PRS pickups VS seymour duncan and VS dimarzio

[hiwema]

hello

sorry for my bad english

I've bought a 2012 PRS SE Custom 24
Very bright sound , the difference between the neck and the 2 picups together is subtile.
I like to have the neck replaced to get a warm fatty warm blues sound,
Wat pickup do I need to get a very warm fat Bluessy sound?

And the main reason for the question,
with what kind of pickup can I compare the mounted ones, with s duncan or dimarzio, or/and is there a compair like?

is there a tone chart for them?

hope somone can tell me :adore: ;-)

harry

 

[VHTStark]

The pickups in your guitar are the SE versions of the PRS HFS and Vintage Bass found in the USA Custom 24. The HFS is a high-output bright pickup which can definitely get brittle in clean and low/mid gain situations. IMO it is at its best in a high gain rock context.

TONS of pickups you can choose and all three brands have great pickups that would fit the bill.

For PRS: the 57/08 and 59/09 pickups are really versatile. Both are PAF style pickups but are slightly different. The 59/09 has a few more winds than the 57/08 giving it a little more juice and a stronger mid-range kick. A high-output PRS with a warm fat sound is the Dragon1.

For 'Duncan: if you want warm, I would look at their pickups with alnico2 magnets. The A2P's, the Slash set would both be great! A little more output....the CustomCustom.

Dimarzio: not a big Dimarzio guy, but the 36th Anniversary PAF set comes to mind.....awesome set!

 

[maxtuna26]

For Dimarzio, you can always check out their pickup picker. When bluesy tone is what you want, the 36th anniversary PAF or the Air Classic. If you want more output you could go for the Air Norton or Breed. Maybe FRED or PAF Joe will work too, depending on whether you like Satriani's tone or not. Dimarzio has the customer satisfaction policy, so if you accidentally bagged a pickup that you don't like, just send them back to Dimarzio and you can exchange it for a different pickup in the same price range Tone charts, you say? Dimarzio put them over their website and it's hard to unsee it! There are useful soundclips as well. For Seymour Duncan, i think they do have a tone chart somewhere, just go look for it

I had a set of D Activators which is exactly the opposite of what you want! :laugh: Could be more happier with Dimarzio, especially when they come in cream!



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[Slartibartfarst42]

Those stock PRS pickups are actually pretty good. I've also used Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio pickups and while I much prefer DiMarzio, as soon as I'd tried Bare Knuckle, I just couldn't use anything else. They're more expensive but until you've tried them, you wouldn't believe just how good and articulate a pickup can be. My main PRS uses a Bare Knuckle 'Holydiver' in the bridge and an 'Emerald' in the neck. The Holydiver is very 80's Metal but is actually very versatile indeed. A bit like a Seymour Duncan JB but with better tone and none of the mush. The Emerald is like a hot PAF. I've just ordered a set of Crawlers for my other guitar for more of a Blues/Rock tone. If you're looking at pickups, it might be a good thing to start learning about magnets. This is what Tim Mills, the MD of Bare Knuckle has to say on the subject:

"Magnets do add to the character of a pickup although it must be understood that a magnet doesn't have a sound on it's own, it contributes by the way it accentuates certain frequencies as current is produced in the coil windings.
Alnico II is the softest and generally has a smooth bass and treble although this is more pronounced the hotter the windings get.
Alnico III is very transparent, low output and clean,sounds great for rounded fat jazz applications-typical of '50s tone.
Alnico IV is probably the best vintage tone IMHO(for humbuckers) and along with II and III was used in the earliest PAFs-this is a fact and not myth as we've had them analysed and a collegue of mine has also seen original Gibson purchase orders that clearly state AIV bar stock being purchased.The tone of AIV is balanced and extremely organic, it produces the most authentic vintage tone and sits better in slightly hotter vintage winds than AII which tends to get very soft in the bass and highs if used incorrectly.
Alnico V is the hottest producing more highs and lows, great for rock applications or where power and cut are important.
Ceramic 8 is more powerful and essentially more efficient so the resulting tone usually has a very fast tracking bass response with a distinct cut in the highs.Some players find them cold/hard when run clean and they can cause a lot of compression from their relatively hot output-again, depending on how you use them, they are capable of good clean tones too but the general consensus is that Alnicos are sweeter run clean."

Obviously there's a lot more to pickups than simply magnets but that's a good place to start when thinking about what you want.

 

[maxtuna26]

^ yeah, the stock ones are pretty good and versatile, but we tinkerers just love tinkering and modifying our stuff, aye? :laugh: For the OP, if you want affordable but great tones, stick with SD or Dimarzio. If you're wanting even better pickups there's always the BKP, Lollars, The Creamery all that kind of boutique pickup in the market if you're willing to pay higher. I've only heard good stuff about them, so yeah! I believe lots of the forumites here are fans of the USA-made PRS pickups as well. For the vintage tonality, there's the 57/08, 59/09 and the 53/10. For higher gain stuff, there's the SC250/Tremonti, the SC 245 is slightly tamer but still high gain, the original HFS and Vintage Bass, and the very fresh new \m/ pickup which puts out some awesome noises haha

 

[blaren]

I put a 59/09 bass in the neck of my Tremonti SE Custom. LOVE it..but it made the guitar's stock bridge pickup sound inferior/inadequate so I swapped it too for a Duncan Custom Custom. Now it's my favourite guitar!

