DiMarzio Forum

DimarzioForum.Com => The mini bar (off topic & misc) => Topic started by: Jerryman on April 15, 2011, 08:55:18 PM

Title: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: Jerryman on April 15, 2011, 08:55:18 PM
As a member of the Duncan forums also, I wasn't quite brave enough to post this  there. i was always curious though. These are the two great pioneers of pickup technology

I sense theres no love lost between them, only because of the lack of any previous real mention of any correspondence  or collaboration of the two camps. Plus the fact that they  have conflicts with different artists endorsements (   for example Yngwie) .Thats just my percepton.

I'd love to see Larry and Seymour get together on a pickup, It'd be a blockbuster , and a win win for evryone, including Dimarzio and Duncan.. but that might be asking for some kind of pie in the sky.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: CityofBlindingLights on April 17, 2011, 09:15:56 PM
imho seymour'd be too pretentious to do so. But I imagine that this isn't something that Larry'd be begging for either.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: Butch Snyder on April 29, 2011, 08:43:13 AM
imho seymour'd be too pretentious to do so.

I disagree.  I know Seymour.  He's just a guy trying to make a living doing the same thing that Larry DiMarzio is doing.  That said, Larry DiMarzio is just trying to make a living himself.  Both are excellent pickup makers.  There are others out there too, who have very negative opinions of both Mr. Duncan and Mr. DiMarzio.  Bill Lawrence is one of them and so is Joe Barden.  Bill Lawrence has been quoted as almost ridiculing some of Seymour's ideas.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: buddroyce on May 14, 2011, 03:46:11 PM
Bill Lawrence, I love that man. He's one guy that can talk shit about a lot of other pickup makers and get away with it.

As for getting Larry and Seymour together to make a pickup.. I'm not too sure how well it'd turn out really.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: dr. ad on May 21, 2011, 02:27:22 PM
i think it's a very interesting idea jerry
imagine seymour winding a humbucker, then larry examining it and re-winding one of the coils and possibly using a different wire gauge, switching to a virtual-vintage bobbin and/or half-airing the thing?


i would not presume to judge either of them, not knowing either of them personally.
some would consider that to be in poor taste
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: Stiltzkin on March 24, 2012, 11:10:06 AM
Bill Lawrence, I love that man. He's one guy that can talk shit about a lot of other pickup makers and get away with it.

That's because Bill is the granddaddy of aftermarket pickups :)
Chances are we wouldn't have DiMarzio if it weren't for Bill ;)
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: LesPaulPlayer on March 24, 2012, 07:20:04 PM
Bill and Becky Lawrence live right down the road from me - about an hour drive....anyway, I called them in regards to a set of their old school pickups with the printed circuit board on the bottom for wiring schematics....Becky could not find any on hand BUT she did call me about 8:00 at night with good results after digging through their garage finding the stuff -- would DiMarzio staff or Duncan staff do that?  Dont get me wrong, 90% of my guitars have DMZ or SD p'ups ( about 35 guitars total ), just 2 have BL p'ups..why????? dont ask me --- personal preference------
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: slugworth on March 31, 2012, 08:36:25 AM
Bill and Becky are great people.  I'm not in love with their pickups, but from a character standpoint alone they have been a great influence on the pickup industry.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: RayBarbeeMusic on April 22, 2012, 01:09:44 PM
Steve Blucher is the designer.  Larry is the name.  I don't think Larry has designed a pickup in at least 2 decades, if not 3. 
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: Jerryman on April 30, 2012, 03:33:12 PM
Steve Blucher is the designer.  Larry is the name.  I don't think Larry has designed a pickup in at least 2 decades, if not 3.

Interesting, I Didn't kniow that. I'd give anything for Larry Dimarzio to custom wind me a set of Strat pickups or a vintage PAF though!
Speaking of which, every now and again comes a "Pre-factory" Dimarzio for sale ( usually at ridiculuous absurd prices).
Anyone know if Larry Dimarzio was personally  custom winding some of those early pickups? This isn't something i wouldnt ask directly of Dimarzio Tech assistance.

I think for his 40th, Larry Dimarzio should make 100 sets of the original Handwound PAf and VS-1 Strat pickups to spec in a limited edition boxed set. Hello L.D...ya listenin??
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: Joey Voltage on July 29, 2012, 02:21:04 AM
Steve Blucher is the designer.  Larry is the name.  I don't think Larry has designed a pickup in at least 2 decades, if not 3.

Interesting, I Didn't kniow that. I'd give anything for Larry Dimarzio to custom wind me a set of Strat pickups or a vintage PAF though!
Speaking of which, every now and again comes a "Pre-factory" Dimarzio for sale ( usually at ridiculuous absurd prices).
Anyone know if Larry Dimarzio was personally  custom winding some of those early pickups? This isn't something i wouldnt ask directly of Dimarzio Tech assistance.

I think for his 40th, Larry Dimarzio should make 100 sets of the original Handwound PAf and VS-1 Strat pickups to spec in a limited edition boxed set. Hello L.D...ya listenin??

I think it depends on who you ask, some might claim Larry might have briefly apprenticed under bill Lawrence at one point, But not sure on the accuracy of that claim.  Some might also claim the only model Larry fully designed was the original super distortion.  Can't confirm that claim either.  Not too sure how much of either claim is applicable or matters really.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: mrrstrat on November 20, 2012, 08:39:28 AM
Steve Blucher is the designer.  Larry is the name.  I don't think Larry has designed a pickup in at least 2 decades, if not 3.

