Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

[LostInMyMindPalace]

Hi all.
I've just been upgrading my old yamaha pacifica 112v (alder body,rosewood fretboard. Think super strat). I've changed all the electronics and I've put in antiquity surf pickups in the neck and middle and the guitar is really starting to sing.

Now the yamaha is a HSS guitar so I've been wondering what to put in the bridge position. Via 'find my perfect pickup' SD recommends 'The whole lotta humbucker' bridge but I'm worried it will sound too harsh and 'new' for a lack of a better term with the surfs. So I was thinking maybe the antiquity humbucker or a seth lover?
Any help and recommendations on the 3 pickups I named would be appreciated

Thanks

 

[jeremy]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

welcome to the forum!

the surfers want to see 250k pots. you have two choices, choose a humbucker that works well with 250k pots or wire the guitar so that the surfers see 250k pots and the bucker sees 500k. personally i prefer to use a bucker that sounds good with 250k pots in the bridge since i use my pots all the time and adding a resistor usually messes with the taper too much

i wouldnt suggest the wlh or the antiquity. a seth lover, 59 or pearly gates would be where i'd start. depending on what you are going to play style wise, a neck humbucker in the bridge can be a better tonal match

 

[LostInMyMindPalace]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

Thanks for the warm welcome
Yeah I thought I might run in to problems with the different pots, especially as the yamaha only has one tone and one volume.
I play a mixture of rock and blues (john mayer, clapton (cream era) and bb king). What neck humbucker in the bridge would you recommend Jeremy?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

personally ive had good luck with a pearly gates bridge with 250k pots but i dont mind a bigger tonal/volume bump when switching. if i was trying to minimize that but still get a nice paf tone, id go for a seth neck.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

A Jazz bridge sounds good with 250k pots. It is a bright pickup, but it 250k pots tame that significantly.

 

[LostInMyMindPalace]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

This may sound stupid but won't the sd antiquity humbucker 'act' like a single coil as it is has a very low output? (8.6DCR for the antiquity humbucker, the antiquity surf bridge is 9.8DCR)

So wouldn't it be okay with 250k pots?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

Kind of similar yeah. But the hambucker senses the strings from a wider area plus coils in series makes the sound differ a bit.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

the antiquity humbucker isnt a very bright pup. a humbucker doesnt act like a single coil. the surfer custom bridge is wound with smaller wire than the neck surfer and the antiquity humbucker, you cant really compare the 8.6k of the bucker to the 9.8k of the single coil in the way you are. if you put an alnico 3 or 4 magnet in the antiquity humbucker it would be better but the aged a2 is going to be very dark with 250k controls

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

The bridge antiquity humbucker is plenty bright.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

I had a Strat with the antiquity singles and then the antiquity humbucker in the bridge. The 250k volume without a tone control more or less adds up to the same resistance as two 500k pots, as far as your ears are concerned. If you find that too bright, you can put a 470k resistor in parallel from the hot wire on the humbucker to the ground.

 

[LostInMyMindPalace]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

Thanks all for your suggestions

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Pairing a humbucker with antiquity surf pickups?

Some more options if you want a hotter bridge: an antiquity JB (this will give you an antiquity version of the classic 80's HSS combo) or you can get the IM1, which is a copy of Fender's EVH pickup which is essentially an antiquity Custom Custom. I wrote a thread about the IM1 being an aged Custom Custom if you want more information about it. It's called "Custom Family History Thread".
If you go for those options, don't worry about output differences, fiddling with the pickup height and polepieces will get them to be even to with singles. There will be a small jump in volume, but it's a useful one.