 

[hiwema]

Thanks for answerring mu qeastion, but I put in an Dimarzio DP 160 on the neck and I love it ;-) pure sustain ;-)
Just the warm sound I want, and with the pickup selecter in de middle it looks like a single coil sound, and to the bridgde is naturally the same as allwaus. clean and high in tone
There could be a differance in sound in an ather guitar, , I've got the heavyist body they sold, pure mahogany. And this one is very heavy.

In my former guitar i build a Seymour Duncan "59 SH1 in the neck, but this one is a lot warmer

 

[kevinabb]

Reviving a slightly dormant thread. There are a lot of good ideas and suggestions here, but I'd like to take it to a higher level of tinkering. (And for some reason my "return" key is not working here, so please pardon the single-paragraph formatting!)
I've bought and sold many pre-2000 PRS Customs and Standards but never did pickup experimentation, because unfortunately the value on those guitars drops a lot of if you even look too long at a solder joint. So I don't know how any particular PRS pup model compares to any widely-used non-PRS pickups: Gibson Classic '57, Burstbucker 2, Burstbucker V. Duncan Custom or Pearly Gates or '59, etc. DiMarzio 36th, PAF Pro, Norton, Air Classic, etc. I know how all of those pups compare to each other but have no idea where any PRS pups would fit in the mix. So, I just received an SE Fredrik Akesson and a Mikail Akerfeldt, and can't wait to start de-soldering, re-soldering, rewiring, drilling, filling, and otherwise thoroughly molesting a pair of PRS guitars and making them my own little Frankensteins! The Akesson has SE 245 treble & bass pups, the Akerfeldt has SE HFS Treble and SE Vintage bass. I'd love some opinions on how these compare to those other pups which I know inside and out. Thanks!! BTW, if anyone can point me to a thread or site where this is discussed, please do! I couldn't find one.

 

[JKendrick]

I have an '89 Custom 24 that I would like to put new pickups in. I'm considering the Seymour Duncan 59s, the DiMarzio 36th Anniversary, and the PRS 59/09. If I went with the SD 59s, do I need to get short legs? Also, it's my understanding the DiMarzio and PRS have short legs and will fit as is. Is that correct? I've never replaced pickups and I obviously don't want to modify the body.

Any opinions on these? How do they compare?

 

[gush]

Io put a dimarzio fred in my ce24. It fit without issue but the sc250 pickup i bought wouldnt. Gibson pickup wouldnt fit in my mccarty which doesnt matter now because it now has a 5909 and that will stay.

 

[chewpac]

for anyone with an akesson or se245, i would absolutely recommend the dimarzio 36th anniversaries. they are beautiful sounding pickups, and they do many things well. i put them in my akesson (with covers - really kicks up the looks on the guitar!) and they were a perfect match.

i had tried dragon Is in the same axe, and while i could hear the potential in the pickups, they didn't jive with that particular axe - too warm/bassy. i think in a custom 22/24, they would be fantastic.

i've had good luck with a bunch of dimarzios over the years, and not as much experience with duncans, but for the warm/bluesy thing, the alnico 2 pro set would be perfect. add a custom custom in the bridge for some extra juice, as necessary.

no experience with bare knuckles yet. i recently threw a set of david allen voodoo blues into my strat with incredible results, and i would look at his humbucker offerings without hesitation.

 

[SharkGuitar]

I've got a lot of guitars and they are loaded with Duncan's, DiMarzio's, PRS's, Bill Lawrence, Carvin's, Reverends, and GFS pickups.
Of all the pickups I have and have used, these are my favorites;
http://www.railhammer.com.
I play melodic instrumental shred and these have the most articulate and open tone of all the pickups I have.
I bought the 'Chisel' version and I think they are now available on StewMac.com.
The idea behind the different magnet shape for the wound strings is brilliant and I'm not sure why somebody didn't think of this sooner.

 

[John Beef]

I have an '89 Custom 24 that I would like to put new pickups in. I'm considering the Seymour Duncan 59s, the DiMarzio 36th Anniversary, and the PRS 59/09. If I went with the SD 59s, do I need to get short legs? Also, it's my understanding the DiMarzio and PRS have short legs and will fit as is. Is that correct? I've never replaced pickups and I obviously don't want to modify the body.

Any opinions on these? How do they compare?

You should be in for a somewhat drastic tone change from modern to vintage going to a SD59 or 36th Anny pickup. Your HFS is wound with 43 gauge wire and has a ceramic magnet, vs the other two which are 42 gauge wire and Alnico 5 magnets. If it was me I'd get the 36th Annys, but that's only because I've just had terrible luck with Duncans. 59/09s will get you more into hot-vintage territory. Those would be my choice, but they're a lot more expensive.

Yes, definitely get the short legs!! In my Custom 22, even with the stock PRS medium length legs I have maybe one full turn of the screw difference between the screw falling off the leg on the low end, and the pickup touching the strings on the high end.

 

[ResidentRenzo]

For a bluesy warm tone I'd recommend the Duncan Antiquity JB/Jazz Set. This will give you hard rock tones on bridge p/u and clean jazzy on neck p/u. I plug either into a Fender DRR 22w or GT Soul-o 75w with overdrive pedals. It's a good combo for blues and classic/hard rock tones. I've got some sound clips to share if you're interested.

Peace,
-ResidentRenzo.