PRS SE Coil Split Tweaks...

[David R. Katz]

The coils split on my SE Custom 24 Zebra and SE Standard Santana sounded too thin so I played around with adding resistors to the push/pull switch.

For the Santana, which has StewMac Golden Age pickups, I put a 2.2k resistor to ground on each leg of the new push/pull tone pot that I added.

For the Zebra, which comes standard with the push/pull tone control, the right values for me came out to be two 2.2k resistors spliced together in series, so the right value was 4.4k ohms to ground.

This keeps a bit of the grounded coil in the circuit which results in not quite so much volume loss and a bit more bottom for a fuller split coil sound. The right value is dependent on a lot of factors, but mostly on 1) what YOU want to hear and, 2) your AMP settings. I'm using a VOX VT40X amp. With those resistance values and tweaking the Fender Clean amp sim I can get a very nice single coil sound with just a bit of quack on the 3 high strings.

Experimentation is the only way to really find YOUR values.

"Monkey with a soldering iron"

 

[garrett]

I've been happy enough with the generic 1.1k neck and 2.2k bridge that PRS uses.

I agree though, the sweet spot surely varies between pickup and user preference.

 

[andy474x]

I find the 2.2k on the bridge too weak. When I dropped the new bridge pickup in my S2 satin, I just left the coil split disconnected. If anything, I like the neck split alone or in combination with the full bridge humbucker, so it works out.

 

[garrett]

I find the 2.2k on the bridge too weak. When I dropped the new bridge pickup in my S2 satin, I just left the coil split disconnected. If anything, I like the neck split alone or in combination with the full bridge humbucker, so it works out.

If you ever feel so inclined, you can experiment with some higher value resistors to beef up the split bridge.

I like your choice though. I like the neck split combos a lot in general.