DGT neck pickup swap to 59/09

[John Beef]

This past weekend I spent some time messing with the guitars, and replaced the neck pickup on my #1 Custom 22. I had bought a set of round bobbin uncovered 59/09s off ebay at a good price. I took a nickel cover and rubbed it against a green brillo pad a few times, melted some wax inside it with a heat gun, pressed in the 59/09 bass, soldered along the edge once it was cool, installed it in the guitar and wouldn't you know it? It sounds exactly the same!

About 4 years ago I had a different Mira than I have now, and I put a different set of round bobbin 59/09s in it, and the tone change was drastic. That particular Mira had a muddy sounding neck pickup and the 59/09 was a huge upgrade. I was expecting the same thing here on my Custom, because the DGT neck pickup I had in there was sort of borderline. It worked fine but just a little more brightness would be nice. That's what I was hoping for. No dice.

The original Dragon 2 neck pickup that came with the guitar is long gone, but I have recorded proof that it was a brighter sounding pickup. Anyone have ideas about a brighter neck pickup that works with a rotary and a DGT treble pickup?

 

[John Beef]

48 views and no responses. I'm thinking Dragon 2 neck might be my only option.

 

[Sage]

Vintage Bass? I was of the opinion that the Dragon 2 neck pickup was pretty dark. I love my Dragon 2 treble, but I prefer the Vintage Bass in the neck. Problem is, the VB is way too overpowered to match up well with the Dragon 2 treble, and I wouldn't be surprised if you run into the same problem with the DGT.

 

[John Beef]

Yeah, that's the only other one from PRS, isn't it? Unless I got lucky and got a 57/08 wired for the rotary but those are as rare as my rotary wired DGTs. I haven't ever tried a VB pickup. I think I read once they're alnico 2 and 8.5K, and like you said that's a little hot and A2 is a little warm for my general tastes. Generally I seem to like <8k and A4 or A5. I should go re-watch Chris' pickup videos and see how a VB compares.

I probably should have titled this thread "DGT owners, did you keep or change your neck pickup?"

 

[vox801]

kept the pickups in mine.... i'm very fond of them

 

[sleary]

Kept them in my dgt however I may upgrade to something a little hotter in the future

 

[John Beef]

I agree, I am thrilled with the bridge pickup. But I have read other cases where people have found the neck pickup to not be quite to the same level. Even Grissom himself said he only uses the bridge and middle positions, though I don't have a source for that. I read crap on the forums for years and years and then regurgitate it, there's no guarantee it's correct.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

How soon are you lookin' to change it? I've been toying with the idea of swapping my VB for a single coil in one of my CE's.. I'd gladly send it to you to check out.
BTW I love the covered DII neck pup! I'm not sure if it's just the perfect match for the guitar it's in or what, but it's the best sounding neck hum bucker I've heard... and I don't really think it's too dark sounding for my tastes.

 

[gush]

John, ihave a VB you could try. I can ship it to you and you could ship it back.

 

[gush]

Im with serg, i dont consider my D2 neck pickup dark either.

 

[John Beef]

Thanks, guys! I appreciate your generosity. I might hit one or both of you up soon, but I want to run an experiment... more on that, but first:

Strangely Chris's PRS neck pickup videos had just about everything except a Vintage Bass, or a Dragon 2 come to think of it. I went through it twice, maybe I missed it twice. Considering there was a period there of maybe 10 years (97-07?) where those along with McCarty pickups were the main three things PRS sold, that's strange.

Okay, the experiment: I have a DiMarzio Bluesbucker at home which is a fantastic neck pickup since it's basically a single coil with a dummy second coil. What if I was to install one of those into a rotary? This will be interesting. The wiring will be a guessing game between four different ways to wire it. Theoretically, these coil combinations should be possible:

10 - bridge humbucker, both coils
9 - bridge pickup split
8 - series coils (active BB coil plus slug coil on the DGT)
7 - parallel coils (active BB coil plus slug coil on the DGT)
6 - Bluesbucker (active coil plus dummy coil for noise cancelling)

If I can get it working correctly it will be a big +2... +1 because I get a better sounding neck pickup, and another +1 because I get a straight up bridge split pickup twang tone from a DGT pickup, which is the one tone this guitar has been lacking.

My Google-Fu is failing to tell me if this has been done before.

 

[aduayer]

my all time favorite neck pick ups made by PRS are the 5909 and \m/. matter of fact I have the \m/ neck in my Tremonti and the 5909 neck in my SCHB with a DGT treble. This combo is a killer for me!

 

[John Beef]

I was expecting the 59/09 in the neck to be a killer combo as well, but was shocked amazed, even horrified that it wasn't an upgrade.