KL 380 / P90 questions

aamefford

Don’t ask, don’t tell
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Nov 17, 2021
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How do I know if my 2009 KL 380 has the Seymour Duncans with the “crappy ceramic magnets” (paraphrasing a couple of other P90 threads) or the Antiquities that many seem to love? I don’t have the experience to know the sounds of each. So far, they sound pretty bitchin’. Any external clues? How about underneath? I’ll eventually pull one to try and find the MODCAT for this guitar. Thanks all!
 
2009 should be the Antiquities. The ceramic mags are good with Mesas, and other “thicker” sounding amps. Not so for my Tweed clone or Louis Electric amps.
Thanks! I use a Mesa or a SS Katana Air EX and mostly live in clean channel clean to EOB or crunch hairy to crunchy base on guitar volume knob. Should be good!
 
^ And I’m sure you know if there good and work why tinker doesn’t matter what they are. Both versions work great and are totally usable.
Absolutely. Point of curiosity. They sound great so far. I’m curious how noisy they’ll be with the Mesa. They’re pretty quiet with the baby Katana. The Mesa’s got it’s own noise floor going on, so probably no issues.
 
Any way to tell looking at the pickups? Or via DC resistance?
 
I’m curious how noisy they’ll be with the Mesa.
Depends on where the pups are and where they're pointed. Close to high voltage AC, like with a Mesa transformer: Bad. But 15' away and oriented in the right direction, by the player turning, can really help.
 
My pickup switch positions measure as:

N = 7.98 K-ohm
N+M = 4.01K-ohm
N+B = 4.8 K-ohm
M+B = 4.77 K-ohm
B = 11.67 K-ohm

I can't get directly to the middle pickup with the #3 switching being N+B, but since N+B and M+B are about the same, the middle and neck are probably the same pickup. So probably:

N & M = 7.8-ish K-ohm
B = 11.7-ish K-ohm

From Seymour Duncan website,
P90 Antiquities - Alnico 2
N = 7.80k - matches my neck/middle
B = 8.60k - does NOT match my neck/middle

HOT P90 Custom Ceramic
N = 12k - sorta matches my bridge
B = 15k no match

Vintage P90 Alnico 5
N = 8 - sorta matches my neck/middle
B = 9.7 doesn't match my bridge

The neck pickups seem to match the Antiquities neck and Vintage Neck. The bridge seems closest the HOT P90 Ceramic neck. The bridge P/U *could* have been changed, as the bridge P/U mounting screws come all the way through the body and actually touch the trem springs. I can't quite see PRS doing that. So... I still don't really know what I've got?

There is this post from back in 2014, which says maybe N/M are Vintage neck P/U's, and the bridge is maybe a HOT P90 neck?
 
Well, the SD ceramic version used by PRS was the P3 (hot) neck version. Maybe I was a little over enthousiastic about the readings :)

I guess you have the ceramic version.
 
Well, the SD ceramic version used by PRS was the P3 (hot) neck version. Maybe I was a little over enthousiastic about the readings :)

I guess you have the ceramic version.
Comparing to what’s available now, it looks like neck and middle are comparable to either A2 Antiquities or A5 Vintage necks, and the bridge is comparable to the hot P90 custom neck. Does that make sense? Would those be stock or do you think they got swapped at some point? Again, all of this is just curiosity. So far I like them. They have a pretty broad response from clean to ripping, esp. the bridge, just with guitar volume.
 
Comparing to what’s available now, it looks like neck and middle are comparable to either A2 Antiquities or A5 Vintage necks, and the bridge is comparable to the hot P90 custom neck. Does that make sense? Would those be stock or do you think they got swapped at some point? Again, all of this is just curiosity. So far I like them. They have a pretty broad response from clean to ripping, esp. the bridge, just with guitar volume.
That would make sense. I think they could be stock.

I found the bridge too hot for my liking, but it did rip and was plenty dynamic
 
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