PRS Pickup Identification Help

[Tbone55]

I've posted a thread in the electric guitars and amp forum alread about a pair of PRS pickups I bought that supposedly were out of a private stock guitar. The neck pickup is labelled 1985 Bass but there's no label on the bridge p/u. For whatever reason these pickups are wired with opposite polarity to what PRS pickups normally are. I have Dragon II's in my PRS and they follow the normal PRS wiring convention.

I want the slug coils to be my single coils but had to reverse the leads on the neck pu for this to work. When I did this the pu's were out of phase. Wiring the neck based on the original polarity activates the screw coil and removes the out of phase problem but single coil sound is really weak and brittle. I've been battling with this problem for over a week now and getting no where.
Really need some help with this.

Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated. I can provide the wiring polarity schematic I came up with and a wiring schematic I drew up for the pickups. I used an analog voltmeter to determine the pickup wiring polarity which is how I found out they weren't wired in the conventional PRS way.

If you have any questions at all please ask.

Thanks all.

Thanks.

 

[garrett]

They've done some Private Stocks that were made closer to the 1985 specs, so the bridge pickup may be the 1985 Treble.

Need to know how you're trying to wire them. Rotary? Blade? Toggle and push/pull?

It sounds like the pickups are reverse polarity from each other, which is normal for PRS pickups coming out of a Custom. Instead of switching the hot/ground wires of the neck pickup, you need to switch where the tap wire goes. Instead of connecting it to ground, connect it to hot.

 

[Tbone55]

Thanks kindly Garrett for your reply. I saw where you have a whole slew of wiring diagrams in a post. My thanks to you for providing that information for all of us in one easy place. Also thanks for replying to my other post in the Electronics forum about the pickups. These pickups threw me for a loop as all the information I had showed the polarity always being the same way. Since my Dragons matched the polarity I thought something wierd was going on.

I'm wiring the pickups using a 3 way switch and push/pull pickup. You're correct about the pickups being reverse polarity to each other. This seems to be the common thing with PRS pickups. Is there a wiring diagram available then that would be correct for these pickups? I have two wiring diagrams, one for pre 2007 and the other says current. The only difference I could see was that the current diagram uses the 50's capacitor wiring connection, vol pot output to center terminal of tone pot.

Thanks so much.

 

[garrett]

You can use this one. This is what PRS sent me 20 or so years ago when I was converting my CU24 from rotary to McCarty switching.

Reverse white and black wires compared to this, but keep the rest the same.

 

[Tbone55]

You can use this one. This is what PRS sent me 20 or so years ago when I was converting my CU24 from rotary to McCarty switching.

Reverse white and black wires compared to this, but keep the rest the same.

Thanks a bunch Garrett. Just to be clear, I need to reverse all the black and white connections shown?

 

[garrett]

Thanks a bunch Garrett. Just to be clear, I need to reverse all the black and white connections shown?

Yeah so bridge pickup white goes to the toggle, black to the push/pull; and neck pickup white goes to ground, black to the push/pull. Everything else should match the diagram.

 

[Tbone55]

Thanks a bunch. I'm just working on redrawing the diagram for my own benefit. The diagram you provided is the same as the PRS Custom 3 way Toggle ones I have, pre 2007 and current. The only thing that changed between the two is how the capacitor was wired. The current diagram uses the 50's type capacitor wiring (cap wired to signal ouput terminal of vol pot) whereas the pre 2007 connects the cap at the hot signal input of the vol pot. I'll postback when I'm done wiring it up.

 

[garrett]

Yeah, but "current" on the PRS documents is as of 2007, and is very much not current any longer.

PRS spend way more time making awesome guitars than updating their support information...

 

[Tbone55]

I had no idea that their "current" diagram was so old.

 

[Tbone55]

I got everything wired up last night and found out my vol pot is toast. I was getting weird resistance values at the signal out terminal. Then I connected my voltmeter to signal out terminal of the toggle switch and got the values I expected to see in humbucker and single coil mode. Tested the pot and it was reading 5.34kohm instead of the 500k it should be. No wonder my readings were so screwy.

Going out this morning to buy a replacement pot. Once I've installed it later today I'll let you know if everything is working as it should.

Thanks again.

 

[Tbone55]

Hello Garrett,

Very happy to report that the pickups are working exactly as they should in both humbucker and single coil mode. Slug coils are the single coils. These pickups are definitely brighter than my Dragon II's. I'm gonna have to spend some time re-tweaking for songs. Can't thank you enough for your help. You've made it a great day for me.

Best Regards.

 

[garrett]

Nice!

Yeah they call 'em Dragon pickups because they breathe fire! The T&B are definitely known for being on the brighter side.

 

[Tbone55]

Nice!

Yeah they call 'em Dragon pickups because they breathe fire! The T&B are definitely known for being on the brighter side.

I'm using a .022uf cap r8ght now but it feels like I may need to go to a .047uf cap. Would you have any experience or knowledge of whether this would be the way to go? I'll continue to tweak my tone settings in the meantime. I also have a .033uf cap I could use but it may not make enough of a difference.

Thanks

 

[garrett]

I'm using a .022uf cap r8ght now but it feels like I may need to go to a .047uf cap. Would you have any experience or knowledge of whether this would be the way to go? I'll continue to tweak my tone settings in the meantime. I also have a .033uf cap I could use but it may not make enough of a difference.

Thanks

There's no right or wrong answer there. Just whatever suits you best. I have used 0.033, 0.022, 0.015, 0.01 in various guitars.

 

[Tbone55]

There's no right or wrong answer there. Just whatever suits you best. I have used 0.033, 0.022, 0.015, 0.01 in various guitars.

You're right. For now I'll keep adjusting the amp tone controls. All the patches I have in my POD HD500X were set up for my Dragon II's and they were darker sounding. Now it seems I need to add more bass and reduce the treble and presence. Thanks for your reply.