Help- not bonding with my Core Paul’s Guitar

[Warmart]

To be honest, I've been on the fence for awhile with mine, and have come to the conclusion that it's just not meant to be a mid to high gain guitar. Mine is just so pretty and has a fantastic ziricote fb, but I may move on before long.

 

[ViggoP]

To be honest, I've been on the fence for awhile with mine, and have come to the conclusion that it's just not meant to be a mid to high gain guitar. Mine is just so pretty and has a fantastic ziricote fb, but I may move on before long.

Is that so? I absolutely love the TCI pickups in my MEV for high gain. They have enough output, a great midrange growl, a pronounced but silky high end that doesn’t get harsh and a natural kind of low end roll off that filters out any mud. They are also very clear sounding and all notes comes across, even under huge amounts of gain. And they have this fast tracking feeling that is great for fast palm mute riffing. I’ve tried a bunch of the more common high gain pickups but these really took me by surprise.

 

[Warmart]

Unless I really lower the bridge pu and then raise the low e pole about an 1/8" (or so) above the cover my palm muting sounds bad. But having it set like that weakens the other strings. I guess I'll try some more adjustments tomorrow.

Doesn't help when I play something like my DW CE 24 and then switch to the Paul's. I guess it's possible that I just prefer high output pu's and I have most of my Kemper rigs set with them in mind.

 

[László]

Unless I really lower the bridge pu and then raise the low e pole about an 1/8" (or so) above the cover my palm muting sounds bad. But having it set like that weakens the other strings. I guess I'll try some more adjustments tomorrow.

Doesn't help when I play something like my DW CE 24 and then switch to the Paul's. I guess it's possible that I just prefer high output pu's and I have most of my Kemper rigs set with them in mind.

I've always had to adjust any amp for various guitars and pickups, as the different types of pickup seem to push the front end of amps not only differently in terms of gain, but push the frequency balance of the distortion differently as well (for example, a typical humbucker will push the lower mids more, taking the amp in one direction, and a narrowfield pickup seems to push the amp more in the 1 kHz range, creating a different type of distortion).

Admittedly I'm very picky, especially when recording, so I'm going to tweak the amp to fit in the mix the way I want anyway and don't consider it an inconvenience to twist knobs. I can see where it might be more of a PITA with a Kemper, having to modify the presets one creates for each model. Still, it might be worth trying before you unload the guitar.

Obviously, we all feel differently about various types of gain. When business forces me to record something in mid to high gain, I generally use my CU24 PS, which is a pretty bright guitar, so I must like a brighter distortion tone, but then I'm usually trying to cut through a mix with my guitar part, and brightness gives the track a bit more cut relative to the bass, drums, etc.

You've probably already tried using a real or virtual boost pedal. I sometimes do that when trying to get a higher gain sound. I have two boosts on my pedalboard, one by Suhr that can be switched into becoming a sweepable/parametric midrange boost so particular frequencies can be emphasized, and another by Pettyjohn with low and high frequency boost/cut EQ that sounds great and can help shape a signal the way I want. Of course, a dedicated EQ can do pretty much the same thing, and yeah, I use one of those to shape my tone with various amps from time to time as well.

You probably know all this stuff and don't need to go over it again, but I post this in case you haven't already thought of it.

Heck, when I'm recording, even which mic preamp I use can make a difference, let alone which mic! I even have cables for certain sounds I want to get. I think I might be in need of psychiatric help - I go overboard with this stuff.

"You're definitely in need of a headshrinker, Les. For LOTS of reasons."

 

[Warmart]

Thanks, Les, very well thought out reply and I always love when "alter-Les" chimes in

I do have separate Kemper input settings for my Paul's, which help a bit when I remember to actually use them.

Many of my favorite Kemper rigs were profiled with a boost, but I will try some others and try fiddling with an EQ - admittedly not that experienced with their use.

