Help me love my CE 24

[Ferrinbonn]

Hey PRS fanatics. I thought this would be the place to go for some advice. I have a 2016 CE 24. Love the look, love the weight, love the neck and how it plays. Don't love the tone right now.

I don't know if it's the byproduct of the light weight and thin body, but the bridge pickup has a nasally unpleasantness in the upper mids that bugs me, especially when playing single notes on the higher strings. It gets a thin and kind of honky tone. Don't get me wrong, it's not terrible and an audience would never notice in a band mix, but I notice, so you all know how that goes.

I swapped out the 85/15s for Duncan Alnico II Pros, but it's still there, although not quite as bad I think. I'm pretty happy with my clean sounds, especially on the neck pickup. The guitar also sounds good to me unplugged and the body is very resonant.

Here's my rig setup, and I'm very happy with the tones I get from it with my LP and my Strat. I'm playing a Friedman Runt 50 through a 1x12 Vintage 30 cab. I typically prefer to use the dirt from the amp, but I also have a King of Tone clone and a Honeybee clone that I use for lower gain sounds. It sounds better with the KoT since that has less of a high-mid push than the amp does, but I want it to play nice with my amp by itself. Cutting the mids on the amp doesn't seem to dial it out. I don't think the frequency sweep of the mid pot on the amp matches what the guitar is putting out exactly. I've done a full setup, adjusted the truss rod, adjusted the action, new strings (Elixir nanoweb 10s), etc.

So now I'm looking at my options. I have a set of Seth Lover pickups that I can swap in and try, but they're single wire, so I'd lose my coil split function. I could go back to the 85/15s again and continue to mess with EQs and such. I'm not sure I'd want to go down the rabbit hole of buying other new pickups beyond what I already have available.

Or I can learn to live with it, or unload it. I'm not sure if this is typical of this model, and maybe I just made the wrong choice on the type of PRS I got, or if it's a PRS sound in general. It's bumming me out because I want to love it, but every time I play it, it leaves me thinking that my other guitars sound better. Help me PRS lovers. I'm all ears.

 

[AP515]

Are the Duncans uncovered like the 85/15's? If so just put some covers on. That will warm them up just a touch. You can find 58/15's which are much the same but covered.

 

[László]

In my experience, Friedman amps and V-30s each accentuate precisely the frequencies you seem to want to get away from. Maybe you've simply assembled the perfect storm of gear that doesn't work for you in the upper mids?

The KoT also is pretty ripe in the mids.

The combination works with your Strat because a Strat has somewhat scooped mids and upper mids and benefits from the honk of your rig; A Les Paul is lower-mid thick, so that kinda dovetails with your gear, too.

I wonder what would happen if you took your guitar and head and plugged into a different speaker and cab? Or even tried the guitar with a different style of amp, if only to see if there's a better match out there?

 

[Ferrinbonn]

Are the Duncans uncovered like the 85/15's? If so just put some covers on. That will warm them up just a touch. You can find 58/15's which are much the same but covered.

Yes, the Duncans are uncovered. I always thought that putting covers on cut some of the presence rather than upper mids, but I've never done a test to know for sure.

In my experience, Friedman amps and V-30s each accentuate precisely the frequencies you seem to want to get away from. Maybe you've simply assembled the perfect storm of gear that doesn't work for you in the upper mids?

The KoT also is pretty ripe in the mids.

The combination works with your Strat because a Strat has somewhat scooped mids and upper mids and benefits from the honk of your rig; A Les Paul is lower-mid thick, so that kinda dovetails with your gear, too.

I wonder what would happen if you took your guitar and head and plugged into a different speaker and cab? Or even tried the guitar with a different style of amp, if only to see if there's a better match out there?

You're right, my rig does accentuate those frequencies, which I'm sure is part of the issue. Thing is, I love my amp in general and I love how it sounds with the other two guitars so my PRS needs to learn to play nice with the rest of the family. The clean channel of the Runt is a blackface style circuit that is more scooped than the drive channel, so I have better luck with my PRS on the clean channel with my pedals. No issues with the neck pickup. It was fine with the 85/15s and it's quite nice with the Alnico II Pros.

