Is it worth changing out Seymour Duncan ‘59s to Antiquities?

[TomW]

Hey all.

Hope you’re all keeping well in these strange times!

I was considering changing out the Pups on my ‘94 H-150, as I have a little bit of spare cash from selling one of my other guitars. I was fairly sure I had Schallers, until I checked the neck pickup, and found out, I had a ‘59 SD there. I haven’t checked the bridge yet. I’m fairly sure these PUPs are installed when the guitar was made, as its a limited edition.

I’ve been considering changing the PUPs to either new SD Seth Lovers or Antiquities.

I mostly play blues/rock through a tube amp with or without overdrive. I don’t use  a lot of effects pedals.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great day

Tom

 

 

[mars_hall]

I would say leave the bridge with a 59 and drop a Seth in the neck.  You pay a premium for Antiquities and the sound is not much different.  A 59 in the neck is usually muddy, but fine in the bridge. The Seth makes a good match and brightens the neck.

[PunkKitty]

I'm not a fan of '59s. Seths, Antiquities, or just about any decent A2 or A4 pickup is a better choice. I have Throbak SLE-101s in my 150. They are A5 but sound fantastic. I'm also a big fan of Mojotone '59 Clones.

[y2kc]

The Seths sound very authentic in my Heritage. 

[JeffB]

I have antiquities in my h150. It came with 59's

One day when I get time  can be bothered  dicking around with it the 59's are going back in.

A friend thought he was upgrading my H150 for me and snuck a set of antiquities in.

I tend to just buy guitars I like and never have to swap out pickups. I guess  the 59s just work for me in that H150 and the Antiquities dont.

[Yooper]

Potted '59's are perfect for higher gain rock 'n' roll.

I went for the un-potted  A2 sound like this:

 

[y2kc]

Damn that Robben Ford is so good! Saw him last year from about five feet away at "Space' in Evanston Il. playing through his Dumble.

[Justblues]

I have Throbaks in  My 335, Scatterbrane in a Les Paul. I decided to try Seth Loved pickups in a SG.  I swapped out the stock pots for CTS and the Seths sound amazing- In my opinion  equally as good as the "boutique" brands. 

For what it's worth... would also highly recommend Manlius pickups.  I had read good things about them so I decided to try them out.  I called and spoke to the owner and he was very accommodating.  I asked for unpotted with lower than stock output and he had no problem winding a custom set with no added cost.  I have that set of his Landmark pickups in a Custom Shop Les Paul -  the guitar sounds amazing.  His prices are great.  Anyway good luck!

[brentrocks]

Lose the 59s.  Seths are the way to go

[DetroitBlues]

I prefer Seth Lovers myself.

I did have a Les Paul that I put a Seth Lover in the Neck and Pearly Gates in the Bridge.  

Totally rocked.

One thing to mention, might be a good idea to change up the wiring harness too.  Often that can make a difference to "open" up a guitars tone.

[tsp17]

6 hours ago, mars_hall said:

I would say leave the bridge with a 59 and drop a Seth in the neck.  You pay a premium for Antiquities and the sound is not much different.  A 59 in the neck is usually muddy, but fine in the bridge. The Seth makes a good match and brightens the neck.

 

25 minutes ago, brentrocks said:

Lose the 59s.  Seths are the way to go

 

4 hours ago, PunkKitty said:

I'm not a fan of '59s. Seths, Antiquities, or just about any decent A2 or A4 pickup is a better choice. I have Throbak SLE-101s in my 150. They are A5 but sound fantastic. I'm also a big fan of Mojotone '59 Clones.

 

23 minutes ago, DetroitBlues said:

I prefer Seth Lovers myself.

I did have a Les Paul that I put a Seth Lover in the Neck and Pearly Gates in the Bridge.  

Totally rocked.

One thing to mention, might be a good idea to change up the wiring harness too.  Often that can make a difference to "open" up a guitars tone.

+1 on all of the above.  

[michaeljames]

I happen to like Antiquities, but the Seth's are great as well.

I have a set of 59's in a Sheraton that are OK.  If it wasn't such a pain to swap them out I would.

We all know a given set of pickups will sound different in each guitar ~ even another of the same brand/model (2 les pauls as an example).  different wood, yadda yadda.  Then there's the amp used...  

Ultimately subjective.

[fxdx99]

3 hours ago, brentrocks said:

Lose the 59s.  Seths are the way to go

This one.

[TomW]

Thank you all for your input and experiences. It is very much appreciated. It’s fantastic to have a place/forum to ask these questions, otherwise I would be in no mans land. I’ve decided to go with Seth Lovers, thanks to your replies . They’re also slightly cheaper than Antiquities, and are more available here in Northern Europe.
I can see that I can get them in 2 wire or 4 wire connector cable. 4 wire version is slightly more expensive, but it gives more options, if I wish to change things around in the future. Does anybody have experience of using these?

In regards to a new wiring harness/kit,  I’ve been reading a little bit up on that. Anybody used one from StewMac, with CTS pots and Switchcraft switch? 
 

