85/15 vs 57/08 vs 59/09

For my tastes at the moment, the two best pickups that PRS offers (or anybody else for that matter) are the 85/15 and the 53/10. The hard part about pickup comparisons from videos (even videos as good as crgtr's) is that the "goodness" of a pickup to me has everything to do with how an amp responds to it with volume and tone knob changes. And that has to do with the wiring in the guitar too of course. All I can say is that the 85/15 in the 30th CU24 and the 53/10 in the P22 are just stellar. The variations that you can get with these guitars all the way down to "2" on volume and tone are really something. I have a bunch of amps, and these guitars love all of them.

I don't know what PAF tone really is, even though I have, and have played a bunch of vintage and historic Les Pauls. But on this rare occasion I'll agree with Les and say that the 53/10, split, really is tele-like :)
 
While I can hear differences between the 59/09 and 57/08 (57/08 is warmer and less raspy - I much prefer that) the differences are very subtle.

You guys will hate me but I took my Suhr Pro S4 to practice today and the pickups on that demolish the PRS - every one is distinct, organic and raw. The PRS pups shine mostly for hard rock, the humbucker sound is good. But I find the cleans a tad sterile. I will compare side-by-side next time rather than taking just the one. I wouldn't buy one because they're harder to play (largely due to the single-cut) but I tried a Gibson R9 at the weekend and oh boy... again, the pickups in that were very organic! People do say PRS pups can be a tad sterile and when I played the Les Paul (and my Suhr tonight) I hate to admit that I can see where they're coming from. But I own two expensive PRS and I describe them as "royal" instruments - never go out of tune, they still sound great and they play/feel amazing.
 
guitarman001…..Again, ya gotta try and get ahold of one with 53/10's. IMO they're better than any humbucker Gibson ever put in a Historic LP (and believe me, I own a few and have owned way more), and they have tons of character…..far from 'sterile'. Problem is, there aren't many out there and even fewer new ones coming through with them.
 
I think I'd have to get a new guitar to get them and that's not going to happen for another decade...! :)
Do me a favour - and I mean seriously... if you get the chance to try a Suhr Pro S3/S4 or a Suhr Modern Pro... try it and let me know what you think.
 
guitarman001 said:
The PRS pups shine mostly for hard rock, the humbucker sound is good. But I find the cleans a tad sterile. I will compare side-by-side next time rather than taking just the one. I wouldn't buy one because they're harder to play (largely due to the single-cut) but I tried a Gibson R9 at the weekend and oh boy... again, the pickups in that were very organic!
Click to expand...

Gotta disagree. I don't play much hard rock. Here are clips of the 57/08s on my McCarty Singlecut straight into the HXDA and DG30. The HXDA is the bridge pickup, the DG is the neck. And while this is semi-dirty, it's certainly not hard rock. I think there's plenty of personality with these pickups, in fact, they're among the best I've played including the Suhr.

Neck: https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/hammer-dg-30-custom-v2

Bridge: https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/blues-ii-hotg

Unfortunately, I don't have clips of these pickups clean. But I do have one of my former Arist V clean (it has Artist V pickups, they're sort of a blend of 57/08 and 59/09:

https://soundcloud.com/lschefman/morganatic-blues

Granted, the fact that I like the above tones is a personal taste thing, and you can't argue taste. So you may not like the tone. You probably won't like the playing (it's ok, I'm a piano player by training)! But whatever one's opinion, it's hard for me to think of these tones as "sterile."

Finally, as Aristotle mentions, the 85/15s are incredible. I've recorded 3 ad tracks with them already, but I can't post clips because of client restrictions.
 
I once had a beautiful Suhr Archtop with two very good sounding humbuckers, but I couldn't tell you the name of the models. They were much like some Gibson BB's I've had though, great highs and powerful lows with somewhat of a scooped mid thing to them, but also like many burstbuckers can be, the lows were a bit wooly. Clear lows are especially difficult to attain for many humbucker sets, and among the essential criteria I listen for when judging them.
 
LSchefman said:
Finally, as Aristotle mentions, the 85/15s are incredible. I've recorded 3 ad tracks with them already, but I can't post clips because of client restrictions.
Click to expand...
Aw c'mon…..we won't tell! But seriously Les, I'd love to hear a few clips with those if you're able, especially clean in the various positions. Heck, just some casual noodling would be great….when you get a chance of course!
 
