Adrian, Janick and Dave's guitars and Steve's basses

[matic22]

I have a question for Matic, and anyone else who might know!

I’d like to revisit the Seymour Duncan pickups Dave has used. I read in this thread that, in the ’90s, he supposedly had an SD ’59 in the neck position. More recently, I also read that his white Strat (the one Colin gave him — the “1956 white one”) was converted to an HSH setup, with a Jazz in the neck.

Does anyone have reliable sources for any of this?

Same question regarding something I read on the Seymour Duncan forum: apparently he had a custom Alternative 8 in the neck, but I couldn’t find any solid source to back that up.

So far, the only confirmed info I’ve found comes from Colin himself: his custom Strat (70s-style headstock) with two custom JB pickups, and ’59s in the neck position on his Les Paul...

Thanks guys!

The Birthday Strat's HSH configuration is a mystery, however, it's safe to assume that the pickups were the same as in the black Jason Smith Custom shop one.

The black Jason Smith one went from JB - a SD single coil, possibly one of the SSL's - Jazz (Alice Cooper's new year Maui), zebras to JB(SH4)-SSL-Custom Alternative 8 (TBOS up to Prague 2016 show), all white, to JB(SH4) - SSL - JB(SH4) (zebras again). It remained in that configuration until Run For Your Lives, when the SSL was changed for a black JB Jnr. The source about the custom wound Alternative 8 during the TBOS era was Colin Price on either Facebook or Instagram at the time (forgot where).

So, the "Birthday" Strat has most likely had the JB(SH4)-JB Jnr-JB(SH4) configuration at the start of RFYL tour and was used as a backup for the Jason Smith Custom Shop Strat. However, when California Series Strat was converted to HSH, the "Birthday" strat recieved the Hot Rails pickguard again and was used as a backup for the Andy Hicks Strat. Basically, I think Dave preffered the neck on the California Series Strat to the one on the Jason Smith Strat.

 

[Kalata]

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Kinda a pointless rig rundown, since he'll be using a different set of guitars in Europe (those are his LA guitars). What is kinda interesting is that the LP is tuned to drop-C and he says it is for the song "Running", which kinda makes sense as he was using the backup green sunburst Jackson for that during the last SK runs.

Also, the ebony Jackson seems to be one of the prototypes/colour samples as it is noticeably yellower than the maple/black one.

It's cool to see his rehearsals guitars. Curious info about ''Running'', I bet he still enjoys writing and playing heavier material like Bruce's solo. That's the red Les Paul, right? I like both, but the yellower ebony Jackson is still a really cool and memorable guitar of Adrian's. He easily could use different rigs of guitars for both bands, I guess only the Green Jackson will be used with both.

 

[Mateus256]

The Birthday Strat's HSH configuration is a mystery, however, it's safe to assume that the pickups were the same as in the black Jason Smith Custom shop one.

The black Jason Smith one went from JB - a SD single coil, possibly one of the SSL's - Jazz (Alice Cooper's new year Maui), zebras to JB(SH4)-SSL-Custom Alternative 8 (TBOS up to Prague 2016 show), all white, to JB(SH4) - SSL - JB(SH4) (zebras again). It remained in that configuration until Run For Your Lives, when the SSL was changed for a black JB Jnr. The source about the custom wound Alternative 8 during the TBOS era was Colin Price on either Facebook or Instagram at the time (forgot where).

So, the "Birthday" Strat has most likely had the JB(SH4)-JB Jnr-JB(SH4) configuration at the start of RFYL tour and was used as a backup for the Jason Smith Custom Shop Strat. However, when California Series Strat was converted to HSH, the "Birthday" strat recieved the Hot Rails pickguard again and was used as a backup for the Andy Hicks Strat. Basically, I think Dave preffered the neck on the California Series Strat to the one on the Jason Smith Strat.

Great! Thanks.

It’s a shame he didn’t keep the Jazz, I really like his tone in the Hawaii videos.

And what about his Strats from the ’90s? Is there any confirmed information about the SD pickups, or is it mostly speculation around the JB/'59?

 

[matic22]

Great! Thanks.

It’s a shame he didn’t keep the Jazz, I really like his tone in the Hawaii videos.

And what about his Strats from the ’90s? Is there any confirmed information about the SD pickups, or is it mostly speculation around the JB/'59?

Mostly speculation. But the JB/'59 is the classic Duncan combo, so it's most likely that. Could be the JB/Jazz (also known as Jeff Beck setup too).

BTW, a bit of trivia for you: JB = Jazz Blues humbucker, not Jeff Beck. However, the JB (SH-4/TB-4) and the Jazz (SH-2) were in fact designed for Jeff and were on his Telecaster with humbuckers, which was used on Cause We Ended As Lovers, but they were never sold as signature pickups.