Going Modal
I should be practicing right now.
Inspired by another "bring back the McSoapy" thread AND my newly-acquired 2008 all-mahogany (or could it be korina?) McCarty Soapbar, I thought I'd just get this out there on the record.
I truly thought I'd be replacing the pickups on this guy--especially because it's got the all-gold package (including pickup mounting & pole-piece screws)--but after the typical slight setup/adjustments upon the guitar's arrival, I really think the guitar is fabulous overall, and I cannot point out anything that I'd be looking to "fix" by switching the pickups.
In the end, I realized that I could just (carefully!) replace those offending gold pickup screws & polepieces with nickel ones from StewMac, along with a bunch of other non-gold parts from a combination of John Mann and the PRS Accessory store. After all is said & done, I'll get you guys some photographic evidence and I'll show off the "before vs. after" because even I, too, would like to see the side-by-side once I'm done.
TLDR: The PRS soapbars get a lot of crap for being junky pickups. I expected to dislike them and be spending $$$ on Lollars but, on the contrary, I find they (sonically) fit the guitar perfectly. Who's with me?
I truly thought I'd be replacing the pickups on this guy--especially because it's got the all-gold package (including pickup mounting & pole-piece screws)--but after the typical slight setup/adjustments upon the guitar's arrival, I really think the guitar is fabulous overall, and I cannot point out anything that I'd be looking to "fix" by switching the pickups.
Side details:
In case anybody's wondering, my best research has found that the McSoapy neck pickup (at least, from this era) is essentially the stock Seymour Duncan Vintage neck model around ~8k. Now here's where it gets tricky, but by most accounts it seems that the bridge pickup on the guitar is a Seymour Duncan Custom neck model around ~12k--but possibly also with one of its two ceramic magnets switched out for AlNiCo V??? That last detail is relatively-educated speculation, so... beware on fact vs. lore; if anybody could contribute towards the validity of this, perhaps this would be a good time to do so.
In case anybody's wondering, my best research has found that the McSoapy neck pickup (at least, from this era) is essentially the stock Seymour Duncan Vintage neck model around ~8k. Now here's where it gets tricky, but by most accounts it seems that the bridge pickup on the guitar is a Seymour Duncan Custom neck model around ~12k--but possibly also with one of its two ceramic magnets switched out for AlNiCo V??? That last detail is relatively-educated speculation, so... beware on fact vs. lore; if anybody could contribute towards the validity of this, perhaps this would be a good time to do so.
In the end, I realized that I could just (carefully!) replace those offending gold pickup screws & polepieces with nickel ones from StewMac, along with a bunch of other non-gold parts from a combination of John Mann and the PRS Accessory store. After all is said & done, I'll get you guys some photographic evidence and I'll show off the "before vs. after" because even I, too, would like to see the side-by-side once I'm done.
TLDR: The PRS soapbars get a lot of crap for being junky pickups. I expected to dislike them and be spending $$$ on Lollars but, on the contrary, I find they (sonically) fit the guitar perfectly. Who's with me?
