I recently purchased two PRS humbuckers from a friend who got them with a private stock guitar he purchased a while ago. These were supposedly the original pickups in the guitar but the previous owner had changed them out. The neck pickup still has the sticker on the back labelled 1985 Bass. The bridge pickup has no identification on it. Both pickups have been inscribed, the neck with a B, the bridge with a T. If anyone happens to know whst the bridge pickup name is please let me know. This isn't really the issue.
The neck pickup seems to be wired opposite to the PRS specs that I've been able to find. The white is negative and the black is hot. I've determined this using a voltmeter connected to the black and white leads then tapping on the pickup slugs watching which way the needle deflects. According to PRS, their neck pickups are wired as white (hot) and neck (negative). The bridge pickup is wired white (hot), black (negative). This is also opposite to PRS specs. I checked the Dragon II's that came in my PRS and they are wired per PRS specs. In both pickup sets the neck pickup magnetic polarity is screw coil south and slug coil north. For the bridge, both slug coils sre south and the screw coils are north as per PRS specs.
The issue I'm running into is wiring up the pickups so they're not out of phase and that the slug coils operate in single coil mode. The main problem seems to be with the neck pickup. In order for the slug coil to work I have to reverse the hot and negative leads (white becomes hot, black becomes ground). Doing this causes the pickups to be out of phase. Wiring it oposite to this gets rid of the phase issue but now the screw coil works in single mode and it's very weak and brittle sounding. In mid position and bridge it seems to sound ok.
Does anyone have any idea what I can do to fix this? Thx.
The neck pickup seems to be wired opposite to the PRS specs that I've been able to find. The white is negative and the black is hot. I've determined this using a voltmeter connected to the black and white leads then tapping on the pickup slugs watching which way the needle deflects. According to PRS, their neck pickups are wired as white (hot) and neck (negative). The bridge pickup is wired white (hot), black (negative). This is also opposite to PRS specs. I checked the Dragon II's that came in my PRS and they are wired per PRS specs. In both pickup sets the neck pickup magnetic polarity is screw coil south and slug coil north. For the bridge, both slug coils sre south and the screw coils are north as per PRS specs.
The issue I'm running into is wiring up the pickups so they're not out of phase and that the slug coils operate in single coil mode. The main problem seems to be with the neck pickup. In order for the slug coil to work I have to reverse the hot and negative leads (white becomes hot, black becomes ground). Doing this causes the pickups to be out of phase. Wiring it oposite to this gets rid of the phase issue but now the screw coil works in single mode and it's very weak and brittle sounding. In mid position and bridge it seems to sound ok.
Does anyone have any idea what I can do to fix this? Thx.
