Is the Seymour Duncan Black Winter Neck good for high-gain metal?

Yes, the Black Winter Neck is engineered for extreme metal with tight lows, strong mids and excellent clarity under heavy gain.

How does the Black Winter Neck compare to the bridge version?

The bridge version is more brutal, while the neck version is smoother but still very powerful. Both maintain clarity thanks to ceramic magnets.

Is the Black Winter Neck good for rhythm playing?

Yes. Unlike many neck humbuckers, it stays tight and defined under distortion, making it surprisingly effective for rhythm parts.

Is the Black Winter Neck suitable for clean tones?

Clean tones are not its strong point. It performs best in high-gain settings due to its high output and inherent compression.

Can the Black Winter Neck be used in the bridge position?

Yes. Its structure makes it viable as a medium-high output bridge pickup, producing a tone similar to a hotter, brighter Duncan Custom.

Seymour Duncan Black Winter Neck Review – Modern Metal Neck Pickup

Barış Şahin
16 hours ago
6 min read

Seymour Duncan Black Winter Neck Review – Modern Metal Neck Pickup — **Seymour Duncan Black Winter Neck Review**

You have recently read my review for Seymour Duncan Black Winter Bridge – Blackened Edition. Thanks to Emre Bingöl i could try the neck version of Black Winter.

The Black Winter neck might not have earned the same brutal reputation as its bridge counterpart, yet it carries a surprisingly intriguing character of its own. So how does it perform as a team with the Blackened bridge version? What kind of pickup is it in general, and what tonal potential does it hide beneath its icy surface? Let’s dive in and find out.

The Test Guitar

Black Winter Neck is standing on my “Pink Tiger”. That pink tiger is a superstrat has a Jackson Dinky body made of alder, one piece maple neck in modern C profile, German made Jackson Floyd Rose tremolo with Japanese stainless steel saddles, 25,5” scale, Stainless steel Jumbo frets, Alpha 500K pots and elixir strings in Eb tuning. Guitar has the Blackened Edition of Black Winter on the bridge and No-name blade style middle pickups(~9K thou). Its primary (unplugged) tone is neutral to fairly bright.

Evaluation

Let’s read the desciption first, as always;

“The Black Winter pickup is a savagely high-output passive humbucker built for extreme metal, with no less than three large ceramic magnets to ensure maximum output and sustain in all high-gain situations. The custom overwound coil design delivers incredible clarity in the mids and highs, while the low end stays controlled and focused. The Black Winter is designed to handle any tuning, no matter how low you go, and its voicing facilitates aggressive palm mutes, fluid sweep picking, and punishing lead tones

Crushing distortion, vicious mids, and aggressive saturation are at your fingertips, without sacrificing string-to-string separation or sensitivity. The 7- and 8-string versions are built to handle even more extended-range low notes with ease. Pair the bridge Black Winter with the Black Winter neck model for maximum metal onslaught.”

My measurements are here;

Seymour Duncan Black Winter Neck

Magnet – Three Ceramics

Advertised DCR: 13.00 K Ohm (Series)

Measured DCR: 12.85 K Ohm (Series)

Measured DCR: 6.50 K Ohm (Screw Coil)

Measured DCR: 6.41 K Ohm (Slug Coil)

Inductance @100Hz: 5.72 H (Series)

Inductance @100Hz: 2.27 H (Screw Coil)

Inductance @100Hz: 2.76 H (Slug Coil)

Advertised (Unloaded) Resonance Frequency: 6.35KHz

Measured C: -20.9nF (Series)/ -36.7nF (Screw Coil) / -41.5nF (Slug Coil)

Output: High

EQ (B/M/T) – 5/9/7 (old catalog data)

Gauss: 750G screw, 850G slug (measured at top center of D&G pole pieces)

Ambient Measurement Temperature: 23^oC

As always, from the outside, it looks like a traditional humbucker. Yet that awkward gothic logo instantly breaks the illusion. I never quite liked it; it worked fine on the Blackened version, but here, not so much. Other than that, it’s a familiar slugs’n’screws type humbucker. The baseplate is black-painted nickel silver once again. Inside, I’m fairly certain there are three large ceramic magnets; I can’t open this one up since it’s not mine, but the strong magnetic pull on the pole pieces and the overall construction give it away.

