New Pups for SE CU24

[Codeman]

Hello,

I'm Cody, I'm new to the forum, and I'm looking for a new set of pickups for my PRS SE Custom 24. I play 80s metal, classic rock, blues, jazz, and CCM. The guitar came with SE HFS treble and SE Vintage bass pickups, but I'm thinking of getting something a little hotter in the bridge to help get more chug when palm muting (it might be more of my amp setup but a hotter pickup should help right?). Any suggestions are welcome!

As far as signal chain, I'm playing through a stock DSL40C with no pedals.

 

[John Beef]

What year is your SECU24? If it's an older one it has different pickups than a newer one, so we can know how much hotter yer talkin'.

 

[Codeman]

'15 30th Anniversary

 

[Codeman]

Bump?

 

[TroyBaer]

I'm Cody, I'm new to the forum, and I'm looking for a new set of pickups for my PRS SE Custom 24. I play 80s metal, classic rock, blues, jazz, and CCM. The guitar came with SE HFS treble and SE Vintage bass pickups, but I'm thinking of getting something a little hotter in the bridge to help get more chug when palm muting (it might be more of my amp setup but a hotter pickup should help right?). Any suggestions are welcome!

The stock SE HFS is a pretty hot pickup. With the stock ceramic magnet, it is a bit nasal/midrange-heavy IMHO. You may want to consider swapping the ceramic magnet for an Alnico V to drop back the mids and bring up the bass and treble a bit.

One of the few passive pickups I can think of that's higher output than the HFS and not completely metal-only is the Suhr Doug Aldrich.

 

[andy474x]

Hello,

I'm Cody, I'm new to the forum, and I'm looking for a new set of pickups for my PRS SE Custom 24. I play 80s metal, classic rock, blues, jazz, and CCM. The guitar came with SE HFS treble and SE Vintage bass pickups, but I'm thinking of getting something a little hotter in the bridge to help get more chug when palm muting (it might be more of my amp setup but a hotter pickup should help right?). Any suggestions are welcome!

As far as signal chain, I'm playing through a stock DSL40C with no pedals.

Do you need more chug, as in more gain, or more chug as in more bass grunt? Your DSL should have a pretty good dose of gain already, and the HFS is a hot pickup, I think if you wanted any more you would either be looking at a super high output set of Dimarzio pickups, if not that, then maybe EMG's. But if it's an EQ issue, try playing around with the overall height of your pickups as well as the polepieces individually, before moving on to different pickups.

 

[dkilpatrick]

The Seymour Duncan jazz/JB is a well rounded set to play the styles you listed and the JB is pretty hot
they're also priced pretty reasonably. Active pickups would be hotter but then your changing the electronics too

 

[HANGAR18]

The 57/08's are a good all around pickup for everything you mentioned but if HOT is more important to you, the \m/ Metal pickups are very hot. I would prefer the variety of the 57/08's.

 

[dogrocketp]

I just read an article by Dave Hunter in Guitar player on Humbuckers. THe so-called current line of thinking is to use less hot humbuckers, and let the amp do more of the work. Just an additional opinion.

 

[Codeman]

Do you need more chug, as in more gain, or more chug as in more bass grunt? Your DSL should have a pretty good dose of gain already, and the HFS is a hot pickup, I think if you wanted any more you would either be looking at a super high output set of Dimarzio pickups, if not that, then maybe EMG's. But if it's an EQ issue, try playing around with the overall height of your pickups as well as the polepieces individually, before moving on to different pickups.

The bridge pickup is set pretty close to the strings already so there isn't much more to adjust there.

As far as the DSL goes, I have been living in the Lead 1 because the Lead 2 is pretty harsh, but I can't seem to get the palm mutes to come out quite like I would like. I've played around with the resonance and bass controls and it's just not there. I've contemplated a 2x12 cabinet to help this issue, but it makes more sense to start with a cheaper option if it will work.

Back to pickup choice, If these are as hot as others have said maybe going for a set with more bass will help me out. Suggestions?

