PRS 85/15 “S” Humbucking Pickups

[Black Dog]

I recently purchased my first PRS guitar. A 2019 SE Standard. I love the look, feel, and playability of the guitar but I'm not bonding with the pickups. I tried adjusting the pickup height and pole pieces and it didn't help. I adjusted the knobs on my amp and still nothing. I replaced the caps with orange drops and a treble bleed and it didn't help. It has 500K import pots. Do I need to replace them with CTS or Bourns pots or do I need to replace the pickups. I looked up other treads that were posted in the past and read through them but they really didn't have a solution. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SinSir]

Honestly, after all that I'd swap pickups, but I'm with you and the 8515s pickups just haven't been for me. I've chased and chased to get them where I want, but never bond.

 

[rbert0005]

I don’t like the 85-15s in a Custom 24 at all.
I bought a Custom 22 Semi Hollowbody with those same pickups. Nite and day. I now find them very useable.

Bob

 

[Lewguitar]

I recently purchased my first PRS guitar. A 2019 SE Standard. I love the look, feel, and playability of the guitar but I'm not bonding with the pickups. I tried adjusting the pickup height and pole pieces and it didn't help. I adjusted the knobs on my amp and still nothing. I replaced the caps with orange drops and a treble bleed and it didn't help. It has 500K import pots. Do I need to replace them with CTS or Bourns pots or do I need to replace the pickups. I looked up other treads that were posted in the past and read through them but they really didn't have a solution. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

My favorite SE guitars are my SE Bernie Marsdens, but I've owned a lot of SE's and see SE's as being the ideal guitar for pickup, bridge and tuner upgrades. Eventually the controls too. You don't have to do it all at once.

But upgrading all the parts over time turns them into professional instruments,

My SE Bernie Marsdens have PRS 57/08, Duncan Antiquity and Wolfetone Marshallhead pickups. Bare Knuckle Abraxas sounded great too but I moved them to my '00 CE22.

They all sound different.

My favorite is the newest PRS 57/08 set.