85/15 pickups - Replace them ?

[gush]

I absolutely love 5909s but if you want to do heavier stuff or detuned stuff they might come up a little short.

M pickups are the most balanced pickups I've ever played. They refuse to get muddy. Good choice.

Reissue T and Bs would work well too but good luck finding those.

Last but not least would be dragon 1s.
These are very high output but they don't act like a typical high output pickup. Great tones can be found with these babys. I have a set in a 97 ce22 and they are fabulous!

Good luck.

 

[Steve Dombroski]

I play a mixture of PRS pickups...57/08s in a hollowbody, \m/ pickups in a Custom 24, and 85/15s coming in a Private Stock. I also play through a Marshall Mode 4 and a MESA Dual Rectifier Roadster. One recommendation that I have always founds works really well to smooth out the distorted tones is to mix in a Tube Screamer to my heavy the tones. It not only helps to push the tones a bit more, it gets rid of nastier crackliness of the amp distortion. I would highly recommend it!

 

[amit]

Thank you guys! What do you think about putting a HFS pickups in the bridge instead of the 85/15 bridge? I realy like the 85/15 neck pickup but the bridge is lack of mids and very trebelie.. i tried to put a tube screamer but it didnt make me happy.. what do you think on the combination of HFS in the bridge and 85/15 in the neck?? the HFS sounds to me more alive than the 85/15 bridge. thank you.

 

[amit]

I am with you on this one amit. I have a 2016 CE that has the 85/15's, and the only amp I can play it through where it really sounds good is my Benson Amps Monarch Reverb on the American Channel. The American Chanel tends to boost all things the 85 / 15's miss. I can see where they would be really good for highly distorted metal style playing. The clarity is unparalleled in that regards. Just that's not what i'm into. I have moved the pickup heights and the only way I can get the sound I want out of the guitar is to bump up the height of the bridge pickup and drop down the height of the neck pickup then play in the center position. the dropped neck pickup adds a little warmth to the higher bridge pickup and I can cut through the mix with it. I have tried and tried and really tried to like these pickups. The Benson Monarch is the reason I have kept them in there so long... yesterday I sat at the house and ran the guitar through the house amplifier; a Kay 703, and finally had to switch to my SG. After hating the sound for an hour I plug in my 2013 SG and it's like... "Oh there it is that was the sound I was looking for from a set of humbuckers." Even when switched into the single coil mode it just ain't right. There is no bite to the bridge pickup and the compression is minimial on the bridge pickup.No warmth to them. I realize that there are a lot of people who like this and that's fine. I have just reached the point where I need to go with something else. If you don't want to swap out the pickups; my recommendation to make them a little fatter is to buy yourself a Mad Prefessor "Little Green Compressor. This compressor has a "sustain mode on it which doesn't affect the sound of the pick attack, but adds a little beef and sustain to the sound with minimal coloring of the tone. It works well with the 85 / 15's I have personal experience. I just hat leaving it on all the time, so for me it's time to start investigating replacements... If I can get the SD Pearly Gates or antiquity Hubuckers to Coil tap correctly I will likely go with them.

thank you for your advices man!

 

[Outlier22]

I love the 85/15 pickups on my CE24. (But full discolsure, they are the only PRS pickups i've played at any length - except the Santana's in my old Santana SE.)

I don't find the 85/15 pickups to be too trebley. they are perfect for the type of music my band plays. (which is blues based rock stuff mostly) I will sometimes roll back the tone knob though if I want a thicker sound and I use a tube screamer to push the mids on occasion Otherwise the pickup sound great to me either through my Blues Jr. or Marshall DSL both clean and overdriven.

They are pretty high output though so I find they push both of my 15W amps. I just back off the volume on the guitar when I need to clean up. and kick in the Prince of Tone as a somewhat clean boost, or tube screamer to get crunchier and mid boosted. I use a big muff for the really distorted stuff. The pickups sound awesome in all of these conditions!

 

[Rider1260]

I like the HFS one of the better high output picks out there that I have tried, It also splits really well

 

[Eric Glass]

I didn't care for the 85/15s. I got a new Artist package C24 with a maple neck and board and switched them out with Bare Knuckles Abraxas. To be specific, the neck sounded weak in tone, almost like a coil was tapped but not quite and the bridge was ok but had a small bump around 700k that gave it a nasaly honk I didn't care for.

I have another C24 with HFS/Vintage Bass and I love those pups. The Bare Knuckles are far more suited to this new C24 for me and it's brightness. Can't say if it would be much better with a mahogany neck and rosewood board like my other but I seriously doubt that would make the difference I'd be looking for. It's all preference but to me the Vintage bass and HFS sound far different than the 85/15's. Both them and the Bare Knuckles are just more harmonically rich for me. Set of 85/15s for sale btw.

 

[Seaninsjca]

You all have great information, thank you. The guitar came without the pickups wired, but they were swapped out for Dimarzio Illuminators. I haven’t had a chance to play them, but I’ve now got the Tremonti’s here too. I’d still like to find a set of the 85/15’s so I can put it back to stock. I haven’t heard much about the M pickups, but it sounds like they’d be worth checking out.

Thanks, and let me know if you see a set of the 85/15’s for sale!