How are those SE 245 pickups?

Fullmoon 1971 said:
I love the 245 pickups, you want to try a little experiment with try an unoriented Alnico 5 in the bridge and a Alnico 3 in the neck. This smooths out the bridge a little and gives you almost P-90 like sweetness and bell like chime from the neck, I have this combination in my son's Singlecut Trem and my Santana SE, Very similar in sound to the 58/15 and also Gibsons 59 Tribute humbuckers to my ears. you can thank me later.
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Hello, new to the forum and I realise this is an oldish thread but I am after advice on something within it if possible. I read this last night whilst toying with some upgrade for my 2015 I think it was Tremonti se which I think is now sold as a 245. It's the single cut with 2 HB and no trem. Anyway I saw your advice and ordered the magnets from amazon so they should be here in a few days. I was wondering how hard the swap is regarding getting the magnets out as I am also going to be upgrading my 1996 epi LP including replacing the pups with some new ones so I stripped that down this morning and thought I would have a go at taking the magnet out but it is stuck fast with so much wax. I don't mind using these old pickups as a test bed to make sure things go well with my PRS but if it is too much of a risk I will probably not carry out the magnet swap on the PRS.

Also curious what magnets are in the stock PRS pups I have, I am going to guess ceramic in the bridge and maybe an alnico 5 in the neck from what I have read about the tones they offer?

Thanks anyway for reading and hopefully replying :)
 
BassWithABass said:
Hello, new to the forum and I realise this is an oldish thread but I am after advice on something within it if possible. I read this last night whilst toying with some upgrade for my 2015 I think it was Tremonti se which I think is now sold as a 245. It's the single cut with 2 HB and no trem. Anyway I saw your advice and ordered the magnets from amazon so they should be here in a few days. I was wondering how hard the swap is regarding getting the magnets out as I am also going to be upgrading my 1996 epi LP including replacing the pups with some new ones so I stripped that down this morning and thought I would have a go at taking the magnet out but it is stuck fast with so much wax. I don't mind using these old pickups as a test bed to make sure things go well with my PRS but if it is too much of a risk I will probably not carry out the magnet swap on the PRS.

Also curious what magnets are in the stock PRS pups I have, I am going to guess ceramic in the bridge and maybe an alnico 5 in the neck from what I have read about the tones they offer?

Thanks anyway for reading and hopefully replying :)
Click to expand...
The Tremonti SE and SE245 are fairly different models...Wide Thin and SE Tremonti pickups vs Wide Fat and SE 245/Santana pickups. As far as the pickup construction is concerned, I’ve not seen detailed specs on the import pickups. But if I’d hazard a guess, the Tremonti would likely be ceramic. There’s no harm in buying a bunch of various magnets and start the swaps. If the wax is heavy, break out the hair dryer and soften it up!

Otherwise, the SE models take replacement pickups really well. My SE245 has Duncan Antiquities and is simply stunning. But if staying on a budget, a magnet swap is perfect. Let us know how it goes!
 
BassWithABass said:
Hello, new to the forum and I realise this is an oldish thread but I am after advice on something within it if possible. I read this last night whilst toying with some upgrade for my 2015 I think it was Tremonti se which I think is now sold as a 245. It's the single cut with 2 HB and no trem. Anyway I saw your advice and ordered the magnets from amazon so they should be here in a few days. I was wondering how hard the swap is regarding getting the magnets out as I am also going to be upgrading my 1996 epi LP including replacing the pups with some new ones so I stripped that down this morning and thought I would have a go at taking the magnet out but it is stuck fast with so much wax. I don't mind using these old pickups as a test bed to make sure things go well with my PRS but if it is too much of a risk I will probably not carry out the magnet swap on the PRS.

Also curious what magnets are in the stock PRS pups I have, I am going to guess ceramic in the bridge and maybe an alnico 5 in the neck from what I have read about the tones they offer?

Thanks anyway for reading and hopefully replying :)
Click to expand...

LIke @Boogie said a hair dryer will soften up the wax reall easy. On the Tremonti I would probably go with a Alnico 8 in the bridge to replace the ceramic magnet already installed (all the power of a ceramic but the sweetness of a alnico magnet) make sure you have both magnet polarities the same way round or else your'll end with the pickups out of phase in the middle position if both volumes are set at same output (Think Peter Green / Gary Moore) rolling back one of the volumes sever so slightly brings both pickups back in phase with each other i.e. standard sound of of 2 humbucker guitar in middle position.
 
