Jimbilly Posted January 3 Posted January 3 (edited) Nice! I smiled and laughed, she's so delightful. I've got an old DDJ in a Kramer, I should probably put it somewhere safe once word really gets out Edited January 3 by Jimbilly 1 1 Quote
Dave Scepter Posted January 3 Posted January 3 (edited) 15 hours ago, Jimbilly said: Nice! I smiled and laughed, she's so delightful. I've got an old DDJ in a Kramer, I should probably put it somewhere safe once word really gets out FYI word has been out for at least 20 years or more 🤣 Edited January 4 by Dave Scepter 1 6 Quote
scottcald Posted January 4 Posted January 4 Whenever I see an interview with her, I feel like my favorite aunt has given me a big hug. 2 Quote
RobB Posted January 4 Posted January 4 Lovely woman. I don't know if her winds are superior than those of her other long-term coworkers, but this, "Metal Fatigue" (re-branded Allan Holdsworth AH-1) sounds killer in my Fernandes JEL replica. Heaven through a JCM800: 5 Quote
duncans Posted January 4 Posted January 4 WOW, what a wonderful woman. All that knowledge, the wherewithall to take all those notes, from the start! I can only hope someone is writing a book about her and all her knowledge. 2 1 Quote
Dave Scepter Posted January 4 Posted January 4 5 minutes ago, duncans said: hope someone is writing a book about her and all her knowledge. Great idea 👍 2 1 Quote
Disturber Posted January 5 Posted January 5 I have an old JB not wound by her that sounds fantastic. Also have a pair of Alnico 2 (not slash) humbucker that I really like, not wound by her. And had lots of previous Duncans, not wound by her, that I liked over the years. So, I'd say it's a marketing trick from Seymour. She's probably great with the customers, and she worked there for the longest of times - so it naturally became her that became the next well known face next to Seymours. It's all good. She is probably great. But that her pickup winds should always be superiour to the other workers there, I call that BS. 2 Quote
diablo175 Posted January 5 Posted January 5 I bought into the mystique and hype surrounding Maricela's winds years back. Bought a pricey MJ JB online and acquired a couple other of her JB's that arrived in older/vintage axes. Then I discovered that JB's, for my purposes, do not sound as good as the various Mongeese I've ordered from Josh. Even his J2B take on the JB (made to be closer to the original JB wind & characteristics) was uninspiring. If anyone wants to do a side by side comparison between a MJ JB and Gravelin's J2B, I have both. Quote
Jimbilly Posted January 5 Posted January 5 I don't know what the 8977 means, faded red bobbins on this one Quote
Jeff R Posted January 5 Posted January 5 (edited) 8 hours ago, Disturber said: not wound by her I've hesitated to "say" anything because I didn't want to be seen as a prick. Plus I have been good friends with both MJ and Seymour for many, many years. So I'll just share what immediately stood out to me in MJ's office ... and a relevant link. https://www.tanac.co.uk/english_ax3.html Okay, I'll opine ... for fairness, transparency and perspective, Tanac is an industry standard in musical instrument manufacturing's coil winding world. It is Japan tech and workmanship at its absolute finest. Off the top of my head, Grover Jackson, Dave Friedman, and John Suhr also employ the AX3 in their pickup operations. Tanac also makes much bigger commercial winders for much bigger musical instrument companies that wind their own pickups. I'll stop there. Duncan's massive number of OEM accounts alone - where bulk quantity product consistency, production speed, bulletproof reliability/QC, and prerequisite CPU discounts are critical - absolutely justifies this type of tech-driven automated approach. Demand for MJ-specific Duncan product is HUGE too, and there is only so much hand-wound high quality output one human can deliver. Having said that, I TOO have been shopping AX-3(s) for my shop, to ensure I can deliver every asset and promise I offer a few OEMs I'm pursuing in 2026. Takeaway: That sample DCS box RobB posted says "custom shop" pickups from a "master craftsman." Now you know why it doesn't say anything about who - or more accurately, what - actually wound the pickup. Edited January 5 by Jeff R 6 Quote