EDIT: Does the previously recommended SD JB and PRS 57/08's have more bass than what I'm using?

 

[HANGAR18]

I just read an article by Dave Hunter in Guitar player on Humbuckers. THe so-called current line of thinking is to use less hot humbuckers, and let the amp do more of the work. Just an additional opinion.

Scratching head.... "Hotter Pickups" means that the resistance value is increased which in turn makes the amp work harder, which causes the break-up of the tubes to occur which is what we know and love as "distortion". So by getting, um... cooler(?) pickups, the amp works less hard for cleaner tones. So I am wondering if the article was trying to make the point of saying, "Let the dials on the amp overdrive the the tubes for distortion instead of having the pickups force the tubes into overdrive". If so, then I think that would agree with the idea of preferring a less hot set of pickups like the 57/08's versus the really hot \m/ Metal pickups. The 57/08's allow for hot and cool while the \m/ Metal pickups are basically hot all the time.

 

[DHW]

The bridge pickup is set pretty close to the strings already so there isn't much more to adjust there.

As far as the DSL goes, I have been living in the Lead 1 because the Lead 2 is pretty harsh, but I can't seem to get the palm mutes to come out quite like I would like. I've played around with the resonance and bass controls and it's just not there. I've contemplated a 2x12 cabinet to help this issue, but it makes more sense to start with a cheaper option if it will work.

Back to pickup choice, If these are as hot as others have said maybe going for a set with more bass will help me out. Suggestions?

EDIT: Does the previously recommended SD JB and PRS 57/08's have more bass than what I'm using?

look up the c19 mod for the dsl40c. It involved clipping a cap at that position on the board to take away the ice pick effect. Makes lead 2 fully usable.

 

[Codeman]

look up the c19 mod for the dsl40c. It involved clipping a cap at that position on the board to take away the ice pick effect. Makes lead 2 fully usable.

I haven't done this yet but I've heard plenty about it. Some people have stated that it is a love or hate mod, but most people are saying that tube choice and speaker choice makes a larger effect on the sound. I am planning on doing some mods in December to test some of these theories. As for the PRS, I'm researching my options here too because we already know that the amp isn't the only thing in the signal chain. I don't think that lowering the treble will create the desired effect of chunky rhythms for the metal songs I play and I don't think the amp is completely at fault.

Am I wrong?:iamconfused:

 

[markintime]

I got my SECU24 30th Aniversary with 59/09's because I didn't care for the zebra's, and I couldn't be happier. These pups really do the job for me and I'm mainly a blues guy...

 

[Codeman]

I got my SECU24 30th Aniversary with 59/09's because I didn't care for the zebra's, and I couldn't be happier. These pups really do the job for me and I'm mainly a blues guy...

Really? How did you manage that? Did you order straight from PRS?

 

[markintime]

Really? How did you manage that? Did you order straight from PRS?

Nope, I got it through Sweetwater. Awesome to deal with. My next request will be to get an SE with 85/15's. Don't know if they can do it, but I will be asking...

 

[Carlos Rivera]

+1 for 59/09. Don't really think it's hotter than the HFS, but it's the best pup I've ever tried for the "blues - classic rock - hard & heavy" range.

 

[USMC/CPL]

I recently acquired a CU24SE that had Dimarzio DP 253s put in it....Awesome! Perfect fit for this guitar, they can be very sweet and mellow, to who let Zakk Wylde in!

 

[Codeman]

I recently acquired a CU24SE that had Dimarzio DP 253s put in it....Awesome! Perfect fit for this guitar, they can be very sweet and mellow, to who let Zakk Wylde in!

I found Dimarzio's description for the 253's very interesting:
The pickups are named after a song on his album, Steve Vai: The Story of Light.Steve described the sound he wanted from his new Gravity Storm™ Bridge Model pickup as “a thundering cloud of ice cream”. He didn’t say what flavor he likes, but this one has both bite and sweetness.

 

[USMC/CPL]

If you can buy them on amazon try them, they have a decent return policy.