Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Mustang

The Antiquity II for Mustang pickup is of the single coil variety. They are available for both the bridge and neck positions. One of the coolest things about them is their look. If you know anything about the Antiquity line, then you know what I'm talking about. If not, then you'll immediately notice they have an aged, worn quality. They look like they came directly from an old '65 Mustang. Very retro. Original Mustangs were known for having low output pickups. Here you will find nothing different. They are low output. If you really want to drive something with them, a boost or overdrive would be recommended.

I put them into both the bridge and neck positions of my re-issue Fender Mustang as replacements for the stock pickups. I had read both favorable and unfavorable reviews of the factory pickups and decided to replace them. Seymour Duncan has a great reputation, deservedly so, thus I decided to try his out. I didn't change them because I was unhappy with their sound, but I knew they weren't to original specs and Duncan's were. Plus, I loved the concept of the Antiquity line. How could I go wrong with a Duncan single coil in my guitar?

As I said, output is low. I've used the guitar with a number of OD/Fuzz effects (Boss OD-2, Hughes and Kettner OD, Fulltone Soul-Bender, Roger Mayer Octavia) through a re-issue Fender Twin Reverb. I've also played it clean. I recorded the sound with both the stock and SD pickups. With the new ones in. I've noticed quite a few improvements:

1. More tone knob - The tone knob on my guitar seems to be more effective now. I think this is because the treble response and clarity have significantly increased highlighting the difference between bass and treble frequencies more effectively.

2. More Punch - They have a nice percussive quality to them that the stock models did not have. Fender amps are known for being brighter and punchier than most. These pickups wonderfully accentuate the natural strengths of the Twin Reverb.

3. More balanced - When the tone knob on my guitar was set for either most bass or most treble response with the stock pickups installed the sound tended to be too dull/muddy or too bright/shrill, respectively. The SD's even out the tone without losing the nice, punchy, crisp highs of the bridge position, or the mellower, darker tones of the neck position. Both positions provide good punch and clarity. The neck pickup only sounds muffled when the tone knob is set for most bass response, but this is to be expected. The bridge pickup never sounds shrill to my ears.

Overall, a great buy. With my set-up the differences were striking. The sound is truly professional.

BTW, I played with these pickups through a $100 digital Roland Micro Cube Amp and they sounded awesome. Even then the difference in tone was noticeable.

If these were lost or stolen, I'd have to buy a new guitar:-) I haven't been playing long, but even at my rank amateur skill level I can tell these are great pickups. I looked at a lot of different brands of replacement pickups, but SD won out pretty easily. He is so well respected in the industry. I chose this product for that reason.

The one thing I would like is more output. The problem with that is it would require more winding around the coils which would affect the tone. As I said, a boost should work quite nicely with them. If you have a re-issue Mustang pick these up right away!