elRayo Guitarworks' main luthier and co-owner Andy Greenberg took a visit to Seymour Duncan Pickup's production facility in Santa Barbara in the summer of 2007. In this photo journal, we see how the Seymour Duncan factory is able to produce some of the best aftermarket pickups available, using both modern and traditional techniques. elRayo Guitarworks sells a wide range of Seymour Duncan pickups, from brand new active Blackouts, to Antiquities which capture all the nuances and vibe of vintage pickups.

Andy met lots of great folks who keep the machines winding. Evan Skopp, VP of Marketing for Seymour Duncan lead the Greenbergs, explaining every step of the manufacturing process. Marcela Juarez, head of the custom shop discussed the steps that go into the custom pickups sent to the biggest names in music today. And of course, Seymour Duncan himself spent some time to catch up with Andy.

For Andy, one of the biggest highlights was getting to check out "The Green Monster": a Leesona Model 102 winding machine purchased from Gibson's Kalamazoo factory, originally used to make the PAF humbucking pickups that defined rock and roll tone. Seymour Duncan has modified these machines with digital counters to monitor the number of windings on each pickup, winding their modern PAF-styled pickups on this machine. Originally, pickup winders worked strictly by the amount of time a pickup was wound, resulting in a wide variance between pickup windings. The digital meters insure greater consistency between pickups; if you love the sound of your Seth Lover pickup, you know you can get that same sound from another Seth Lover replacement.

From studloaders and the varieties of copper wire used to wind pickups to epoxy potting and laquer treatments, Andy witnessed first hand the hardware, tools and techniques that have set the industry standard for aftermarket and OEM pickup manufacturing.

Seymour Duncan makes some of the best guitar and bass products, and elRayo Guitarworks proudly continues to spread their sound throughout the world. For a list of pickups that we suggest, click here. Special thanks to Lori Greenberg for taking the photos seen here. If you have any other questions regarding Seymour Duncan pickups, email us.