P22 Pickup Problem

[gush]

The 53/10 pickups in my P22 measurements are;

Treble: 8.72k
Bass: 8.03k

As a side note, the P22 that I have with 57/08 pickups in it have uncovered 57/08 pickups. I have only seen them like this is in the P22 guitars. They are also of the hotter variety.

The last pair of mine I measured were 8.85 t. 8.26 b

 

[Stringtheorist]

OK, I just checked the polarity of my pickups, and it seems the treble p/u's coils are reversed (screw coil is South instead of North). This checks out, as it presumably means it was wired correctly, and to be fair it was working up until recently. I have flipped the bass pickup around 180 degrees, and will rewire the treble pickup using the stock wiring, and see what difference that makes.

 

[Kree]

I recently bought a brand new PRS S2 McCarty 594 Thinline, and the bridge pickup suddenly stopped working after just 3 days. It turned out to be a cold solder joint in the bridge pickup. Problem solved and fixed.

 

[Stringtheorist]

After re-fitting the pickups and checking the output of each from one position on the switch to the next, things seemed fine until I installed the treble pickup where it became clear I was only getting the tapped output there.

With the pickups in the guitar I check again the resistance on each p/u with a multimeter by attaching the probes to each wire with crocodile clips, and I am no longer reading the correct output on either of them; it is about half what it should be in each instance. So I'm thoroughly confused now. I can't find any official diagram for wiring 59/09s, and PRS seem to change their colour coding from one set to another and from Treble to Bass side.

Anyone have any ideas? What would cause my readings to change after screwing the pickups back in (no connections soldered)?

 

[Stringtheorist]

Took both pickups out of the guitar again and now I can't get a full reading at all from either of them. I'm getting 5.08 on the Treble and 5.37 on the Bass. Have they died?

 

[JasonE]

That is some strange stuff. I can't remember, have you asked PRS customer service about wiring those up? They are very helpful with those types of questions.

My first thought is that you are not checking the right wires for the resistance and are only getting one coil. However, I know you checked them before and am assuming you are using the same wires and you got the full reading. Unless something has happened to them to cause physical damage, I can't imagine anything has gone bad with the pickups. I wish you lived near me. I am genuinely curious as to what is going on.

 

[Stringtheorist]

Took another reading the other day and the black-white wires measured full output again (!) so I put them back in the guitar, wired up to the switch and rechecked. Measurement between the same wires had dropped to about half on both of them. Disconnected them from the switch and re-checked. Still reading about 5k.

I don't know whether I'm doing something wrong with my use of the multimeter but it seems like putting the pickups physically into the guitar is messing with the reading. Having said that, when I took them out the other day they still read 5k one day one, and full output on day two. I'm perplexed.

I'm in discussion with Customer Service at the moment by email.

 

[Stringtheorist]

Quick update: I've had the guitar serviced by a PRS Service Centre here in the UK. No definitive reason given as to what the problem was. It was suggested that there may have been a stray piece of wire in the cavity causing a short, or that there may be an intermittent problem with one of the pickups. In any case, it is now working as it should and I didn't need to buy new pickups.

 

[Gtrbldr]

That blows. The 53/10s are rare as hens teeth, but the 59/09 is readily available if you want to stick with PRS PUs.

Otherwise there are very cool alternatives