YNGWIE MALMSTEEN Visits SEYMOUR DUNCAN Factory; Video Available

January 27, 2010

On January 18, legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen came to the Seymour Duncan factory for a post-NAMM factory tour. During his visit, Yngwie wound his first-ever electric guitar pickups: a set of three true single coil pickups for Stratocaster. Tutoring him on winding technique was Seymour Duncan Custom Shop manager, Maricela Juarez.

The pickups are based on Leo Fenders vintage pickups designs for the Stratocaster. The magnets are sand-cast Alnico 2. The bobbins are hand-fabricated from forbon vulcanized fiber. The magnet wire is vintage-correct Heavy Formar. The d.c. resistance of the neck and middle pickups are 6.40K ohms each, which makes them vintage voiced. At 9.70K ohms, the bridge pickup is over-wound for a hotter, higher-output sound. Each pickup comes with an aged white cover and is ready to install into a Stratocaster or similar type electric guitar. Yngwie signed the bottom plates of each of the pickups as well as the description label for each (six signatures total).

You can hear Yngwie talk about his experience winding the pickups and even see Maricela giving him tips on the YouTube video that documented this very special day.

Whether you are a collector of rock-star memorabilia or a guitar tone aficionado, this one-of-a-kind set of working pickups hand-wound by the King of Shred himself will be the crown piece in the winners collection.

As Yngwie and Cathy Duncan mentioned in the video, all proceeds from the auction of this very special set of pickups will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF),the international humanitarian aid organization that is providing aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti.

More than 700 MSF staff are working to provide emergency medical care to survivors in and around Port-au-Prince. Yngwie and Seymour Duncan are doing their part to help out. You can too. And you'll end up owning an amazing set of pickups.

eBay auction details will follow.

(Thanks: Fullshred)

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