Seymour Duncan back in the Guitar Game?

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Well not through ESP anyway.

I think this is just a one off run for his anniversary. Larrivee is making them so in a way I guess that would make the guitars canadian....lol.

They look amazing. But I don't think it looks any better than a DS250 tele from the ESP made ones.

Really even with the ESP japanese SD's I think it's more like ESP saying to Seymour "hey we want to build some great guitars for the japanese market with your name on them". I'm guessing he didn't have much input into them aside from the custom wound "beefed up" pickups on the top line ones.
 
My Duncan DT-250M PRO has antiquity p`ups in it. The strats from the Vintage Pro series are listed in my catalogues as having the beefed up p`ups. My Vintage Standard strat has Alnico Pro II`s that sound very good to me....all my ESP made Duncans sound good to me, I`ve already sold off my F/USA custom shop strat but the Duncans are staying. These new Seymour have been discussed n other sites I visit already...maybe the Larrivee forum was the first place I read about them actually because Larrivee has released their own electric tele recently.
The last ESP/Duncan catalogue I have was from 2006 and the guitars had ******* headstock shapes...kind of a blend of both a strat and a tele...didn`t appeal to me.
 
Got any pics of those headstocks sneaky? I've never come across those in all my searching. Sound interesting.

It would be cool if ESP got them up and going again. Such great guitars.
 
There's a pic of the dodgy headstock on the ESP website:

http://www.espguitars.co.jp/seymourduncan/index.html

Not keen on the Larrivee Duncan really. There's a lovely looking Blonde DS-200 on Ishibashi at the moment.
 
yes I think thats it...I said catalogue but really it was only a 1 page flyer...by 2006 the line-up had been reduced to two basses and only 3 guitars if I remember correctly...guess they petered out ofter that.
 
I suppose they viewed them as redundant with navigator. Actually now that I've seen it again I think I do remember it. I don't really care about headstock shape and that one looks pretty good to me. If I found one at a good price I'd buy it for sure.
 
Who knows why they stopped making them, could be one of any number of reasons, you could ask them. Neck shape and feel mean more to me than headstock, there may be some hanging around the Big Boss shops around the country, never seen a used one up here and didn`t go into the local Big Boss for ages...they don`t carry used guitars so there was no reason for me to go there plus everything reeks of cigarette smoke in that place, sometimes it`s really difficult getting rid of that odor.
 
What I'm really curious about the Seymour Duncan line is how they selected which models were the high end ones like the Pro's and down through the traditionals.

Cause basically all of the traditionals, and mid range lines like the 200k yen ones always have bodies that are every bit as nice looking as the 250/280 level pro models. Some times better. I know the 280's were one piece bodies and that was a difference but the older 250's (like mine) had 2 piece bodies.

From what I could tell the only differences were the types of pickups used on each line, hardware and electronics. Also the finishes. Nitro top, full nitro, and "unsealed" nitro on the pro lines.

My guess is that they took the time to tone test the bodies, tap or whatever. The one's that resonated and sounded best got the higher features and designations. It's the only thing I can think of because otherwise all the models look amazing.
 
sneakyjapan said:
yes I think thats it...I said catalogue but really it was only a 1 page flyer...by 2006 the line-up had been reduced to two basses and only 3 guitars if I remember correctly...guess they petered out ofter that.

I believe I got the same flyer (from my 2006 catalog).



Here's what the headstock looks like:

 
Looks like the same one...I mean the headstock isn`t ugly, there are worse it just doesn`t appeal to me...however, it`s probably the last thing I look at when thinking about a purchase. Originally I thought they changed it because they were considering selling them in the US, but then they dropped off the map, anyways, I have mine along with other fabulous MIJs guitars...that aren`t from the `80s...and I`m not one of those guys who feels he needs to own em all...I am satisfied with what I have. I can`t imagine there are any better guitars out there than those I own, equal certainly but better, matter of opinion I guess...lots of outstanding makers in Japan today.
 
yeah no doubt.

It's interesting on those they seemed to trim the line up down to what was the old mid range and the base model.
 
Wasn't Seymour Duncan involved with the Tokai factory back in the late seventies early eighties? I remember reading it somewhere.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top