PRS Pickup History?

[Axis39]

As a really new PRS owner, having not had a lot of interest, until I discovered my SE Santana. And, as much as I love my Santana, I haven't fallen in love with the pickups. I've got a couple of buds who've owned and loved PRS guitars over the years, and most have sounded fantastic.

So, my question is, is there a good write up on the history, or progression, or even current PRS pickups? Something with reasonable and meaningful descriptions?

 

[Boogie]

Here’s something for your ears, first...

 

[dogrocketp]

Get the PRS history, and read through forum posts, keeping in mind that sound is subjective.

 

[jvin248]

...I haven't fallen in love with the pickups. ...

If you start swapping pickups, don't forget that the pots and caps have as much influence on the tone as the pickups.

My order of tone fix progression, try a step and move to the next one if not fixed. Sometimes test over a couple days as your ears get fatigued and hard to sort out changes if done all at once.
-adjust pickup heights, often lower is better (turn up the amp a little if you need to)
-adjust screw pole heights (stagger on the neck, level with each other on the bridge)
-change the tone cap from 0.047uf to 0.033uf
-measure volume pot kohms across the outer lugs, find a similar pot with higher for brighter or lower for darker tones. Pots have a 20% range and it matters.
-if fighting muddiness, then use that 0.047uf cap in-series with the muddy pickup hot lead.
-now swap pickups but start back at the top of the list.

I've fixed guitars with a nickel capacitor swap instead of a $200 pickup.

.

 

[László]

Also, as crazy as it sounds, cables matter. For example, the PRS cables’ capacitance is about 25 (I’m thinking that’s picofarads per foot, but please, some EE here needs to correct me if I’m using the wrong term). But go to a Mogami cable and you’re around 40 per foot. So you’re going to lose high frequencies faster. Other cables can be even worse, including some very expensive brands, though some folks WANT the high frequency rolloff of a higher capacitance cable, Carlos Santana among them.

I have an expensive cable made by Lava that’s got a lot of capacitance, and it sounds terrible with my guitars, but good with my bass. That’s why I didn’t return it.

Don’t forget to add in the capacitance of pedalboard interconnects between pedals. And there’s the cable from pedalboard to amp, that adds more capacitance, which is why some players (I’m among them) have a buffer first in the pedal chain. Once the buffer’s in the signal path, cable capacitance stops being much of a factor in typical cable runs.

 

[Axis39]

Get the PRS history, and read through forum posts, keeping in mind that sound is subjective.

Is The PRS History a book?

The idea that sound is subjective is always a struggle... speakers, pickups, strings, amps... It can drive a brother up a wall!


@jvin248 - I've built a number of guitars, and fiddled with them for 35 years now. I agree 100% about adjustments and pots and caps before pickups. But, it probably can't be restated enough... Mostly to keep me from waisting money on new pickups! LOL

@LSchefman - I'm of the mind that life should be simple... I tend to buy decent cables, but I don't go crazy... No George L's, no Mogami, no super-duper-gold-plated-unobtanium for me. I actually bought s bunch of 20', $10 cables from a website a few years ago that have been incredible performers. I'll have to dig up the link.