Ok am I crazy ? PRS SE Hollowbody upgrades contemplated...

[DogPhishHead]

I really like my Hollowbody, but I'm still not "loving" the pickups. I'm thinking of taking it to my favorite local shop (N Stuff Music) and having their luthier perform some surgery on it.

Pair of Seymour Duncan '59 Pickups with four wire leads, then having two mini toggle switches added to coil tap either one of the pickups. (Ok, it's my lame attempt at a Languedoc , I know the scale length is wrong as it the bridge).

Am I really going to change the character of the guitar ? Hmmm.......

 

[DISTORT6]

Go for it!

 

[Malloc]

Short answer is yes, pickups will noticeably affect the output sound. “Which ones” is too subjective without knowing your tone goals. In terms of mechanics you can go with a push/pull tone pot if you don’t want the permanency of drilling holes at the expense of no individual splits.

 

[BrianC]

no biggie....

 

[NBW]

Couldn’t one use two push pulls one for each split? I’ve been considering a concentric volume pot so I could control the volume of each pickup.

 

[NBW]

I have also been thinking about pickups. But my pickups of choice are really expensive. The SE II is already the priciest guitar in my quiver.

 

[Outlier22]

it all sounds good to me. It could impact your resale value if you do any of it especially drilling the holes for coil split but it would be pretty awesome.

 

[DogPhishHead]

Couldn’t one use two push pulls one for each split? I’ve been considering a concentric volume pot so I could control the volume of each pickup.

I really don't like the push pull pot concept. I think PRS finally got it correct on the TCI pickups with the mini toggles.

 

[Tim S]

I’d be concerned about the long term effect of pulling/pushing knobs mounted to the top of a mahogany hollowbody. If you have a need, maybe mini toggles makes more sense?

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Do it, that’s what SE’s are for.

All SE’s wind up being $350 guitars eventually, so I wouldn’t worry about resale, just save the trash parts for if you decide to sell.

 

[toothace]

 

[bodia]

This!

 

[JSanta585]

I really like my Hollowbody, but I'm still not "loving" the pickups. I'm thinking of taking it to my favorite local shop (N Stuff Music) and having their luthier perform some surgery on it.

Pair of Seymour Duncan '59 Pickups with four wire leads, then having two mini toggle switches added to coil tap either one of the pickups. (Ok, it's my lame attempt at a Languedoc , I know the scale length is wrong as it the bridge).

Am I really going to change the character of the guitar ? Hmmm.......

I know this is the PRS forum, but have you thought about this: https://eastwoodcustoms.com/projects/eastwood-phish-tribute/

 

[DogPhishHead]

I know this is the PRS forum, but have you thought about this: https://eastwoodcustoms.com/projects/eastwood-phish-tribute/

I’ve seen it, but nope. Not taking a chance on an unknown

 

[JSanta585]

I’ve seen it, but nope. Not taking a chance on an unknown

Every Eastwood that I've played has been pretty great. But I can appreciate the sentiment.

 

[mookyshoots]

Sergio is dead on with what he said. SE's are a great mod platform.

I absolutely love my SE Hollowbody over the S2 Mira Semi-hollow that I tried out earlier this year. Really scratches the the hollowbody itch to be sure. That said, I just did a full overhaul of my mine, which had it's challenges but all in all went fairly smooth thanks to the other posters here on the forum who have shared their advice on working on these models.

She's now got a fresh set of Suhr Thornbucker pickups, Schroeder locking studs,Mojotone pots and PIO cap, Switchcraft toggle and jack, core knobs and a set of Tone Ninja locking tuners. The stock parts were OK but now, she's simply amazing.

 

[dogrocketp]

Really nice!

 

[Dicey]

No reason to avoid making changes if there's something you don't like about a guitar.

 

[sadmoodyfrazier]

My advice is to go for the changes if you want but avoid SD 59s. That ones are the worst humbucker pickups I've ever tried. Unfortunately I took a set for my Gibson SG some years ago and, man, never had a shittier sound. Lot of output and midrange, 0 dynamics... I really hate them. Also nickel covers go trash in a couple of months. There are a lot of better and cheaper pickups out there. Try AlNiCo II humbuckers. They are a lot more expressive and balanced. I've placed a mixed set on my PRS made by Dreamsongs here in Italy. I have a Strat single coil at neck and AlNiCo II PAF replica humbucker at bridge. I found the perfection with that couple of pickups.

 

[goat-n-gitter]

Make it your own! It isn't an investment, it's a tool.
Gotta disagree with sadmoodyfrazier above, I really like SD 59s, I have them in the bridge position of 2 guitars, they sound great through my rig (Mesa MK V) and split well. But to each their own.