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“If you are into anything aggressive, you owe it to yourself to check these out”: Seymour Duncan issues reconfigured alt.metal Blackouts – specifically tailored for low-tuned metal riffs
Seymour Duncan has unveiled the alt.metal Blackouts – a new version of its popular Blackouts humbucker series. They are inspired by “the merciless roar of alternative metal guitar tones” and specially designed for down-tuned riffs.
Following Corey Beaulieu's signature Blackouts, the pickup firm has now issued a tweaked EQ to better handle the cranked low-end that comes with down-tuned guitars.
As such, these new pickups are said to “enhance the low-end tightness, along with adding top-end bite without harshness”.
The Blackouts’ standout characteristics – high-energy, high-output, and percussive palm mute powers – remain. This, despite the fresh tone sculpting that’s gone on beneath their stealthy black covers.
In a Seymour Duncan demo, Ryan 'Fluff' Bruce says the alt.metal Blackouts are designed for drop C# tunings and lower. He also describes the pickups as “a little different” from their predecessors, confidently saying: “If you are into anything aggressive, you owe it to yourself to check these out.”
The set pairs a ceramic humbucker in the bridge with an Alnico V in the neck, with Fluff singling out the neck pickup for its “bell-like tones” that “don't get the muddiness of a lot of other neck pickups”.
The pickup has also been crafted with clean tones in mind, while “transforming with aggressive mids and increased sustain under higher gain settings” for a Jekyll & Hyde versatility.
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The alt.metal Blackouts pickups are available in passive mounts for six-string models. Passive and active soapbar mount versions are extended to seven-string guitars, further proving that the emphasis is on low-tuned modern metal above all else.
The alt.metal Blackouts humbuckers are available from $258.
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
