Maybe scored an early 1980 Duncan Distortion! help confirm please

[warmachine]

I have modern Seymour Duncans in my guitars but always wanted a vintage early era Duncan! Can someone shed some light on this? Nothing but that cute little DD sticker on the backside.

Experts what do I got? The earliest of the early Distortions? I read 1980 was there first year.

 

[freefrog]

I can't tell if it's a true one but the threaded baseplate and sticker certainly look like those of my early SH1's (one of them had just a paper sticker like in your pic, with "59B" printed in red).

 

[jbash]

Looks right to me for an early 80s Duncan Distortion. Nice score.

You can always send them an email with a pic. They have always been top notch and helpful in the service area.

 

[JeffH66]

That is indeed an early 80’s “Distortion” made before they started including the winders initials on the stickers. I don’t have my old Duncan pickup label chart on my tablet, but I think it would be from 82-83 If my memory is correct. I have a couple pickups from that era, and they are great. I can say from personal experience that the older pickups from the 80’s sound different than the current models…..better IMO.

Duncan says the materials are identical then to now as are the winding machines, but I’ve A/B’d them in my own guitars, and even my wife can tell the difference.

 

[freefrog]

Yeah, early Duncan's sound different and I prefer the old ones too. Same thing for me with vintage DiMarzio's or Bill Lawrence's, BTW.