Seymour Duncan RED DEVIL FOR TELE Billy Gibbons Signature Tele Pickup

[Humbuckers]

Looks interesting, with a more moderate wind and A5 magnet vs. the hot wind and ceramic mag of the Little 59.

Red Devil™ for Tele® | Seymour Duncan

The Red Devil pickup is now available for your Telecaster! Willie G’s Texas tone is now easy to fire up with this replacement bridge pickup for any Tele®.

www.seymourduncan.com

Didn’t love the demo video with Billy G, but it sounds better here:



Seems to sound more like an actual PAF style humbucker than the Little 59.

 

[Slamb]

Looks very similar to the 'Pearly Gates' for Tele. SD sure makes plenty of mileage outta BG !

 

[northernguitar]

I have one in a Strat copy. It's fat, warm and ballsy.

 

[KokoTele]

I have the Strat version too. Fat, warm, ballsy, but a little nasal. I like it, but I'm considering modding the guitar for a full-size Pearly Gates instead.

 

[Antigua Tele]

If people like a Little 59 with an AlNiCo bar, that's well and good. But from a technical standpoint, the magnetism of the Little 59 design is undermined by using little screws instead of large screws, or blades (Hot Rails). The ceramic magnet was a good choice for the Little 59 because the strong magnetic field helps offset what is lost due to the little screws. In technical terms the little screws create a "high magnetic reluctance path". The proportion of magnetic steel to air is lower than with most all other humbucker designs on the market.

It was brave of Seymour Duncan to have put a ceramic magnet in a pickup with the numbers '59 in the the name of the pickup, considering how guitarists feel about ceramic magnets. But over the years, I guess it has bothered players, and they've released newer iterations of the Little 59 design with AlNiCo bars, first the Little Pearly Gates and now the Red Devil.

I bought the Little Pearly Gates way back when and I really felt the poor magnetic situation under my fingers; the pick attack wasn't snappy, it felt like regular Little 59's that were just set way too low. I haven't tried the Red Devils, but I suspect I'd have a similar opinion of them, given the specs.

 

[Hodgo88]

Didn’t sound like something I’d want from that demo. Sounded muddy and flat.

 

[Antigua Tele]

"Harmonics jump out of the guitar", he's quoting a line direct from the Seymour Duncan website. And, IMO, harmonics were not jumping out of anything. I sounded not so great.

"It doesn't feel like a Tele anymore", not exactly a good thing?

"Takes me to a nostalgic place", always suspect when people talk about electrical components in emotional terms rather than, you know, electrical terms.

Also looking at the time stamps, I think he played the Tele with the actual Pearly Gates for about twice as long as the one with Red Devil bridge.

 

[Antigua Tele]

Didn’t sound like something I’d want from that demo. Sounded muddy and flat.

There's a reason for this; the resonant peak of the Pearly Gates under load is around 2.5kHz bridge and 3.0kHz neck, very typical PAF spec and not even anything too special. Sound great insofar as all such pickups sound great.

The Little 59 and Red Devil have loaded resonant peaks some where below 2.0kHz, and the reason Seymour Duncan likely spec'd it this way, is to compensate for the increased treble of the single coil sized pickup being set close to the bridge, by filtering out some treble with the a lower resonant peak. Some guitarists are happy enough with the compromise, but it's a hack, and a lot of other guitarists can hear that it's a hack. They hear that in excess of 500Hz of treble has been rolled off, hence it's muddy like you've noticed.

Seymour Duncan would not have had to do such a thing if the Little 59 or Red Devil could be shifted half an inch towards the center of the guitar, in order to see the string harmonics more like a PAF sized and placed pickup does, but of course this is a drop-in replacement pickup and that's not possible.

The single coil sized humbucker that comes close to PAF electrical values is the DiMarzio Chopper. It would be more technically legitimate to call a Chopper a Little 59 than the actual Little 59. Seeing as how DiMarzio has a tm on "PAF" I think they really dropped the ball on that one.

Sorry for all the negativity I'm posting on this topic, but there's things about these pickups I think guitarists should realize.

 

[Blazer]

Didn’t sound like something I’d want from that demo. Sounded muddy and flat.

To be VERY honest, having seen ZZ Top live, I can say the same thing about his recent live sound.

 

[northernguitar]

Sorry for all the negativity I'm posting on this topic, but there's things about these pickups I think guitarists should realize.

Have you tried it yourself? I love the tone I get out of it on a Strat copy.

 

[Peegoo]

I have the Strat version too. Fat, warm, ballsy, but a little nasal. I like it, but I'm considering modding the guitar for a full-size Pearly Gates instead.

The full-up PG pickup is the real deal. I've had a zebra set in this LP Classic since around 2000 or so.

 

[Hodgo88]

To be VERY honest, having seen ZZ Top live, I can say the same thing about his recent live sound.

Sounds a bit fuzzy to me

 

[Antigua Tele]

Have you tried it yourself? I love the tone I get out of it on a Strat copy.

I had the Little Pearly Gates, which was the Custom Shop predecessor of the Red Devils. The specs differ slightly, if at all.

 

[Antigua Tele]

To be VERY honest, having seen ZZ Top live, I can say the same thing about his recent live sound.

That's a surprise. I can't find the video, but there was a video where Billy Gibbons talks about using rack mount EQ to profile his ideal sound, and duplicate that tone, no matter the pickup. I see that some of his guitars have PAF's and some have Filter'trons, but he wants them all to sound the same, to all have the signature ZZ Top sound. Even Billy Gibbon's perception of pickups is apparently in terms of EQ profiles, and not haunting mids or jumping harmonics.

 

[northernguitar]

I had the Little Pearly Gates, which was the Custom Shop predecessor of the Red Devils. The specs differ slightly, if at all.

Horses for courses.

 

[KokoTele]

That's a surprise. I can't find the video, but there was a video where Billy Gibbons talks about using rack mount EQ to profile his ideal sound, and duplicate that tone, no matter the pickup. I see that some of his guitars have PAF's and some have Filter'trons, but he wants them all to sound the same, to all have the signature ZZ Top sound. Even Billy Gibbon's perception of pickups is apparently in terms of EQ profiles, and not haunting mids or jumping harmonics.

Here's the Rig Rundown where his tech shows it

 

[GoldieLocks]

I wasn't happy with the Lil' 59 in my tele - it seemed to have lost the lows and hi's. It was fun though (*good Les Paul type modern Rock tone).
Now i'm trying the Seymour Duncan BG 1400 stacked single coil: so far I like it much better. All the lows and hi's and meatier.
I recorded them all: honestly - could barely hear the difference between a Wilkinson ceramic ($40. amazon), the lil' 59... and the BG 1400 ($210). But it feels great for now.

 

[laterider7]

Not much action here, anyone else try the Tele Red Devil pickup?

Thinking about pairing it with a SD Vintage Stack in the neck position on a Player Tele.

 

[laterider7]

Pickups have arrived as's a Christmas gift from the wife!!!

I'd love to toss them in now but a lot going on and will be fun to have more time to install and give them attention during time off. Pickup swap really wasn't my plan originally, it was a leave stock project and learn some new tunings but I like just playing the guitar. Another unplanned likely mod is to go with a black guard just like Willie G's Tele he shows in the video about the pickups. I'm easily distracted to make more mods! I also can't leave enough alone so it will be the pickup swap with a .033 ufd tone cap and the black/white/black pickguard when I get the time to install.

 

[Grandfunkfan]

I didn't know, not that dynamic, didn't have the definition in the bottom, and a bit too middy. I can see where some guys might like the swampy thing, but I like more clarity and less honk.