New here.....and help with pickups for a McCarty

[Green Manalishi]

I got a 2000 Teal Black McCarty, and I really like the feel and playability and.of course the looks.
But I am not happy with the sound.

I am looking at swapping pickups, I don't need splitting, or is this guitar tapping?

I am looking at Seth Lovers, '59s or Dimarzio PAF Classics. I do want a vintage bucker tone.

Any experience with pups in a McCarty?

Are these a direct fit, any issues with mounting?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks

 

[Green Manalishi]

And a pic

 

[Screamingdaisy]

My McCarty has 58/15s. They sound great, but are hard to get ahold of.

If I were looking for a replacement if probably get the Alnico II Pro.

 

[Stoptail22]

I have a set of 85/15s in one McCarty and a combination of a neck 57/08 and a bridge 53/10 in another one. Love both. .

 

[AP515]

I vote Seth's. I have them in a H150 and love them. The 59's would be great if you want a little more punch.

 

[bodia]

The Seth's would be great.

 

[Bowtiefanatc]

Bare Knuckles are good to check out too.

 

[TroyBaer]

What don't you like about the stock McCarty pickups? Too hot/not hot enough? Too bright or dark?

 

[Birdsofprey]

Great color and my choice from experience would be stock covered neck, zebra (for looks of course) Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in the bridge. I have two CU24's trems and two CU22's stoptails and use this set-up, aside from the neck pickups having a cover. My next PRS will be a Singlecut Trem so I'll be giving (probably buying and trying) Bare Knuckles a try this time around. I'll play the guitar first. Great color again one of my fav's.

 

[Green Manalishi]

What don't you like about the stock McCarty pickups? Too hot/not hot enough? Too bright or dark?

I definitely find it too dark, and too bassy. Yes I can EQ it but it is so different than my other guitars, I dont want to re-eq my amps when switching guitars.

I have a les Paul I love that has 57 classics, something closer to that would be nice.

I like the split coil sound better BTW

 

[Green Manalishi]

I could use some help. I got a set of seth lovers and installed them. They are dark as well though not as boomy. They sound like the tone knob is down.

It doesn't look like the wiring for the pots are correct. I did not touch any other wiring other than from the pickups

 

[Green Manalishi]

Ok, I just have had something touching a ground or something earlier, now it's working fine.
Now will have to put the seth lovers thru its paces but so far getting what I wanted

 

[Big Mike]

Good choice. Seth's are great.
I'm, also a fan of 59's but I sometimes futz with the magnets in them.

 

[gush]

D U D E...............the answer is 5909s

I have a 2000 mccarty. Loved the guitar but the Mccarty bridge PU was just so so.

Went through a lot of different pickups but the 5909s sound incredible in it.

It currently has 5909 bridge 8515 neck. Both square bobbins and it is perfect.

It has 3 way toggle but has push pull on Vol pot too so pickups can be split independently.

This is your solution

 

[bodia]

D U D E...............the answer is 5909s

I have a 2000 mccarty. Loved the guitar but the Mccarty bridge PU was just so so.

Went through a lot of different pickups but the 5909s sound incredible in it.

It currently has 5909 bridge 8515 neck. Both square bobbins and it is perfect.

It has 3 way toggle but has push pull on Vol pot too so pickups can be split independently.

This is your solution

59/09 is the correct answer!

 

[Big Mike]

He already bought Seth lovers and digs em

 

[gush]

He already bought Seth lovers and digs em

Yes but now I got the 5909 juice flowin. Matter of time when we see a I LOVE 5909S IN MY MCCARTY post

 

[Green Manalishi]

Yeah I'm digging the Seth's. Got them for a good price too.

 

[John Beef]

Here's what's happening. Your neck pickup wire is braided, and that's an exposed ground. The capacitor's two sides are also exposed, but containing signal. When they touch, you're connecting the signal to ground and that's usually bad.

Normally with the tone pot all the way up, little to no signal is going through the capacitor to ground, and you retain your highs. When the tone pot is all the way down, all the high frequencies go through the capacitor, which also rejects the low frequencies. That means your higher frequencies are going through to the pot and then to ground while the low frequencies go out to the amp.

Since the exposed ground of the pickup wire is touching the backside of the capacitor wire, you're bypassing the tone control and making all the high frequency signals flow through the capacitor, straight to ground, just as if the pot was all the way down.

It's going to happen again and again unless you reconfigure the placement of the pickup cable behind the push/pull tone pot. If it's not long enough for that (looks like it should be but tight) then try to run it along the other side of the control cavity. Either way will work. The problem comes from having the exposed ground wire running across the exposed ends of the capacitor. You could theoretically start jumping around with the guitar and have the tone randomly alternate between tone all the way up and tone all the way down the way it is now.

I have circled the offending bits here:

 

[Green Manalishi]

Thank you, Mr. Beef. Great explanation. I'll remedy that. It's working fine, but as you said, a move can quickly change that