I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

[DreX]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

The Irish Tours are said to come very close to that SRV blues ideal, from the specs https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/pickups.php?cat=strats&sub=vintage_hot&pickup=irish_tour the DC resistance is the same as both Antiquities, 6.3k mid and neck, but just to make things more confusing the Irish Tours use A5 magnets like the Surfs where as the Texas Hot uses A2. We don't know the wire gauge wind counts of course, nor the peak resonance or inductance of each, but it makes me wonder how dissimilar these pickups could possibly be.

 

[AlexR]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

OK I found apples to apples specs on Musician's Friend's site:



Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Surf Pickup For Strat RWRP (middle position)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acce...ii-surf-pickup-for-strat-rwrp-middle-position

DC Ohms: 6.3K
Inductance: 2.87 henries
Q: 2.39 (what's this?)


Seymour Duncan Antiquity for Strat Texas Hot RW/RP (middle position)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acce...ity-for-strat-texas-hot-rw-rp-middle-position

DC Ohms: 6.3K
Inductance: 4.08 henries


It's hard to believe the resistance and inductance would be both that similar and that different respectively.

They've done the typical music store thing and cut and pasted wrong. The 4.08 henries refers to the special hot bridge pickup wound to 9.7K. If you check the right source (the Duncan website) it shows both ant models have the same inductance.

 

[DreX]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

They've done the typical music store thing and cut and pasted wrong. The 4.08 henries refers to the special hot bridge pickup wound to 9.7K. If you check the right source (the Duncan website) it shows both ant models have the same inductance.

Wait wait wait... so the difference between the Surfer and the Texas Hot is that the Texas Hot has a weaker A2 magnet?

 

[AlexR]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

There are a lot of elements in pickup design, the least important is the name. Lets face it, both of these are among the weakest strat pickups on the market.

The other elements affect the resonant frequency, and the strength of that peak. And how this reacts with guitar amps, and ears.....both of which have peak sensitivity in the mids.

 

[DreX]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

There are a lot of elements in pickup design, the least important is the name. Lets face it, both of these are among the weakest strat pickups on the market.

The other elements affect the resonant frequency, and the strength of that peak. And how this reacts with guitar amps, and ears.....both of which have peak sensitivity in the mids.

"Hot" has a specific meaning to pickups, beyond being an adjective of sound, it traditionally means more winds.

But then there's the "Screamin' Demon" pickups, neither screamin nor demon.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

Wait wait wait... so the difference between the Surfer and the Texas Hot is that the Texas Hot has a weaker A2 magnet?

That's the way I think of them. Seymour marketed the Texas Hot's first.

The Texas Hots have what Alex described as a smoky sound. The treble is softer - not so snappy bright. They do seem to have more mids, relative to the treble and bass.

The Surfers are based on the 1962 Strat pickup which was wound a little stronger than those before and after.

The '62 Fender Strat pickup is my favorite and is the same pickup that was in my February '63 Fender Strat that I owned for about forty years. Just let it go last year to pay off some big bills.

The DCR of the pickups in my 1963 Strat all measured about 6.3K. One measured almost 6.4K. As do most Surfers.

The DCR doesn't tell the whole story of course. And it measures higher or lower depending on the temperature of the coils. Higher if it's warmer - lower if it's colder.

 

[chadd]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

The Rio Grande Half Breeds are a nice medium hot single coil, similar to a Texas Special but different.

 

[DreX]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

The Rio Grande Half Breeds are a nice medium hot single coil, similar to a Texas Special but different.

Thanks, I'll put that on my list. I've ordered Texas Hots and Bare Knuckle Irish Tours. I have a broader variety of outputs in my strats now, from weak Lollar Tweeds to Quarter Pounds. In general I'm finding that it's easier to make an aggressive pickup mellow than it is to make a mellow pickup aggressive. That's probably why the aftermarket pickup cottage industry exists in the first place.

The most disappointing experiment pickup was some DiMarzio ceramic bar single coils that came with a guitar I got from ebay. It has two ceramic bars hugging adjustable hex screws and a DC resistance of 9k, intended for gain obviously. I installed them telling myself I would make them work, but ceramics are just too strong, the tone is bright and the attack is hard edged. Those pickups are like a cold shower at 6am. So that guitar is slated to receive new pickups. It makes me wonder why they never just use a smaller ceramic bar in order to approximate the weaker pull of alnicos.

 

[uOpt]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

They've done the typical music store thing and cut and pasted wrong. The 4.08 henries refers to the special hot bridge pickup wound to 9.7K. If you check the right source (the Duncan website) it shows both ant models have the same inductance.

You cannot measure capacitance and inductance of pickups directly. Cheap instruments to measure them only work if the object you measure *only* has a capacitance or an inductance, but they do not work on objects that have both.

You can still use one given method of measuring (one given instrument) to compare pickups to each other. However, in this case there was obviously a change in instruments between those two measurements.

I should really build that Lemme setup to properly measure. One day...

