“We all have easy access to the parts needed to make a pickup… You certainly don’t have to start like Seymour Duncan did with a record player’s turntable”: Why more guitar builders are making their own pickups

Ruokangas pickups.

Many moons ago I remember asking Paul Reed Smith why he didn’t use pickups made by the likes of Seymour Duncan. My thinking was that while Paul had studied and learned the guitar-making craft of the greats, hadn’t Seymour Duncan done the same, focusing on the pickups they used?

The question came out all wrong. “Don’t you like my pickups, David?” No, that wasn’t what I meant.