The standard ~21 mm screw pole pieces seem a bit short when viewed from underneath, though that’s clearly due to the sheer size of the ceramic magnets. The slug poles aren’t any longer either — you can tell just by looking from below.

On the technical side, we can talk about symmetrical coils. The DCR readings between them are nearly identical — any difference is well within manufacturing tolerance, I’d say. In terms of inductance, it’s quite high for a neck pickup. Not as much as an Air Norton, but still on the higher side.

Interestingly, my Gauss reading turned out even higher than the bridge version — I’m talking about roughly 850 G on the slug coil.

So, if you’re planning to have kids, maybe do that before using these pickups, because carrying that much magnetic force around your chest and waist for long periods might just lower your chances of reproduction. 😄 (Just kidding, of course!)

When I wired the pickup into the guitar and plugged into the amp, the very first thing that struck me, just like its bridge version, was just how loud it is. After dialing in a tone I liked on the amp with the bridge version and jamming for a while, I switched to the neck position — and to my surprise, the tone remained full and powerful. Normally, I don’t use the neck pickup much for rhythm parts; most of them sound either too weak or too boomy to my ears. I usually just roll the volume down on the bridge pickup instead.

But the Black Winter neck is a serious exception in that regard. It’s one of those rare neck pickups that can actually handle rhythm duties effectively.

To be honest, I hadn’t researched the neck version much beforehand — I figured it was probably something like the neck versions of the Full Shred or Invader, a kind of Jazz-style variant. Could be a Jazz with three ceramic magnets. But now I’m inclined to think it’s more of a take on the Duncan Distortion neck (hello Seymourizer II). I can’t say for sure though, since I have to admit — I’ve never actually tried the SH-6 neck myself.

Unexpectedly, i had funny chuggy hours with it. Let’s try same old Dream Theater chord that i suggested on my bridge review: hit a C5/G power chord and just listen to that roar. It’s still full and even thicker, yet remains fairly clear under heavy gain excellently for a neck humbucker. Now start palm-muting hear the lows — it’s such a heavy weight. The response is tight and punchy. It’s , again, amazing for a neck humbucker.

Seymour Duncan Black Winter Neck Review – whats inside

If we generalize its EQ character, it has tight but richer lows and low-mids (because of the nature of the pickup position), prounced mids while the high mids are bright and clear.

When it comes to dynamic range, well… with a ~13K DCR and three massive magnets, what would you really expect? Naturally, it is much better (i mean livelier) than the bridge model or active pickups yet still you have serious amount of compression.

Cleans? I haven’t played a single clean note with them :)

Versatility of the pickup? Well, BW neck is a great choice with powerful bridge humbuckers. There are numerous too powerful humbuckers on the market; there are even some boutique pickup winders experienced with those bozos. Dimarzio X2N, Steve Morse bridge, BW Bridge, Invader, El Diablo, Super 3, The Slug etc. You can match that BW neck with them very well, particularly if the bridge humbucker is a tad dark.

Seymour Duncan Black Winter Neck Review – the bottom

You know what? I have a feeling this pickup’s real potential actually lies in the bridge position. If you were to mount it there as a medium-to-high-output humbucker, and pair it with a tight yet articulate PAF-style neck pickup — that combo would be pure gold. It would sound clearer than most overwound or “hot” PAFs, simply because it doesn’t rely on an Alnico magnet and doesn’t contain ferrous metals inside to lower the eddy currents. And it would be louder too, thanks to those three hefty ceramic bars inside. I imagine it would end up sounding like a beefed-up “Duncan Custom” — but with a bit more output, more mids and a touch more brightness on top.

Conclusion

The Black Winter neck turned out to be a real surprise. I expected a typical “supporting” neck pickup — something dark, compressed, and secondary to its brutal bridge partner. Instead, I found a voice that’s bold, muscular, and unexpectedly clear. It’s powerful without being messy, articulate without feeling sterile, and focused without losing that raw edge.

It’s not a pickup that begs to play clean or to cover a wide stylistic range. Its natural home is in high-gain territory, where its low-end control and midrange definition truly shine. For rhythm players who usually avoid neck pickups, this one might just change your mind — it has enough punch and tightness to hold its own, even in dense mixes.

And yet, a part of me still feels it’s hiding untapped potential — that this same design could become something exceptional in the bridge position. The idea of a “Black Winter Custom” feels almost too good not to exist.