 

[uOpt]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

Wait wait wait... so the difference between the Surfer and the Texas Hot is that the Texas Hot has a weaker A2 magnet?

They both have aged magnets. Ant1 is A2, Ant2 is A5. However, the Alnico ratings don't mean that much anymore after boutique pickup makers have messed with the magnets, especially when it comes to bar magnets.

Also make sure you undertstand that Ant1 is always called "texas hot" although only the bridge pickup is actually hotter.

For some reason both Antiquity for Strat sets come by default with a hot bridge pickup (called "custom", not "hot"), although SSL-1 and APS-1 sets come with a regular bridge pickup.

So that is three naming messes in there, and I see people mislead and get pissed off on at least a monthly basis. I know product renaming is difficult but I really wish that SD would clean up some of their names that are misleading buyers. It doesn't do anybody any good.

 

[jeremy]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

well that's not quite right... there are three texas hot models and three surfer models. normal, rw/rp and, the custom bridge model. there is only one model of ssl1 or ssl2

ive never seen antiquitys sold as a set other than the preloaded pickguard which does come with one of each. if you want old school tones just get three normal models. if you got three normal surfers than you'd have a set really close to what would have come in a 62 strat

 

[DreX]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

They both have aged magnets. Ant1 is A2, Ant2 is A5. However, the Alnico ratings don't mean that much anymore after boutique pickup makers have messed with the magnets, especially when it comes to bar magnets.

What is an aged magnet if not a weaker magnet?

Also make sure you undertstand that Ant1 is always called "texas hot" although only the bridge pickup is actually hotter.

Well ****. Maybe you can help me, I like Texas Specials of course, they have an aggressive bite, often called shrill, SRish, etc, and I'm trying to avoid the Surfers / CS '69 with their big, piano like clang and balanced fullness. Am I going to get the piano thing from the Texas Hots? A couple curve balls in the equation is that the magnets are A2, and the Texas Specials have roughly the same DC resistance, but use a 43 gauge formvar wire and I assume these are 42 gauge. When Fralin says "Blues Specials" I'm happy to report that's no misnomer.

 

[uOpt]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

What is an aged magnet if not a weaker magnet?

I dunno but I did some experimentation with my own charging and discharging of magnets and it doesn't sound like what I get out of the e.g. Ants. I have numerous other boutique humbuckers and I am not able to say from listening whether they are A2 or A5.

Well ****. Maybe you can help me, I like Texas Specials of course, they have an aggressive bite, often called shrill, SRish, etc, and I'm trying to avoid the Surfers / CS '69 with their big, piano like clang and balanced fullness. Am I going to get the piano thing from the Texas Hots? A couple curve balls in the equation is that the magnets are A2, and the Texas Specials have roughly the same DC resistance, but use a 43 gauge formvar wire and I assume these are 42 gauge. When Fralin says "Blues Specials" I'm happy to report that's no misnomer.

The texas specials are awg43? Are you sure?

All I can say is that I like the original Antiquities because they make it easier for a player like me to make the guitar "sing" and I don't think much Strattieness is lost. Seymour had the right idea in the first place, IMHO. They also go pretty cheap on Ebay. For fatter Strat pickups I like the Fender CS fat50 or whatever it is called, but I just recently got one and didn't tinker with it too much.

In soundclips I tend to like the Surfer best. But it puts a looking glass and the piano on everything and when I'm playing for real (as opposed to soundclips) that's not always a good thing.

Same thing with the '78 humbucker. I like how aggressive it sounds tinkering at home. I go somewhere and there is a boxy sounding amp (.e.g. a DC-5) and everybody's gonna have a bad time.

 

[DreX]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

The texas specials are awg43? Are you sure?

No, that's just what I see in Google searches. My set is about thirteen years old, they might have changed the recipe. In fact, I'd like to know if they have, I would check out the new iteration is that's the case.

In soundclips I tend to like the Surfer best. But it puts a looking glass and the piano on everything and when I'm playing for real (as opposed to soundclips) that's not always a good thing.

That's sort of my problem with Surfers, the "I'm a Strat, HEAR ME ROAR" thing. The SRV inspired pickups like the Texas Specials and Blues Specials hide more of the tone in the shadows of it's imbalance, like a dimly lit lounge.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

well that's not quite right... there are three texas hot models and three surfer models. normal, rw/rp and, the custom bridge model. there is only one model of ssl1 or ssl2

ive never seen antiquitys sold as a set other than the preloaded pickguard which does come with one of each. if you want old school tones just get three normal models. if you got three normal surfers than you'd have a set really close to what would have come in a 62 strat

That's what I do. Got a set of three normal model Antiquity Surfers in my favorite Eric Johnson Strat. I think of them as being three neck pickups but that's just a way of thinking as each box says: neck/middle/bridge.

They're very close in tone to the 6.3K pickups that were in my '63 Strat that I sold last year.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: I'm looking for alternatives to Strat Texas Specials

If the pickup is 9.7k, it is about 99% likely that it is 43 AWG. It's really hard to get that much 42 on a standard Strat bobbin.