Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

[RobbieK]

Hi everyone,

I'm a tech and I have a Jazz Bass on my bench with a pair of Antiquity 2 pickups to be installed.

I noticed that the bridge pickup only measures 7.6K. The SD site says it should be 8.9k.

Also, although they have opposite magnets, the pair are wound in the same direction.

My customer bought the pickups on the secondhand market with original boxes, and the serial numbers match the tags on the little drawstring bags.

FWIW, both pickups also look the part - cloth wire, grey bobbin, dull looking magnet tops, dark coloured winding wire etc.


So what gives? And what should I do?...

1: Leave it and install them anyway?

2: Overwind to 8.9k?

3: Cut the windings and rewind to 8.9k and in reverse direction to the neck p'up?

Or perhaps something else?...


Cheers.


PS: FWIW, I've also sent these questions to SD via their site, but haven't heard yet...


Edit: I just measured the width across the windings. Hardly an accurate measure of the turns of course, but it confirmed that the bridge pickup coil is 0.5mm narrower than the neck coil. So I don't think it has some internal short. It's just underwound for some reason.

Is there another antiquity model with 7.6k DCR? Perhaps this was mixed up at some stage...?

 

[RobbieK]

Re: Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

Update.

Well I'm disappointed not to get a response. I also haven't heard from SD yet. But hey, that's cool.

I ran out of time. So I overwound the pickup to 8.9K. They sound great. The owner of the bass was fine with them not being RW as long as they hum cancel.

FWIW I'd still love to know why this pickup was underwound by so much.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

Sounds like everything ended up well. Good job on rewinding it. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

I am sorry you didn't receive a response from SD HQ in time. I don't know what their email load is like, but everyone deserves a timely response. I am happy you know enough to wind it to where you think it should be, and it seemed to work out well. Congrats on that, and I am sorry I didn't see this thread until now.

 

[RobbieK]

Re: Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

No worries guys. I rarely build pickups these days, but I kept my little hand-winder for the occasional rewind/repair. To get this guy up to 8k9, from memory I added around 2000 turns.

I checked with the owner (who's also a mate) and he rarely plays down over the bridge pickup, so buzzing polepieces on that pickup aren't an issue for him.

I'm guessing SD have a backlog of emails after the Easter break. I've only emailed them 2 or 3 times in the past, but always got a quick response, so no hard feelings.

I'm still a fan and will still recommend SDs to other musicians...

 

[jeremy]

Re: Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

id guess you got two neck models, at least you were able to fix the situation yourself. not that you should have to

 

[RobbieK]

Re: Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

you got two neck models

Nah, it's DCR was less than the neck pickup. Plus the bobbin is larger, magnets wider with a bridge pickup on a jazz bass. And, as I mentioned, it had the reverse magnetic polarity.

The SD site says the original Antiquity Jazz Bass Bridge P'up is 8k7, so it was still 1K1 under this.

Can only guess it's a custom wind, a mix up with another model that looks like the antiquity, or some manufacturing mistake.

A real mystery... :scratchch

 

[agat38]

Re: Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

Hi all,
An other mystery, recently i buy a used Fender JB classic 60 MIM loaded with a pair of Antiquity II, DCR is 7.6 k for neck pickup, 8,9 k for bridge, balance i good for me i don't touch anymore.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Jazz Bass Antiquity II Technical Info Please...

sounds like a great set of pups to me