Seymour Duncan ANT II-JJBB

This is a wonderful pickup that will bring you back in time 50 or so years, perfect fit for a vintage instrument or to retrofit a modern one with the vintage vibe. They are pretty flexible but of course, if you're style is some kind of hard core metal you may not like this sound. I own a set for bridge and neck to enhance an Highway 1 Jazz Bass, the bass has good action and good wood, the stock pickups are decent, but always lucked a bit of clarity, and right after installing those pickup it felt like I had access to a very expensive vintage instrument. The pickups have great mid presence and will roll off very nicely with the tone control, giving a great range of musicality, they also take overdrive very well. With those pickups, I strongly recommend the series/parallel mod to access an additional sound palette. The pickups are hand made and impressively aged one by one, and come with a very nice box and a cloth sack, with best compliments from Mr. Duncan himself. If you're in that mid '60 tone, you can't go wrong.

I sold an early 70,s Jazz Bass many years ago. This had late 60,s pickups that sounded so sweet and with an extreme midrange attack. I bought a standard newer Jazz Bass to see if I could get something like that tone, but no. I installed new pickups and a fancy preamp, but still I could not get near the tone of the oldie. This bass nearly ended in the closet. I started to examine if there were some pickups built like the old ones. Ended up with the Antiquity II via Thomann. What a success! These sounds excactly like the old 60,s but with a higher output. The midrange is open and clear. No mud or filter-like tone. The highs are crispy, but without an annoying hi-fi zing.

Pros: Authentic 60,s tone. A true copy of the old ones. Killer tone. comes with relic screws. Easy install guide.

Cons: None