Producer

Seymour Duncan

HQ US · Santa Barbara, Californiawebsite ↗

Leading maker of replacement guitar/bass pickups (magnetic and active).

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Inputs supplied

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Goods downstream

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Facilities

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Stories

What they make

1 input Seymour Duncan supplies

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What else they do

Business segments

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  • Electric guitar pickups

  • Bass pickups

  • Pedals & electronics

  • Pickup components

Intelligence

What's known

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  • Did you know2024

    The pickup — the electromagnetic heart of an electric guitar that converts string vibration into sound — is built around an alnico magnet (aluminum-nickel-cobalt) and fine copper magnet wire. That means a guitar's tone depends on cobalt, one of the most strategically contested critical minerals: cobalt is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, dogged by artisanal-mining and child-labor concerns, and in soaring demand for EV and electronics batteries. So a vintage-voiced guitar pickup quietly competes for the same mineral as electric-car batteries, and its raw material carries the same ethical-sourcing and supply-concentration baggage. The most romanticized element of electric-guitar "tone" — the magnet grade (alnico II versus V) that players obsess over — is, at root, a critical-minerals story: the magic of the sound traces back to a cobalt mine in central Africa.

    Seymour Duncan