I can easily live with any given Kemper rig with my three other PRSi (CU24, 594 and DW CE24). Sure they all have their own tone, but the Paul's is just sooooo different. We'll see!

 

[Geo408]

I’ve used a boss ge-7 to great effect, i use it to add bottom end to the bridge pup, and shut off when using the neck pup.. but only on certain songs, because it doesn’t need to be on all the time. I also adjusted pole pieces, on both pups, to get it even across the board. Lastly, I’ve been a strat player for over 40 years, so setting myself up to play the Paul’s guitar is just like the strat to me, so the 90 degree thing is like second nature, to me. I think most of this has already been said, but I think it’s a good starting point. If you sell off the Paul’s guitar, I think you’ll regret it.. I think it’s one of the most expressive guitars on the market, especially with the Trem, I love mine!

 

[Serious Poo]

To be honest, I've been on the fence for awhile with mine, and have come to the conclusion that it's just not meant to be a mid to high gain guitar. Mine is just so pretty and has a fantastic ziricote fb, but I may move on before long.

Wow, that's different than my experience. I have both a Paul's Guitar and an ME V, they're both fantastic with high gain. Focused, tight, and musical.

 

[SpiderM69]

I’m the relatively recent owner of a 2020 Core Paul’s Guitar (my first PRS). I love it, it’s exactly what I was looking for. The TCI’s are supposed to be a P90ish sound, I think of it as a modernized version. I really like the fact that I have usable tone and volume controls that operate throughout their range. I can dial in exactly what I want, and happy the pup’s have enough brightness/hifi to roll off. I don’t see this guitar as a high gain machine, more of a clean, low to mid gain. But then again, maybe it could be, just not my style or intent purchasing it.

I bought a Parker Fly Deluxe when they first came out. Had the same sort of feeling you do. Almost sold it, almost swapped out pups. Really glad I didn’t do either, came to appreciate the sound, especially in the context of a mix. Still own and play it, 24 years later.

 

[ViggoP]

Unless I really lower the bridge pu and then raise the low e pole about an 1/8" (or so) above the cover my palm muting sounds bad. But having it set like that weakens the other strings. I guess I'll try some more adjustments tomorrow.

Doesn't help when I play something like my DW CE 24 and then switch to the Paul's. I guess it's possible that I just prefer high output pu's and I have most of my Kemper rigs set with them in mind.

Here’s how I have mine set.
https://imgur.com/a/3wsISUp
Unfortunately I don’t have anything to measure the pickup height with at home. The pole screws are set flush to the bobbins. The neck pickups is pretty much flush with the pickup ring, the bridge is raised maybe 1/16” or 2,5 mm or so over the pickup ring.

And I too usually have to adjust my amp settings a bit when changing guitars. The \m/ pickups in my Cu24 are a little darker and have more output for example. But adjusted for that, the TCI’s sound and, maybe even more important, feel awesome to play with high gain.

 

[Warmart]

ViggoP, my pickups are set pretty much the same. I'm probably going to have to try to customize some Kemper Rigs solely for the Paul's. The downside to the Kemper is that a rig is basically a copy of a particular amp at particular settings, and you can't really make drastic changes to it - or it really goes south, quickly. And like I said, I can use the same rig with my CU24 (85/15's), 594 (58/15 MT's) and DW CE24 (Mojotone Tomahawk) and it works fine - they all sound different, but they all sound fantastic.

As someone else mentioned, it could be something with the components (caps?) used for the TCI process of the Paul's.

 

[Tone-y]

As someone else mentioned, it could be something with the components

My understanding is that the TCI process is a way of ensuring consistency, by measuring values of the pickups/components and then tuning them so that they conform to parameters. I don't think this by itself would cause your problems - unless of course they're tuning these pickups to something you just fundamentally aren't keen on.
The 'treble bleed' cap is an additional part separate from the tci process that aims to retain your treble content as you turn the volume down (because of the capacitance in your cable/circuit the volume pot also acts as a mild tone pot and darkens your sound as you turn down the volume). The treble bleed means than some treble content goes straight to output bypassing the volume control, so that as you turn the volume down you still maintain the bright treble content. To me this effectively turns the volume into a reverse tone pot, reducing bass and mids and leaving the treble. I also find that with the volume on full there is an extra presence, a brittleness, on top of the note that I don't care for. So I've disconnected one of the legs of the cap on my guitar.

