#6 pickups

maestromatt

New Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2014
Messages
29
How do the PRS #6 pickups sound? I've been looking for a Single Cut Trem and they all seem to come with #6 pickups. How do those sound?
 
I like mine, but I like the sound of the 59/09 and 57/08 better. They are not as articulate as either, They get good volume and the neck pickup is my favorite position. Really the guitar itself is killer. you want be disappointed in that. I plan to replace them in the distant future with 59/09 or 85/15 if they sell them in the prs store.
 
Yes, #6's were standard pups on the trem equipped SC's. #7's were standard on the stoptails. I haven't heard the #6's so I can't say first hand, but from the chatter they seem to be a love/hate kind of thing. #7's were generally loved. Even if you don't care for them that shouldn't be a reason to prevent buying the SCT. It is the trem you want, the pups can be changed easily. For me, I love the SC and the stoptail if fine.
 
Oh okay. I've also seen the 2013 Experience PRS SC trems with 59/09s i think...but I can't find any for sale anywhere... *cue depression*
 
I have a set that have been in and out of my SCT a few times. Not a bad sound but they did sound a bit flat to me last time I had them in. Flat as in no they didn't really do any particular genre particularly well for me at least. They are one of those pickups that people either absolutely love or hate from what I've read online over the years. I'm pretty indifferent about them to be honest. The #7 pickups in my last SC were absolutely brilliant though, but that's neither here nor there.
 
#6s are one of the hotter pickup sets in the PRS line. ( 12K in the bridge )
I have them in my SCT if you lower them a bit I really like the way they pair with the rosewood neck.
The SCT is a killer guitar and one of the best single cut guitars I have ever played, get it and change the pickups if they are not your bag
 
Hi Matt,

The SCT is a wonderful guitar. I simply love mine. However, I think the #6 bridge is one of the worst PRS pickups I've ever heard...just thin and lifeless. Although there are several neck pickups I like better, the #6 neck sounds pretty good. The good news is there is about 42 million choices you can swap into the bridge position. My IRW SCT is a rarity in my collection. It's my only PRS with a non-PRS pickup. I went with a zebra coil EVH Wolfgang bridge pickup and popped some gold polepiece screws in it. Now, it sounds as good as it looks.
Good luck!
 
I dig my SCT and the PRS #6 pups. They are hot but easily tamed by using the volume knob. They clean up pretty good but others clean up better, but at the same time, some don’t rock as much either. That said, go for it! You never know until you try them as all pups are subjective. The one thing that pisses me off is that there are those who only parrot what other people have said and have never owned or played an SCT while trashing the #6 pickups. Hope it works for you! I have PRS’s with Dragon ll’s, McCarty’s, P90’s and PRS #6. They all have a place in the arsenal and variety is always a good thing.
 
Last edited:
I tried a SCT for a little while. I didn’t like the tone at first, but after some pickup height adjustments and playing with the pole pieces it sounded pretty good. In the end I ended up getting rid of it because it didn’t offer me anything I didn’t already have covered with other guitars.
 
For all intents and purposes, the #6 pickups are uncovered Dragon II's
It can't be :eek:

My SCT sounds so different since I swapped the #6 by D2 back in 2019. I can't believe it's just a matter of setting (especially the Bridge PU)
 
Last edited:
I found an interview of PRSh in Music radar SCT review => https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/prs-singlecut-trem-25252

Are the PRS 6 humbuckers just uncovered versions of the Singlecut's 7s, or are there other differences? "Yes, lots of them," says Smith. "A pickup is a magnetic microphone that's basically a parametric equaliser.

At the time we were very careful to pick the wire turns, wire type, magnets, a cover or no cover… all those things so that the guitars sounded the best they could." Back in 2003 Smith told us: "In reality, the new pickups lie somewhere between the Singlecut's 7 pickups and Dragon IIs.

They're powerful like a 7 but sweeter like a Dragon II - that was our intention. Pickup covers warm up the pickup's sound - no question.

It's like in the old days with PAFs, people would take off the covers and think they'd look cooler but the sound was brighter. We use covers to sweeten pickups. So, if you're using an uncovered pickup you have to make them different so it actually sounds like a covered pickup."

"The treble pickup is not the same pickup at all," Smith says today of the Singlecut Trem's bridge humbucker. "The Singlecut has a little more open- sounding pickup, with a little more bass and treble. The Singlecut Trem has a little bit more mid-range."

And presumably these pickups are different from those you use on the double-cut guitars. "Yes, you have to voice the pickups quite differently with single- or double-cut guitars."


I doesn't seems to confirm that #6 are uncovered D2

@Shawn could you double check with the Man? :)
 
Especially the ME1s. The RPs are my least favorite PRS pup.

You know, this reminds me of when I got my first ME1. It was a FBJ Doublecut with hardtail bridge. It had already faded quite a bit, but was still beautiful. The neck was to die for. I LOVED that guitar. Even though I had quite a few other guitars, I played only that guitar for months. For whatever reason, after awhile, I plugged in another guitar. It sounded SOOOO much better than my ME1, I was shocked. So I tried another guitar, and another. They all sounded better than my Modern Eagle. I even made a post about it on BaM. I swapped in a set of 57/08s so fast it would make your head spin. Since then I haven’t even bothered. If a guitar arrived with RPs, they got yanked immediately.
 
Back
Top