Ants with full strength magnets

[thesjkexperience]

How can you order the Antiquity humbuckers with the Seth magnets? Can any dealer get those for the same price as a normal Ant, or is it a custom order for more $?

Any opinion on the different magnets?

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

it'd be custom shop. I guess you could do it yourself though

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

I think it'd be a Shop Floor Custom but I could be wrong.

Either way I don't think it'd be that hard to do it yourself after market...

 

[thesjkexperience]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Has anyone compared a full strength magnet to the aged one in the Ant? What is the tonal difference?

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

more mids, less highs & lows, a lil tighter maybe

the usual, nothing really drastic but those are the things most people hear

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

more mids, less highs & lows, a lil tighter maybe

the usual, nothing really drastic but those are the things most people hear

With all due respect, have you done that swap?

Am asking because I disagree with your tonal evaluation.

A mag swap from a degaussed a2 to a full strength a2 won't be resulting in more mids, about the same level. It would not give less highs, on the contrary, the highs would be noticably more. The same goes for the bass. It will be tighter, and that's the only thing I agree with you.

thesjkexperience,

The thing is, the big and drastic difference would happen in how punchy the tone is. With the degaussed magnet the pickup would be less punchy less presence. Yet, that is why it is so beautiful, because thats the way to get that open soft but 3 dimensional tone. And there is no other way.

That's why I think a stock ant HB in the neck is one of the best out there, including all them boutique builders you can name.

In the bridge it doesn't work for what I like. I prefer either an a5 or an a4 depending on how bright the bridge is. Especially with hot bridge ants, I had 2 and they were like ~8.75 and 8.70K. With those magnets, those suckers were really top notch. I did not keep them on account of another duncan custom shop pickup, the brobucker.

BTW swapping magnets is very easy especially on antiquities (which are not wax potted). Loosen those 10 screws (6 on the bobin, and 4 on the baseplate) and slide out/in... But don't forget that you'd lose the guarantee.

B

 

[PoorMan]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Has anyone compared a full strength magnet to the aged one in the Ant? What is the tonal difference?

I installed full-strength A2s in my buddies Ants and the difference was like night and day. The pickups were ok with the degaussed mags, but the full strength mags really brought them to life.

Here's a couple links from his old band with full-strength mags. He plays through a blackface Vibrolux
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22ypvrgAfTw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFNsMsscxZw

Ultimately I'd recommend you get stock Ants, learn to do mag swaps and get some full-strength A2s from Wymore. Then you can try both and decide which you prefer. Good luck!

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Right on , Dr Barlo! How would you describe the diff of A3 to the deg. A2 in the Ant neck?

 

[jimijames]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Right on , Dr Barlo! How would you describe the diff of A3 to the deg. A2 in the Ant neck?

I can tell you the difference in a pearly gates neck if that helps:

A2 - fat and full, big mids and singing highs - very classic rock n' roll sound - like everyones favorite les paul sound.
Deg. A2 - Balanced, with more 'give' and 'texture' than full stregnth A2, tighter lows and soft highs that blossom very well
A3 - Brighter than A2 at any stregnth, more chime to highs, and less of the singing characteristic found in A2. Tighter, more present lows.
Deg. A3 - Degaussing A3 brings back the singing characteristic I love in A2 without sacrificing much of the chime I like about A3. Noticeable strat quack (in parallel more than series) and very balanced. At full stregnth, A3 had too much bass for me, degaussed its very well balanced. Kind of like a mix that's 70% PAF and 30% A2 strat pickup. Not rude enough to be called a P-90, but there seems to be more harmonic content than I find with most humbuckers.

Overall, I like degaussed A3 the most, with full stregnth A2 coming in a close second.

 

[thesjkexperience]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Thanks for all your input! It sounds like the stock Ant is the way to go. The guitar is a warm sounding 335 with an ebony fingerboard. I have gibson 57 classics in there with 300k pots and it could use a bit of a wake up. I do not need a ton of output as I am almost exclusively a single coil Strat guy. I was hoping a pup swap and new 500k pots would wake the guitar up a bit.

I loved the sound samples of the Ants over the Seth's and all the other pups in the test. Now comes time to save up for the swap.

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

I have gibson 57 classics in there with 300k pots and it could use a bit of a wake up

Try the pot change first. Get two 500k for volume and two 1 M for tone, and two good .022uF caps. Don't forget to wire it '50 style!

It might suffice to get that "wake up call" you're talking about!

HTH,

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Thanks for all your input! It sounds like the stock Ant is the way to go. The guitar is a warm sounding 335 with an ebony fingerboard. I have gibson 57 classics in there with 300k pots and it could use a bit of a wake up. I do not need a ton of output as I am almost exclusively a single coil Strat guy. I was hoping a pup swap and new 500k pots would wake the guitar up a bit.

I loved the sound samples of the Ants over the Seth's and all the other pups in the test. Now comes time to save up for the swap.

Antiquities and fresh 500k pots will wake that guitar up a lot.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Right on , Dr Barlo! How would you describe the diff of A3 to the deg. A2 in the Ant neck?

Hamerfan,

Thanks man.

My ears tell me that full strength a3 magnets sound very similar with degaussed a2's when compared against full strength a2s. Sure, the highs increase quite a lot (even more than full strength a2s) but the overall eq and depth and clarity is quite similar with degaussed a2s. It is just that the tone is tighter, and especially low mids are more textured. So I would say apart from the increase in bass and highs, the eq, clarity, 3d properties remain the same, but the tone gets more punchy and textured.

Here is a prehistoric thread in which I did a test of full strength a2 versus an a3 in a PGn. The guitar, the height, the strings ... whatever, are all the same, apart from the magnets. You might find it helpful:

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=35

I personally love both a3s and degaussed a2s in the neck for different purposes. Cannot discriminate between the two. But with duncan neck buckers I strictly prefer a3s over full strength a2s.

B

 

[DonP]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Try the pot change first. Get two 500k for volume and two 1 M for tone, and two good .022uF caps. Don't forget to wire it '50 style!

It might suffice to get that "wake up call" you're talking about!

HTH,

+1000

I loved my R0, but I wanted just a little more umph. Went with 550K CTS pots, real bumblebees and 50s wiring.

Try the pots first, since it's cheaper. Then go for pickups if this doesn't work.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

The aged magnet in the Ant is more than just degaussed. I haven't swapped the magnets yet, but I tried several grades of de-gaussing on other magnets. De-gaussing retains the character of the Alnico, it just sounds "less so", somewhat like backing away from the strings. The Antiquity humbuckers have a complex sound that is nowhere along those lines.

I think Ants are custom shop anyway, so if you order from SD directly anyway you can probably get any magnet you want for the same price.

The proper "mod" to a set of Antiquities is to get a less hot bridge pickup. The Ant bridge is substantially hotter than the Seth bridge (8.5 versus 8.1 Kohm) and I think that's mistake. Maybe get the neck pickup hotter, less sure about that. I'd probably specify 7.8 and 8.2 Kohm if I custom ordered a set.

 

[thesjkexperience]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

Thanks for all your input. THe only reason I was going to switch the pups and the pots out at the same time is due to family obligations I will not be able to do the wiring. Since someone else is already in there I thought why not change to pups I think I will like much better.

What can I get for a used set of 57 classics with long leads?

 

[PoorMan]

Re: Ants with full strength magnets

I had some stock Ant mags in my hands on Sunday. They look like your standard available A2s (with the exception of Duncan's sig). But they are very weak. I compared them to some A2 mags I degaussed (which IMO were very weak) but the Ants were even weaker.