Santana SE Mod for newbie

[Sched7]

Hi - new PRS owner here.

Just picked up a Santana SE for a price I couldn't resist and after playing it on both a Vox VT20x and Roland Cube 40gx, I'm struggling to get a nice overdriven sound. I'm fairly new to PRS's and wanted to know if the Santana model can produce a nice metal sound with the right amp settings from the amps mentioned, or are the pickups just not designed for that sort of sound?

If this is the case, any recommendations on modding my SE to achieve a nice metal tone would be much appreciated. Having said that, I do still like the nice clean sound the stock pickups produce, but I'd also like a gruntier sound when I want to play some hard rock/metal.

Cheers

 

[dogrocketp]

Try raising or lowering the pick ups or the pole pieces (or both) before you replace the pick ups. Most of us have a very specific location where we like the sound of our guitars. Of course, it`s different to each set of ears, and varies with each guitar.

 

[MichaelS]

Is it the 2017 version (Paul Reed Smith SE Signature on headstock) or older (SANTANA SE written on headstock)?
The 2017s have Korean 'SE Santana' pickups modeled after the original. The older ones have SE245 or something else in them. Not sure on the older ones.
If the SE Santana pups are anything like the original, they should provide plenty of punch. The ones on my core work alright with metal sounds.
Then again, the 85/15'S' on my Cu22 SE did not really compare to the US 85/15 in my CE (yes, yes, they're great pups for the price but nonetheless). So the same is likely true for Santana.
The 85/15'S' came out for a set of US HFS/VB.
I played around with amp settings and pickup heights which helped on the 85/15 but couldn't save them. They just recently came out (and listed on Reverb) for a set of uncovered \m/ which I am very happy with. The Santana SE might actually look good with the covered \m/ pups.

 

[Sched7]

Cheers for the replies - yes it's the 2017 version. I'll play around with the pole and pickup heights as suggested and see if this makes a difference, otherwise I'll look at getting a new set of pickups.