 

[László]

Thanks, Les, very well thought out reply and I always love when "alter-Les" chimes in

I do have separate Kemper input settings for my Paul's, which help a bit when I remember to actually use them.

Many of my favorite Kemper rigs were profiled with a boost, but I will try some others and try fiddling with an EQ - admittedly not that experienced with their use.

I can easily live with any given Kemper rig with my three other PRSi (CU24, 594 and DW CE24). Sure they all have their own tone, but the Paul's is just sooooo different. We'll see!

Yup, the pickups are pretty different.

Re: the EQ, to match your other humbucker guitars - try rolling off a bit of midrange somewhere around 1-2 kHz, and add some lower midrange around 250-300 Hz. Might even try adding some bottom around 100 Hz with a low shelf and see what that does for you. To mellow things out you could lower a bit of high frequencies with a shelf EQ.

To work a parametric EQ and decide which frequencies you want to boost or cut, turn the EQ level for that control up, search for the frequency, then when you find it, lower the EQ level for that control to taste.

With a graphic EQ it's simply trial and error. But most only have a few bands, so it's pretty easy.

 

[Serious Poo]

Yup, the pickups are pretty different.

Re: the EQ, to match your other humbucker guitars - try rolling off a bit of midrange somewhere around 1-2 kHz, and add some lower midrange around 250-300 Hz. Might even try adding some bottom around 100 Hz with a low shelf and see what that does for you. To mellow things out you could lower a bit of high frequencies with a shelf EQ.

To work a parametric EQ and decide which frequencies you want to boost or cut, turn the EQ level for that control up, search for the frequency, then when you find it, lower the EQ level for that control to taste.

With a graphic EQ it's simply trial and error. But most only have a few bands, so it's pretty easy.

In addition to Les's excellent advice, I'd also add that cutting a little between 500 -700Hz can remove woofiness and boosting a little around 3200Hz can add some bite / aggressiveness.

That said, I'm not really a fan of trying to make guitars sound like each other. Rather, I try to emphasize the difference between my instruments and use them to compliment each other.

 

[Warmart]

Thanks everyone, still on the fence about desoldering the treble bleed cap - I think I like the effect it has, but hey, tomorrow I may interpret the sound totally differently! So goes the day to day ear migration Having some success with an EQ block. Luckily, most of my rigs have room, pre-amp.

 

[SpiderM69]

Simple question, thing to try: How long is your guitar cable? Try something 20' +, or coiled. If you have a buffer on your pedal board, can you disengage or turn off when playing the Paul's?

Might want to try that, if you haven't already. To at least see if that makes a difference. Better than selling or modifying the guitar then regretting it.

I'll also echo use of an EQ pedal. One of the most useful and underrated pedals on any board imho. But I still find the tone knob on that guitar to be really useful and effective. Maybe it's just different taste, but I can get the exact tone I want using the volume and tone knobs on my Paul's.

 

[THAWK819]

To the OP; it almost sounds like you would probably really like the PRS 58/15 LT pickups; they definitely have a vintage sound. Unfortunately, the only way I think you'll get a set of those is on a second hand market from someone who bought a McCarty .594 and didn't love the pickups.

 

[Goodsal]

I do have a 594 with 58/15 LT pickups and think they’re great. You’re right, those pickups in the Paul’s Guitar might be the right combo. But they’re not the same size so I don’t know how I would do that surgery on the guitar to make them fit.

 

[Warmart]

You'd have to get out the Dremel!