NGD - the 2012 Stripped 58 has landed!

[Boze-63]

That Stripped 58 looks awesome!!!...congrats on that score. I have to dig into those more as I've heard 57/08 only once before and I didn't have a good reference at the time.

In following some advice from here and other threads, I too was not digging the "darker" tones from the stock Bernie pups (I think they're SE-245s?) - nice pups but after about 6-7 months of playing, I knew what I was looking for something clearer and maybe more "Spanky".

I was originally ready to install some new pups with a tone split for those types of tones- steering toward a more tele-type. But did not go the "tone/split" option - just straight 2 humbuckers/2 vol/1 tone as the original layout on the Bernie.
Funny how things work out but I incorrectly ordered the new humbuckers as "vintage-wiring" instead of "4-conductors", so I only had the available main braided wire to solder to the vol-pots. I was thinking that I ruined or delayed my options for getting any split-coil tones as I was hunting, as mentioned, for a "tele-type" tones. I was looking for a smoother PAF with less magnetic pull giving more sustain but with more clarity and string-transparency when I added drive or gain. I had heard that coming from A3 pups before both from a semi-hollow and A3 single coil.
So, I had order Alnico III MHS type of pickups that I measured @7.2k & 7.7k ohms: neck & bridge. Very clear string-to-string tone, lots more sustain as previous SE245 pups were giving. Neck is very chimney and not whoofy at all when adding gain, Bridge has a nice punch and like the neck is very dynamic. Also to my surprise, when running through my amp/2x12, adding some boost or drive and playing around with both vols, I started getting a very close approximation of what I thought was a beefy tele-like!!...I went back and started to cover some old classic stuff.

Anyways, a quick story and happy with these Alnico III pups but I'm getting curious on the 57/08 options.

 

[Lewguitar]

That Stripped 58 looks awesome!!!...congrats on that score. I have to dig into those more as I've heard 57/08 only once before and I didn't have a good reference at the time.

In following some advice from here and other threads, I too was not digging the "darker" tones from the stock Bernie pups (I think they're SE-245s?) - nice pups but after about 6-7 months of playing, I knew what I was looking for something clearer and maybe more "Spanky".

I was originally ready to install some new pups with a tone split for those types of tones- steering toward a more tele-type. But did not go the "tone/split" option - just straight 2 humbuckers/2 vol/1 tone as the original layout on the Bernie.
Funny how things work out but I incorrectly ordered the new humbuckers as "vintage-wiring" instead of "4-conductors", so I only had the available main braided wire to solder to the vol-pots. I was thinking that I ruined or delayed my options for getting any split-coil tones as I was hunting, as mentioned, for a "tele-type" tones. I was looking for a smoother PAF with less magnetic pull giving more sustain but with more clarity and string-transparency when I added drive or gain. I had heard that coming from A3 pups before both from a semi-hollow and A3 single coil.
So, I had order Alnico III MHS type of pickups that I measured @7.2k & 7.7k ohms: neck & bridge. Very clear string-to-string tone, lots more sustain as previous SE245 pups were giving. Neck is very chimney and not whoofy at all when adding gain, Bridge has a nice punch and like the neck is very dynamic. Also to my surprise, when running through my amp/2x12, adding some boost or drive and playing around with both vols, I started getting a very close approximation of what I thought was a beefy tele-like!!...I went back and started to cover some old classic stuff.

Anyways, a quick story and happy with these Alnico III pups but I'm getting curious on the 57/08 options.

Beautiful guitar! One of the prettiest tops I've seen.

What's the story on the peghead? Sanded the Bernie stuff off? I don't much care for all that writing either.

The Bernie pickups are really just 245 Korean made pickups. They're OK. Not great.

The 57/08's are GREAT though! They're some of the best sounding PAF pickups you can find.

They're alnico 2. Alnico 3 is weaker. Weaker magnetic field.

I prefer a little stronger sound myself, but alnico 3 is nice! Especially in the neck pickup. very clean. Kind of jazzy.

You'd probably love the 57/08's too...but watch out.

PRS includes zero instructions or a warning that the bridge pickup is magnetically out of phase with the neck pickup.

If you wire it normally, when the pickups are combined you'll get that super thin, out-of-phase, mosquito tone when the pickups are combined.

So to get them in phase you have to reverse the leads. Make white the hot lead for one and black hot for the other.

It's a real PITA if you have to redo it and the wires of the 4C cable are fragile.

 

[Boze-63]

Beautiful guitar! One of the prettiest tops I've seen.

What's the story on the peghead? Sanded the Bernie stuff off? I don't much care for all that writing either.

The Bernie pickups are really just 245 Korean made pickups. They're OK. Not great.

The 57/08's are GREAT though! They're some of the best sounding PAF pickups you can find.

They're alnico 2. Alnico 3 is weaker. Weaker magnetic field.

I prefer a little stronger sound myself, but alnico 3 is nice! Especially in the neck pickup. very clean. Kind of jazzy.

You'd probably love the 57/08's too...but watch out.

PRS includes zero instructions or a warning that the bridge pickup is magnetically out of phase with the neck pickup.

