Yep. And sometimes you must chisel the sides of the pickup cavity to get the pickup to angle appropriately. Nobody is gonna tell under the pickup ring. But it makes a difference that the pickup is parallel to the strings. I had my ZM going the opposite angle from the strings. Took me forever to figure out why. Or maybe it’s because I used pickups that were long legged 50 mm and not the PRS 49.2 mm? Who knows. All I know is short legged is preferred but long legged should fit most modern PRS.
PRS Listening?? - Long Pickup Legs don't fit! ):-(
BrianC
more toys than talent
I pup a Gibson BB1 in the neck of my SCT - it had to be routed as well
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
By yourself?
darkbluemurder
New Member
BTW - the Lollartron would also not fit in the neck cavity. I could not set it low enough to not touch the strings.
Deaj
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2013
- Messages
- 11
Old thread, but I thought I'd add some information on the off chance that it may be useful to folks who find this thread looking for answers. I've owned several core PRS models (between 2004 and 2009) that allowed for aftermarket pickups with long backplate legs to be installed witout issue. However, my 1987 pre-production CE24 (Alder body, Maple headstock with the words 'PRS Electric' applied via silkscreen) that had to be routed to fit pickup backplates with legs longer than 7mm.
This guitar body is thick enough at the bridge pickup that the routing allows for pickups with long legs to be set at a proper distance between the strings and the pickup poles (1-2mm), but it's too shallow at the neck pickup to allow for routes deep enough to lower this pickup to an appropriate height (~5mm from strings to pickup poles). If I try to lower the neck pickup further than 3-3.5mm the pickup stays put and the pickup height adjustment screw heads begin to move away from the pickup ring. This creates an output imbalance between the bridge and neck pickups, and the neck pickup can sound a bit muddy through some amplifiers. If this were a set neck PRS I suspect that the routes for the neck pickup could have been made a couple of millimeters deeper. This might also be possible with the 1988 to current production CE24's that followed. The neck joint on the 1987 pre-production CE24's is a bit weak by comparison, and only so much material can be removed before the the neck joint is compromised. Without shorter backplate legs the neck pickup is trapped a bit too close to the strings.
The current pickups, a set of Seymour Duncan Seth Lover PAF's, have been in the guitar for 20 or so years (long backplate legs). The guitar itself sounds amazing, but the stock HFS / Vintage Bass pickups were just awful (to my ears anyway). I went trough six or more pickup sets before the Seth Lover's. I'm used to working around the neck pickup height issue, but I'd very much like to be able to address the root cause. AFAIK, there's no backplate with short legs that will work as a drop-in replacement. Regardless, the SD Seth Lover pickups are far and away the best sounding pickups I've had in this guitar and they're going nowhere.
I assume by posts in this thread and by comments I've read elsewhere that there are at least a few core PRS models that may have similar limitations, and that there's no single resolution that will address the issue across all affected models.
If I find a solution (that is, if I find a way to adapt a backplate with shorter legs to fit my SD Seth Lover neck pickup (or modify/shorten the legs on a Seymour Duncan backplate compatible with the Seth Lover pickups) I'll reply here with details.
This guitar body is thick enough at the bridge pickup that the routing allows for pickups with long legs to be set at a proper distance between the strings and the pickup poles (1-2mm), but it's too shallow at the neck pickup to allow for routes deep enough to lower this pickup to an appropriate height (~5mm from strings to pickup poles). If I try to lower the neck pickup further than 3-3.5mm the pickup stays put and the pickup height adjustment screw heads begin to move away from the pickup ring. This creates an output imbalance between the bridge and neck pickups, and the neck pickup can sound a bit muddy through some amplifiers. If this were a set neck PRS I suspect that the routes for the neck pickup could have been made a couple of millimeters deeper. This might also be possible with the 1988 to current production CE24's that followed. The neck joint on the 1987 pre-production CE24's is a bit weak by comparison, and only so much material can be removed before the the neck joint is compromised. Without shorter backplate legs the neck pickup is trapped a bit too close to the strings.
The current pickups, a set of Seymour Duncan Seth Lover PAF's, have been in the guitar for 20 or so years (long backplate legs). The guitar itself sounds amazing, but the stock HFS / Vintage Bass pickups were just awful (to my ears anyway). I went trough six or more pickup sets before the Seth Lover's. I'm used to working around the neck pickup height issue, but I'd very much like to be able to address the root cause. AFAIK, there's no backplate with short legs that will work as a drop-in replacement. Regardless, the SD Seth Lover pickups are far and away the best sounding pickups I've had in this guitar and they're going nowhere.
I assume by posts in this thread and by comments I've read elsewhere that there are at least a few core PRS models that may have similar limitations, and that there's no single resolution that will address the issue across all affected models.
If I find a solution (that is, if I find a way to adapt a backplate with shorter legs to fit my SD Seth Lover neck pickup (or modify/shorten the legs on a Seymour Duncan backplate compatible with the Seth Lover pickups) I'll reply here with details.
