Tim Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Hi Gang! Been a while... So, recently I picked up a set of SD Antiquities on sale at GC with the intention of putting into my Epiphone ES 175. After playing the 175, I found that I really like the pickups I have as I play mainly jazz stuff on the 175. Then, I struggled to find a home as I really like the pickup setups on most of my guitars. I decided to swap out the SD 59's in my H150 CM. I was regretting my decision until I played the guitar...WOW, what a sweet sounding guitar. I cannot put it down. A marriage maid in heaven. The mids are what get to me...the thing plays like butter and through my Dumble in a box (i.e. my Zendrive) the gain is wonderful. I can't speak for Seth Lovers, the Antiquities were an excellent investment...the H150 is now on the top of my playing list (and that's over my 3 Les Pauls)...just had to rave. Have fun out there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Millennium Maestro Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Tim you got that right, Antiquities are EXCELLENT! I highly recommend them too. I say that if more people tried them in the club, less members would spend the extreme extra for Throbaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yooper Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 It's more of that special sauce that A2 magnets put out. A2's love jazz. Seths, also unpotted, are even more microphonic with more mids, or so they say. Ants are reported to be a bit more mellow. I would love to hear an A/B with those two sets. Congrats on the tone change for the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AP515 Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Seth's and Antiquities are two of my favorite sets. I first experience the tone with Antiquities I got in a guitar in trade. Because of a debt I had to sell the guitar and I should have replaced them before I sold it but I didn't. I don't currently have a set of Antiquities, but I do have Seth's in my 150 and I completely agree with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 It's more of that special sauce that A2 magnets put out. A2's love jazz. Seths, also unpotted, are even more microphonic with more mids, or so they say. Ants are reported to be a bit more mellow. I would love to hear an A/B with those two sets. Congrats on the tone change for the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 I could probably arrange that; I have Antiquities in my red 535 and Lovers in my natural 535. Both recently restrung w/ .11s. The color of the guitar would have to be taken into consideration regarding the tone, of course.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yooper Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 I could probably arrange that; I have Antiquities in my red 535 and Lovers in my natural 535. Both recently restrung w/ .11s. The color of the guitar would have to be taken into consideration regarding the tone, of course.... Well, that's a tease... I'd bet they sound quite similar. Have you compared any recordings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schundog Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 I have not; Still, if you would like to put them both through their paces, I could bring them both to PSP.... I DO think they sound pretty similar, but the Antiquities are supposedly somewhat degaussed. (sp?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElNumero Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 I have not; Still, if you would like to put them both through their paces, I could bring them both to PSP.... I DO think they sound pretty similar, but the Antiquities are supposedly somewhat degaussed. (sp?). I need to be degaussed. Or maybe degassed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yooper Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 I need to be degaussed. Or maybe degassed. Degassed perhaps, but at our age we've already been degaussed. The magnetism just ain't as strong. Here's a good review and comparison between Seths and Ants. https://legendarytones.com/vintage-style-pickups-explored-2/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffB Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 I have antiquities in my H150 right now. I like the 59's it came with better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Millennium Maestro Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 I have antiquities in my H150 right now. I like the 59's it came with better. Want to trade pickups? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yooper Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 '59s are great to brighten up a darker toned LP/150 body. Their tighter lows and cutting highs are definitely more suited for higher gain power rockers, while Seths and Ants work for warmer and cleaner jazz flavors and vintage rock. I find the '59s in my 535 a bit shrill in the highs and the overall sound a bit too scooped for my semi-hollow needs. I dearly love Seths, but I'm tilting to the Ants at the moment. I'm sure I'd have no issues with either set in my 535. Want to trade pickups? Ha! Beat me to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElNumero Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 '59s are great to brighten up a darker toned LP/150 body. Their tighter lows and cutting highs are definitely more suited for higher gain power rockers, while Seths and Ants work for warmer and cleaner jazz flavors and vintage rock. I find the '59s in my 535 a bit shrill in the highs and the overall sound a bit too scooped for my semi-hollow needs. I dearly love Seths, but I'm tilting to the Ants at the moment. I'm sure I'd have no issues with either set in my 535. Ha! Beat me to it! But can't you use your tone controls to eq it to your liking? This is what annoys me about all the nit picking about pickups. Sure they each have their own flavor, but at the end of the day a high quality pickup is a high quality pickup right? You use your tone controls to balance out the tone exactly the way you like it. Now if there was no such thing as eq or tone controls, I can see a person wanting to change pickups to alter their tone. You think Jimi, Stevie or Rory gave a flip about pickups? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Millennium Maestro Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Here Here Will... However there is a sub culture to pickups, the first difference that is actually drastic is whether a pickup is potted, 2nd is Magnet.... A potted pickup will never sound unpotted and you will never truly EQ the tonal traits of a pickup with Ceramic magnets to sound like an Alnico... I do say EQ away however! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yooper Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 But can't you use your tone controls to eq it to your liking? This is what annoys me about all the nit picking about pickups. Sure they each have their own flavor, but at the end of the day a high quality pickup is a high quality pickup right? You use your tone controls to balance out the tone exactly the way you like it. Now if there was no such thing as eq or tone controls, I can see a person wanting to change pickups to alter their tone. You think Jimi, Stevie or Rory gave a flip about pickups? Jimi, Stevie and Rory were Strat Jockeys. We're talking humbuckers. Duane traded his '57 Goldtop, but only after swapping the pickups. Yes, you can cut highs back on '59s. That's not an issue, and I really like them. They rock. The mids, depth, openness and fullness of Seth/Ants can't be dialed in so easily on '59s. Let me put it this way. Both sound great, but the Epi Dot with Seths sounds better to me than the 535 with '59s. This won't do, eh? It's the unpotted A2s, man. They just sound warmer to these old Yooper ears. YMMV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HANGAR18 Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Seth's and Antiquities are two of my favorite sets. I first experience the tone with Antiquities I got in a guitar in trade. Because of a debt I had to sell the guitar and I should have replaced them before I sold it but I didn't. I don't currently have a set of Antiquities, but I do have Seth's in my 150 and I completely agree with you. Both of those have gained Rendall Wall's approval. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffB Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Want to trade pickups? '59s are great to brighten up a darker toned LP/150 body. Their tighter lows and cutting highs are definitely more suited for higher gain power rockers, while Seths and Ants work for warmer and cleaner jazz flavors and vintage rock. I find the '59s in my 535 a bit shrill in the highs and the overall sound a bit too scooped for my semi-hollow needs. I dearly love Seths, but I'm tilting to the Ants at the moment. I'm sure I'd have no issues with either set in my 535. Ha! Beat me to it! I gave my H150 to a guy to have for a while. He really enjoyed playing it. He has a great collection of R7's through to R9's plus many other beautiful guitars and over the years has let me have some of them for a while. When my H150 came back it had the antiquities, a new bridge and stop tail, all good stuff, all "up grades" The thing is, as cool as it was of him to do that, if the guitar sounded and felt like that when I first tried it I might not have bought it. I "mainly" play clean at home. Not a gain'y clean, more of what I imagine might make a good jazz sound. The Antiquities dont work as well through my gear as the 59's in getting near the sound Im aiming for. When I use gain the antiquities dont nail the sound and feel either. I can hear why people like them. But they dont do it for me through my gear. All my guitars have the pick ups they came with(except the H150 ) I use a fender concertII with a celestion G12H-100. It was just by chance I found this speaker and it works for me. Good low end, warm fat mids, smooth highs. The concert has a presence control which is quite a powerful control. When I started using that speaker in that amp it pretty much ended searching for p/ups or od pedals. Everything I had worked well with it. I think the concertII and the G12H100 are both unlikely bits of gear in a search for tone. Neither are really desirable, iconic or associated with any grail type tones. They just work for me. For lower gain I use a Kingsley Jester, it has a really useful eq. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuz Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 But can't you use your tone controls to eq it to your liking? This is what annoys me about all the nit picking about pickups. Sure they each have their own flavor, but at the end of the day a high quality pickup is a high quality pickup right? You use your tone controls to balance out the tone exactly the way you like it. Now if there was no such thing as eq or tone controls, I can see a person wanting to change pickups to alter their tone. You think Jimi, Stevie or Rory gave a flip about pickups? In a short answer... Sh!t goes in, Sh!t come out. Every recording engineer I have talked to or have read from has stated that the less eq'd a signal is, the purer the final tone will be. Funny that people will buy a $1500-3000 guitar and then go cheap on pickups. The tone out of the guitar will also effect the tone of your pedals (so then you need to eq them as well). Life is too short to compromise on inferior pickups. And yes, I do believe the artist you quote cared about pickups. Why did Stevie have a #1 if he didn't care? He changed the neck on #1. Clapton bought 3 Strats and kept the best of each to make "Blackie" his ultimate Strat. El Numero, if what ever pickups work for you, great. But I want my guitars to achieve they highest potential they can and sometimes that means upgrading the pickups to what tones I want to hear when played clean. It all starts with a great clean tone platform from the amp (without much tone changing on the amp) and then the pedals & effects afterward. Just my .02 YMMV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuz Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 And a final that.... Pickups are just microphones for a guitar. Why do SO many famous singers DEMAND to only use a specific microphone for their voice if the sound engineer could just eq their voice at the board? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pressure Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Interesting Video about Humbucker magnets. PK already knows this stuff but I found it interesting. Youtube embed experiment. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uu9_MNi7wvw?ecver=1"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> "https://www.youtube.com/embed/uu9_MNi7wvw?ecver=1" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Millennium Maestro Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Thanks for the video Richard, I only needed to watch it one time... "Chuckles" You just gave me the inspiration to stuff a deguassed A2 magnet in the bridge of a Seth Lover to see if it recreates what I heard in the Antiquities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pressure Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I posted it 3 times with different links to YouTube as an experiment but all 3 failed to give a preview window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalismanRich Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I just paste the actual Youtube link (not the Youtu.be shortened link, or the embed link) and things work fine. The software must look for the Youtube.com in the link and set it up for 3rd party host. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidsmoke Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I just paste the actual Youtube link (not the Youtu.be shortened link, or the embed link) and things work fine. The software must look for the Youtube.com in the link and set it up for 3rd party host. what browser are you using Rich? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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