RobB Posted January 6 Posted January 6 (edited) On 1/5/2026 at 7:56 AM, Jeff R said: That sample DCS box RobB posted says "custom shop" pickups from a "master craftsman." Now you know why it doesn't say anything about who - or more accurately, what - actually wound the pickup. I guess it’s entirely possible that there’s somebody else at Duncan with the initials, “MJ”, as written on the box? Not that it matters to me. It’s a nice pick up, no matter who wound it. Edited January 6 by RobB Quote
Dave Scepter Posted January 6 Posted January 6 (edited) Most of the folklore regarding MJ's pickups we're during the 80's In the early 1980s, many Seymour Duncan pickups were indeed hand-wound, often by Seymour Duncan himself or early key employees like MJ, with pickups without a winder initial typically indicating Seymour's own handiwork, using specialized, often vintage, equipment like Leesona winders for faithful reproductions. The company grew from these early days of personal winding and rewind services, with specific paper labels or ink stamps identifying winders as the operation expanded, but hand-winding remained central to their craft... In essence, the early '80s were a crucial period where Seymour Duncan established his reputation through meticulous, largely hand-wound pickups, with the company growing from a small operation to a renowned brand, As of now, Maricela “MJ” Juarez "La Maestra" is the manager of Seymour Duncans Custom Shop where she now overlooks and teaches her department, and I'm sure does custom handwounds as needed Edited January 6 by Dave Scepter 1 1 Quote
Jeff R Posted January 6 Posted January 6 1 hour ago, RobB said: I guess it’s entirely possible that there’s somebody else at Duncan with the initials, “MJ”, as written on the box? Not that it matters to me. It’s a nice pick up, no matter who wound it. Yes, it's entirely possible there's another "MJ" in the Duncan Custom Shop. Then again, here's a pickup repair I received last month, in which the sender told me the pickup originated from his inquiry to "the" MJ. As in a direct personal inquiry his longtime artist relationship allows. Those labels were both penned in 2024, within two months of each other. I'm no handwriting expert, but I don't think one is needed. I have no doubt your pickup or anything else from DCS, regardless of who or what is winding, is a nice pickup. The ingenuity of the Tanac is it can duplicate not only every hard data spec and data parameter via programming, it can learn and then mimic the human interaction ... including the inconsistency and imperfection components that makes hand-wound custom pickups what they are. That's exactly why SD and the prestigious folks I cited above use them and why I want one too! 3 Quote
scottcald Posted January 6 Posted January 6 Well, in the end, a tool is a tool. Even if she's not holding the wire in her hand to guide it, it's her years of experience, notes, knowledge and direct winding or more likely guidance to others under her that create the pickups. I don't feel there's any reason to think these days that the person who wound the pickup wrote out the label. It's going to be more efficient for some admin folk(s) to do all the labels and slap them on boxes and distribute them to the proper area than everyone has a bunch of boxes and labels individually. I mean at some point they could just add that as their own font and print them out. Quote
diablo175 Posted January 7 Posted January 7 Maricela? Sweet lady but I'll see your MJ and raise you a Gravelin. Any day and twice on weekends. Had this installed and got it back today (yes, I can swap p'ups but not in a guitar that has the control cavity shoehorned full o' Sustainiac bits.) It slays. Think VH Fair Warning-era goodness. And for a bit less than what you'd pay for a custom shop Seymour. 4 Quote
velorush Posted January 7 Posted January 7 16 hours ago, Jakeboy said: Perfect shirt for you, @diablo175! 5 Quote
diablo175 Posted January 7 Posted January 7 (edited) 18 hours ago, Jakeboy said: Perfect shirt for you, @diablo175! Nah, THIS shirt is perfect for me... It matches my Jeep and my latest guitar acquisition, which BTW, also got new pickups- a Gravelin Mongoose double slug and a SD '59 Edited January 7 by diablo175 3 1 Quote
Jakeboy Posted January 8 Posted January 8 Exactly, @diablo175! I assumed the earlier shirt had faded a bit! 1 Quote
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