How can I make my PRS SE sound more like a Les Paul?

[dogrocketp]

I got a 2010 sc245 with 59/09’s and a mahogany body. I’m there.

 

[Bogner]

I Always Ask What The Guitar Naturally Excels At As Is? Each Guitar Is Unique And It Will Be Virtually Impossible To Shift The Natural Attributes Of The Wood Of Your Guitar To Be Something It Inherently Isn't. You Can Shift Things A Bit And Tweak Them To Some Degrees But No Pickup Will Ever Make Your Guitar The opposite Of What It Naturally Is. Once You Address What Your Guitar Does Well And Not So Well And Then Can Articulate What You Are After...Then And Only Then Do You Have A Snowball's Chance In Texas Of Making A Great Pickup Swap Decision. Additionally, Most Pickups Are Created With A Certain Guitar Type In Mind When It Was Developed...(That Doesn't Mean You Can't Use Any Pickup In Any Guitar Or Situation) It Just Means It Was Designed Originally In A Certain Type Of Guitar And "Sometimes" That Can Help Guide You A Bit If You Know That Info Along With The Wood Type. It Is Always A Bit Of A Crap Shoot. I Have Identical Guitars With Identical Woods And The Same Aftermarket Pickup That Sounded Great In The Brown Guitar Didn't Sound Very Good In The Red Guitar. The Only Difference Was A Couple Of Ounces Weight And The Color. Everything Else Is Identical. Go Figure...

 

[Rod/]

There's always Zhangbucker dot com custom hand wound pickups!

I’ve used Zhangbucker pickups for over 10 years. I love his Duane, Duane + and Brownbuckers. They were what were in my 2 handmade LP’s until I discovered the Dragon 2‘s for the bridge….

 

[Glide-bpm]

I’ve used Zhangbucker pickups for over 10 years. I love his Duane, Duane + and Brownbuckers. They were what were in my 2 handmade LP’s until I discovered the Dragon 2‘s for the bridge….

I use primarily customized Pagey and Duanebuckers. Sometimes I get AlNoCo 2, sometimes AlNiCo 5 in the bridge pickup.

I have 4 or 5 sets of his pickups.
My PRS Trampas Green has Zhangbucker Pure Wound pickups in it. The guitar is way more lively and open now with a tone the USA 85/15's can't touch! The rest of mine machine turned hand wound from him. One day I will order another set of Pure Wound hand turned/wrapped!

Glad to see another Z'buckerHead out there!

 

[Rod/]

I use primarily customized Pagey and Duanebuckers. Sometimes I get AlNoCo 2, sometimes AlNiCo 5 in the bridge pickup.

I have 4 or 5 sets of his pickups.
My PRS Trampas Green has Zhangbucker Pure Wound pickups in it. The guitar is way more lively and open now with a tone the USA 85/15's can't touch! The rest of mine machine turned hand wound from him. One day I will order another set of Pure Wound hand turned/wrapped!

Glad to see another Z'buckerHead out there!

I usually get the Duane+ bridge pickups handwound A2 or A8, and Brownbucker (7.8K) necks machine wound. Had them for many years now…
I do like PRS’s Dragon 1 and 2’s bridge pickups & 59/09 neck pickups and the DGT’s in that guitar. The USA 245’s sound great in my ‘22 Santana SE with the Mann (all brass) bridge

 

[AZGiant]

Hi everyone,

This year, I've gotten a guitar somewhere above "low end" for the first time. I got a PRS SE Orianthi signature. I really like everything about it, witb the exception of the bridge pickup. It has the SE HFS/VB pickups. The neck seems fine, and I'm aware of the displacement due to the 24 frets so I won't get positions 2 and 3 to sound Gibson-y. However, the bridge pickup is just too hot and mid-rangey. It feels like it can't get enough highs when not split, and the bass is overpowered by the mids.
Are there any pickups you guys could recommend, regardless of brand? I'm still planning on using the coil split, so something that won't sound underpowered would be ideal. I'll gladly consider any maker! Presumably, something more PAF-style would be what I'm looking for.
Thanks, Cory

I guess the question is why would you want to? Apples and oranges for sure and an LP and Orianthi are pretty far apart. I would recommend a Suhr Doug Aldrich and see where that takes it, as it would give it a heck of a tone. Only issue is depth/material of body cavity as the Aldrich pickups can sound good to too hot in a PRS or strat like body.

 

[Glide-bpm]

I guess the question is why would you want to? Apples and oranges for sure and an LP and Orianthi are pretty far apart. I would recommend a Suhr Doug Aldrich and see where that takes it, as it would give it a heck of a tone. Only issue is depth/material of body cavity as the Aldrich pickups can sound good to too hot in a PRS or strat like body.

I have Zhangbucker custom wound modified Pagey and Duanebucker pickups in my SE Orianthi. It screams in all 5 positions.

 

[Rod/]

I have Zhangbucker custom wound modified Pagey and Duanebucker pickups in my SE Orianthi. It screams in all 5 positions.

That’s awesome! I’ll bet it does

 

[Lewguitar]

It's kind of funny that those of us who loved Eric Clapton's Les Paul through a Marshall tone when he played with Cream in the 60's heard almost the same tone when he switched to a Gibson SG with humbuckers.

Or to a Gibson Firebird with mini humbuckers or a Gibson ES335 with humbuckers for the Wheels of Fire album.

He recorded that fabulous version of Crossroads with that epic guitar solo using a semi-hollowbody ES-335 through a Marshall and I thought it was his SG or Les Paul i was listening too.

Also a humbucker through a Marshall made Eddie Van Halen's Strat sound a lot like a Les Paul as well.

I really think getting your SE to sound comparable to a CORE PRS or a Gibson Les Paul can be accomplished easily by replacing your SE pickups with a really good set of humbucking pickups: PRS, Duncan, Fralin, Bare Knuckles, etc.

The DOUG and PAT show on Youtube is a great place to hear them all compared to each other. That guy can play too!

 

[Bogner]

Bareknuckle Black Dogs Would Be A Wonderful Choice In This Case.