Post by antigua on Sept 25, 2016 19:16:22 GMT -5
www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/antiquity-ii-surfer-strat-set
This is Seymour Duncan's AlNiCo 5 distressed Strat pickup set. I like the results I get with them. They look really cool, it's a shame they spend all their lives hidden. The tarnished wire, the blackened screws and pole pieces look attractive and much more sophisticated than fresh faced SSL-1's. I kept this set in, though I removed a set of Antiquity I Texas Hots, as I felt they were too dark, and didn't seem very responsive with the weaker AlNiCo 2 magnets.
Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Surfer Hot Bridge
DC Resistance: 10.08K
Inductance: 3.481 H
Resonant Peak: 8.76 kHz
Calculated C: 75pF (95-20)
Coil width: 0.5745"
Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Surfer Middle
DC Resistance: 6.46K
Inductance: 2.462 H
Resonant Peak: 8.88 kHz
Calculated C: 110pF (130-20)
Coil width: 0.550"
Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Surfer Neck
DC Resistance: 6.44K
Inductance: 2.482 H
Resonant Peak: 9.24 kHz
Calculated C: 100pF (120-20)
Coil width: 0.566"
These pickups feature AlNiCo 5 poles, with gauss readings between 1000 and 1100, except for the "B string" pole pieces, which measure 800 - 850, which suggests that, if they are fully charged like all the pole pieces surrounding them, that they might not contain very exact AlNiCo 5 formulations. They are the smallest pole pieces, but they're barely smaller than the high E beside them, which read full gauss strengths.
The natural comparison to make is against the Antiquity I Texas Hot and the SSL-1. The SSL-1's are the closest, as they also feature AlNiCo 5 poles. The Antiquity sets come with hot bridge pickups, which are crazy hot, not at all Strat-like, and are more comparable to SSL-5s, so this comparison only regards the neck and middle pickups. The loaded peaks of the Ant II's are about 100-150 Hz higher than the SSL-1s, feature 200 henries less inductance, and have a DC resistance that averages 200 ohms lower, but the capacitance and coil thickness is about the same, so it seems that these are slightly under wound SSL-1's.
The Antiquity I Texas Hots feature AlNiCo 2. The gauss is around half the value of the Antiquity II Surfers, between 500 and 600. The Antiquity I Texas Hots have inductances closer to 2.9H and loaded resonant peaks around 3.6kHz to the Antiquity II's 3.9kHz, so it goes without saying that these are brighter pickups. I wouldn't say the Antiquity I's are "hot" by contrast, more "mellow", lacking the clear bell tone that Strats are know for.
Also interesting, once again it appears that the 43 AWG "hot bridge" has much lower capacitance than the neck and middle, showing a high resonant peak unloaded, but a much lower resonant peak of 3.3kHz under load. The unloaded peaks are so close together between the hot bridge and neck/middle (only 80 Hz away from the middle pickup), that it makes me wonder if Seymour Duncan had designed them this way with the hopes that they would be voiced similarly, but just louder, not realizing that they diverge once cable capacitance is added to the equation.
Setup details:
Bode plots are made with a Velleman PCSGU250 and the supplied probes in 10x mode, with the function generator feeding a driver coil of 0.48mH, placed on top of the pickup and driven with 2Vpp. The pickup is connected to an integrator circuit, designed by Ken Willmottkenwillmott.com/blog/, with a Velleman 10x probe, and fed back into the Velleman PCSGU250. I measured the probes' capacitance at 20pF, so that amount is subtracted from the capacitance calculation. The "loaded" tests have exactly 470k ohms and 200pF capacitance across the pickup.
The inductance and Q measurements are made with an Extech 380193 in "SER" series mode, and the mean value between the 1kHz and 120Hz modes is recorded. The capacitance value is derived from the inductance and measured resonant peak.
Magnets are tested with a Spin Doctor ERgravitastech.weebly.com/spin-doctor-er.html