Going from active to passive.

RowanSE

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Joined
Jun 28, 2015
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When i bought my SE it had already had the active pickups installed. I am starting to become tired of the "all balls and no delicacy" tone from these EMG's so I want to go back to passive.

As the conversion to active was already done before i bought it i don't have the original pickups or pots etc. I know i want to go for 500k pots but could you guys give me a pointer to which would be the better ones?

Also if i decide to go for the standard pickups (Tremonti SE) what is the quality like on these? I want something that isn't too muggy and bass heavy so I can have some nice bright tones. I am aware it'll never sound like a singlecoil but thats not what I'm after anyway.

Anyway thanks in advance for your help!
 
Well, you could get the pickups that were designed for him, the Tremonti treble and bass pickups, but they're over $300 between the two of them. You'd probably be better off selling/returning that guitar, and getting a Tremonti that still had the stock pickups in it.

Sorry, don't know what else to suggest. Maybe sell the EMGs to recoup at least part of that.

I just bought a boatload of pickups to try in my various different guitars. SD's JB pickup and the Pearly Gates sounded most promising from online clips. Sorry, not that familiar with the other offerings available from PRS' store -- most of my guitars have either the HFS/vintage (SEs), the Miras, or more current pickups.
 
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The guitar plays really nicely it just needs some more authentic pups not necessarily the USA Tremonti ones though. I'm sure I could pick up some designed for mine for far cheaper than 300 bucks as it's an SE. Guess I'll just keep my eyes peeled.
 
SE standard pickups are plentiful. People swap them out all the time. I would think you could find a set for $50-60. They're really not bad pickups. I'm sure someone here has a set you could buy. If not, check out some other forums with for sale sections, like the Gear Page, for example. You can buy basically any pickups you want there for a lot less than new prices.
 
Cheers man thanks for the advice. I found someone selling SE custom 24 pickups on eBay and were only 60 bucks for the two so why not! Had to buy new pots too as the active ones are 25k but i've found some decent 500ks and caps to go with so in a few days I'll be enjoying tone again!
 
I am in a similar situation but have a PRS Torero that came with active pickups and want to switch to passive. The question I have is how would I go about grounding the claw for the Floyd rose since there isn't a hole drilled in the bridge cavity for a wire. Where should I drill the hole in this cavity for the wire? Thanks for the help
 
You could drill a hole from the rear cavity to the bridge pickup cavity and run the wire through there
 
RowanSE, are you talking about the rear cavity being the one with the pots and the 3-way? Is so how do I go about drilling that area since it is a tight space. Thanks again for the help.
 
No the cavity for the tremolo. if you drill from that to the bridge pickup cavity you can route the wire through there. drilling from either rear cavity to another is hard as tits and you can really mess it up
 
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