Antiquity HB Bridge magnet swap

[hamerfan]

Re: Antiquity HB Bridge magnet swap

My Ant bridge was thin, but also had a rounded high end that I couldn't get any 'cut' from (those darn A2's!). I put in an UOA5, which gave a bit of treble, and kept the dynamics. Just what it needed. Much better.

I ended up with RCUO A5 in the bridge and A4 in the neck of a Les Paul (In a Tokai ES i liked the A5 also in the neck.)
Dr. Barlo was the one who hooked me this special combo. Thanks to him!

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: Antiquity HB Bridge magnet swap

My Ant bridge was thin, but also had a rounded high end that I couldn't get any 'cut' from (those darn A2's!). I put in an UOA5, which gave a bit of treble, and kept the dynamics. Just what it needed. Much better.

I actually tried the UOA5 first in the bridge, from yours and a few others recommendations on this board. My experience with it was, yes it cut through very nicely, but it did lose a lot of mids, which equated to cleaning up the tone, as if gaining more clean headroom from the amp. I lost that grind that the mids provide.

 

[Mad Raxz]

Re: Antiquity HB Bridge magnet swap

I actually tried the UOA5 first in the bridge, from yours and a few others recommendations on this board. My experience with it was, yes it cut through very nicely, but it did lose a lot of mids, which equated to cleaning up the tone, as if gaining more clean headroom from the amp. I lost that grind that the mids provide.

Aint UOA5 supposed to give you more mids? Was it roughcast? Is this the only UOA5 you have tried, maybe it was the gauss.

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: Antiquity HB Bridge magnet swap

Aint UOA5 supposed to give you more mids? Was it roughcast? Is this the only UOA5 you have tried, maybe it was the gauss.

I had read that an UOA5 was close, in tone, to an A2. Not in my experience, it was more like what A5's are described as sounding. Yes, the magnet was roughcast and I ordered them fully charged from addiction-fx. Just didn't fit my need.

I have an A4 I haven't tried yet but I'm very happy with how these pu's sound with the full strength A2's. I liked the way the Ant's sounded out of the box, I just wanted more out of the bridge. No matter how close I adjusted, the pu always sounded as if it was to far away from the strings, with the degaussed A2's.

 

[raistlin]

Re: Antiquity HB Bridge magnet swap

Not to hijack the thread, but are Unoriented A5 considered vintage? Did Gibson use oriented or unoriented Alnico 5 back in the day?

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Antiquity HB Bridge magnet swap

Not to hijack the thread, but are Unoriented A5 considered vintage? Did Gibson use oriented or unoriented Alnico 5 back in the day?

Gibson used whatever was the cheapest they could get at the moment... specs were not an issue as long as it said "Alnico" in the invoice. Typical clueless suit mentality!

They HAVE used magnets that read UOA5 Gauss levels in certain batches, the ones I've seen were all short. BTW, I don't even think it REALLY was UOA5, just a bad batch of either A4 or A5. I have one of those that came in an early T-Top; it's so bad that it won't hold a charge for more than three months and after a year it won't even stick to the fridge... then the cork-sniffers would argue that the "magic" was in the magnets!

HTH,

 

[raistlin]

Re: Antiquity HB Bridge magnet swap

^ Thanks for the headsup Lt!