85/15 pickup question

[Summer]

I have a 2002 Custom 24 with HAF vintage bass/treble pickups. Just bought a new Custom 24 with new 85/15's and am a little disappointed. They don't seem as hot. I play classic rock, love the dirt/crunch/distortion which I'm getting thru my amp/pedals but it just seems these 85/15's are not as hot. Would love other opinions please.

 

[AP515]

The HFS is the 2nd hottest pickup PRS made at about 17K IIRC. The 85/15's probably come in around 8K I'm guessing. They won't be as hot obviously. They were made for other tones. You can add a distortion pedal and get back where you want to be, or just use the two different guitars for different sounds. Or sell the 85/15's. I have a set of HFS/Vintage I'll trade you. You will have to make sure the wiring works for both.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I love the 85/15s exactly because they're not hot pickups. Before giving up on them, try dialing in your amp again (I.E. just turn the gain up), they're very articulate. But...you know, if they're not for you, they're not for you, you can sell them and replace the pickups with something more up your alley at no loss to you.

They also have the 58/15 pickups, which are slightly less hot, and the 58/15LT pickups, which are even less hot.

 

[ReptilianNosewood]

They definitely arent as hot, but i believe they sound better. Theres more clarity and the individual notes are more well defined. The HFS and VB are muddy to my ears in comparison. I play Boogie though so i have plenty of gain on tap. The 85/15 is one of my favorite pickups because one channel i can have almost Jimmy Page style classic rock sound, Adam Jones Tool sounding gain on another, smooth jazz blues lighter gain on one, and Chimey cleans on another. They are incredibly versatile. The 85/15's and 58/15's plus my Roadster is heaven in a rig for me.

 

[Summer]

They definitely arent as hot, but i believe they sound better. Theres more clarity and the individual notes are more well defined. The HFS and VB are muddy to my ears in comparison. I play Boogie though so i have plenty of gain on tap. The 85/15 is one of my favorite pickups because one channel i can have almost Jimmy Page style classic rock sound, Adam Jones Tool sounding gain on another, smooth jazz blues lighter gain on one, and Chimey cleans on another. They are incredibly versatile. The 85/15's and 58/15's plus my Roadster is heaven in a rig for me.

Just joined this forum today and man I'm glad I did. You guys are awesome. I appreciate it. I have a killer Valvetrain tube amp 20 watt that cranks so will take one of the suggestions today and crank the gain and see how she sounds. Running a Wampler Tumnus (tube screamer) and Boss Distortion so can get there but it just seems so different than the HFS. Not ready to give up on them but pretty surprised by the output. Having said that, if you all had to chose and were going to swap out, which PRS pickups would you say are the hottest again looking for my distortion/sustain/crunch tone. I'm 60 years old and still love to scream Hendrix, Clapton, ZZ, Zep, etc... love it. Suggestions on a possible swap appreciated?

 

[bodia]

Well, the \m/ pickups would be the hottest, I believe. But, the 59/09 is great for that type of music.

 

[AP515]

If you want HOT but not the HFS/Vintage set, Dragon 1's are hot as well. Can only get them used and they are kind of rare. The Tremonti set is HOT and you can get them from the PRS store.
https://us.prsaccessories.com/collections/pickups/products/tremonti-bass-pickup

 

[Johnny]

If the pick ups aren't right for you, you can always swap them. They will sell quite easy because PRS does not sell the 85/15s separately

 

[garrett]

The 85/15 set is indeed lower output than the HFS/VB set. Basically, the 85/15 bridge is about the same heat as the VB neck pickup and the 85/15 neck is a bit lower than that. Part of the high resistance figure of the HFS is the thinner wire used, which means more turns, which equals higher resistance. That said, it's still a darn hot pickup.

HFS and VB pickups are plentiful in the market, so you could buy a set. Or, you can embrace the different tone of the 85/15 set to have some more variety in your tone arsenal. Hendrix, Clapton, ZZ, Zep, etc. didn't/don't use high output pickups, so you can definitely work with the 85/15's if you want!

