Originally developed in Seymour Duncan’s Custom Shop for Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris, this pickup is special for many reasons. Working closely with Steve, Seymour Duncan crafted a P-bass pickup with a low-mid boost that adds punch and body while maintaining a crisp and clear high-end attack. This design uses hand-ground Alnico 5 rod magnets and a special vintage-hot custom wind of 13k Ohms to achieve its uniquely aggressive bite.
“I was having some problems with the original pickups in my bass and Seymour Duncan said they could make pickups that did what I needed – and they did!” Steve said.
Seymour Duncan is honored to be working with such a legend. Handcrafted in Santa Barbara, CA, the Steve Harris P-Bass pickup uses hand ground Alnico 5 rod magnets, Forbon flatwork and is vacuum wax potted for squeal free operation.
Size:
2.23” [56.64mm] Long
1.07” [27.18mm] Wide
Duncan dialed in some very nice tone on these custom pickups for Steve Harris. This model is somewhat based off a vintage tone/model…likely Duncan’s SPB-1 Vintage. The SPB-4 have a little added low mid range, and are less dark in the low mid range. The top end is tamer and actually has a bit less presence than the SPB-1. Keep in mind that Steve H has a unique style where his fingers are contacting the string in a unique way, that already creates a good bit of top end snap. The Rock Track that we have for this pickup shows the heft of the pickup…nice and full.
Put on a good set of headphones and check out the audio demo below to hear it for yourself.
As always, keep in mind that these are generalizations. Your experience could be different depending on many factors.