I'm starting to think the only real solution may be a new bridge pickup. Funny how there are so many out there that think the wood doesn't matter and that the pickups totally make the tone. These Duncans sound so much different in the PRS compared to my LP. Now I've just got to figure out a good candidate for a new pickup with more of a low-mid focus to smooth it out. I don't have a ton of cash to blow on this project so I need to get it right the first time.

I'm curious though, is this kind of thing inherent to CEs, or inherent to PRS in general, or just my guitar? Totally get that it's not a bad thing necessarily and would complement some other rigs really well so I don't think it's a defect of any kind. Just curious what others have experienced since this is my only PRS.

 

[maurizio]

I take mine prs ce24 and it will come tomorrow! I will let you know! http://www.centrochitarre.com/chita...th-ce-24-pattern-thin-tr3-85-15-ruby-red.html

 

[Ferrinbonn]

I take mine prs ce24 and it will come tomorrow! I will let you know! http://www.centrochitarre.com/chita...th-ce-24-pattern-thin-tr3-85-15-ruby-red.html

I think ours are related, although mine is more orange.

 

[maurizio]

I think ours are related, although mine is more orange.

 

[maurizio]

My finish is called Ruby Red your should be orange tiger

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I was hoping you wanted some double teaming action.

 

[Rider1260]

+ 1 on trying the cover
If you want to change pickups I have a CU22 with a Dimarzio Tone Zone that I really like also have played Suhr Aldredge with great results

 

[Ferrinbonn]

+ 1 on trying the cover
If you want to change pickups I have a CU22 with a Dimarzio Tone Zone that I really like also have played Suhr Aldredge with great results

I notice that DiMarzio rates the mids really high on the tone zone. Is it more low mids that are featured in that pickup? Not honky at all?

 

[Rider1260]

The Tone Zone is the darkest / warmest ( if that makes sense ) bridge pickup I have in my collection , splits REALLY well not honky basically all the things you like about a great neck pickup in the bridge position with a bunch of output

 

[vchizzle]

I notice that DiMarzio rates the mids really high on the tone zone. Is it more low mids that are featured in that pickup? Not honky at all?

The Tone Zone is the darkest / warmest ( if that makes sense ) bridge pickup I have in my collection , splits REALLY well not honky basically all the things you like about a great neck pickup in the bridge position with a bunch of output

Agree with Rider... the TZ worked great in my CU22, which is pretty bright in the mids. Pretty dark & smooth sounding but plenty hot. I've heard some like the SD custom custom as well, but have never tried it.

 

[László]

The 85/15s are definitely a bright set of pickups - great for lots of things, but the amps and cabs matter. You might try a 57/08, one of the nicest PAF style PRS pickups ever, and not as bright as the 85/15 (just my opinion, of course).

I have the 85/15s in a CU24 Private Stock, and I like them very much, but with the HXDA, a Plexi style amp I run with two V-30s in a closed back cab, I generally set the amp up old-school, with the guitar volume at around 6 and the tone around 7-ish. Then I can control the gain and the tone of the amp with the guitar's volume and tone controls.

One advantage of doing this is that the guitar's output isn't so bright when its volume is rolled off a little.

I think this would probably work well with the Friedman also. I can't remember if that amp has a Master Volume, but if so, I'd open it up a bit and lower the gain.

Another thing I'd consider, especially with the Friedman, is a smoother speaker like the Celestion Cream, or similar.

Basically, there's a lot you can do with a guitar that feels great, and sounds great acoustically and clean, to adjust the tone on gain settings without swapping pickups, and if you feel like swapping pickups, or speakers, there are lots of choices as well.

 

[dmatthews]

You're not gonna talk me into a 3 way with you and your CE24

 

[Atomic]

You're not gonna talk me into a 3 way with you and your CE24

 

[Spatten]

I felt the same about the HFS in my older style CE. I went with a Pearly Gates and love it. Went from 15k to 8.
5k ohms.

 

[dogrocketp]

Cover the pickups first.

 

[maurizio]

mine arrived today!t's a very good sounding guitar! i don't think the humbucker are so bright! i tried it on the boss katana crunch channel
which is defined as a very bright channel!
I'll update it after testing with my band which my main amp!

 

[andross182]

Sooooo what you doin with your 85/15s?