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Old May 11th, 2008, 12:12 AM   #2 (permalink)
yegbert
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Clinton, Maryland (US)
Age: 54
Posts: 4,652
Seymour Duncan Antiquity '55, Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro and Fender '69 Thinline.

The Antiquity '55 bridge has staggered AlNiCo II polepieces and a raised D and G. Mine measures 6.6K, a little higher than the 6.1K spec. SD is sloppy on the neck pickup listings, only listing the Antiquity neck and not the Antiquity '55 neck. My Antiquity '55 neck measures 7.45K. Duncan most likely made it using AlNiCo II like the bridge.

The Alnico II Pro bridge has flat polepieces. Mine measures 6.5K, a little higher than the 6.2K spec. My Alnico II neck measures 8.6K, higher than the 8.1K spec. These are AlNiCo II.

I'm not sure what type of AlNiCo Fender uses in the pickups they put in the '69 Thinline. My guess is AlNiCo V instead of II or III because of the tonal character. The bridge has staggered and raised polepieces. The bridge pickup in my Thinline measures 6K and the neck measures 7K. These are both lower than others like these I've seen or have in my parts drawer. The bridge averages 6.4K but I've seen one that was 6.8K. The neck averages 8K.

DC resistance specs don't tell the whole story, but all else being equal in a pickup, the effect of it being higher or lower is presumably predictable. The type of AlNiCo presumably affects at a minimum the strength of magnetic charge possible, not sure what else. If you start trying to compare AlNiCo to ceramic or neodymium, and magnetic polepieces to steel polepieces with bar magnets, you complicate the comparisons.

The Antiquity '55 bridge pickup I have seems just about perfect for me for a clean country tone. I think I'd like to have a neck pickup in between the actual characteristics of my Antiquity '55 and my Alnico II Pro neck pickups, so if I was asking SD to wind me one custom I'd ask for one made like an Antiquity '55 but wound to 8k. But the tone I like in a Tele neck pickup may be a little warmer or fatter by itself than what other folks would conside a clean country tone.
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