Great clips!! I love it when we get some real clips!!
I'm not saying that are sterile in absolute terms, but when I play the Suhr vs the PRS one after the other at home anyway... the Suhr clean sounds are so distinct. It's also a different scale length and HSS which will add to the differences. Thing is, you'll never get that Fender-type quack out of a Cu24 ! Remember, I've two Cu24 and one Suhr so I'm not bashing them!
 
i am really enjoying the sound of the 85/15s so far, like any improvement in equipment it tends to make you play a bit better. The amp, the guitar, the pups and me are all working together more and less against each other, or so it seems.
 
guitarman001 said:
Great clips!! I love it when we get some real clips!!
I'm not saying that are sterile in absolute terms, but when I play the Suhr vs the PRS one after the other at home anyway... the Suhr clean sounds are so distinct. It's also a different scale length and HSS which will add to the differences. Thing is, you'll never get that Fender-type quack out of a Cu24 ! Remember, I've two Cu24 and one Suhr so I'm not bashing them!
Click to expand...

Clips are fun to make! Being lazy, since I play all the parts, I generally try to keep everything simple, hence, bluesy stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I like Suhr instruments. Huge respect and props to Suhr, whose pedals I have on my board, and whose small recording amp is on my list of "must haves." But back to PRS for the moment.

At one point maybe fourteen or fifteen years ago, I took out all my guitars and laid down tracks in various styles with them, and listened back. At the time I had a couple of PRS, but also Andersons, a Rick, couple of Gibbys, a Fender, etc. Basically I used a variety of guitars to "cover all the bases" but this was based not on what worked for me, but what everyone else was doing.

I had a hankering to find my own "voice."

The object of the exercise was to see which guitars gave me the best results on recordings (as opposed to the feel, the looks, standing with them in the room playing, etc.). My feeling was that I express myself on recordings, make my living that way, and I had never really put the time in to see which guitars I was doing my best work with.

Listening back, it became clear that in my hands, the PRS recordings stood out from the rest. Note that I say "in my hands." Because we all do different things with instruments. In any case, these are the guitars that I find give me the tones I like.

Which of course includes the pickups.

Having listened to my clips, no doubt you'll see that I like a little grit in my tones, and nowhere on those tracks do you hear rhythm guitar parts. I like to play melodic lead lines. Short choppy licks and quack aren't in my guitar vocabulary. I want quack, I fire up a Wurlitzer electric piano. LOL
 
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LSchefman said:
Very nice stuff! Your band does a lot of styles, and you can really play 'em! I wish I had your chops.
Click to expand...

I push the rock stuff, the female singers push the pop stuff - it ends up being a cool mix!
Thanks - appreciated! Good playing yourself!!
 
I posted this on another forum but check it anyway.
Surely you'd think PRS would put demos of the pups online?






OK so tonight I spent an hour switching between guitars...


In short, all sounded amazing - horses for courses etc.


Purple PRS has 59/09s.
Orange PRS has 57/08s.
Suhr Pro S4 is HSS (SSH+ and two Michael Landua's I think - don't quote me on that).


Clean... the Suhr wins. The PRS aren't bad at all - it's just a very conservative and polite sound. The big difference can be heard when doing short sharp double stops - the Suhr pups sound more alive, quacky and organic. All good, though.


Distorted - I was digging the sound of distorted single coils / coil splits. Perhaps due to the mahogany bodies, the PRS won for balls-out distortion, but the Suhr still retained some more than usable sounds.


The 59/09s seem to have a tad more treble, more rasp and are more in your face, whereas the 57/08s are the opposite and can sound muffled when going from one to the other. But if you start playing the 57/08s then move to the 59/09s then the 59/09s sound loud and offensive! So it's a difficult one to call. I'd say the 57/08s are nicer. It's amazing how different the sound can be. I wish there were more pickup demos on these manufacturers' sites else how are you supposed to choose!? I hear the new PRS pups are meant to be the best yet.


Again, the PRS was easier for high fret access but the Suhr is still a joy to play.


Happy all-round, to be honest!


The tone control has a sharper knee on the PRS than the Suhr, but I have to try again to confirm for sure. I'm also enjoying rolling back the volume to get a gritty sound rather than having to use one distortion pedal and another dirt pedal live...
 
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