The Nashville Studio™ replacement pickup for Telecaster® guitars started out in the Seymour Duncan® Custom Shop. Seymour designed it for some of Nashville's top studio guitarists like session-ace Brent Mason. Not merely a "Country" pickup, it's easily adaptable to any musical style. It achieved such phenomenal popularity, the pickup giant decided to release it to the public. This marks the debut of Seymour Duncan's Five-Two™ pickup series.
Seymour uses alnico in so many of his pickups because its lower string pull and softer magnetic field improve sustain and help smooth out the tone. The Five-Two is the pickup guru's first product line to combine multiple alnico magnet types strategically placed to deliver a bright and springy bottom end and a full and smooth top end.
Here's how the Five-Two pickup works: Seymour utilizes alnico 5 magnets on the three low strings. This adds more definition and punch to the bottom end. Seymour uses alnico 2 magnets on the three high strings. This gives the player a warm and smooth top end without sacrificing that great Tele® twang. Telecaster® players often complain that their low strings sound "mushy" and their high strings are too bright. The Five-Two concept counteracts this phenomenon. If you look closely at the photo, you can also see the difference between the two magnet types.
The result is an all-around, extremely well-balanced, Tele pickup. The lead pickup has traditional output and vintage appointments such as black yarn wrapping and waxed cloth hookup cable. The chrome-covered neck version is reverse wound, reverse polarity to create a hum-canceling effect when used together with the bridge pickup.
Like all Seymour Duncan pickups, all Five-Two pickups are entirely hand built in the company's Santa Barbara, California facility and include mounting hardware and wiring diagrams.