I have this S2 Standard 22 I got for Xmas...

ucnick

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Mar 17, 2016
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Bought my 2018 S2 Standard 22 from a Reverb dealer, it's a one-off with bird inlays on the fretboard. Plays great and love the weight but the stock pups were not very good, supposedly Korean versions of the 85/15s which I have on my CE-24, but unlike the CE-24, which has a very clear, almost hi-fi tone, these pups were woolly and muffled. I swapped them for a set of Fralin Unbuckers (wired for coil split like the stock pups), which helped clear things up immensely, and also disconnected the 1.1k and 2.2k resistors, which also helped, but there seems to be little distinction between the bridge, middle, and neck switch positions. In addition, there is almost no bite to the bridge pup, which is unusual and which I do not think can be attributed to the pups as I have a similar set in another guitar (an SG) and they are clear, distinct, and the bridge has much more bite than the S2.

I have carefully double-checked my wiring against Fralin's lead callout, and the switch is properly wired (checked against both Fralin's and PRS' wiring diagrams), so I am at a loss as to the cause. The only differences I can see are the 0.033 uF film coupling cap (which should not cause any issues at audio frequencies) and perhaps the volume & tone pot resistance values, if they are too low they could be loading down the pickups, which are 7.5k neck and 8.5k bridge. I don't know what the pot values are and they are not specified on the S2 wiring diagram.

I am considering putting in a 500k pot set to see if it helps, but I'd appreciate any help/insights into this. I hate to flip the guitar, just plays and feels too good to do so without due diligence. Thanks!
 
Have you tried adjusting your pup heights?
Yep. First thing I tried. First lowered the neck down even with the ring, then adjusted the bridge to match levels. No good. Tried tweaking them up from there, still didn't help.
 
CE trem is still Korean, but your CE pups would be US made. The S2 Korean pups and trem.
Sorry, can't help you why Fralin sound is off. When I replaced SE pups with US, I also replaced the wiring with US pots and switch.
 
it almost has to be a wiring issue. Never assume that the pup selector switch was wired properly from the factory, stuff happens.
 
I'm not assuming, believe me! I visually checked it against wiring diagrams shown on both the Fralin (for 3-way switch) and PRS (for S2, Mira, Vela,...) sites, which are identical, and it is as depicted. I then used a DMM to ohm the connections the switch made, just to make sure it wasn't some oddball 3-way switch, but it ohmed out as I expected. The pups are selected correctly. The same pups work fine on my SG, so I think it is down to the pots, not much else left.
 
Can check the pot ohms as your still hearing same thing with new pickups, they would be too low i guess?
. I did find the S2 pickups to be muffled in comparison to prs usa or aftermarket, i kept stock wiring, everything

I have s2 mira, think its same wiring, ive posted a picture of stock wiring here before, for visual xcheck if you want
 
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