Lemmy Signature Seymour Duncan Pickups

[NOT]

What do you guys think of these? My guitarist brought these to my attention, and I gotta say I'm curious. Neck, middle, and bridge pickups available.

[Basvarken]

Well, Lemmy is an institute ( can you say that in English?). He is unique. He gave us Motörhead.

But his bass sound is not something I'd want to replicate.
Maybe these pickups are great, but I wouldn't use them in combination with a Marshall stack and a Rick 

[lowend1]

Lemmy had T-Bird pickups in some of his Rickys, didn't he?

[gearHed289]

I don't think it matters what kind of pickups you use if you're running them through Lemmy's rig. I think we're hearing the Marshall roar more than anything else.

As a side note - I dropped a Gibson TB+ (chrome humbucker-sized version) in the treble position of my 4003S this past week. Not a bad sound, but nothing Earth shattering. Sounds like it could really use some 500K pots for full effect. It's a little muffled.

[Highlander]

Well, Lemmy is an institute institution

8/10: could do better if he tried harder...

Everyone knows Lemmy's a rhythm guitarist, not a bass player... he just doesn't use as many strings...

[lowend1]

I don't think it matters what kind of pickups you use if you're running them through Lemmy's rig. I think we're hearing the Marshall roar more than anything else.

As a side note - I dropped a Gibson TB+ (chrome humbucker-sized version) in the treble position of my 4003S this past week. Not a bad sound, but nothing Earth shattering. Sounds like it could really use some 500K pots for full effect. It's a little muffled.

For sure the Marshall is an ingredient, but so is the maple-ness of the Rick, I'd imagine. Probably most crucial is the presence of Lemmy's hands on it.
I have two of those chrome TB+ installed in two different applications. One is mated to a Model One in my late 90s Epi EB-0, where it has been nothing short of glorious with flats. The other is in an old MIJ Aims P-Bass ho. Less impressive there, but still far better than the original Maxon mini (like they used in Ibanez T-Birds, etc.).

[Dave W]

From Seymour's custom shop site: "The sound of Motörhead with all the rudeness and attack you'd expect."

Problem is (to me, at least) that Lemmy's signature bass apparently stock Rick humbuckers. You can all kinds of tones from them that aren't remotely near Lemmy's typical sound. The stock pickups certainly aren't a major part of Lemmy's tone. If you're going to build that tone into the pickups, then it's not anything I would be interested in.

[uwe]

I'm with the Marshall theory. And the way he power chords and slides around - he doesn't strum very hard with his right hand by the way.

He didn't play a Marshall yet when he was with Hawkwind


(that might be the Ric with the TBird pup btw.)

and back then his bass tone was a lot less radical albeit already quite fuzzy:



By the way: Here you have a song where the bass player plays a solo (around 2:40) over the harmonies of the song, now isn't that bass playing in your book? Maybe it isn't, but is sure sounds nice. Love that track. One of the real Hawkwind gems. Holy druid!

[amptech]

I have'nt heard Lemmy live, but I think he played so much better back then. I even think that Hawkwind fitted his style better.
That record (warrior) is a great example. Hall of the mountain grill is great too. He pulled it off live too, on the space ritual album.

I don't find Motorhead albums that interesting, and maybe they are not intended to be so, but from an attitude/rock energy point of view I can see why people go to see him play live, absolutely.

[uwe]

I like Motörhead as an abstract concept and Lemmy is charming, but the music is a one trick pony after, say, three tracks. They make The Ramones and AC/DC sound eclectic and diverse in comparison.

Hawkwind I like. They are truly an eclectic mix - sort of Britain's sci-fi (early BÖC comes to mind) Grateful Dead with a bit of Blue Cheer and prog elements thrown in. And they had Stacia!  I agree that Lemmy shone more as a bassist and musician, even as a vocalist (Silver Machine) with Hawkwind than with Motörhead. With Motörhead, it's not so much his bass playing that counts (idiosyncratic as it is), but his "vocals", image and frontman role. I've seen Motörhead thrice - very early on (first gig in Germany) around 1978 (opening for a still formative Whitesnake), in the Another Perfect Day era with Brian Robertson and a couple of years ago with the current line up. It's fun for about ten minutes, but then my attention wanes and my inclination rises to plug Lemmy into an amp with less distortion. But like Rob said, Lemmy is an institution.

[gearHed289]

I like Motörhead as an abstract concept and Lemmy is charming, but the music is a one trick pony after, say, three tracks. They make The Ramones and AC/DC sound eclectic and diverse in comparison.

I just about fell out of my chair. I was JUST going to reply "Like the Ramones or AC/DC". LOL! If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I have about a ten minute limit as well...

[slinkp]

Hahaha, yeah, that's sort of how i feel about some entire genres... Thrash metal and its bazillion offshoots comes to mind. I think it would be really fun to play in a thrash band ... THIS IS GREAT for about half an hour ... and then I would start craving something, anything different.

Please note that in no way do I mean to be dismissive of any particular genre.  I think one's tolerance and stamina depends a lot whether it's your "home" genre.  The more familiar you are, the more nuances you perceive. For example I hear a lot of variation in my band https://soundcloud.com/the-world-record-players but other people might find it rather repetitive ... dynamics? what dynamics? do we need those for something?

[Basvarken]

I just about fell out of my chair. I was JUST going to reply "Like the Ramones or AC/DC". LOL! If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I have about a ten minute limit as well...

Haha! But I can easily listen to AC/DC all night. Motörhead and /or Ramones not so much 

[Highlander]

Welsh guy, isn't it...? Dai Namics...

Saw them a few times from '77 to the end of the Fast Eddie era... closely followed Hawkwind...  Stacia was somewhat fascinating... she disappeared off the face of the planet until recent years, post Lemmy's departure from Hawkwind...

Try and find the version of Silver Machine that was on the Glastonbury Fayre (later Greasy Truckers re-issue) set, which was where the "original" backing track came from, with Calvert (iirc) on vox... awful stuff...

[uwe]

Hahaha, yeah, that's sort of how i feel about some entire genres... Thrash metal and its bazillion offshoots comes to mind. I think it would be really fun to play in a thrash band ... THIS IS GREAT for about half an hour ... and then I would start craving something, anything different.

Please note that in no way do I mean to be dismissive of any particular genre.  I think one's tolerance and stamina depends a lot whether it's your "home" genre.  The more familiar you are, the more nuances you perceive. For example I hear a lot of variation in my band https://soundcloud.com/the-world-record-players but other people might find it rather repetitive ... dynamics? what dynamics? do we need those for something?

Slipknot is like that for me. One or two tracks. The music isn't dumb or anything and there is detail to be heard, but the one sided emotion it transports - after five minutes I'm done and want to hear something like Air Supply.