Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Surf Model

Three good old fashioned single coil pickups, no fancy gadgetry. Well the middle pickup is reverse wound/polarity so you WILL get noise cancellation in positions 2 & 4- contrary to other reviews you may read. These are 'scatter' wound to 1964 specs and use cloth insulation to create that vintage sound. I guess they even weakened the magnets to mimic 45 years of aging! My only miniature complaint would be the 'aged' pickup covers. Rather than looking like they've seen thousands of smoky bars and faded from time- they look like a light brown plastic. Should've just gave em 'mint' colored covers or offered a custom color since there are different color guitars out there, right? Also- the poles are staggered like in 1964, when everyone still used a wound G.

I removed some Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups (yuck) in my 1996 USA Strat. Instead of putting back the stock pups, I wanted something better. (With the pickguard removed, you can tell how much my Oly White finish had faded in 13 years, yet the pickup covers are still too dark!)

I was hesitant to spend this much when other Seymour Alcino's were alot cheaper. Lindy's and lollars and so many other choices came up but these seemed to be the best choice. My favorite pickup is my 1982 USA Fender Bullet Humbucker - especially when it's coil tapped- very vintage sounding but with a little more bite. These pickups have almost taken that # 1 spot. Very vintage- they can nail SRV tones, Gilmour, and with some fuzz and OD- Hendrix. I suppose they do surfer music too...? I don't know anyone with a '64 strat but I've heard they are the closest you can get, aside from the real deal. Sounds great with tube screamers and the like. You can still hear the bell tone through my mega-distortion pedal. They are bright but still smooth. They don't sound nasty with the tone wide open and have more mid and bass than modern Strat pickups.

If your are on the fence about purchasing these, jump on over. I never understood why I could never get that beautiful tone I heard on so many of my favorite recordings, even with USA Strat pickups. There are alot of winders successfully recreating the vintage 60's single coil tone, Fender is not one of them. They should really go back to the 60's specs. These pickups carry through the room in a live setting. Played a gig last night and the kick drum and bass guitar were muddying up the stage, but my guitar rang through no problem, but without having to crank up the volume. I've noticed these are getting scarce on the internet. Maybe they aren't making them anymore?

Duncan Antiquity II's in a 2004 Navigator Strat.

Passive.

Don't know.

See above.

Can get loud, but not buzz-saw loud.

I use it mostly for jazz and blues soloing and composition, and the tones from thisthing are incredibly versatile in all settings, from the piercing but not shrill 1 pos'n through a sharper, focussed quack in 2, to crystal clear piano-like tones in middle, to a fuller, more compressed quack in 4 to having pos'n 4 but with the muzzles off w the neck pup alone.

Playing w the tone controls reveals even more nuance. But no matter where you set things up, they remain focussed and never muddy or not deliberate in tone.

At low-gain settings, for anything from jazz trio work to blues through country and western swing, these pups are about as good as i've heard in my 25 yrs of playing professionally.

Don't know what they'd be like in another strat. This one's about as good as you can get from weight to paint to neck to playability. Monster guitar, and I've had custom one-offs from the big-name boutiquers. Real bargain at $3000 USD, believe it or not.

All i know is, I want to keep em where they are.

3 Single coils, strat style...passive --Old school looking and sounding, cloth wires...etc...

JLV strat--mexocan

KILLER! Killer diller and FAT as all sin for a strat pup! Clarity with tone! This set does it all for that great 60s tone...WOW

Great price, great craftsmanship...just top shelf even though Duncan is a huge company, these pup's are the best!

Single coil, passive
Neck 6,21 kohm; middle 6,34 khom; bridge 9,9 kohm

Top of the line Japanese 62 re Issue Strat
2 Piece Alder body with Nitro finish and CTS pots, cloth wired and a steel block assembly.

