Selecting P'ups: Antiquity II Surf & SSL6 (need help)

[Alderfan]

Hi All,

This is my first post here (please be gentle)

I'm looking to upgrade the pickups in my main guitar - a MIA 2007 Strat (Alder body, Maple 9.5" radius neck, 9-42 strings). Although the tone is OK in the Neck & Middle it's not exactly what I want and the Bridge lacks drive and seems, to my ears, too thin. Sadly I'm not a technical wizzard, so I need some help with p'up selection and setup.

My musical style is varied but is mainly Gilmour, Knopfler, Hendrix and some SRV, so I was originally looking at Fender CS69's in neck & middle with an Duncan SSL5 in the bridge BUT then I heard some comments about the current CS69's and also about problems using vintage staggered pole p'ups (like the SSL5) in the bridge pos'n on a 9.5" radius guitar - getting wolf notes etc.

So, what I'm now considering is:
Neck - Duncan Antiquity II Surfer
Middle - Duncan Antiquity II Surfer RW/RP
Bridge - Duncan SSL6 Custom Flat

I would like to use a CRL 5 way: Pos'n 1 - Bridge, 2 - Bridge/Middle (hum cancelling), 3 - Middle, 4 - Middle/Neck (hum cancelling), 5 - Neck. Using two 250k CTS Tone pots: Tone 1 wired to Neck/Middle and Tone 2 (a 'No Load' pot) wired to Middle/Bridge.


My questions are:
1) Will this pickup combination get me anywhere near the tone of my favourite players?
2) Will they work OK together in this configuration (regarding output/winding & polarity)?
3) What size/type capacitors should I look to use to achieve the right tones from these p'ups - would 0.047mf be OK for Tone 1 and 0.022 for Tone 2 (with the 'No Load' option)?

Any advice would be welcome.

Regards, Mark

PS: I'm going to add a Callaham solid steel trem block at the same time.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Selecting P'ups: Antiquity II Surf & SSL6 (need help)

welcome to the forum!

love those callaham blocks

i think the surfer/surfer/ssl6 combo is a great choice. i use all those pups and i like what they do. you could be fine with the ssl5 in the bridge if you wanted. it will sound a little different than the flat version but with lots of similarities too. i prefer flat poles most of the time though. i think they sound a little fatter. who ever is talking about wolftones do to a staggered pole pup in the bridge is full of it. wolftones usually come from too much string pull from the neck pup. where the bridge pup is located there is so much less physical string movement that magnet pull is not as much of a concern.

a no load tone pot for the bridge is cool

 

[Alderfan]

Re: Selecting P'ups: Antiquity II Surf & SSL6 (need help)

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for your welcome and your advice - good to hear I'm heading in the right direction. Can't wait to get this new set-up together and try it out.

I know it's often a matter of personal preference but what capacitor sizes would you go for with these p'ups? Do you think it's worth paying extra for things like Hovlands or Cornell Dubilier - or just stick with something like Orange Drops?

One final question - can the aged Antiquity II pickup covers be swapped for standard white Fender covers (so as to match the rest of the guitar)?

Best, Mark

 

[Alderfan]

Re: Selecting P'ups: Antiquity II Surf & SSL6 (need help)

Anyone?

For the Antiquity II Surfers (Neck & Middle) I'm looking for a warm vintage (think clean Hendrix) tone - so would a 0.047mf cap be about right?

The SSL5/6 in the Bridge will (from what I've heard) have less treble than other 'vintage' pups (which I like) but I don't want to hamper it further by fitting the wrong size capacitor - so would a 0.022mf give me a range of tone options without getting too muddy? I'll always have the 'No-Load' option on Tone 2 if I want it brighter still.

This may be a silly question but can the pickup covers on the Ant II Surfers be replaced with standard Fender SC covers? I'd like them all to be plain Parchment White.

I'd like to start ordering the parts this weekend ready for the build but don't want to fall at the final hurdle....