 

[alantig]

Just joined this forum today and man I'm glad I did. You guys are awesome. I appreciate it. I have a killer Valvetrain tube amp 20 watt that cranks so will take one of the suggestions today and crank the gain and see how she sounds. Running a Wampler Tumnus (tube screamer) and Boss Distortion so can get there but it just seems so different than the HFS. Not ready to give up on them but pretty surprised by the output. Having said that, if you all had to chose and were going to swap out, which PRS pickups would you say are the hottest again looking for my distortion/sustain/crunch tone. I'm 60 years old and still love to scream Hendrix, Clapton, ZZ, Zep, etc... love it. Suggestions on a possible swap appreciated?

This. When Brian Ewald did the demo locally here, he talked about the 85/15s and how they compress differently than higher output pickups. He pointed out that the classic rock sounds of the late 60s/early 70s were recorded with lower output pickups, so the 85/15s tend to veer more to that sound than a higher output pickup will.

I gained an appreciation for that w/the 57/08s. That was the first time I felt like my sound dialed more towards the 'classic' sound. Doesn't explain why I got \m/s in mine, though...

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Well, the \m/ pickups would be the hottest, I believe.

Yeah, the \m/ ('metal') pickups are the first that came to mind.

 

[Summer]

Sounds like I need a bit more patience and tweaking before making a decision. I was just blown away by how hot and powerful my HFS pickups are vs these 85/15's. Literally have to adjust volume settings quite a bit to stay level when I compare the two. If not happy, probably Tremonti or possibly one other of your suggestions. Thanks to all. This has been incredibly helpful.
Any other thoughts, I'm all ears. Thank God for music and guitars....

 

[bluefade]

Mr Smith has been moving away from HOT pickups for some time now. He's seeking the type of tone that comes from the old HOLY GRAIL guitars. He's scored HUGE with the 594. The sales alone speak to this. Judicious use of all the tone and volume controls on both guitar and amp should allow you to produce the kind of tones you seek...EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT

 

[garrett]

Sounds like I need a bit more patience and tweaking before making a decision. I was just blown away by how hot and powerful my HFS pickups are vs these 85/15's. Literally have to adjust volume settings quite a bit to stay level when I compare the two. If not happy, probably Tremonti or possibly one other of your suggestions. Thanks to all. This has been incredibly helpful.
Any other thoughts, I'm all ears. Thank God for music and guitars....

Not surprised about having to adjust your amp settings. When I had a Custom 24, it was like a different tonal world from my other guitars. I went the other way and now I always go for lower output humbuckers to better pair with my single coil guitars without having to tweak all my settings too much.

I had a Tremonti SE with the USA pickups for a while. I liked that set. With the volume rolled back, it did a nice job of that classic Allman Bros sound, but with the volume on 10, that bridge pickup was a beast.

 

[Summer]

Great input from all. Thanks much.

 

[Summer]

The HFS is the 2nd hottest pickup PRS made at about 17K IIRC. The 85/15's probably come in around 8K I'm guessing. They won't be as hot obviously. They were made for other tones. You can add a distortion pedal and get back where you want to be, or just use the two different guitars for different sounds. Or sell the 85/15's. I have a set of HFS/Vintage I'll trade you. You will have to make sure the wiring works for both.

 

[Summer]

This is huge and pretty much explains it. Going from 17k to 8k is quite a dropoff. Thanks for the info.

 

[AP515]

This is huge and pretty much explains it. Going from 17k to 8k is quite a dropoff. Thanks for the info.

Small adjustment. I checked the HFS data, it's 15K. Still very hot.

 

[gush]

Your choices are-SC250 set, dragon 1 set, M set.

You could raise the bridge pickup closer to the strings but that will change your tone.

Do you feel the 8515 neck is ok? The SC250 and M would be square bobbin so you could buy just a bridge pickup.

 

[Summer]

Small adjustment. I checked the HFS data, it's 15K. Still very hot.

15K vs 8k on the 85/15's ?