SE ZM Custom Appointments??

[xjbebop]

In this recent video with ZM himself, he states that the SE245 bridge pup on his SE model is wound a bit hotter than the rest, and that the bridge is actually a USA version.
Curious whether this is accurate info or not?? I called PRS a few times this week to see if I could get a confirmation or not, but they've been closed. I will follow up in a few days, but am posting it here for the speculation fun, and to see if any of you already know the answer.

The truth is out there....

 

[andy474x]

I'd not heard that about the pickups before, that's cool. As for the bridge, I would be very surprised if it's the actual USA part - more likely I think he means it's the design of the USA PRS adjustable stoptail, but I would bet it's made overseas. Before his sig model, any SE with an adjustable stoptail had the Tonepros bridge, not an actual PRS spec part. So it's probably the first time the actual PRS design has been put on an SE. But it wouldn't stop me from liking the bridge and the guitar just as well.

My buddy has a ZM, and it's a killer guitar.

 

[DuncanCE22]

I haven't played any other guitars with the se245 pickups in them so can't compare but the whatever is in the ZM is HOT! I love it.

 

[DogPhishHead]

I have the ZM. The pickups are your run of the mill SE245 humbuckers - a hotter PAF style pup, alnico V magnetic would be my guess as they have a top end bite. I would say the SE245 bridge pup doesn't have the output of the HFS or Tremonti - it's got a little crunch when I hammer a hard chord into the clean channel of my Mesa, but it's not a metal oriented pickup by any means (which is great with me as I play primarily blues, jazz fusion style).

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

Yep. A5 mags in the SE 245 pups. Really good pickups.

Pretty sure he's referring to the actual bridge rather than the bridge pup when he says it's a US version. Major bang for the buck on that guitar. All SE's really but particularly that one.

As for the pup being overwound... Who knows. PRS don't advertise a lot of things. The Marsden has a unique neck shape but you wouldn't know it from the advertising blurb.

 

[andy474x]

Interesting about the A5's in the 245's. I wasn't aware of that, just kind of assumed most SE pickups were ceramic. The Mira X I have my SE 245's in is a pretty bright guitar, which isn't my norm but I like it. The neck pickup especially is very single-coil like, I could play hot blues without a coil split on it 24/7. I usually have to turn the tone knob down considerably on the bridge pickup, still sounds good though. But maybe I'll look into an A2 swap for the bridge.

 

[xjbebop]

OK, just got off the phone with a PRS rep who confirmed that the pickups and bridge in question are standard SE parts. This is what I suspected.
The adjustable wrap around bridge is based on the USA model, and it works quite well. I also have a SE Marty Friedman that came with the same bridge.
Seems young Mr. ZM's comments in this video are somewhat misleading, regardless, it's a fabulous guitar!