PRS pickups in a PRS vs another guitar

[NDogg]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about getting a PRS. Whenever I hear a PRS I think it sounds great with beautiful warmth and fullness/clarity. I'm thinking about getting the Santana pickups because I've heard him live and love his tone (although he has his amp bass knob turned up too much for my liking). I've also heard him play with his SG and def doesn't sound as good so not just magic hands lol. Anyway, I am concerned because I have dragon 1 and dragon ii (in neck and bridge respectively) in my les Paul and am not thrilled with the tone (not warm and full enough for me) and the neck by itself is muddy sounding but not sweet. I've also tried the Santana SE model and love it... Warm and very smooth. Better than my les Paul IMO. I am concerned because I know the dragons are similar to Santana's pickups. Does the prs guitar itself have a huge impact on tone?

Im also wondering if the santana pickups are for me. I like warm, smooth and clear.

 

[gush]

Try lowering your drag 1 in the neck a little. I have dragon 1s in a ce22 and the bridge is very full and very warm the neck can be muddy if it's too high.

I have a cu22 with dragon 2s. It sounds like 57classics through my 5150 cab. All my other prs guitars sound better through cab with seventy80s.

 

[NDogg]

Thanks... You have them in PRS guitars though so it may be different... Which is what I'm trying to figure out from being in a non prs. My Gibson may also be a dog.

 

[gush]

I had a L.P. classic with 500T in bridge. I put one of those in my McCarty but it didn't sound near as good. I put a 5909 in bridge of McCarty and it sounded really good. It sounded a lo t like the L.P. classic but slightly better growl.

 

[NDogg]

did the LP sound good with the 500T? Did you try the 59/09s in the LP?

 

[gush]

The LP sounded great with 500T. The 500T in McCarty was just ok. The 5909 in McCarty sounded a lot like the L.P. with 500T but with more better growl.. I didn't swap pickups in the L.P. so I can't give you any info about that.

 

[Nomad]

I have a firebird with a mira treble pickup in the bridge position and it sounds fantastic. Clear, but not thin or spikey.

 

[NDogg]

I still have a hunch that PRS guitars have warmer/better tone than most other guitars because of the wood quality (whatever they do to the wood humidity, etc.) and because of how they are built. I could guess that the 500t didn't sound good in the core PRS because maybe it was too big/muddy/warm sounding as the PRS pickups need to compensate for that. PRS are also not snappy guitars but I personally don't care about that.

 

[gball]

I have a firebird with a mira treble pickup in the bridge position and it sounds fantastic. Clear, but not thin or spikey.

I put the pickups from my Mira in a LP "just because" and they sound fantastic. Haven't got the height dialed in just right for my ears, but if the first hour of noodling is any indication they may be staying in the guitar for quite a while.

 

[dogrocketp]

I put a pair of USA Mira pickups in a Tremonti SE Custom. Love at first string bend. It's got balls to the walls.