Re: Seymour hooks me up again!
I've been toying with the idea of a tele with mini's in, so I'd be interested too.
I don't know much about magnets but hear that ceramic magnets are the spawn of satan good for metal but nothing else and this makes me consider spending more and going for the antiquity minis.
If someone can tell me it's nonsense and ceramics are awesome I could save some money
Well, good ceramic magnet pickups exist and they probably have an unfair rep. Problem is most pickups made with them weren't designed for them. They were designed with Alnico in mind, then subbed.
Reverend and G&L both use ceramic magnets and their pickups sound ok to me.
I think the key is the designer has to take that magnet into account from the outset.
The bigger problem with many ceramic mag pickups is that they're horribly overwound until the music is gone from them. They're all mids and compressed sounding. Not my cup o tea.
I don't like the current Gibson firebirds or the SM2. Both are too hot for me.
The SM1, SM3 and Antiquities are all great.
The SM1 is to the Antiquity what the Duncan 59 is to the Antiquity model humbucker. Basically the same under the hood but the Antiquities are all vintage correct and all that.
The SM3 neck is interesting. The construction is actually a hybrid between a firebird pickup and a mini.
The firebird has A5 bar magnet blade pole pieces wrapped with wire. Since the magnet is the pole piece, that makes it more Fender-y sounding right off. It's a fairly bright pickup.
The mini humbucker is just that. A shrunken PAF. Screw & slug poles with bottom loaded A5 magnet. It has more mids than a firebird and sounds more like a Gibson pickup than the bird does.
The SM3 is still a blade but it uses a steel blade and has a bottom loaded A5 magnet. The output and basic sound is the same as a vintage firebird but it has more presence in the mids and bass.
