Seymour Duncan Antiquity's

The Antiquity Pickup is painstakingly artificially aged. There are at least three hours of very skilled labor that go into the aging process. " Some people say that each one is dunked in a Glass of Billy Gibbon's Piss"

Seymour Duncan uses the exact same materials as Gibson did in the 50's when they built their original pickups. For example the bobbins are made from a butyrate compound that had to be specifically re engineered to recreate the original models.

The bottom plate of the pickup is made from German silver which is what Gibson did in the 50's & early 60's. The connecting wire is a single conductor cross braided steel just as like those famous original ones.

Unlike the Seth Lover Model, Seymour hand signs each & every one of these pickups, He uses a 45 year old aged  Aluminum Nickel Cobalt magnet that really nails the sound and tonal characteristics of the 1957 PAF.

The Seymour Duncan pickups are priced quite fairly compared to the only other ones that get our seal of approval (Tom Holmes).   Seymour made this Antiquity ^™ model to look and sound like a well-worn '50s humbucker as originally designed by Seth E. Lover. The pickups are built to traditional standards. Each has its own character and DC resistance, just like the originals. He wanted to give the player a pickup that looks like it's been played regularly for 45 years, so he aged the nickel silver cover and the poles. Included is a front-tapered mounting ring and the screws that go with it. The pickup is not wax potted, which retains the vintage sound and appearance. Crafted by hand in Seymour's "Antiquity" room, each pickup is signed on the magnet & bottom plate to guarantee you are getting an original Seymour W. Duncan Antiquity ^™. Or, you could special order a hand made set of Tom Holmes pickups  for a measly $800.00. Ed Roman carries those also !!!!

IMPORTANT

Vintage Pickups whether they be original or whether they be recreated. There are many companies in Japan that have stripped out all the Original Gibson PAF pickups and replaced them with copies. Many unscrupulous dealers have swapped out the original PAF pickups out of their customers guitar while the guitar is in for repair.

If a dealer made this statement  to a customer it would be 100% true.  "We have inspected your guitar, we feel the feedback problem you are experiencing is due to the weak magnets on your pickups. We have replaced them with some better pickups. I am sure you will be much happier!!!   The customer goes home, plays his guitar with the replacement pickups in it and calls the dealer to thank him because it has made a world of difference. Meanwhile the dealer puts the customers PAF pickups out on ebay and sells them for $1,000.00 each to someone who has more money than brains who thinks he is buying a piece of his youth back.  Oy....  (During the 70's I probably acquired over 100 sets of "Vintage PAF pickups" completely by accident.  Many of them were simply thrown away because I never realized at the time that people were so gullible.

I myself brought my 1961 SG with the sidewinder tremolo into a store in New York City  in 1973.  I complained to the nice man that the guitar would not stay in tune.  I told him, I was getting a lot of squealing through my amp. The guy I dealt with I think his name was Bernie checked the guitar in and told me someone would call me.  About a week later I got a call from a guy,  I think his name was Charlie Lobue. He informed me that they had reworked the pickups, removed the tremolo and replaced the strings. He was the first one to ever tell me that SG's had many tuning issues. Apparently he and his crew did not believe in tremolos. He told me the tremolo on my guitar was a big hunk of junk and said he replaced it with a tune o matic bridge.  I have been a tune O matic fan ever since, but I am sure that they sold off my extremely valuable crappy  PAF pickups and my highly rare original sidewinder tremolo. (That store was called Guitar Lab) I think they are out of business today.

I have heard that the original pickup rings from 1959 have sold for more than $1,000.00 each (without the pickups)  As far as I'm concerned, that's a crime against nature. don't get me wrong. If a pair of them fell into my hot little hands, I would gladly charge the same price. The only difference is, I wouldn't recommend it to someone.

One man's junk is another man's treasure !!!!! 

I never have trusted too many junk dealers!!!

Ed Roman