Whether you are looking for a supercharged PAF (Seymour Duncan Custom), or a black metal weapon (Seymour Duncan Black Winter), Seymour Duncan can hook you up. They are a company who makes pickups for all types of guitarists. Today, we’ll be checking out another SD pickup, the Jeff Loomis signature Blackouts.

Shall we?

Features:

– Alnico 5 Magnet

– Active or Passive

– Available in Black

– 6 and 7 String Models

Jeff Loomis is one of the defining shred gods of this generation. He’s played on many albums for many huge bands, such as Arch Enemy and Conquering Dystopia. When searching for his perfect pickup to put in his signature Schecter guitar, Jeff Loomis naturally chose Seymour Duncan.

(We have a Geared article on Jeff Loomis as well that goes over his other gear!)

I’ll talk about tone in a minute, but as for features, the Jeff Loomis Blackouts only come in black because, well, they are blackouts. Any other color would be an insult to the name…

They do come in 6 and 7 string flavors, as well as an active or passive configuration. The set that Jeff uses are the active models, so we’ll talk about those today.

What do they sound like, you ask?

Tone:

Obviously, being designed for shredding and extreme metal styles, these pups are hot.

Something really neat about the way this pickup was designed, was the inclusion of Alnico 5 magnets. The most common magnets found on active pickups are generally ceramic. This feature allows the pickup to achieve a more organic, dynamic sound, while still maintaining the headroom of most other active pickups.

(We have an article on pickup magnets if you want to learn more called, Alnico vs Ceramic Pickup Magnets.)

While maintaining dynamics fairly well, the pickups are also really responsive to legato and fast playing styles. This was essential for Jeff to allow notes to shrine through the mix when shredding.

The EQ curve on these are quite mid heavy. This makes chords sound fairly thick, and allows for a noticeable pick attack. The highs are quite smooth and have no harsh “icepicky” qualities. The low end isn’t super bassy, but it’s really tight.

These pickups definitely shine for death metal, shredding, thrashy styles, and other forms of extreme metal.

Final Verdict:

I will say that I’m not a big fan of death metal and the like, but I really do enjoy Arch Enemy and was excited to finally try out the Jeff Loomis Blackouts.

I wasn’t disappointed with these one bit.

They are a lot more versatile and dynamic than most active pickups and they absolutely slay for death metal and shredding styles. If that’s the sound you are looking for, do not hesitate on these!

Not to mention, they even come in a passive version as well!

Tone – 4.5/5

Build Quality – 5/5

Features – 5/5

Don’t forget we are Seymour Duncan authorized dealers. If you need our guidance in finding the right pickup for you, check out our custom order option, and we can get you the tone you’re after!

If you liked this article, check out our other reviews here!

This article was written by Zac Buras, our editor located in Louisiana.

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