pickup recommendations to replace 85/15

[László]

I love the 85/15s in my CU24 30th Anni PS. Of course, it's a different guitar, actually very warm sounding. And heck, every piece of wood is different.

So nothing's gonna work for everyone. Added to that, there's always the question of the amp, the pedals, the speaker(s), and whatever else is in the rig.

But in line with the suggestion to raise the bass side of the pickup, if I have a bright guitar, I also raise the bass on my amp to balance out the tone - I normally run the bass low with my PRS'. Fr'instance, if a player brings over a Strat or Tele for a session, the amps get set up with more bass and mids, and I pull the treble and presence back a few notches.

You've probably already done this and I'm preaching to the choir, though.

I also don't run any of my guitar volume controls full up. I usually set the amp up with the guitar volume about halfway, and mostly play 7-8 on the guitar volume. This isn't because of the pickups, I just like to have some headroom so I can raise the guitar volume while playing if I want a little something extra. But it does tame the treble.

 

[watelessness]

i suggest you just buya new guitar. it's so much easier than removing factory solder.

 

[Prina]

My ideal pickup right now is the SD Pearly Gates...

How close are the 57/08s to the PGs or a PAF?

I'm a hard rock/classic rock guy, play mostly LP types, and I like my PAF's with a bite. I have a 7.75k Pearly Gates in a single H Superstat, which sounds great and actually sounds pretty similar to the 57/08 in my Stripped 58. Both the PG and the 57/08 are medium output, Alnico II PAF derivatives, the PG is derived from the PAF's on Billy Gibbons' 1959 Les Paul. The Pearly Gates and the 57/08 are also similar in that you rarely hear anything bad about either one.

Initially, I felt that the 57/08 didn't have quite enough output, but then I followed a recommendation from Justin York (IR maker with golden ears in my opinion) on the Fractal website to raise the pole pieces about a full turn and then bring the bridge pick up to very close to the strings. That brought the bridge 57/08 to the next level and it sounds awesome. Coincidently @SinSir, who is generally a low pick up position guy, has the same high positioning for the bridge pick up on his Stripped 58 too.

My guess is that you'd be pretty happy with the PGs in the S2. Since you already have a set in the Singlecut, it seems it wouldn't take that long to swap out at least one of the pickups to see how it works on that specific guitar. Personally, I wouldn't do anything like changing the magnets in the 85/15s as they're in pretty good demand if you ever want to sell them.

 

[Revelation]

Love the 8515 pickups...maybe my favourite pickups right now. But, if you want something less bright, with powerful but not muddy at all mids, take a look a the DiMarzio DP223BC PAF 36th Anniversary. They have served me me well in the past.