Maricela "MJ" Juarez Interview (Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Manager)

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“The heart and soul of your guitar has to connect with your own heart and soul,” says Seymour Duncan Custom Shop manager Maricela “MJ” Juarez.

Juarez has worked alongside Seymour Duncan for more than 30 years, establishing herself as the legendary pickup builder’s most trusted collaborator. She’s also become a custom pickup builder to the stars, helping the guitar’s most demanding tone junkies connect better with their instruments. Some say she’s wound more pickups heard on gold and platinum records than anyone. Her clientele includes Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Eddie Van Halen, Vince Gill, Slash, James Taylor, Peter Frampton, Warren DeMartini, and Steve Miller—not to mention countless discerning players around the globe.

Juarez began her Duncan tenure as a production-floor pickup winder, but Seymour eventually asked her to manage the growing Custom Shop. It’s expanded so fast that they recently brought in Seymour’s son Derek to help manage. Nowadays they’re only partially joking when they refer to Juarez as the Queen of the Custom Shop. But like so many things in life and music, her path to pickup-winding royalty was anything but what she’d planned.

Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Manager has wound pickups for a who’s-who of guitar gods—Clapton, Gibbons, Van Halen, Holdsworth, Harrison, and many more. But she’s revered for more than her tonal sensibilities.

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00:00 - Maricela “MJ” Juarez Intro & 40th Anniversary Celebration
00:40 - MJ's Unusual Start at Seymour Duncan
03:12 - Learning from Seymour and Remember Pickup Basics
06:36 - Custom Order Notes from Guitar Legends
09:30 - MJ's Favorite Pickup to Wind
12:28 - Special 40th Anniversary Pickups Tease
13:00 - Shaping Musical History
14:00 - MJ's Most-Difficult Customer
14:40 - Working with Slash
15:47 - Amazing Billy F. Gibbons

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