59/09's and 3-way wiring

[Ape Factory]

Curious if I'm going to run into issues here. I noticed that the 59/09 pickups as sold by PRS say they're compatible with 5-way blade vs. 5-way rotary switch. I'm putting these in a PRS with a three way (Paul's Dirty 100). I've done P/U swaps on plenty of guitars just never a PRS. Hell, I've not popped the back plate to take a look at the stock wiring yet. I can't stop playing the guitar! So with that said, I'm assuming that's an "inclusionary" statement and not an "exclusionary" and I'll be able to wire these into the two-pot 3-way switch setup without issue. I'm just worried there are several versions of these pickups (construction wise) and the stock 59/09's are different from the ones available for sale from PRS.

And if you must know why I'm swapping 59/09's for 59/09's, I hate anything gold. I know. Hey, I have issues.

 

[John Beef]

I hate gold too. Ruins a guitar IMHO, so I totally understand!

Open up the control plate, take a look and see if your pickups have the same wires as the ones you want to swap in. If so, then take a quick pic or draw a diagram and swap in the new pickups soldering the same wires to the same locations. There shouldn't be any issues.

If they're not the same, you'd probably wire it like a Custom 22 with McSwitching? Or do they not have the coil split? check out one of the schematics on the support page.

 

[Ape Factory]

It does have coil split. I'm assuming the originals are four wire just like 59/09's on PRS's site. Was just wondering why the wording on PRS's site about it working with the 5-way stuff. I'll pop the back and take a photo or two and I'll check out the schematics. That was my next question! Didn't know they had schematics listed. There's so little info on these guitars. I wish PRS would archive their pages on past models. It'd be nice to reference to.

 

[justmund]

4-wire will work with 5-way or 3-way with or without coil split. The only difference is you can choose which coil to be "active". Not 100% how you wire that though!

 

[Ape Factory]

The stock pickups have what looks like a three wire. Braided outer sheath, black hot wire plus a white wire that comes into the cavity separately for the coil split. Ugh. Why oh why can't this stuff be easy!

Wondering what effect the vintage style wiring has on sound. I'm sending them out to my most trusted pickup builder (re-wind pickups) for wax potting and covers. He may be able to switch them over to the vintage-style wiring.

Here's a photo of the cavity:

 

[Ape Factory]

I did a google search for images of 59/09 pickups to see if there were different variations and it appears they used to be sold with nickel covers and the vintage-style wiring. Might have to delve into this a bit deeper.

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

I have a schematic for putting 4-conductor 59/09's into a 3-way McCarty switching guitar. Will post it for you shortly. You just have to be careful or you'll set the middle position as power out of phase (POOP); which some of us actually prefer. The POOP tone is funky fresh and kills with heavy gain/crunch.

 

[yankeebulldog]

My Limited Teds and the DC22s all had nickel covers and vintage braid wire with the white split wire. Most of the early versions were like this unless someone requested something different from the PTC before they stopped doing custom pickup options. All of the newer squabbin ones are 4 wire as are the uncovered versions that came in some of the Custom 24s. You can wire those up for a 3 way no problem if you use this diagram:
http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/schem08/custom3waytoggle.pdf
I'm not sure if it's 100% consistent but the uncovered Custom 24 versions and the Squabbins I've had tend to sound slightly hotter to me and they also split better than the covered versions. I don't think the braid wire really makes much difference tone wise. I don't mind it as it's easier to ground them when you're wiring them up. I suppose they are harder to uninstall since you have to desolder a lot more.

 

[Ape Factory]

Thanks to both of you for your input. It'll be a few days before the pickups arrive and then I'll be sending them off to James at Re-Wind for wax potting and covers. That diagram will make wiring them up nice and easy. Thanks again!
Michel