Charcoal Phoenix first impression

Here is a link to an album with all of the pictures from the electronics. Interesting thing I discovered is the electronics cavity is shielded with a grounded copper backplate. I added too many pictures all at once so it was flagged for moderation. Please click the last link to see all of a dozen+ photos. This instrument just keeps getting better and better.

Capacitor is a CDE715P600V 3333J 2506

The resistors appear to be 230 kΩ ±1% [Red, Orange, Black, Orange, Brown] and 10Ω ±5% [Brown, Black, Black, Gold] using online color decoders.


Click this link below for full album.

Phobos,

There is a wire blocking full view of the color bands on the right side of the resistor that is in common btw the two voicing switches. It's the resistor where the band coloring from left to right starts with Orange-black-black. Because of that wire blocking the view, I can't tell if there is a 5th color band there or not. Can you take another photo of the color bands of that resistor, this time at an angle so none of the wires are blocking the view? You can gently nudge the wire to the side temporarily if needed. Thanks.
 
The 2 way switches in this guitar are doing a second function in addition to turning the voicing on and off, but that's only because the pickups in this guitar are those TCI narrow bobbin pickups and not normal sized humbuckers. (These TCI narrow bobbin pickups are voiced differently than humbuckers w normal sized bobbins). That second function being, whenever either of the 2 voicing switches are turned "on", a 30 Ohm resistor is placed in the path of the wire coming off the left lug of the tone pot that runs to ground. So, this 2nd function is not applicable/not needed for your custom 24-08, or really any guitar where the pickups are normal sized humbuckers.

The photos Phobos added were helpful in seeing clearly, the colors of the bands on the resistors and the value of the caps that are part of the voicing function of the two 2-way switches.

The color of the resistance bands on those 2 resistors are Red-Orange-Black-Orange and a Tolerance band of Brown. That translates to a resistance value of 230K Ohms with a tolerance rating of +/- 1%.

The numbers on the caps are "821" which translates to 820 picofarads (pF), or in units of microfarads (mF), 0.00082 mF.

The cap and Resistor in each 2 way voicing switch, are wired together in parallel.

It's the Hot lead wire of each pickup that's wired to the middle lug of the 2 way switch. When the switch is off, the signal from the hot wire bypasses the cap & Resistor and routes to the 3 way pickup selector. When the 2 way switch is on, the signal from the hot wire of the pickup runs through that combined cap & Resistor before going to the 3 way pickup selector switch.
You're the best.

My 2024 Custom 24-08 actually has the narrow bobbin TCIs in it, so this should be the same wiring as what I'm looking to do... I'm guessing...?

I think I can draw up a diagram based on all of this information. Thank you for your help. And @James Stephanidis , again thank you.

In case it's of interest or helpful, here are pics of the wiring and PUPs of my 2024 Custom 24-08, again with the narrow bobbin TCI PUPs.

 
The 2 way switches in this guitar are doing a second function in addition to turning the voicing on and off, but that's only because the pickups in this guitar are those TCI narrow bobbin pickups and not normal sized humbuckers. (These TCI narrow bobbin pickups are voiced differently than humbuckers w normal sized bobbins). That second function being, whenever either of the 2 voicing switches are turned "on", a 30 Ohm resistor is placed in the path of the wire coming off the left lug of the tone pot that runs to ground. So, this 2nd function is not applicable/not needed for your custom 24-08, or really any guitar where the pickups are normal sized humbuckers.

The photos Phobos added were helpful in seeing clearly, the colors of the bands on the resistors and the value of the caps that are part of the voicing function of the two 2-way switches.

The color of the resistance bands on those 2 resistors are Red-Orange-Black-Orange and a Tolerance band of Brown. That translates to a resistance value of 230K Ohms with a tolerance rating of +/- 1%.

The numbers on the caps are "821" which translates to 820 picofarads (pF), or in units of microfarads (mF), 0.00082 mF.

The cap and Resistor in each 2 way voicing switch, are wired together in parallel.

It's the Hot lead wire of each pickup that's wired to the middle lug of the 2 way switch. When the switch is off, the signal from the hot wire bypasses the cap & Resistor and routes to the 3 way pickup selector. When the 2 way switch is on, the signal from the hot wire of the pickup runs through that combined cap & Resistor before going to the 3 way pickup selector switch.
If you need any other pictures, let me know. This is a very informative post. Thanks for making it!

[update] - Taking more pictures momentarily.
 
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Here are the updated images. It is a 5 band resistor. Looks like Orange, Black, Black, Brown, Brown (3k Ohms 1%). Check the pictures to confirm. I used a mechanical inspection camera to get under the wires, though the focal length is fixed so it is fuzzy. What is interesting to me is what appears to be dramatic changes in resistors / capacitance between instruments which are not too far apart in age. Looks like they are still experimenting? Shielded vs unshielded wires, etc.... Consistency appears to be evolving. This in itself is not a bad thing. Just interesting.

Sample Picture

Full Pictures
 
Last edited:
Here are the updated images. It is a 5 band resistor. Looks like Orange, Black, Black, Brown, Brown (3k Ohms 1%). Check the pictures to confirm. I used a mechanical inspection camera to get under the wires, though the focal length is fixed so it is fuzzy. What is interesting to me is what appears to be dramatic changes in resistors / capacitance between instruments which are not too far apart in age. Looks like they are still experimenting? Shielded vs unshielded wires, etc.... Consistency appears to be evolving. This in itself is not a bad thing. Just interesting.

Sample Picture

Full Pictures
Thanks for taking more photos. What my eyes are seeing for the color of that fourth band, is Red, not Brown. We've already agreed the the lasti band ( fifth ) is Brown, and if the fourth band was also Brown, the color of those two should look exactly the same shade, but the shade of the fourth is (to my eyes) clearly different than the fifth, so it can't be Brown. Again, I see the fourth as Red. So.. those four bands from left to right would translate to a resistance value of 30K Ohms. I'll update my previous post to correct for that
 
Congrats, it's beautiful! I was just being curious and asked the PTC team how much it would be to modify the TCI pickups that I have in my '23 Paul's guitar or '24 S2 24-08, they came back with $162. They also said that the pickup specs are constantly being updated so no guarantee that it would sound like the '25 version.
Sorry, maybe a stupid question. What was the mod you wanted them to do?
 
Here are the updated images. It is a 5 band resistor. Looks like Orange, Black, Black, Brown, Brown (3k Ohms 1%). Check the pictures to confirm. I used a mechanical inspection camera to get under the wires, though the focal length is fixed so it is fuzzy. What is interesting to me is what appears to be dramatic changes in resistors / capacitance between instruments which are not too far apart in age. Looks like they are still experimenting? Shielded vs unshielded wires, etc.... Consistency appears to be evolving. This in itself is not a bad thing. Just interesting.

Sample Picture

Full Pictures
Anyone know the brand of caps PRS uses?
@Floyd_Argus
 
No prob. The mod was to go from the single coil function of the TCI pickups with the toggles in the up positions to the new EQ'd version.
Oh, yes yes. Well, it looks like an easy mod with $1 worth of parts if that!

I need to order the caps and I'm going to do it. I'm not going to swap for the Orange Drop cap since they're the same value.

I'll post how it seems to sound.

I'm not surprised by the cost. They charge $50 plus cost of the knob to replace a knob so any of their tech time is incredibly expensive.
 
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