SD blackouts Mick Thomson signature pickups

The-Zeronaut

Mixing..Y U SO DIFFICULT?
Sep 24, 2007
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http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/cutting-edge/blackouts_ahb3/

Seymour Duncan has announced the release of the latest addition to their popular Blackouts Humbucker series: the Blackouts AHB-3 Thomson EMTY. Here's all the details from them...

Mick Thomson from Slipknot asked for tighter bottom, and more searing top end cut, and Seymour Duncan delivered with the EMTY, a pulverizing new edition to our Blackouts line. Mick depends on EMTY to execute his completely psychosocial tone that defines the Slipknot sound; because to play extreme metal, you need extreme tone.

To celebrate this new release, Seymour Duncan is giving fans the chance to win Mick Thomson's signature Ibanez MTM1 with Mick's new signature Seymour Duncan Blackouts EMTY installed. Ten second place winners will receive signed sets of EMTY pickups and a host of third place winners get Slipknot or Seymour Duncan swag. To win, contestants need to go to: seymourduncan.com/mickblackouts and enter into the drawing. The contest runs to midnight January 31, 2010.

Mick stayed involved every step of the way from the precise wiring configuration to the logo and printing on the pickup including his renowned number seven imprinted right on the side of the casing. Seymour Duncan blackouts EMTY come in both neck and bridge and are available in black plastic or black nickel covers. Pickups come with all necessary mounting hardware, including pots, jack, and a battery clip.

Mick's signature Blackouts EMTY

These custom-designed humbuckers are not for the faint of heart. In fact it's more for the "rip your heart out and use it like a slide" type of player. If you've ever played through a set of our Blackouts Original or their sick and twisted cousin, Blackouts Metal, you've experienced the distinctive, screaming metal tones they produce. They pack a serious mid-range punch and produce huge chords and hard-hitting leads.

Blackouts Original have been an integral part of Mick's unearthly sound since they first hit the market. EMTY Blackouts? Well, it started with a discreet backstage meeting at the 2008 Loud Park festival in Japan. Mick met with our Head of Artist Relations, Evan Skopp, and while talking tone, Mick expressed interest in some tweaks to the EQ curve to fine tune these active beasts more in line with to the sound he always wanted. That was all it took.

To understand the process, you have to understand the player: Mick is not your typical "crank it to 11 and start wailing" type of player, in fact he's a complete tone freak, so when he decided to get involved in designing a signature series, Mick stayed involved every step of the way from the precise wiring configuration to the logo and printing on the pickup including his renowned number seven imprinted right on the side of the casing.

The main sonic differences between the the EMTY and the Blackouts Original are the extreme highs and lows. Mick wanted the top end to cut through, offering more clarity in the treble range, and tighter bottom. When you're playing with that much gain and power every incremental tweak becomes amplified by thousands.

Seymour Duncan Blackouts EMTY are available in both neck and bridge versions with all necessary mounting hardware, including pots, jack, and a battery clip. If you already have active pickups as part of your set up, these will plug right into your quick connection harness, making it a snap to unplug the old pickup and plug in the new EMTY.
 
Hmmm, already saw this news on the Seymourduncan.com/forum, but it's still interesting nonetheless.
More top end though? As it is, the normal Blackouts are hardly lacking in high end, I can just picture these sounding really harsh, but then again he does have a mahogany guitar, so they could be good in that body wood.
 
I'm glad they have more high end, Harry. It's one of the things that makes these so much more appealing to me, they'll have the same degree of clarity and "organic" tone as teh Blackouts, but with a more face-ripping high end (which i felt the standard Blackouts were lacking in). Shame they won't make them in a 7 string setup, no reason to though like you said.
 
Well considering Mick Thomsom is a 6 string guitarist, there's not much sense in releasing a 7 string pickup in his name. That would be like Dimarzio releasing a Steve Vai signature pickup for 8 string guitars (like an Evo 8), it just doesn't make sense.
 
Normal Blackout's with a name written on them, I suppose.
And if it's real......Slipknot guitarist have a very shitty guitar sound so I can't trust too much on Mick involved in every step of the process.
 
Normal Blackout's with a name written on them, I suppose.
And if it's real......Slipknot guitarist have a very shitty guitar sound so I can't trust too much on Mick involved in every step of the process.

My thoughts exactly.
I can't see any feasible reason why anyone with a working set of ears should get excited about these.
 
I can't see any feasible reason why anyone with a working set of ears should abolish a product they neither heard clips of, nor tried them out themselves.
 
I can't see any feasible reason why anyone with a working set of ears should abolish a product they neither heard clips of, nor tried them out themselves.

Fair point man
but this is Mick Thompson we're talking out. The guy's got chops but to label him a tone freak is very odd, because he has poooooor tone.
 
Fair point man
but this is Mick Thompson we're talking out. The guy's got chops but to label him a tone freak is very odd, because he has poooooor tone.

Yeah, that's obviously marketing talk. IMHO Jim Root's Orange based rig sounds much better... but anyway, the guys at SD somewhat know what they're doing and maybe this ends up being a useful pickup. Gotta wait and see.