Thanks again 

Tom

[tsp17]

good choice.  you wont be sorry.

[mars_hall]

31 minutes ago, TomW said:

Thank you all for your input and experiences. It is very much appreciated. It’s fantastic to have a place/forum to ask these questions, otherwise I would be in no mans land. I’ve decided to go with Seth Lovers, thanks to your replies . They’re also slightly cheaper than Antiquities, and are more available here in Northern Europe.
I can see that I can get them in 2 wire or 4 wire connector cable. 4 wire version is slightly more expensive, but it gives more options, if I wish to change things around in the future. Does anybody have experience of using these?

In regards to a new wiring harness/kit,  I’ve been reading a little bit up on that. Anybody used one from StewMac, with CTS pots and Switchcraft switch? 
 

Thanks again 

Tom

We all have used Seths.  As far as harness, CTS audio taper 500K pots and sprague caps.   These are pretty much the things that will impact the tone.  Don't want to piss money away, just because you can.

[rockabilly69]

Antiquities all the way. I've never had too much luck with '59s, and although I like Seths, I prefer Antiquities.

[AP515]

So I'm a little late to this thread as you chose the Seth's.  Good choice.  I believe, though I could be wrong, that Seth's and Antiquities are the same inside but the Antiquities are degaussed just a little to make them "old".  I know the Antiquities are, I just don't know if the Seth's are.  Either way, I run all 3 types in various guitars and I like them all.  Each for the job I want them to do.  The 59's are great for straight up rock and roll.  They can be hot enough for almost anything but metal.  However, they don't tame down as well as the others.  Seth's tame beautifully, perhaps just a little more melodic than Antiquities.  I have Antiquities in a singlecut and man do I love those pups.  They are hard to control and that is why I like them.  The Seth's and the Antiquities are both unpotted and they both go crazy under high gain.  The fun is finding how to set the amp to just get them to start to run away and then control it with your fingers.  I love what comes out of that.  The Seth's I can treat just about like any other pickup.  They aren't as unruly as the Antiquities.  Not sure why.  Might just be the difference in the guitars they are in.

[Kuz]

On 4/20/2020 at 6:30 AM, PunkKitty said:

I'm not a fan of '59s. Seths, Antiquities, or just about any decent A2 or A4 pickup is a better choice. I have Throbak SLE-101s in my 150. They are A5 but sound fantastic. I'm also a big fan of Mojotone '59 Clones.

If your Throbaks are SLE-101s they are A2s unless you special ordered other wise.  The SLE-101 Plus are A5s.

[PunkKitty]

2 hours ago, Kuz said:

If your Throbaks are SLE-101s they are A2s unless you special ordered other wise.  The SLE-101 Plus are A5s.

Thanks. I bought them used and didn't get a card with them. I'm partial to A2's. Either way, they sound great.

[Rod]

As to replacing the wiring harness, these guys do good work and are accommodating to custom orders.

 

https://920dcustom.com/collections/prewired-components

[davesultra]

Do you not like the pickups that are currently in there? I'd say, if you like the way the guitar sounds now, leave it alone! It's a gamble to go through all that time & effort & cash, and hope it works out. There is absolutely nothing wrong with '59s, unless you don't like the way they sound. One should use caution when chasing the pickup unicorn.

[Perilmeglio2]

There are many ways of changing the voice of your guitar.

Before changing the awesome Sd 59's I suggest you to try to work first of all ob the wiring by changing only the volume pot of this pu (500/550k will open the sound but for example I found the sound I was looking for on a 82'S SG with 250k CTS pots... you gave to try!), then changing "type" of wiring (a 50's wiring makes the tone pot working in a different way), but don't forget to consider the capacitors (an orange drop or russian oil paper can make a big difference).

After this, if you don't find what are you looking for, ok... you have to change the humbucker!

[PunkKitty]

10 minutes ago, Perilmeglio2 said:

There are many ways of changing the voice of your guitar.

Before changing the awesome Sd 59's I suggest you to try to work first of all ob the wiring by changing only the volume pot of this pu (500/550k will open the sound but for example I found the sound I was looking for on a 82'S SG with 250k CTS pots... you gave to try!), then changing "type" of wiring (a 50's wiring makes the tone pot working in a different way), but don't forget to consider the capacitors (an orange drop or russian oil paper can make a big difference).

After this, if you don't find what are you looking for, ok... you have to change the humbucker!

You can also experiment with changing magnets in the pickup itself. I like the 59 pickups with A2 magnets. I don't with stock A5 magnets. This takes a bit of skill, and you can permanently damage the pickup if you aren't careful. Look on Youtube for tutorials. I've done this many, many times.

[MichYank]

Interesting thing about the SD 59s, Seth Lovers and Antiquities is that they're all wound on the original Leesona from the Kzoo Gibbons, now Heritage factory.  So, nice historical connection I think.

The stock neck A5 was too boomy for me so I swapped it out for an A2. - same as a Seth or Antiquity.  The beast sounds great and for about $4, I really can't tell that there's that much of a difference.  You may wish to try that before you buy a new pickup.