Narrow Field pickups. Not exactly a new idea.

T

Torvald

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Reading all about Paul's Narrow Field pickups it occurs to me that mini humbuckers , single coil sized humbuckers maybe even silent single coils accomplish much the same things that they claim are so unique, i.e. sensing a smaller aperture of the strings for a cleaner sound and no hum. Mini humbuckers with adjustable pole pieces have been around just about forever. They can be had in four wire configurations as well if one cared to split them.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a PRS fan. Just saying.
T
 
The pickup isn’t just narrower, it’s also deeper, keeping the winds and power of a 57/08 with all of the tonal attributes you mention. Mini humbuckers are normally thin and anemic sounding by comparison, taking substantial boost to get the same output. I’ve not experienced that in the Narrowfields. Another pleasant thing is that you get a great in-between quack with no loss in volume, something rarely found in other pickups. Especially humbuckers of whatever sort.

My best suggestion is not to base your understanding on paperwork, history, or internet chatter. Grab an actual guitar with these pickups in it, and I’d suggest an NF3 or SAS Narrowfield so you get three of them to experience the interplay in all switch positions. It may or may not make great sense reading about it, but actually playing on them makes the difference between NFs and other similar-looking pickups readily apparent.
 
RickP said:
The pickup isn’t just narrower, it’s also deeper, keeping the winds and power of a 57/08 with all of the tonal attributes you mention. Mini humbuckers are normally thin and anemic sounding by comparison, taking substantial boost to get the same output. I’ve not experienced that in the Narrowfields. Another pleasant thing is that you get a great in-between quack with no loss in volume, something rarely found in other pickups. Especially humbuckers of whatever sort.

My best suggestion is not to base your understanding on paperwork, history, or internet chatter. Grab an actual guitar with these pickups in it, and I’d suggest an NF3 or SAS Narrowfield so you get three of them to experience the interplay in all switch positions. It may or may not make great sense reading about it, but actually playing on them makes the difference between NFs and other similar-looking pickups readily apparent.
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Concur
 
Great answer! I've a lot of respect for Paul and his innovations. Don't know when I'll have the opportunity to play a guitar with narrow field pickups and compare it to another. As you say reading descriptions doesn't tell the whole story.
I'm a fan of SE's in general and have swapped a few pickups. Currently I'm enjoying a set of Lollar mini humbuckers in my Soapbar SE, so I was pondering what the difference really was. Reading from the website they mention the smaller aperture and the poles stepping to match the radius of the neck, so it got me wondering.
 
Torvald said:
Great answer! I've a lot of respect for Paul and his innovations. Don't know when I'll have the opportunity to play a guitar with narrow field pickups and compare it to another. As you say reading descriptions doesn't tell the whole story.
I'm a fan of SE's in general and have swapped a few pickups. Currently I'm enjoying a set of Lollar mini humbuckers in my Soapbar SE, so I was pondering what the difference really was. Reading from the website they mention the smaller aperture and the poles stepping to match the radius of the neck, so it got me wondering.
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Good points, and it’s definitely part of the story. As I’ve found more than once on PRS instruments, somehow the package ends up being more than summing up the traditional result of that bag of parts. They wring things from standard concepts that others left on the table by looking deeper… it’s what makes them who they are.
 
A good bit of what PRS do isn't exactly new, but it's more about the application. Multi-tap and TCI weren't new ideas either. Paul and company are willing to take the time and effort to explore how things work and apply these concepts from their own unique perspective.

The tall, long, skinny coils and the magnet structure of the Narrowfields are different from any past designs. This gives the pickups a unique sound.

I also think that Paul is as good a salesman as he is a luthier, so he does a fantastic job of raising interest and positioning his products in the market.
 
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