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!
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!