The Black/Back Pickup is a proprietary pickup owned & designed by The Ultratone division of New Technologies Ltd. 

Seymour Duncan actually manufactures the pickups in their custom shop. The Technology is owned by several different parties and it is almost impossible to patent. The R&D costs alone to try to get a patent for this product would be astronomical. The patent would also have to extend to the mounting system and wiring in the guitar. The possibilities are quite broad. Therefore anyone who is involved in the project is sworn to secrecy and has to sign a non disclosure agreement. 

The original product was named Black/Back ND.  ND meant non disclosure. However many people thought that ND stood for Neo Dimium which is a rare earth magnetic element.  Neo Dimium is a more expensive magnet than Aluminum Nickel Cobalt (Alnico) and of course much more costly than standard ceramic magnets. Many people have heard of the Electrovoice "NDYM" Microphones "Pronounced endime". These Microphones came out in the early 90's & they literally blew the Shure SM 57 and 58 out of the water. Today many speaker companies are also using Neo Dimium technology when they want much more powerful magnets.

These pickups are slightly more expensive than the usual Duncan pickups. Although we have been told numerous times that our price of $89.95 each is much lower than they would have expected to pay. We have also been told that people have paid that much for the normal Duncan pickups.

On the discontinued Eddie Van Halen guitars the lower brass assembly and back were painted black. This is where the name Black/Back TM came from. New Technologies has simply trademarked the black painted backs in an effort to try to lock out competition.  There are a few people who are Grand-fathered in before the trademark was granted so be careful. Make sure the guitar is a Seymour Duncan. Some of the very early ones about 350 were manufactured under license by Dimarzio.  We have seen these sell on Ebay for $275.00 a pickup. We think that is ludicrous because the Seymour Duncan product is far superior in quality. We do have several sets of totally Brand New Dimarzio Black/Backs in stock. If you are a Dimarzio freak then please give us a call.

I realize of course that tone and sound are objective. I also know that these pickups aren't for everybody. But I feel they are the most powerful, clean and controllable pickups I have ever used.  Originally they were designed for the LSR line of guitars back in 1997 and today there are about 14 companies that use them.

Seymour Duncan was not the first company to produce the Black/Back pickups for New/Tech. But Seymour Duncan was the company that helped them perfect it.

The Black/Backs are a matched set, You can use them separately of course but they are a matched set. One is specifically for the bridge position while the other one is made for the neck position.

You should never mount a single coil pickup in between them. Magnetism from the center magnet will interfere and alter the intended sound..

more coming   STAY TUNED

ED

We also recommended that utilizing 2 pickups would sound better than just using one.  However we have heard these pickups used individually and the still sound great.                   

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