Getting vintage style (?) sound out of CU24

[Paceman]

Hi all!
New guy here!
New to this forum but I bought my first PRS, a McCarty, new in 2001. Played that a lot for a while but felt I needed a whammy and eventually got a ridiculously beautiful gray black CU24 used which I think is a 2003 model with HFS and Vintage bass and 5way rotary. Plays great. About that time I sold my last hi gain amp though, and play cleanish amps with pedals (like everybody else?). This doesn't seem to work well with the CU24, haven't played it in years, my Nash tele and my Grosh Strat get all the playing time. The CU24 is a lot less lively. What do guys do to get the CU24 to work in that situation, the stock pickups seem designed for boogie style cascading preamp kind of amps? I guess I'd like more low output humbuckers, the McCarty (with 2001 stock pups) is more in the ballpark. Maybe even more p90ish?

(The amps are mainly DrZ Z28 and Fender Deluxe reverb)

Is there a go to thing to do?

Thanks!

Mattias, Stockholm, Sweden

 

[Tone-y]

Assuming staying with the CU24, rather than trade that in for something different. Then first step might be to wind the pickups down a bit to lower the output, help clean up the sound a bit. If you're after a more vintage sound I'd also remove the treble bleed capacitor from the volume pot by de-soldering one of the legs (can always put it back on if you don't like it), this should warm up the sound a little bit. If you like that you may then want to change the value of the tone capacitor to something a little smaller. Think a 0.033mf cap is used. I've changed mine to a 0.022mf which just brings back a little treble presence.

These are fairly subtle changes so they might not do enough for you, but they are quick and easy to do and not hard to change back. Beyond that it's probably pickup swap time. 57/08s, 53/10s (if you can get hold of any) or 58/15LTs is probably where you want to be looking.

A 594 is probably just right for you - and I'd be tempted to say double cut over single cut.