Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

[TinMan]

Hey y'all! I've been looking into various single coil pickups for a rather large guitar project I'm looking at taking on. After a good deal of forum and website prowling, I've been really intrigued by the Strat Antiquity II pickups. The only problem I can foresee with them is 60 cycle hum. I'd really prefer not to have to deal with that but they're such great sounding pickups from what I hear that they really seem too good to pass up. Has anyone had personal experience with them? I was also comparing them with Lace Blue, Silver, and Gold pups. Aside from that, I'm thinking about putting in some single coil sized humbuckers as well. I was thinking something along the lines of a lil' screamin' demon in the bridge and a lil '59 in the neck. Any opinions or info to pass along my way? Any opinions would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Sleeping Martyr]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

I have the antiquity surfers in my strat (Neck, RW/RP middle, Custom Bridge) and I love em!! They are warm but glassy, they cut yet aren't to piercing. Gets an awesome Hendrix type tone (or Mike Mcready type tone if you also happen to be a pearl Jam fan . . think Yellow Ledbetter) The clean sound is fantastic, especially the Neck, Neck/middle. There was some hum for sure but I got my strat shielded and its helped a ton, still a faint hum but hey its a strat right?? No Experience with the Texas Hots but if I get another Strat I may have to buy a set

 

[jimijames]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

You might want to ask lew about this, if I remember correctly he said that the Classic stack plus pickup is 95% of the way there without hum. So that may be your best option if hum is a big issue for you.

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have the Antiquity II surfers in the neck and middle of my strat. Fantastic pickups, but they respond so well to your playing style that you really have to be on your game. And I'm talking about things like the angle of your finger on the string changing the sound. But if you like singles, you will fall in love with the surfers.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

Well, the mini-humbuckers and the single coils are entirely different beasts.

Personally I mostly like the real deal, which is ssl-1/ssl-2. I had an Antiquity Custom, the overwound one, but didn't like it much. I didn't have the standard wind Antiquities.

I have a little Screamin' Demon which I like a lot, but it's nothing like a Strat pickup. Sounds good split, too.

Another Strat pickup I like is the Quarter Pounder, in particular in the middle position. Another one I didn't like is the cool rails, I don't think I like any of the rails.

The hum drives me nuts, though. I'd probably re-route any Strat for humbuckers nowadays so that I can put a bright PAF into the neck.

 

[TinMan]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

The guitar project that I'm working on is going to have two single-coil sized humbuckers and two or three single-coils. The entire point of the guitar is to get both strat tones and other tones (such as a PRS or a shredd guitar) all in one guitar. I got the idea from a Japanese artist by the name of Sugizo. Honestly, I heard someone play the Antiquity IIs in his American Strat and it just sounded "right" to my ear...they sounded like a single coil should. Then again, I only heard it on clean lol. Thanks Sleeping Martyr for the input on the pups! It really helped me. As far as the humbuckers go, I really think a Little '59 would be perfect in the neck slot and the Lil' Screamin Demon would be cool as a bridge pup...just my thoughts in regards to it all.

 

[jerryjg]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

Cant go wrong for that old vintage Strat sound. Like I learned from Lew guitar( where is lew anyhow lately?), the Antiquities willget you the extra 10% of the way to vintage Ramadan than The ssl's, but youll pay a premium for it.
I really believe you have to have all your ducks in a row with your axe before you spend that extra money.
For most a[pplications the SSL pickups are just about perfect> lets hear from the real pickup guys!

 

[mixedmedia]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

Tin Man are you going to post up pics and clips when the project is finished? As far as I know Sugizo uses Antiquity Custom Bridge and Surfer singles in his guitars but maybe the guitarist you may be thinking about is Aoi from Gazette since he uses 2 Gold Lace Sensors and SD lil59's and lil Demons in his guitar.

Picture of pickups only to spare forum members the horror of the weird shape of the guitar.

If you were thinking about a configuration like this you might have to look into something with a non pentagonal baseplate unless you plan to put the singles in back of the mini humbuckers since I don't think they make the Antiquities stock with EMG shaped baseplates.

Cool idea though. Someday I plan to mod/build something similar.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

You might want to ask lew about this, if I remember correctly he said that the Classic stack plus pickup is 95% of the way there without hum. So that may be your best option if hum is a big issue for you.

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have the Antiquity II surfers in the neck and middle of my strat. Fantastic pickups, but they respond so well to your playing style that you really have to be on your game. And I'm talking about things like the angle of your finger on the string changing the sound. But if you like singles, you will fall in love with the surfers.

That's about right. I use the Classic Strat Plus as the neck pickup in my Tele Custom along with a Joe Barden as the bridge pickup.

I use the Surfers neck and middle in my two favorite Strats...and the Ant Texas Hot as the bridge pickup for a smoother fatter tone with more mids when I switch to the bridge pickup.

The Antiquitys are my favorite Strat pickups up all time. They're better than the vintage pickups in my old '63 Strat.