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/hi all, sorry to awaken this old post again but....

as an alternative to swapping out these SE 245 on my Bernie mainly for aesthetic reasons, any feedback on installing nickel covers and what that would do to the tone..??
If the results anyone has had are minor, very minor...it would be an option to dropping $$$ on a new set....unless of course a new w/covers enhances the tone past bare SE 245 pups...
Just asking as this idea came around to me.
 
Boze-63 said:
/hi all, sorry to awaken this old post again but....

as an alternative to swapping out these SE 245 on my Bernie mainly for aesthetic reasons, any feedback on installing nickel covers and what that would do to the tone..??
If the results anyone has had are minor, very minor...it would be an option to dropping $$$ on a new set....unless of course a new w/covers enhances the tone past bare SE 245 pups...
Just asking as this idea came around to me.
Click to expand...
Covers would look good in any single cut SE. That being said, I believe you need the 52mm covers for proper fit. You will also need to wax pot the covers, then solder them th the p/u legs. This will prevent squealing and microphonic noise.
 
Covers will get you what you want. When I did it, the sound change was negligible.I put a piece of tape in between the coils and shot a bead of silicone caulk onto the tape, then I fit the covers on. It worked fine. I did check the fit of the covers before shooting the silicone.
 
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Wakester said:
Covers would look good in any single cut SE. That being said, I believe you need the 52mm covers for proper fit. You will also need to wax pot the covers, then solder them th the p/u legs. This will prevent squealing and microphonic noise.
Click to expand...

So I'm taking caliper measurements on the width of the pups for the correct cover size; here's what I found: Neck width @ outside screw to screw = 54.74mm (49.77mm @ screw-center to screw-center)// Bridge width @ outside screw to screw = 56.70mm (51.92mm @ screw-center to screw-center).
Should I be expecting a difference between the neck & bridge as I measured..? Also, would you know how the covers are measured per hole center or outside hole to outside..?

I'm looking at a few spots for the covers, StewMac, Frail-covers, Amazon...which ever shows the spacing needed & price around $10.USD...
 
Boze-63 said:
So I'm taking caliper measurements on the width of the pups for the correct cover size; here's what I found: Neck width @ outside screw to screw = 54.74mm (49.77mm @ screw-center to screw-center)// Bridge width @ outside screw to screw = 56.70mm (51.92mm @ screw-center to screw-center).
Should I be expecting a difference between the neck & bridge as I measured..? Also, would you know how the covers are measured per hole center or outside hole to outside..?

I'm looking at a few spots for the covers, StewMac, Frail-covers, Amazon...which ever shows the spacing needed & price around $10.USD...
Click to expand...
Best I can tell you, is 52mm works. That was the information passed down to me, and what I used on a SE HFS pickup and it fit perfectly. Your measurement of 51.92 is within tolerance for 52mm center to center measurement.
 
Boze-63 said:
So I'm taking caliper measurements on the width of the pups for the correct cover size; here's what I found: Neck width @ outside screw to screw = 54.74mm (49.77mm @ screw-center to screw-center)// Bridge width @ outside screw to screw = 56.70mm (51.92mm @ screw-center to screw-center).
Should I be expecting a difference between the neck & bridge as I measured..? Also, would you know how the covers are measured per hole center or outside hole to outside..?

I'm looking at a few spots for the covers, StewMac, Frail-covers, Amazon...which ever shows the spacing needed & price around $10.USD...
Click to expand...

Measure center to center on the pickups and go with the cover that fits the closest.
 
got it...thanks all...
Off to the races on this to try, as I mentioned, before I drop serious $$ on replacement pups.
 
I chopped up $300, put it in the empty pickup cavities one night, and the next morning covered Antiquities appeared!

se245pup2.jpg
 
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Jimi D said:
I thought they were pretty good in my Zach with some grind or gain... a solid aggressive PAF-style pup; certainly better than I'd usually expect to get in a Korean guitar. In fact, I probably wouldn't have bothered changing them out if I hadn't had a set of Burstbuckers with nickle covers lying around in a drawer...
Click to expand...
Right now I prefer them over the BBs that were in my old LP.
 
Alnus Rubra said:
I know that @ScottR did this on some old SE245 he has, rough looking guitar, but he wrangles a tune out of it occasionally.;)
Click to expand...

Yeah it's a beater but I love it;) wrangled is the key word there...I have to wrangle all the good notes away from all the bad ones...and there's way more of the bad notes so it's a constant struggle.:D
 
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