Seymour Duncan Antiquity Retrospec'd for Tele - Bridge

Classic twangy 50s Tele Lead tone for a smoother treble response.

The Antiquity Tele Lead will give you that early 50s Tele tone, but with the high end sweetened by the custom calibrated hand ground alnico 2-rod magnets. What you get is the classic Tele twang and snap, but with a treble response that is nice and bright without being piercing. Like the originals, the ferrous bottom plates are not wax potted for that breakin' up Telecaster twang tone that is just on the verge of feedback. Each pickup is hand-fabricated and scatter-wound in our Custom Shop. We use vintage style push back cloth wire, and they are all lacquered and potted in lamp black paraffin wax like they were in the 50s.

At Seymour Duncan, we have a 40-year archive of data on pickup design, detailing every nuance, down to the smallest detail. This deep knowledge is what gives our legendary Antiquity pickups their authentic vintage tone.

The Antiquity line’s story goes back to the 1990s, a particularly unique time in guitar history. ‘Shred’ guitars were on a bit of a decline, and the vintage guitar market was huge. When they weren’t able to get their hands on the actual vintage guitars they coveted so dearly, guitarists began to relic their own instruments. So, Seymour created the Antiquities to give those guitarists the aged look, tone, and response of the pickups found in the instruments of the 50s and 60s that they so revered.

Because Seymour is so detail-oriented, our Antiquities had to be exactly like the originals, down to the finest details. Seymour pulled from his 40-plus-year archive of data on pickup design, with insight on every nuance, to ensure that every facet of the Antiquity pickups was authentic and vintage accurate. If player feedback and the thousands of guitarists around the world who rely on their Antiquities are any indication, we think Seymour nailed it.

What Seymour didn’t anticipate was how popular these pickups would become among guitarists playing newer guitars. We quickly began hearing from guitar builders and players around the world who wanted our Antiquity pickups with a new, pristine look, rather than an aged, relic’d look. So, we created the Antiquity Retrospec’d series – all the beloved Antiquity tone of yesteryear in a brand new, cosmetically non-aged look.