If you wire it normally, when the pickups are combined you'll get that thin, out-of-phas, nasal, mosquito tone when the pickups are combined.

So to get them in phase you have to reverse the leads. Make white the hot lead for one and black hot for the other.

It's a real PITA if you have to redo it and the wires of the 4C cable are fragile.

Thanks for the on-going info, you guys are a wealth of knowledge...
Yes, I think I had a bit of luck is getting this Bernie...I was on a SC hunt and this one popped about a year ago so I grabbed it....I do love the top..it's almost Cherry Vintage..?

As for the headstock, I just ordered a dark-wood vinyl decal and locking tuners, took out the hardware, cut it to shape and started to re-install the bushings and the locking tuners. Had to do some trimming and some advice on using a strong adhesive to keep it in place...turned out ok..
I'm not sure what it would look like if I totally sanded and removed the headstock "PRS-SE" marking, but I would have to put time aside to do it. If it's not appealing, I could always just stain it, but I prefer this dark-wood grain look. I guess the goal is to get that.

Yes, you're correct, Alnico 3 is the weaker/weakest compared to Al-2, but like I mentioned, one of the smoothest, punches and clearest PAFs I heard and played were from a ES335- I didn't know at the time and when I asked about the pickups, I was told there they were Gibson's Memphis AL-3 specs- so I started looking into them. The Bernie itself was going to give me enough "beef" cuz it's a LP Killer of sorts, but I wanted an more vintage clearer tone. When I hear or see old clips of classic LP, Page, Kossoff, maybe Ronson, BB, Gibbons, Peter Green and I'm am a quest for that tone, I can never get close to the nuances because my gear is different, more modern maybe. SO to balance that off I looked into Al-3 because of the clarity from string to string. If I needed more drive, I could always add more boost or gain but I still needed it to maintain that clarity..these Al-3 are doing that..and when working the vol-pots on both the neck and bridge--WAH-LAA, I'm hearing beefy Tele!! Lol!!

I'm already scoping 57/08 for the next buy and maybe keep them on stand-by. In a few months, after playing these and getting this tone in my ears, I'm gonna need them for a quick replacement so I can compare the differences with better references.

 

[Lewguitar]

Thanks for the on-going info, you guys are a wealth of knowledge...

Yep. This is the only forum I post on anymore.

They banned me from all the others!

 

[Boze-63]

Yep. This is the only forum I post on anymore.

They banned me from all the others!

Rebels ...the bunch of y'all....

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Stunning Lew, congratulations.

 

[deepender]

It's so beautiful!

Stayed home all day waiting for UPS to deliver by 7:00 like they said. About 8:00 PM it arrived and all was forgiven.

My first "modern" CORE guitar. It's a 2012.

My others would be my '95, '97, and '00 CE22's.

Other than those, all my other PRS guitars are SE's.

Here's some pics:

https://imgur.com/3Oi9pAk

https://imgur.com/Dl5UmCh

https://imgur.com/92fii2C

https://imgur.com/05l9vJk

Plugged it in for a few minutes last night. The 57/08's in this guitar sound a little warmer than the 57/08's in my Bernie Marsden.

But I haven't done a thing in terms of set up.

Today I'll replace the strings, clean the fingerboard and polish the frets.

Then put on some .009's and set the intonation and string ht. and pickup ht.

Love the top of this guitar but the one piece back is full of 3D beauty too!

Nice

 

[bodia]

That Stripped 58 looks awesome!!!...congrats on that score. I have to dig into those more as I've heard 57/08 only once before and I didn't have a good reference at the time.

In following some advice from here and other threads, I too was not digging the "darker" tones from the stock Bernie pups (I think they're SE-245s?) - nice pups but after about 6-7 months of playing, I knew what I was looking for something clearer and maybe more "Spanky".

I was originally ready to install some new pups with a tone split for those types of tones- steering toward a more tele-type. But did not go the "tone/split" option - just straight 2 humbuckers/2 vol/1 tone as the original layout on the Bernie.
Funny how things work out but I incorrectly ordered the new humbuckers as "vintage-wiring" instead of "4-conductors", so I only had the available main braided wire to solder to the vol-pots. I was thinking that I ruined or delayed my options for getting any split-coil tones as I was hunting, as mentioned, for a "tele-type" tones. I was looking for a smoother PAF with less magnetic pull giving more sustain but with more clarity and string-transparency when I added drive or gain. I had heard that coming from A3 pups before both from a semi-hollow and A3 single coil.
So, I had order Alnico III MHS type of pickups that I measured @7.2k & 7.7k ohms: neck & bridge. Very clear string-to-string tone, lots more sustain as previous SE245 pups were giving. Neck is very chimney and not whoofy at all when adding gain, Bridge has a nice punch and like the neck is very dynamic. Also to my surprise, when running through my amp/2x12, adding some boost or drive and playing around with both vols, I started getting a very close approximation of what I thought was a beefy tele-like!!...I went back and started to cover some old classic stuff.

Anyways, a quick story and happy with these Alnico III pups but I'm getting curious on the 57/08 options.

That’s a fan looking Bernie!