Antiquity II surfers - strat - Finally!

[notz]

I am in strat heaven, finally!

This quest started 3 months ago with a gift of my choice of pups from an old friend, whose highest recommendation were Antiquity II surfers. He told me to find a demo of them, then decide.

Ok so far, cept' there are no company demo's of Seymour's pride & joy, the only pups he hand makes (huh? really?)... What's up with that? All these other audio samples, but none of his favorites. Strange...

Very few demos on YouTube by others, too, especially just clean by themselves.
But I did find one by a dude called SugarFingers, & instantly loved their sound, so I told my friend "Hell ya, those are the real deal!"

So he ordered them online. He said he ordered the set he had, all surfers, but they sent the custom set - RP/RW Middle, & a 10.2k custom bridge.

I was unaware they came in two flavors. All I knew was they didn't sound like the demo I choose them from, nor did they sound like a strat very much on the 2nd position, & only somewhat strat sounding on the 4 position. I was very dissatisfied, as were two different guitar techs. One suggested I get rid of them any way I can... I did love the 1, 3, & 5 positions, though.

But I had come here & read testimony after testimony, glorifying these babies, so I knew something else had to be wrong. Then I came across a thread by someone explaining the differences, so I ordered two more neck surfer pups & got the guitar back yesterday, & fukin WoW! What a difference!

What delectable dripping strat tones! Be still my heart, I am finally home!

Thank-You forever Seymour! YES! And thank you all for your community, & testimonials!

[LReese]

Re: Antiquity II surfers - strat - Finally!

I'm a fan of all 3 the same setup. But by your description something sounded amiss - #4 should have been almost the real deal, maybe with a slight drop in bottom end. #2 should have sounded like a Strat, but maybe a little more midrangey.

I'm in the camp of there is a difference with RWRP, but its not a big difference.

Surfers are certainly fine pickups.

[notz]

Re: Antiquity II surfers - strat - Finally!

Hi, I appreciate your reply. Concerning #4, it lent itself enough towards my idea of a what a good #4 sound should be alright, I'm just sayin the difference it made doing w/o the RP/RW is what dialed it in for me. Subtle, but extremely important subtlety. To my senses it's perfect now.

But the #2 I guess you would've had to have heard for yourself. Almost zero, if any quack, & that's with all incremental height adjustments. Now it too is perfect. The rp/rw & 10.2k custom bridge sounded incredibly good by themselves, but to my ears not straty enough together.

Visted a friend last night, who has a big house on an acre with no neighbors. Cranked it through an old Musicman 2×12 hd150 (tests 177 watts) using fairly new Winged Cs with new EV Black Labels (300 watts), & it was the best sound I've ever gotten with single coils. Only pedal I took was Duncan's Twin Tube Classic. Headroom city, loud, full, dripping tonal texture. Just perfect.