Can you "split" Narrowfield pickups?

Hi Dudes, just joined this Forum, whilst researching the availability of PRS's Narrow Field pups.... Saw this comment, so with some experience decided to leap in...

Most normal, old school humbuckers can easily be modded to include coil separation wiring. It is a delicate job, but with good eyes and very precision hands, is not beyond most tech minded dudes... As was said earlier, the NF's are merely thin humbuckers [an upgrade/prs take on soapbar or mini-buckers]. Although I have converted many guitars, with bog-standard pups to coil-tap/series parallel/phase reversal configuration, I have not yet had the chance to rip open these beautiful NF's... But if I owned a Swampy or Studio, I would attempt it[...assuming that it is not a custom mod that PRS have included]. The key thing to watch is the removal of the ribbon tape that is often used to finish and cover the naked coil, I have on one occasion managed to remove some of the coils lacquer [NOT GOOD], because the tape was probably glued on with cyanoacrylate or whatever the adhesive was may have hardened over time... Always if in doubt when customising guitars, seek professional advice or help.

BTW: PRS appear to not sell these NF pups in their parts shop... Does anyone know if they are available to order elsewhere...? As I would like to use them on a custom build project, of high calibre and these pups would set the whole thing off perfect.

:408mt: "Twang whilst yer sang, strum like a bum and shred till yer dead!" :goodnight: [Wish I could pinch that Custom 24 emoticon for my facebook... it's well cool]...
 
Deebz270 said:
Hi Dudes, just joined this Forum, ...
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Bro.. Welcome aboard. I ain't afraid of ripping one apart either except for the "where do I find another one" situation.... We need to go halfzies on a SAS NF I think.... Just for scientific purposes of course..
 
My 2011 Studio only has 1 tap wire visible in the control cavity.


 
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Why would anyone want to alter/wreck a pair of very expensive and somewhat difficult to find (since they don't make or sell them anymore) pickups such as the Narrowfields? Sacriledge!
The NF pickups are a brilliant invention and shouldn't be fiddled with. If someone wants a more narrow, single coil sound and the problems which go with it, why not just find a low cost Seymour Duncan solution? Maybe tap some SD hotrail pickups or something.
 
HANGAR18 said:
Why would anyone want to alter/wreck a pair of very expensive and somewhat difficult to find (since they don't make or sell them anymore) pickups such as the Narrowfields? Sacriledge!
The NF pickups are a brilliant invention and shouldn't be fiddled with. If someone wants a more narrow, single coil sound and the problems which go with it, why not just find a low cost Seymour Duncan solution? Maybe tap some SD hotrail pickups or something.
Click to expand...

Where's your sense of adventure? It's not super-hard to tap a pickup, and it's already been done before, Hopeful Sinner (Jon) has had a Studio with it done.

SD hot rails are already four or five conductor (I forget which) pickups, and to quote Jeff Spicoli: "Those dudes are..." :rolleyes:
 
I have a boss ME70 multi-effects pedal. There is a stomp to take a humbkr to single and single to humbkr. I used the first option to take single coils down even thinner and it worked on my studio. Cheaper than messing with the NF pickup. I believe the ME70 was upgraded to the me80.
 
Generally speaking, you don't take a collector's item and do a bunch of Frankenstein stuff with it. Once you mod something like that, you can't go back if you don't like it. And... if you ever decide to sell the guitar or just the pickup, the value of the modified pickup is zero. PRS uses a very special wire in those pickups that you can't simply buy at Stew-Mac. Do what you want, I'm just expressing an opinion.

As a matter of fact (for all of you reading) if I were to ever run across one of your used PRS guitars for sale on CL and learn that you have replaced or modified the original pickups with non-PRS pickups, all I would be willing to pay for that guitar would be the same amount as if it was gutted and had no pickups at all. That's kinda where I'm coming from.
 
Yeah well, different strokes....

If anybody sees one of my PRS for sale on CL it's either stolen or I'm dead.
 
My NF's are already so gorgeous and sparkly I'm not sure why anyone would want to tap them?
Seems like the effort would not gain very much tonally.
I mean it already sounds like a Strat without the hum.
:confused:
 
Yep different strokes... You get tinkerers, you get owners, and sometimes you get both in the same dude/dudette. People like Serg, Hans, HippieTim, Juka, CR, Tosca, myself etc (sorry if I missed anyone, that's just who pops in my head) love messing with our guitars, we get an idea and we just run with it, not caring about getting our time/money/effort back. Resale value? Couldn't care less. Building something unique and having fun doing it? Much more valuable (to us). For example, when I get time, my next (well somewhere down the line) thing is to put 3 x 305 single coils all in a row in the bridge position, wire it so you can have all 3 coils active, the "outside" 2 coils in bucker mode (think wide bucker) or 2 coils closest to the bridge (think narrow bucker). Why? I wanna see what happens!

Some people are happy to leave their guitars stock as a rock as PRSh intended (or hate the thought of messing with their axe).

