PRS SE Custom pickups switched?

[etype]

First time poster here.

I bought a used semi-hollow PRS SE Custom about a year ago. I love it, it is really comfortable to play and sounds great. It is so mint it seems like it was hardly played (except for the gold tuners -- which I have replaced to match the rest of the hardware).

So yesterday I was looking at it and realized the E strings sit outside the outer poles/screws of the bridge pickup and inside the poles/screws of the bridge pickups. So I measured, and sure enough, the center to center measurement of the outer screws of the bridge pickup is 1-15/16" and the same measure on the neck pickup is 2-1/16". The wider pickup is at the neck.

Could this have been original? Seems like a pretty unlikely factory error. So it seems to me like a previous owner switched the bridge and neck pickups. Is there any good reason to do this? Should I put them back? The guitar sounds great, but could it sound even better?

Here is a pic.

 

[Duffy]

Why not switch them up and see what some adjusting gets you to.

It may or may not be an intentional switch up. It could have been a mistake. Looking at the markings on the underside of the pickups may indicate that they are not original, or other useful information.

I don't think that being off a little like that makes much of a sonic difference. The output and resistance of the pickups may produce evidence that they have been switched. Try putting on ohm meter on them.

 

[MotorPro]

Why not look on the back and see what they are marked?

 

[etype]

I have changed tuners, bridges, saddles, strings, but I have not had the guts to start messing with a guitar's electronics. Well. looks like my wife is going to have to get used to me having another hobby!!! Now where did I put that ohm meter...

 

[John Beef]

It's kind of a dark pic but the creme color on the bobbins doesn't quite match the pickup rings. So, that says to me one or the other has been swapped out. It definitely looks like someone put an F spaced bridge pickup in the neck position. Stock pickups for that model have pole spacings of 50mm in the neck and 52mm on the bridge.

 

[shinksma]

Those pickup pole spacings are 52.4mm and 49.2mm, when converted to metric. Now, if you didn't use a digital caliper, I suppose your measurements may be a bit off, and maybe they are 52mm and 50mm, in which case they could be the original pups, but swapped positions.

However, if the conversion to metric is reasonably accurate, then you might have an SD humbucker (49mm) in the bridge, and an SD trembucker (52.6mm) in the neck.

At the very least, unscrew the pups and see what it says on the bottom...

 

[etype]

I just used a ruler (inches, not metric) to measure, so may be off a bit. Also true that the colors of the bobbins and pickup rings is not identical. I just restrung it and I figure I'll have to take the strings off to check, so maybe I'll just wait until the next restringing... then again, I want to solve this mystery.

 

[Duffy]

I just used a ruler (inches, not metric) to measure, so may be off a bit. Also true that the colors of the bobbins and pickup rings is not identical. I just restrung it and I figure I'll have to take the strings off to check, so maybe I'll just wait until the next restringing... then again, I want to solve this mystery.[/QUOT

Common rulers found at Walmart, Staples, etc., are notoriously inaccurate.

For use in precision measurement it is best to get a good engineering or architectural rule, or a specialized high quality scale. These type rulers can be found at some office supply stores that carry drafting supplies, or at many college bookstores.

It would be nice to have a finely graduated metric as well as a finely graduated engineering scale that allows you to infer hundreths of an inch - these usually have 50 division lines per inch and allow you to visually determine 1/100 of an inch increments visually (half the distance between each 1/50 gradation). This kind of precision is more handy to have available than it at first might seem.

A quality metric scale showing accurate millimeter increments is also very useful; as well a those with even finer gradations.

There is no substitute for good quality tools, especially, obviously, for precise measurement such as determining the distance between the E - E strings at the pickup pole pieces, bridge, etc.

 

[etype]

It actually was a precision ruler, but only down to 1/64". I was really just trying to ascertain whether the neck p/u was wider than the bridge p/u and not the exact measurements. I am an economist, so measuring things precisely isn't really my forte (a little econ humor there)... but I do like tools!!!

 

[MotorPro]

It actually was a precision ruler, but only down to 1/64". I was really just trying to ascertain whether the neck p/u was wider than the bridge p/u and not the exact measurements. I am an economist, so measuring things precisely isn't really my forte (a little econ humor there)... but I do like tools!!!

Pick up a set of digital calipers at Harbor Freight. You can get them under $15 on sale. They do both standard and metric and are dead accurate.