Dissapointed in 59/09s' in my CU22

[davesultra]

Greetings!
I have a 2013 CU22 that I really like, there is/was only 1 minor flaw. It came factory equipped with the VB/HFS pickup combo. I found the VB to be alright, just a bit darkish/muddy-ish. The HFS while not totally off the wall hot, was a bit much for me. I thought the 59/09 combo would be right up my alley as I prefer PAF type pickups. So, I picked up a new set of 59/09s' and decided to wire 'em up. Initially all was well, I found the bridge to be just what I was looking for. The neck (to me) sounded very much like the VB. Not bad, but not terribly different. Here is where the problem lies... The notch positions (2 & 4 on the blade switch), sound exactly the same!!! There is virtually no difference between the two. Anybody else have a similar issue? I almost thinking of swapping back to stock. Just my my thoughts. Thanks for reading.

 

[veinbuster]

Welcome Dave.
I'm not a pickup expert, but any chance those positions were wired incorrectly?

 

[TwelfthTangent]

I don't remember experiencing that same issue with the 59/09, but I've only used them in a CU24. Assuming there is not a wiring issue, I would try changing out that neck pickup to something else that suits you better. It sounds like you found the right sound with the bridge pickup.

 

[davesultra]

No, wiring is correct. I'm going to dink around with height adjustments and see if it helps.

 

[dogrocketp]

Also consider adjusting the pole pieces. My S2 CU 22 sounds great after adjusting the pickups. It was so muddy after I bought it that I actually put it on eBay twice. Now it`s a keeper. All I had to do was move the pickups and the pole pieces.

 

[Rider1260]

I have a pair of 59/09s in one of my guitars so here goes and I just spent a bunch of time wiring it.
1) The 59/09 neck is hotter than the VB neck.
2) The output difference between the neck and bridge of a 59/09 is pretty small.
3) Depending on how you wired it your 2 and 4 positions can indeed be the same ( its easy to do ;/ ) you most likely have the slug coils in single coil mode on 2 and 4

 

[The Fight]

I love the 59/09 set, probably my favorite out of the PRS line. You might also give the 57/08 a try, I feel like they sound more vintage. Just to add, I have a CE24 with a 59 in the bridge and 57 in the neck, really a great combination. A 57/08 in the neck sounds soo good, coil tap sounds huge.

 

[ViperDoc]

WIRING.

 

[AP515]

The 59/09 neck is much different than the Vb in mu Cu24. A lot hotter. It will drive my amp to break up much sooner than my Vb will. I have the rotary so my 2 and 4 types sound different than yours anyway, but they don't sound the same.

 

[Stoptail22]

Hey, I did the same thing und swapped the VB/HFS combo on my 2013 Custom 22 for a set of (covered) 59/09s.

I agree that positions 2 and 4 sound very similar, but it's not the same. At clean amp settings, the difference is greater than at mid-gain settings.

As I am not a Strat player at all, I use positions 1 and 5 only.

 

[davesultra]

WIRING.

Nope, wiring is good. been wiring guitars for over 20 years. Conductivity/continuity all fine, followed the PRS schematic exactly. There just isn't much difference in the 2&4 position sound, regardless of amp settings. Another interesting thing I found is that I could not get the bridge position to lower enough. when attempting to get to 6/64 bass and 5/64 neck the pickup would run out of screw length and the screws would fall out. Ultimately, I found that the legs on the 59/09 bridge pickup were a bit longer than the HFS. Just enough to hit the bottom of the pickup cavity. So unless I removed some wood from the cavity, I could not get it as low as I'd like (even when bending the legs a bit). So after messing around with it last night and the first part of the day, I decided to go back to the HFS/VB set-up. Oh well, at least I found something to do with a very rare day off.

 

[ViperDoc]

Sounds like you've found the way forward. I've personally never found humbucker in-between sounds to really do single coils justice. Which is why we need more guitars. Always.

 

[HANGAR18]

I'm a big fan of the 57/08's. But when I installed them, I wound up cooking the volume pot because apparently I had crap soldering equipment. So I bought a professional soldering rig, built a new workbench, bought the replacement part. Now all I need to do is work up the nerve to give it another try.

What is cooking the volume pot you say? That's when you don't heat sink the pot properly and now the volume stays at 100% until you get to zero. Even then it doesn't always stay at zero. But eh 57/08's sound great! hahaha