These pickups are bloody great!! They are just what I was looking for....and I have been looking for quite a while!!
I am using them with a point to point DC30 with a duo cab
(a Celestion V30 and a Celestion G12H) awesome amp!!
The tone is pure vintage Strat and has an excellent response to dynamics, these pups have a lot of character, they sound just perfect for what I want, very piano like with a great sense of nuance and slightly hollow with a great twang and bite when you pluck them harder.
All the 3 positions sound great and the quack positions are totally classic strat, think of the best of a vintage strat sound and these pups deliver that perfectly.
Previously I have used Bareknuckles Apaches and Trilogies, Lollar Blackfaces and I recently heard the Chubtones as well.
Now both the Lollar Blackfaces and the Chubtones are awesome pickups, the Blackfaces sound very rubbery and amazing with a lot of character, but they were not exactly the sound I was after.
Jason makes amazing pickups tho and I love his Tele, Imperials and P90's, the Chubtones also are amazing pups, I only directly compared the Antiquities with the Chubtone 69's and I will get a set of those for another guitar later on.
The Bareknuckles however are not good, they simply dont cut the mustard at all, I am also sure they deteriorate in sound over time.
They just dont sound wholesome and nice despite the glowing reviews...mostly written in the honeymoon period of use (the frequencies and harmonic content are out of whack to my ears)...they do seem to sound better when they are new, but over time something happens and they sound kind of fractured and pretty crappy...maybe he uses cheaper materials, I am not sure.
Anyway the Antiquities are the business if you are looking for a faithfull recreation of an early 60's Strat sound!

These pups deliver what I want so I will not be looking further for a vintage Strat tone...generally however I am not a fan of Duncans factory produced pups (the basic production line stuff), so I was a little hesitant to buy these. His factory produced line are a little bland (I have heard lots of them) they dont have a lot of character, but to be fair most factory produced pups have this flaw...that is they sound a little bland and sterile and ungiving.
But anyway I bought these and I am glad I did...I love them!!

Not all hand wound pups are equal either, dont be fooled by the descriptions like scatter wound, alnico v magnets and so forth.
There are other considerations like the experience and knowledge and ears of the creator and and also the quality of the materials used (namely the wire and magnets)
I would suggest that if you are after a Strat hand wound pup set...look at the Lollars, Chubtones or Duncans...I have not heard the Fralins etc... but I am sure they are good.

Single coil enhanced set w/ RWRP and Custom Bridge

Fender Classic 60s' Strat

As a follow-up, I did much field work with this set and could never achieve hum-cancelling in position #2 without severe loss of output.

To remedy this, I switched to Antiquity Texas Hot Custom Bridge which has opposite polarity (North) to the Antiquity ll Surf set (South).

I recommend this mixed set as opposed to a full set of either type.
It sounds fantastic and now works as intended for hum-cancelling.

When used as described, it is a beautiful upgrade set. Customer Service has been notified at Seymour Duncan, who worked with me on this issue.

Single coil, passive
Neck 6,21 kohm; middle 6,34 khom; bridge 9,9 kohm

custom built Strat rosewood neck, alder body, vintage style tremolo bridge, '69 blackfaced Fender Pro Reverb, TS9 overdrive.
I replaced the Duncans SSL52-1 five two I originally fitted the guitar which turned out to be nice pups for many music style like blues and derivates, reggae and studio works.

Those Duncans are amazingly close in sound and feel to the ones fitted on a 65 strad I once owned. Bell like clarity, piano dinamics, potent yet very tight and controlled bass range. Very responsive to attack changes. Loud and great presence, nice balance between string and very good sustain when bending the stings even with a clean amp set up. Great for any style where a classic strat sound is requested.

As usual, since it's 25 years I am professionaly playing around, I am constantly looking for the TONE. This pups are excellent & are a great satisfaction for my ears. I also have a great sounding '79 fender strat with Jake Jones pups. These Duncans are a BIIIIG improvement to my custom built strat. I was looking for that trebles clarity without a piercing character and now I've got it. Duncans hands are golden.
If you want a clean big sound "that tells the truth", go for these ones

Single coil w/RWRP mid and overwound bridge; 6.3k, 6.45k, 9.93k.

Classic 60's RI Strat MIM. Custom all tone ckt. w/cloth wire.