Not saying one is right or better than the other, just that we're all different :)
 
My addiction to guitar modification stems from growing up in an era where the guitar on the left side of this picture represented the ultimate in tonal versatility....so sometimes anything less than individual coil splits, phase reversal, varitone switch, built in pre-amp (or two), plus or minus a piezo unit...seems, well...just boring...
 
As PRSh has said on many occasions, guitars are tools. You do what you want/need to make the tool work for you. Owners own the guitar; Collectors lease the guitar. Most players live in between. That leads to a great thing about our society: things are worth what someone is willing to pay for them.
 
justmund said:
For example, when I get time, my next (well somewhere down the line) thing is to put 3 x 305 single coils all in a row in the bridge position, wire it so you can have all 3 coils active, the "outside" 2 coils in bucker mode (think wide bucker) or 2 coils closest to the bridge (think narrow bucker). Why? I wanna see what happens!
Click to expand...

Hamer did something like that and they called it a "Mother Bucker".
prototype-body-1500.jpg
 
I have a Studio with NFs (of course). I love modding my stuff if it isn't exactly as I want/need it. With PRS, if you aren't a metal player you're PROBABLY gonna remove/swap the HFS bridge pup in your PRS(s). Actually, for a LOT of us, if you own a PRS guitar made prior to the 5x/xx series and \m/ pups (I know there are LOTS of people who love all kinds of the old PRS pups), well pup swaps in PRS guitars are VERY common. The only PRS I ever owned that kept it's stock pups was my McSoapy. Those P90s were great..BUT I had never tried another P90 so I don't know if it would have been BETTER with "better" 90s but..?
I'm pretty nitpicky with pups though and I have a hard time finding ANY stock bridge pup I like. The McSoapy and, believe it or not, a tele have been the only 2 guitars in my 38 year gigging life that I haven't swapped pups on.

I do think about resale. But my guitars are my TOOLS. I take care of them because they deserve it...BUT if I love a guitar ..except for it's pickups, I mod it. Resale ALWAYS takes a back seat to performance in my camp. I'm a musician not a collector or speculator. That's just me. I'm NOT saying anything is WRONG with collecting for resale. As was said...different strokes.

Back to the Studio and it's NFs...and btw yes..even the Studio's 57/08 pup ..for ME, had to GO!!!!!!
The Studio comes closer to nailing the Fender tones than any guitar I've ever owned INCLUDING some Fenders.
I like splitting coils on some pups. The 57/08 didn't work in split mode or full mode on the Studio...FOR ME. The Duncan CC I put in it splits WONDERFULLY and is a perfect match for the NFs.
I would be very interested in a split/splittable NF. It is not a job I would tackle myself unless I had a spare. It's also not a job I'm too interested in trusting or paying someone else to do. Again, THAT'S JUST ME!
One of the reasons is that I wouldn't want to drill any holes or add any switches (I know...I could make the vol a PP one but ...no thanks). Hey...I said I'm not wholely concerned with resale value but I care enough about it to not want to drill or do any serious NON REVERSIBLE mods to. If it's a common and still in production model I care less but...on discontinued models etc... I TRY to keep them unbutchered as possible. But like I said...I PLAY them...they are my TOOLS.
My Studio with it's brittle V12 finish :roll eyes" gets a few new chips in it everytime I LOOK at it.
In another 20 or 30 years it'll probably look like the most road-worn Esteban out there. Still not really interested in drilling or cutting it. A '59 burst that looks like it' been dragged behind a horse for 100 miles...that has a Dimarzio SuperDistortion and a Dual sound (without any holes drilled for it's switch), that's been through 3 house fires and 4 biblical floods will probably be more valuable than one that has a Floyd route (filled-in since 1989) and a nice new paintjob all DAY.

Anyway...I was just reading some threads before I was going to post a different NF question...which I'm about to do right now.
So in summation...I'd LOVE to try some splittable NFs. Imagine if my Stood sounded even MORE Fender-esque in positions 2 and 4 ?? :-O If you are a PLAYER and if your guitars are your tools that feed your family and pay the bills, MOD AWAY!!! Don't even look back. If you are a collector or speculator who makes his living and feeds his family by collecting and flipping valuable pristine guitars though..."that one cant be played!"..nevermind modded.

I would probably try tackling the split myself IF a guy could get another NF or aftermarket NF that would fit (I would split it of course instead of the PRS NF)...and THAT my friends is the PERFECT segue to my NF thread/question I'm off to post.
 
Hello, I introduce myself I am new in the forum. They are a fan of PRS, I have had more than ten guitars although I currently only have three. The last one I have bought is a 2011 NF3 with those particular pickups. I have read in this same forum that a PRS worker commented that some of these pickups were prepared with an extra cable in addition to the mesh with an inner cable. Precisely my guitar has this cable and I would like to be able to connect a push/pull or switch to use the pickups in single coil/coil split. Unfortunately, the connection scheme is not on the official website. The guitar has a traditional 5-way stratocaster-style selector and tone and volume pots. Please disregard my vocabulary because I am using Google translate. Thanks and greetings from Spain.
 
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