New Pickups for a PRS S2 Custom 22?

[TommyChung71]

I’ve got a PRS S2 Custom 22. I switched out the wiring harness and the pickups. I put the Seymour Duncan hot rodded pickup set in there. For those unfamiliar, that’s a jazz neck and a JB bridge.

I dig the neck, but I find the bridge a little too shrill. I’ll keep the tone wide open for the neck and then when I flick to the bridge I have to roll it down to about 6. I tried lowering the pickup but it loses the clarity. Anyway, I feel I’m in search for a new pickup.

After doing some searching I’m hearing that the BKP Riff Raff or Wolftone Marshallhead would be a better fit.

I should mention that I’m in a 90’s/2000’s rock band. Think Weezer, Tom Petty, Cracker, The Lemonheads, Counting Crows, etc. Fender and Marshall amps.

Lastly, I’m open to looking at other companies as well but I’d rather not spend more $300ish for the set. I’m not opposed to used either.

 

[chicagoslim]

I'm a big fan of Custom 22's. I have a core model and two S2's. I kept one original and swapped pickups on the other, to something that was more vintage Gibson sounding. I ordered Bootstrap Vintage Clean pickups, but I didn't receive them for a couple of months. They are now in my Zack Myers, and sound very bright. I don't think that they would work for you. However, other models might, and they are very reasonable, for an American set of pickups.

In the mean time, I ordered and installed Porter Gatekeeper pickups. They are Porter's imported line, and they really do what I wanted. They were a little over $100 for a set. I wired then just to work with the 3-way switch, as they are low output pickups. I thought that I would use them temporally, until the Bootstrap pickups arrived. They are working very well for me. The sounds that I'm getting, remind me of my old ES335 and Heritage H535 semi-hollows. I guess that it's because my Custom 22's are very resonant guitars. The neck uses a 6.8k, alnico 2 magnet and a 7.8k, alnico 5 magnet, for a familiar PAF sound.

GKP-SCH - Porter Pickups


S2 Custom 22 with Porter Gate Keeper pickups.


S2 Custom 22


I also have an S2 Singlecut Semi-Hollow with Seymour Duncan, Saturday Night Specials (9k alnico 4 pickups). These work really well in both the humbucker and split mode.

 

[Simon Says]

I’ve got a PRS S2 Custom 22. I switched out the wiring harness and the pickups. I put the Seymour Duncan hot rodded pickup set in there. For those unfamiliar, that’s a jazz neck and a JB bridge.

I dig the neck, but I find the bridge a little too shrill. I’ll keep the tone wide open for the neck and then when I flick to the bridge I have to roll it down to about 6. I tried lowering the pickup but it loses the clarity. Anyway, I feel I’m in search for a new pickup.

After doing some searching I’m hearing that the BKP Riff Raff or Wolftone Marshallhead would be a better fit.

I should mention that I’m in a 90’s/2000’s rock band. Think Weezer, Tom Petty, Cracker, The Lemonheads, Counting Crows, etc. Fender and Marshall amps.

Lastly, I’m open to looking at other companies as well but I’d rather not spend more $300ish for the set. I’m not opposed to used either.

I used to pair SD Jazz with SH5 back in 2000-2010. My all time fav set in all mahagony guitars. I used to love RiffRaff neck but it did nothing to me when I temporarily changed pickups in my CU24. I had it paired with Emerald. I couldn't go back to stock 85/15 fast enough. I think I grew out of these. Seriously - try SH-5 Duncan Custom, its a hell of a pickup, anything it does it does it well. It's cheap enough option to consider