Seymour Duncan unleashes Black Winter pickup

Seymour Duncan has unveiled the Black Winter, a humbucker aimed squarely at extreme metal players.

The Black Winter pickups were initially developed for Scandinavia's extreme metal guitarists, who were able to get their riff-ready hands on them in January. However, the sheer demand for these beasts has caused Seymour Duncan to release the pickups to all, and notable users already include Ola Englund and Keith Merrow - the latter of whom demonstrates the pickup in the video below.

Seymour Duncan reckon that the pickups provide "the right balance of mids, treble and bass to instantly go from annihilating riffs to articulately cutting solos", using three ceramic magnets and a special wind to produce crushing tones when paired with distortion.

Black Winter pickups will be available at the end of July in bridge and neck configurations, while a Trembucker version offers maximum balance for vibrato-equipped axes. Whichever you choose, one pickup is £99.95, and a calibrated set costs £199.95.

Check out Keith Merrow demonstrating the Black Winter pickups below.