Interesting, I Didn't kniow that. I'd give anything for Larry Dimarzio to custom wind me a set of Strat pickups or a vintage PAF though!
Speaking of which, every now and again comes a "Pre-factory" Dimarzio for sale ( usually at ridiculuous absurd prices).
Anyone know if Larry Dimarzio was personally  custom winding some of those early pickups? This isn't something i wouldnt ask directly of Dimarzio Tech assistance.

I think for his 40th, Larry Dimarzio should make 100 sets of the original Handwound PAf and VS-1 Strat pickups to spec in a limited edition boxed set. Hello L.D...ya listenin??

Steve is a real cool guy, and is on many of the DiMarzio patents. Lots of technology goes into giving us the great tones from the line of pickups. I never met Larry, but I would imagine aside from a healthy rivalry they would probably get along pretty good if in a room together.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: buddroyce on November 26, 2012, 01:05:50 PM
I love Steve, he's one of the guys I make sure I meet to see every time I goto NAMM. Although I do believe that in an interview somewhere with Steve Blutcher, he mentioned that he didn't know anything about pickups before he started with DiMarzio. Most of the patents that DiMarzio holds have both Steve's name and Larry's name on it so I'm pretty sure Larry's not just sitting on his ass for the last couple of decades.

Seymour and Larry are both great guys and I'm pretty sure they'd get along real well if they were in the same room together.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: RayBarbeeMusic on January 04, 2013, 09:47:22 PM
Quote
would DiMarzio staff or Duncan staff do that?


Eric at DiMarzio did EXACTLY that for me when I wanted some custom Multibuckers made last year.  He dug around for days and could only find 7 circuit boards, Steve wouldn't let him use them because someone else already had dibs unfortunately, but Eric had be me send in some Chopper/FT-1 stock versions and he re-did them with Cruiser Neck/FT-1 like I wanted.  I only paid for the Cruiser Neck coils. 

Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: buddroyce on January 11, 2013, 12:57:01 AM
Damn now you're making me want some multibuckers.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: Lewguitar on April 09, 2014, 08:03:29 PM
If there's bad blood between Seymour and Larry, it might stem from Dimarzio copyrighting the double cream look of humbucking pickups and preventing anyone else from making humbuckers with that look. 

Even though Larry did not invent it, and Gibson made double cream humbuckers in the 1950's, he got away with copyrighting it. 

If I were Seymour I'd be upset about it too.  Heck, I'm not Seymour and it kind of pisses me off and to be 100% honest, that copyright seemed petty and prevented me from using Dimarzios for a long time - even though I love the Dimarzios in the old Hamer Sunbursts I used to play.

Regardless, some of the Dimarzio designs are to good to pass up.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: darkbluemurder on April 14, 2014, 11:49:44 AM
Yeah, such as the Area series. IMHO there is no comparison for noiseless single coil sized pickups. 

Cheers Stephan
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: RayBarbeeMusic on May 26, 2014, 05:48:57 PM
At least Larry didn't rip off someone else's signature to sell something then not give them credit (royalties) on it when he copyrighted double cream.  That actually WAS the DiMarzio look for years when the Super D came out. 

On the other hand, Seymour uses Jeff Beck's image to sell the JB and has the balls to call it the "Jazz-Blues" when everyone knows wtf it was designed for, and the "78", formerly the "EVH", uses clips of Van Halen covers to promote it, then has the balls to call it the "Even ***** Harmonics" pickup or some similar nonsense, use the year the first VH record dropped but then say it isn't intended to be associated with any particular artist.  Bullshit.  Pay the guys, or change the F'ing name and don't use the implied association to sell it without permission.
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: darkbluemurder on July 21, 2014, 08:54:16 AM
At least Larry didn't rip off someone else's signature to sell something then not give them credit (royalties) on it when he copyrighted double cream.  That actually WAS the DiMarzio look for years when the Super D came out. 

One may question whether a thing like double cream coils is copyrightable in the first place but it is certainly not Larry's fault that it is, and I would not blame him for that. 
Title: Re: Just waht IS the Relationshio between Seymour Duncan and Larry Dimarzio?
Post by: DarthPhineas on April 10, 2018, 07:12:09 AM
At least Larry didn't rip off someone else's signature to sell something then not give them credit (royalties) on it when he copyrighted double cream.  That actually WAS the DiMarzio look for years when the Super D came out. 

On the other hand, Seymour uses Jeff Beck's image to sell the JB and has the balls to call it the "Jazz-Blues" when everyone knows wtf it was designed for, and the "78", formerly the "EVH", uses clips of Van Halen covers to promote it, then has the balls to call it the "Even ***** Harmonics" pickup or some similar nonsense, use the year the first VH record dropped but then say it isn't intended to be associated with any particular artist.  Bullshit.  Pay the guys, or change the F'ing name and don't use the implied association to sell it without permission.

Necro-bump


I think this touches on an issues that is still going on, even more so with Seymour’s reduced level of involvement over the past 5 or so years. 

Considering product names such as Whole Lotta Humbucker, Killing Floor, Saturday Night Special, Pearly Gates, Metal Fatigue, IM1, Greenie, High Voltage, Weather Report, Dirty Deed... and look at how many versions of the JB are out there that Beck is apparently not getting paid for. Any one else wondering if the La Super Rica taqueria in Santa Barbara gets any credit in the naming of that new fuzz pedal?  I’m also guessing the JRR Tolkien estate isn’t getting paid for Nazgûl.



As to the OP, I’d imagine there’s no obvious reason for them to not get along.