Seymour Duncan Billy Gibbons Red Devil — Complete Strat Tonal Solution Kit

The Seymour Duncan Billy Gibbons Red Devil Complete Strat Tonal Solution Kit gives you everything needed to transform your Stratocaster into a genuine tone machine — the legendary Red Devil pickup set plus a complete wiring upgrade with CTS 500K pots, CRL 5-way switch, Paper in Oil capacitor, Switchcraft output jack and vintage cloth wire. This is not just a pickup swap. It is a complete signal chain upgrade designed to unlock everything the Red Devils are capable of.

The Red Devil Pickups — Billy Gibbons' Pearly Gates Tone in a Strat

Billy Gibbons is one of the most distinctive guitar voices in rock history — his tone simultaneously warm, cutting, slightly rude and unmistakably Texas. The foundation of that sound is Pearly Gates, his 1959 Les Paul Standard, whose original PAF humbuckers have defined every ZZ Top record since the band's beginning. When Gibbons plays a Stratocaster, the challenge is obvious — how do you get that PAF character out of a guitar with single-coil routing?

Seymour Duncan's answer is the Red Devil — a single-coil-sized humbucker set voiced specifically to replicate the sweet, slightly overdriven PAF character of Pearly Gates' pickups, in a format that drops directly into any standard Stratocaster without modification. These are not generic humbucker pickups squeezed into a smaller format. They are purpose-voiced, each with its own custom wind, to produce the specific tonal character that has made Billy Gibbons one of the most imitated guitarists in the world.

Three Unique Winds — One Cohesive Voice

Each pickup in the Red Devil set has its own custom wind with specially calibrated Alnico V magnets — a detail that separates a genuinely engineered pickup set from a simple size-reduction exercise.

• Bridge Pickup: PAF-like with extra spice — enough additional fatness and growl to deliver that slightly rude Gibbons bridge tone that sits in a band mix like nothing else. Pinch harmonics squeal and sing. Airy highs, sizzling mids, a growl that brings new life to any instrument.
• Middle Pickup: Backed off from the bridge's heat — sweet, smoky and musical. Ideal for clean rhythm and the in-between positions that give a Strat its characteristic chime and quack — but with humbucker warmth and body.
• Neck Pickup: Warm, smooth and full — the sweet, smoky blues tone that Gibbons coaxes from the neck position on his Strats. Cleans, rhythm and lead alike respond beautifully.

Single-Coil Sized — No Routing Required

The Red Devils are hum-cancelling single-coil-sized humbuckers — they drop directly into standard Stratocaster pickup routes without any modification to the body. No routing, no carving, no permanent alteration to your instrument. They use 4-conductor lead wire, which opens up coil-splitting and other advanced wiring options if required in future.

Vacuum Wax Potted

Every pickup in the Red Devil set is vacuum wax potted — a process that fills the air gaps inside the pickup coil with wax under vacuum conditions, eliminating microphonic squeal under high volume and high gain conditions. This is a non-negotiable quality detail on any pickup intended for serious use.

Why 500K Pots — The Most Important Wiring Detail

Standard Stratocasters ship with 250K potentiometers — the correct value for single-coil pickups, which naturally produce a bright, clear tone that benefits from the slight high-frequency roll-off that 250K pots introduce. The Red Devils are humbuckers. They have a warmer, fuller natural voicing than single coils — and they need 500K pots to let their full tonal range through to the output.

Installing the Red Devils with the original 250K Strat pots will produce a noticeably darker, more muffled result than these pickups are capable of — the 250K pots suppress the high-end clarity and dynamic response that gives the Red Devils their air and sizzle. This kit includes the correct CTS 500K Audio Taper pots specifically because this is the single most important wiring change when installing single-coil-sized humbuckers in a Strat.

The Complete Wiring Kit — Every Component Specified

3x CTS 500K Precision Audio Taper Potentiometers

CTS potentiometers are the industry standard in quality guitar wiring — used in Gibson USA instruments and specified by luthiers and electronics technicians worldwide. Audio taper provides a smooth, natural-feeling volume and tone sweep. At 500K these are the correct value for the Red Devil humbuckers — ensuring full high-end clarity and dynamic range reach the output jack.

1x CRL 5-Way Switch

The CRL 5-way lever switch is the original and definitive Stratocaster switching component — the switch that defined the five-position sound palette of the Stratocaster. It provides access to bridge, bridge/middle, middle, middle/neck and neck positions. The CRL's contact quality and switching reliability is significantly better than the generic switches found in most production Stratocasters.

1x Paper in Oil (PIO) Capacitor — .022uF

The tone capacitor determines how your tone control functions — specifically, what frequencies are rolled off when the tone pot is turned down and how smoothly that transition happens. A Paper in Oil capacitor is a premium tone component with a warmer, more musical roll-off character than standard ceramic or polyester film capacitors. At .022uF this cap is the correct value for humbucker-equipped guitars — slightly tighter roll-off than the .047uF used in single-coil setups, preserving more of the Red Devils' mid-range character when the tone is backed off.

1x Switchcraft Mono Output Jack — EP0055

The Switchcraft output jack is the definitive quality output jack — reliable, consistent and significantly more durable than the generic jacks found in most production guitars. Output jack failure is one of the most common and most avoidable guitar faults. A Switchcraft jack installed correctly will outlast the guitar.

1x White Switch Knob

White switch tip to complete the traditional Strat aesthetic.

Vintage Cloth Wire — 22 Gauge Black and White

Two feet of 22 gauge vintage cloth-covered wire in both black and white — the correct gauge and format for guitar wiring. Vintage cloth wire provides better flexibility, easier handling during installation and a traditional appearance compared to modern plastic-insulated wire.

Wiring Diagram Included

A complete wiring diagram for this specific configuration is included with every kit — making installation straightforward for players with soldering experience.

Professional Installation Available

Not comfortable with soldering? Our workshop team at Angkor Music can install this kit for you. Drop your guitar into our Altona workshop or take advantage of our mail-in guitar service — send us your guitar, we install the kit and return it to you fully set up and ready to play.

Full details of our guitar repair and installation service are available at: angkormusic.com.au/guitar-repairs

Specifications

Expert Advice at Angkor Music

At Angkor Music Melbourne we are authorised Seymour Duncan dealers and stock the full Seymour Duncan range. If you have questions about whether the Red Devil set is right for your guitar and playing style — or want to discuss other Seymour Duncan combinations — our team is happy to advise. Visit us at 4 Drake Boulevard, Altona or contact us online.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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