Antiquity pups have arrived

porkpie · Post by **porkpie** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:30 pm

I couldent wait to get home and heat up the soldering iron, the pickups looked fantastic with their scratches and gunge all over them, i was the first person to open them, they were completely unopened which was nice.
The little inspection tag signed by Seymour is a nice touch as is his two signatures on the bottom of the pickups, the neck pup mesures 7.65k and the bridge 8.58k.
I fitted them to my Goldtop as soon as i got home from work, i did notice that the way my goldtop is wired up looked nothing like the little diagram that came with the pickups so ill look into it and will probably end up buying the RS upgrade kit soon.

I fired up the Marshall and played a few licks and immediately noticed that old Goldie sounded alot brighter, the output is also a little lower, the bridge pickup seems abit underpowered and thin as the neck pup is ALOT louder, ill get a real tech to look at it on saturday to see if its all OK. The frets need to be dressed anyway. (darn old guitars)

My first impressons are good apart from the relatively weak feeling bridge pup, the sound is sweet and bluesy, not quite as dark as the old Gotoh PAF replicas but definately a nicer sound, the neck pup is very full, rich and fat but still kinda sounds like a single coil which is nice.

Ill add more to this story as i get to know them abit better but so far is money well spent. Ill work on some pix as well.

Post by Bg » Mon Aug 02, 2004 10:12 pm

pup height and polepiece height might help? I think the RS Kits have just had a price reduction too, so could be a must ;o)

porkpie · Post by **porkpie** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 10:39 pm

Yeah i tweaked the poles right down, ive always had them flat with the covers on all my humbuckers, the bridge pup is set pretty high, very close to the strings, the neck pup is faily low, flush with the mounting ring.
Im getting used to it, they do sound real nice.

porkpie · Post by **porkpie** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 10:43 pm

I wonder which RS kit is the right one....the historic or the standard type kit? i have no clue!

Post by Bg » Mon Aug 02, 2004 11:15 pm

I would think its the standard kit - it depends on pot shaft length, you'll need to whip a pot out to find out.

TMG 03 · Post by **TMG 03** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 12:35 pm

These pickup will always seem weak compare to newer style ones. THats the whole point of them. Age.

If you just want pickups to look old then steel wool and Coke will do that on the covers.

If you LP axe has a steel plate in the pot cavity then you need long shaft pots or Standard RS kit.

goldtop0 · Post by **goldtop0** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 1:12 pm

Porkpie,what LP have you got. What concerns me is you say that the bridge Antiquity is of lower output, as this shouldn't be the case at 8.5k ohm resistance.

porkpie · Post by **porkpie** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:23 pm

I emailed RS guitarworks and Roy says ill need the Historic Kit for my Tokai LP, seeing as its a 1957 replica it makes sence.

As for the pickups, ill take my guitar to a local tech on the weekend so he can test the output of the bridge unit to see if its faulty. It maybe just the way it is but the volume of the neck pickup is huge compared to the bridge.

angry_young_poet · Post by **angry_young_poet** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 7:12 pm

Do i need to change the pots of my LP classic if i want to change the pups from 498R and 500T to SD 59s..? zebras of course

or are the 57 PAFs a better choice.. or maybe the SD alnico II pro? so many choices...

goldtop0 · Post by **goldtop0** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 10:02 am

Porkpie I think you'll find it'll be your wiring.
Angry,no you don't need to change your pots/caps but this would be advisable if you want better tone,get an RS standard kit from the States.
I would go for the 57 Classic pups(Gibson) myself, I sold a lot of Duncans in the past and while these are good pups they haven't got the mojo of the 57s. In saying that the Duncan Antiquities are real good that porkpie has got............that is if price/budget is not a problem for you.

The Scarecrow · Post by **The Scarecrow** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:45 pm

I can vouch for the '57 classics, got 'em in my SG. Either those or Burstbuckers....

angry_young_poet · Post by **angry_young_poet** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:49 pm

the reason i'm leaning towards the 59 is cuz i've used it before and it can be coil-tapped.. and this may sound stupid but i was thinking of making the tone controls on my LP as push/pull coil-tappers.. plus the 59s come in that jazzy zebra config

can this be done with the 57PAFs?

Post by Bg » Wed Aug 04, 2004 1:06 pm

no 57 classics are two wire jobs...

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:21 pm

You can but its very tricky and you risk stuffing your pickup. Not a job for the faint hearted

Hot_Grits · Post by **Hot_Grits** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:23 pm

Modding single cable pickups to be splittable is indeed a tricky endeavour, but it can be done. Warren, who does repairs for AK city musicworks, converted my PRS' duncan 59s for coil splitting. I recommend him if you need it done.