Seymour Duncan SH1 59 Model Humbucker Bridge & Neck Pickup set in black. Versatile P.A.F.-type humbuckers. Great for country, jazz, blues, funk, classic rock and heavy rock.

Late-'50s, vintage-correct, humbucker sound. Warm and crystalline clean tones. Full and bright distorted tones. Smooth sustain. Classic appointments include plain enamel wire, long legged bottom plate, vintage single conductor cable and no logo.

The Seymour Duncan SH-1 '59 Model Electric Guitar Pickup is built with the same kind of enameled wire, nickel-plated studs, and balanced coil windings that humbucker inventor Seth Lover used in his first pickups. Compared to the SH-55 Seth Lover, the '59 has slightly more scooped mids and is vacuum wax potted for squeal-free performance.

This is a matched set of SH-1b '59 model bridge and SH-1n '59 model neck.

guitars: For balanced and warm instruments. Works especially well with mahogany bodies and rosewood fingerboards.

players: Ben Harper (neck & bridge), Robben Ford (neck & bridge), Mike Einzinger / Incubus (neck), Robert Smith / The Cure

Listen to SH-1 Bridge Clean, and SH-1 Bridge Dirty.
Listen to SH-1 Neck Clean, and SH-1 Neck Dirty.

User reviews
“I've been using these two pickups in an Epiphone Les Paul for over five years, with a handful of tube based amps, as well as a few modeling setups. Sounds great in all of them but shines the most through an moderately overdriven tube amp. I'm of the impression that these are the best non-boutique P.A.F. reproductions around. Wooden spacers, alnico magnets, you name it, Seymour Duncan went to great lengths to model these pickups on the late 1950s Gibson ‘Patent Applied for’ (PAF) Pickups. Frankly, the 59-neck pickup is legendary, and I will be looking to add humbucker and single coil sized versions of it to my other guitars. There is no replacing it, as far as I am concerned it is the definitive neck pickup for rock and metal ( I know Dimebag Darrel and several members of Iron Maiden used it in the neck position). The neck sound is woody, warm, never muddy, and has a slight hint of bite behind it, especially with the guitar's volume pot dimed (maxed). Almost a magical sound that has to be heard. The Bridge 59 is bright and has a biting edge, resulting probably from vintage correct slightly mismatched coils. It is slightly hotter than the neck pickup (probably by about .75 – 1.25 k.Ohms). It gives a great, bright Pagey tone with guitar's volume knob dimed; backed off from between 7 to 9, the bridge 59 model still has a PAF'ey edge, but without the sharpness and brightness. Great for blues, hard rock and even metal (more Dave Mustaine style metal though… I seem to be getting great Sabbath sounds from it as well, and the amps I have have tons of gain to spare). It reminds me of a Duncan JB with less output. It can be a bit abrasive, but this is what makes it great with distortion, in my opinion, and is easily toned down my using volume or even tone controls.
With the two pickups combined, (neck volume control set to 5–7, bridge set to 8–9.5, using 1950s Les Paul wiring rather than modern wiring), I get a balance of the two pickups – retaining the woodyness of neck pickup, with a brighter tone. This in my opinion is perfect for edge of distortion tones, and my favorite use of the pickup – through a good Marshall I can get great dynamics and can go from say edge of distortion cleans (like Page's live version of Stairway to heaven) to overdriven leads by flicking the selector switch to the bridge position. Flicking to the neck pickup gets me almost or totally clean sounds, depending on the amp or pedal setting.” S.

“Got a set of these to replace stock pups in a PRS SE Semi Semihollow body Custom.Really wakes up the over all tone on this guitar. Great smokey blues groove out of the neck pup and in the middle w/ both pups,you get a sort of Doobie-ish tone. Punchy bridge pup. They both respond well to guitar tone controls.Over all a good, balanced, reasonably priced set of quality pups.” Pappy

“Hello Everyone: the seymour duncan 59 set in my opinion is the closest thing to a real PAF without paying the high dollars for an original one or paying for a boutique one. Seymour claims the pickups are wound on the original winding machines from Kalamazoo and he went to great lengths to copy the production process. I installed this set in an Ibanez that is similar to an LP special, made in Korea, not China, all mahogany. I replaced the pots with CTS 500K ones from Mojo Tone, added orange drop capacitors, a switchcraft 3 way switch and input jack, and it now has that vintage tone. I have been playing it through a marshall dsl 401 tube amplifier, when it's clean it has that classic early rock tone, but when distorted, Joe Walsh or Angus Young comes to mind. the pickups are an overall good copy of the original PAF, I have had originals, and these really come close to those without breaking the bank. if you are going to install these in your guitar, I recommend using good electronics and good capacitors, those parts do have an overall affect on the tone as well, most of your import guitars use cheap parts and the capacitors are usually the wrong value, .022 is the common one used for PAF's, but a lot fo the imports use .047 which is good for single coils not humbuckers. take care and keep rocking.” G. ONeill