DogPhishHead
New Member
As some of you may remember, Hans O'Matic graciously gave away a set of PRS Arch Top pickups a few weeks ago. Well, this morning (as the family slept), I fired up the soldiering iron and set up shop (on top of the washing machine - yeah, I know...high tech !) along with a mug of Tim Horton's java.
My PRS SE Zach Myers had the stock SE 245 Humbuckers that I had brushed nickel covers added a year ago for the cosmetic value.
So, let's start the operation...
Nice, neat PRS control cavity
Pulled the stock pups and took measurements for those who like this stuff. Neck was 7.94K and the Bridge (pictured below) was a whopping 10.35K.
Before installing the PRS Arch Top pups, I measured them for reference. Neck is 6.38K and the Bridge 7.21K
The painter's tape is useful to secure the tailpiece studs from rotating and F'in up my action while I flip the guitar over.
And a fresh set of strings (not my first choice, but it was the only set of .010s in the house this morning)
And a finally, a pic of the ZM with my rig (my Fender 50s tele is hiding on the guitar stand)
Ok...sound...WOW, what a difference. So much more articulation between the strings. The bass strings have a real definition now and no mud on the low E and the treble bite on the high E is gone. Just a world of difference in mids, more open.
I adjusted to the PRS standard specs for pickup height (5/64ths on the high E and 3/32nds on the low E) as a starting point. Ended up tweaking the bridge a touch higher and the neck a quarter turn lower. The guitar sound so much better with the TS9 and the Mesa's drive channel (I've got it dialed to a dumble like lead tone). Overall, I'm far closer to Trey Anastasio's tone than I was with the stock SE245 humbuckers. Again, articulation is the key here, more open mids and less bass mud.
Now if I didn't have a list of honey do items today, I'd be playing the guitar a lot this morning.
Thanks Hans !! Greatly appreciate the "gift".
My PRS SE Zach Myers had the stock SE 245 Humbuckers that I had brushed nickel covers added a year ago for the cosmetic value.
So, let's start the operation...
Nice, neat PRS control cavity
Pulled the stock pups and took measurements for those who like this stuff. Neck was 7.94K and the Bridge (pictured below) was a whopping 10.35K.
Before installing the PRS Arch Top pups, I measured them for reference. Neck is 6.38K and the Bridge 7.21K
The painter's tape is useful to secure the tailpiece studs from rotating and F'in up my action while I flip the guitar over.
And a fresh set of strings (not my first choice, but it was the only set of .010s in the house this morning)
And a finally, a pic of the ZM with my rig (my Fender 50s tele is hiding on the guitar stand)
Ok...sound...WOW, what a difference. So much more articulation between the strings. The bass strings have a real definition now and no mud on the low E and the treble bite on the high E is gone. Just a world of difference in mids, more open.
I adjusted to the PRS standard specs for pickup height (5/64ths on the high E and 3/32nds on the low E) as a starting point. Ended up tweaking the bridge a touch higher and the neck a quarter turn lower. The guitar sound so much better with the TS9 and the Mesa's drive channel (I've got it dialed to a dumble like lead tone). Overall, I'm far closer to Trey Anastasio's tone than I was with the stock SE245 humbuckers. Again, articulation is the key here, more open mids and less bass mud.
Now if I didn't have a list of honey do items today, I'd be playing the guitar a lot this morning.
Thanks Hans !! Greatly appreciate the "gift".
![]-[@n$0Ma☩!©](/data/avatars/m/0/675.jpg?1595235761){kind=avatar}
