Pick-up advice

[MickHz]

Hi,
I have a PRS CE 24. I love everything about it.
I also recently purchased a Patrick Eggle Berlin (mahogany body with maple cap, mahogany neck with ebony board) guitar as a spare (I ccouldn't stretch to another CE and the Eggle has similar woods).

I wasn't impressed with the Kent Armstrong pick-ups so replaced them with some Bare Knuckle Nailbombs that I had.
The sound is now much better but not as exciting and with less power than my CE 24.
I should also mention that I had some Seymour Duncan triple shots included with the pick-up change.

My question is whether I should change the pick-ups again for some like the ones currently in my CE (HFS and Vintage bass) or if the triple shots could be part of the problem, or is there something else I havn't considered?

Any suggestions?
Rgds.

 

[Jazzedout]

Those Patrick Eggles are really cool guitars. Why don't you look for a used HFS? They come up for sale all the time!

 

[vchizzle]

Nailbombs are well respected pickups and should be in a "comparable" range to an HFS. I suppose you could try an HFS, many folks may consider that taking a step backwards though. I'm not sure how much "power" you would gain, worth a shot I guess. Have you tried raising the bridge pickup height a little to see if it has any effect? That can change the tone and performance of a pickup quite a bit. The other thing ya gotta remember is that it's a different guitar, so maybe the Eggle just doesn't sound as powerful. Reality is that 2 PRS CE 24s aren't going to sound exactly the same, so you can't expect 2 different brands to do so either. You can do things to get in the same ballpark, but sometimes certain guitars, just don't have the "it factor" for certain people.

 

[Duffy]

I would consider taking the guitar to a real good guitar tech and explaining your problem to him.

The SD Tripleshots probably don't affect anything, but you might want to try leaving them off as an experiment.

Have the guitar tech rewire your guitar with a really good grade of wire and components, if he thinks it will help, and make sure you get the right, high quality audio and linear pots for the controls.

Combined with the right adjustments of the pickup heights, new strings, and having any other weak spots addressed, I think this could make a World of difference. Especially if those pickups are in good condition and are as highly regarded as it seems.

Have a real good guitar man tune that guitar completely up and see what you get in the end. I bet it could be quite surprising and well worth the cost. There could be some obvious stuff, to him, going on that needs to be addressed.\\

You always have the option open to buy a completely new guitar of your choice, that feels, plays, and sounds like what you want.

 

[swede71]

How does guitars differ unplugged?

 

[MickHz]

Thanks for all of your suggestions.

It probably would be worth getting the guitar looked at. It's great to play - I have always liked ebony fingerboards and it's smaller size makes it very manageable, although the fingerboard can occasionally feel slightly congested.
Unplugged the guitars sound similar in volume. The Eggle is slightly warmer and overall more rounded than the PRS.
For the time being I'll just have to live with turning the amp up when using the Eggle!

Rgds.