, the Black Winter Bridge is nowhere a surprisingly versatile sounding pickup. The first sounds I got out of my newly upgraded guitar were more saturated and sludgy than I had expected and were excellent for anything from old school death metal to drone metal. Secondly, the mids were very very pleasant for such a high output pickup. There's a nice presence to the pickup but it doesn't come with any shrill or brittle tones unless you intentionally dial them in. Thirdly, this pickup is really noticeably different depending on the guitar you put it in. In my Dean, it's much more suited to something a little less tight and more saturated whereas in the KM6 I tried it would be fantastic for any music requiring a focused, clear and gainy tone.

This really is a very good sounding pickup. The lows are anywhere between thick and quite tight depending on the rig you run them through. The mids are pleasant and incredibly usable compared to other higher output pickups. The highs are anywhere from surprisingly muted to quite sharp depending on the value of potentiometers/inherent tone of the guitar which can be tricky to balance and is the only very slight downside to the tone, which can however be fixed with a potentiometer change or by rolling off the tone a little.

The output is quite high but not so that it obliterates the front end of the amp. There's a lot of clarity which does let you pile on the gain more if you want to whilst still allowing you to hear a good balance between high and low notes in chords.

This is a great pickup for any genre requiring gain of any sort. Try one out in at least two slightly tonally different guitars.

I bought this as an upgrade for my Jackson King V STD from the early-mid 90s. After playing with this pickup and making comparisons, the Seymour Duncan has a tighter bass response, it's punchier, has more clarity, the note seperation is great, chords are full sounding and you can hear every note equally, even inverted power chords are more even sounding. It's my perfect pickup and was worth every penny.


It looks a lot better in person as well, in my opinion. The black pole pieces and screws really add to the all black look on my guitar, certainly nicer than the typical chrome pole pieces on almost every other passive pickup. It's also a little heavier than I was expecting. So far I don't have any negatives about the pickup, it sits well in a mix for rhythm and lead playing, it's tight sounding and not too trebly while giving you clarity and excellent note seperation.