As for the Classic Stack Plus pickups, they get about 95% of the tone of the Surfers. They're excellent and the best noiseless Strat pickups I've ever used...but getting that last 5% of the tone of the Surfers is worth the hum and I play my Strats with the Antiquitys much more often than that Tele.

lew

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

I had an Antiquity Custom Bridge (the A2 model) once and I thought it was great. Really fine Strat bridge pu, good oomph without losing the vintage vibe.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

i have a full set of texas hots and a pair of surfers with a custom shop bridge pup in strat type guitars and they are both fantastic. perfect single coil tone, the texas hots push the amp a little more and might sound better overdriven but thats personal preference.

i played my texas hot loaded guitar straight into my deluxe reverb last night and got all types of great compliments. some one said i nailed the 'shine on you crazy diamond' tone. i wasnt playing that song but thats what tone they thought it sounded like.

 

[Sleeping Martyr]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

The Texas hots push the amp harder than the surfers?? I would have thought it would be the other way around since the surfers are a little higher output, or am I grossly misinformed haha

 

[jeremy]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

its the alnico 2 vs 5 thing, and maybe push the amp harder isnt the best way to put it, maybe distort earlier is more accurate.

the a5 has less mid push than the a2

 

[TinMan]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

Tin Man are you going to post up pics and clips when the project is finished? As far as I know Sugizo uses Antiquity Custom Bridge and Surfer singles in his guitars but maybe the guitarist you may be thinking about is Aoi from Gazette since he uses 2 Gold Lace Sensors and SD lil59's and lil Demons in his guitar.

Picture of pickups only to spare forum members the horror of the weird shape of the guitar.

If you were thinking about a configuration like this you might have to look into something with a non pentagonal baseplate unless you plan to put the singles in back of the mini humbuckers since I don't think they make the Antiquities stock with EMG shaped baseplates.

Cool idea though. Someday I plan to mod/build something similar.

I got the original idea from Aoi but I wanted to have more of a Sugizo sound...thus the Antiquities. I was also thinking of the Sugizo SIII model when I name dropped Sugizo lol. My pickup choices came from a mix of the two though. I figured I would prefer having the Lil' Screamin Demon (like Aoi) rather than the EMG SA (like Sugizo) in the bridge. When all is said and done, I think I probably will put an Antiquity Strat Custom in the bridge along with a Lil' Screamin Demon or JB Jr. and an Antiquity Surfer in the neck with either a sustainer or a Little '59. For the record, there will definitely be clips and pictures when the project is done! Thank you everyone for your input...it was well informed and well received.

 

[Fikealox]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

Argh... I wish I hadn't read this thread. I'd pretty-much decided to go with single coils in my strat, but now I'm thinking about lil' screamin' demons, lil' 59s, etc.

I have a fullsized screamin' demon/lil' 59 combo in my ESP M2, and it's just such a good combo. The demon is great for leads, the split tone is growly for sort of punchy rhythms, and the lil '59 is smooth and great for cleans - and they're all well balanced and don't sound worlds apart.

With the extra pickup slot in a strat, I'm thrown into chaos again, haha. I know I don't like the DiMarzio Super Distortion/SSL1/DiM Chopper combo that's in the strat at the moment, though...

 

[Fikealox]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

...I just partially solved my problem... by buying another strat!

The new one's got A Texas Hot Custom Bridge/Texas Hot middle and neck So now I'm thinking in the strat I already have I'll go lil' demon bridge/classic stack plus middle/lil' 59 neck.

 

[mixedmedia]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

From what I gathered Sugizo doesn't even use the EMG as a pickup on his S-III as that's only to drive the sustainer unit if that makes any sense. So the EMG is only used when the sustainer is on so the only pickups are the Antiquity Strat Custom Bridges.

Like I mentioned earlier the shape of the Antiquities' baseplates might make it so you'd have to switch them with the minihumbuckers if you plan to have them mounted next to each other like in the picture. Maybe you can get left handed ones and flip them or there is an option to get non pentagonal baseplates.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

The Surfers are brighter and glassier...but not in a bad way...only in a good way. They have a lot texture.

The Texas Hots have smoother highs and a thicker tone...more mids I guess. That type of tone sounds smoother and thicker and not as glassy when played with distortion.

I always play clean when I'm playing rythym so the Surfers sound great for the neck and middle pickups.

The Surfer Custom bridge sounds great too...but when I solo on the bridge pickup, I prefer the smoother, thicker tone of the Texas Hot Custom bridge pickup, especially if I'm playing with distortion.

In any case, the Texas Hots do sound "better" with distortion than the Surfers...in a similar way that humbuckers (which have a thicker tone with less glass to the highs compared to normal Strat single coils) sound "better" with distortion than Strat single coils.

They're both awesome pickups...the best Strat pickups I've ever owned.

 

[TinMan]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

Thanks everyone! I think I'll probably end up doing a Texas Hot Custom Bridge in the bridge slot and a Surfer in the neck and, if I choose to do route it this way, a Surfer in the middle too. I'll just have to make sure I shield everything really thoroughly and ground it as best as I possibly can. I'll be sure to post pics of the final guitar and sound clips as well when it is done! Thanks everyone!

 

[disturb]

Re: Any experience with Antiquity Strat pups?

Love my Texas Hot set. I copper foiled my cavity, and got a Callaham shielding plate. My 60-cycle hum is minimal.