This was a difficult guitar to bring up to high standard because of serious basic flaws in the instrument. Once these were solved the pick-ups performed admirably.
The bridge, however, in pos. #2 paired w/ RWRP mid as humbuck loses gain vs. the other four positions. The tone is very unique, and should be tried in-phase w/ RWRP mid. Choose accordingly.

These were the most time consuming upgrade set I dealt with because of the unique build. As with all sets, pick-up height is most critical to expose the high grade sound.

Pickup features: single, passive
Impedence or other specs: neck 6.3k, middle 6.4k, bridge 9.9k

Model of guitar or bass: Stratocaster, American Fender body, Warmoth neck.
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: crappy early 90s stock Fender pickups.
Other pickups on guitar: n/a
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock
Reason for pickup change: Fender hasn't made good pickups since the 60s. These pretend to be from the 60s.

Perceived output level: Just hot enough, less than fat 50s style.
Tone: Warm, smooth Strat. Not muddy.
Sonic evaluation: I play this on a solid state Marshall practice amp, a vintage Traynor YBA-1 with EL34 tubes, and my shiny new Traynor YCV80Q with 5881s. I LOVE these pickups in the neck and middle, but the hotter bridge pickup, in retaining Strat personality, winds up sounding like a very angry duck. The neck pickup gives a very warm Hendrixy tone through british type amplifiers, and is very sweet and clean on my YCV80. The middle pickup is obviously where the "Surf" nickname for these comes from, as it can do that Dick Dale thing quite nicely with the reverb turned up. Its also good for fast paced rock tone with the gain cranked up. The bridge pickup is wound so hot that if you throw a powerful enough distortion pedal down there, you can squeeze metal tone out of it, but I like the personality it takes on in parallel with the middle; it dominates it a little bit, but the middle helps take a lot of the power off of it. Nice dynamic response from all 3, I like to go from picking lightly to beating the crap out of my guitar in order to change the level of distortion.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Neck and middle, all kinds of rock short of Slayer, blues, country, and surf. Too traditionally Fender like for jazz.

Comments: Overall I love these, but think I'll swap the bridge pickup out for something less harsh and smoother sounding. I've compared them to various Fender Custom Shop pickups aiming to recreate the vintage sound, and these do it much better.

Pickup features: Single Coil, passive, aged
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Custom Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Fender Fat 50's
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: picasso, rembrandt, chagall
You musical style(s): all over the map
Reason for pickup change: wanted something different, clearer, more neutral

Perceived output level: pretty standard output,
Tone: balanced on all strings
Sonic evaluation: Custom strat with warmoth neck, fender body playing thru a Deluxe Reverb

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: all kinds of music, pups excel in all positions

Comments: Great pups! Best strat pups i have ever heard, barre none! THey don't get a 10 because they are quite expensive, so although worth it, they are not a good value.

Pickup features: Single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: 89 Mex Strat
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Stock (neck and Middle)
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Jazz/Rock, Blues
Reason for pickup change: I heard great things about the Surf and I wanted some more clarity.

Perceived output level: The output level is not much different from the stock pickups.
Tone: Unbelievable! The first thing (besides that trademark strat chime and shimmer) that will hit you about these pickups is the beautifully focused, balanced response. Warm, sweet and crystal clear on all strings. An added benefit that I wasn't expecting is increased sustain. I really couldn't say enough about them. So simply put: They give you the '60's Srat sound. Currently I have a Basswood body which sounds surprisingly good. But I plan on changing it out for an Alder body soon. I can't imagine what it will sound like then!
Sonic evaluation: I've run it through a POD at home and a Fender Deville 212 at gigs. I use the POD through the Deville just to shape tone. They sound great!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: These pickups would work well in any style you would normally use a strat on.

Comments: I've been playing 28 years and have owned a few strats. This is the first time I have done any pickup replacement. The best sounding strat I ever owned was a 62 reissue. I can definitely say that this little Mexican with the addition of the Antiquity's sounds as good! I'm no longer searching for THAT sound! Seymour Duncan delivers!