PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo Project

CipherHost

CipherHost

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Location
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So I did a little tinkering with my SE HB II Piezo about 6 or 8 months ago because when the guitar was shipped to me, the PU selector switch was damaged and I replaced it for a partial refund on my purchase. I experimented with different configurations and ended up wiring the 58/15 S for parallel B, N, or both. Since then I ordered a couple 3x3-05 Free-Way Ultra switches to experiment. I'm limiting the project in that NO changes to the body of the guitar will be made, i.e., no new holes for switches.

I read in one post in this forum that you can't replace the tone pot with a push/pull pot because there is not enough room due to the circuit board. While this is 100% true, I thought maybe I would just swap the positions of the Piezo and Tone pots.

So I just sent a message to Free-Way asking this:
"I'm looking at the "HH Parallel Scheme 1V/1T" and the "HH Phase Scheme 1V/1T" using the 3x3-05 Free-Way Ultra. I'm installing in a PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo. Factory pickups (58/15 S): Bridge PU - North points to the slug, Neck PU - North points to the screws. Is it possible to access the configurations of both schemes if I add push/pull pots for the volume, tone, or both?"

I'll let you know what they say when they get back to me.
 
Thought I would keep those interested in the loop...

I received a reply today from Free-Way:
I'm having some difficulty answering your question due to not being able to find any definitive information on the 58/15 S pickups...
My belief is that the US equivalents of these pickups are 4 conductor - but, that they are constructed differently in that one of the coils has a tap wire and that (in normal PRS fashion) the link between the two coils is efectively internal to the pickup. If so, this means that it may not be possible to configure the two coils in parallel. I don't know if the "S" version of these pickups is the same as that - do you happen to know?
Sorry about this, I'm sending you questions rather than answers...

My reply:
The pickups have 4 conductor wires. The original factory wiring went like this:
Neck PU: Green(pos) > screw coil > Red(neg) > Black(pos) > slug coil > White(neg) > pot
Bridge PU: Red(pos) > slug coil > Green(neg) > White(pos) > screw coil > Black(neg) > pot
I've based the (pos)/(neg) on needle deflection using an older Volt/Ohm Meter.
North/South polarity is based on the compass readings in the attached picture.
I do not want to alter the body of the guitar in any way (i.e., drill new holes for switches).
I can install different pots for both volume and tone for more flexibility.
Your wiring diagrams label North, South, Start, and Finish color codes.
I would be grateful if you could match those to the colors of my pickups.
I have attached 4 pics I hope can help. Let me know if you need any other info.
I appreciate your help!
Thank you,

Switch Bridge Side.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Switch Neck Side.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

PU Neck.JPG

drive.google.com drive.google.com

PU Bridge.JPG

drive.google.com drive.google.com
 
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Reactions: T_K
Mar 11, 2022, 11:15 AM:

OK, from what you say these do appear to be standard 4 conductor pickups, they also do appear to be a reverse magnetic polarity set, hence the wire colours have been transposed when comparing the neck and the bridge. This is fairly normal for PRS. I think the cross reference to our diagram is this:-

Bridge
  1. North Start (FW Red) - PRS Black
  2. North Finish (FW Grey) - PRS White
  3. South Finish (FW Dotted Grey) - PRS Green
  4. South Start (FW Black) – PRS Red
Neck
  1. North Start (FW Red) - PRS White
  2. North Finish (FW Grey) - PRS Black
  3. South Finish (FW Dotted Grey) - PRS Red
  4. South Start (FW Black) – PRS Green
My last question:
Just one more clarification please... (sorry for the novice question)
If I use the "HH Phase Scheme 1V/1T" diagram and the cross reference PRS color codes you just provided, then Series O/O/P and Parallel O/O/P will be correct?

Free-Way Reply:
Yes they should be. The pickups are magnetically reverse phase but the transposed wire colours will effectively put them back into phase with each other (as thy were on your guitar). The Free-Way will then select them individually or assign them into one of the four combinations as shown on our diagrams. Thinkng further, I'm not sure that the 3X3-05 will fit into the 'F' hole of this guitar... Did you check I wonder?

My reply:
The switch does not fit through the f-hole, but it can fit through the bridge pickup hole. (Edited)
 
Last edited:
Making some progress... Had to take it apart...

1 Disassembled.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Very impressed with the quality of this guitar...

2 Inside empty 1.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

3 Inside empty 2.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Used shielded wire...

4 Sheilded 1.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

5 Sheilded 2.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Push Pull grounding and wiring...

6 Push Pull Grounding.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

7 Push Pull wiring.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Wiring the Free-Way switch...

8 Switch wiring.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Wiring the switch and pots harness...

9 Switch and Pots prewired.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Installed into guitar before wiring pickups...

10 Switch and Wiring Installed.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Views of the inside after installing harness...

11 Inside tone pot.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

12 Inside switch side.jpg

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Using this wiring. I included the color codes to account for the color differences and reverse polarity.

Hollowbody w color codes.png

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Getting there!

I'll do some sound examples after she's done.
 
Last edited:
So... I put everything together and went to listen to all the beautiful tones coming out of this setup. Started on the normal bridge pickup. Sounded great! Switched to the normal neck and bridge position and... no sound. :( Only 3 of the six toggle positions produced sound. :( :( The coil split seemed to work for the toggle positions that worked.

Broke out the DVM and started measuring for shorts of the neck PU. Found it, then had to pull everything out of the guitar to work on it. Ugh.

Some of the things that made it a little confusing:
1) Converting the colors from the diagram to the color scheme of these pickups. The modified diagram above did help though.
2) Converting the pickup colors to the colors of the wiring I used to connect everything. They only had red and black wires in them.
3) The number of connections and their routing is a little daunting. Just doing the coil split would have been much easier.
4) Creating general schematic notes rather than detailed notes and a checklist. Note: Pilots use checklists for a reason!
5) Connecting one lead to ground that was supposed to go to a different location on the push/pull pot. Damn! :(

A couple hours later she was all together again and I've played around for about 30 minutes trying out the 6 toggle positions and 6 coil split positions. I used my AxeFXIII. I only used Input, shunts, and Output blocks (no amps, cabs, or effects) into a pair of Celestion F12-X200 cabs and a pair of Atomic CLR Neo cabs.

Positions 1, 2, and 3 sounded as they normally would.
Position 4 is very bold and a fair bit louder. (to be expected)
Position 5 is very quiet and, well... different in a strange way. I'm not used to that sound. More on that later.
Position 6 is also very quiet, but more pleasing to my ears than position 5 at first listen.
Positions 5 and 6 sound pretty cool with a piezo blend!
All 6 positions sound very nice coil tapped! I kind of prefer them to some extent.

So... I'm tired now, but I will record some tones and post them in a couple days for those interested.

Peace!
 
CipherHost said:
So... I put everything together and went to listen to all the beautiful tones coming out of this setup. Started on the normal bridge pickup. Sounded great! Switched to the normal neck and bridge position and... no sound. :( Only 3 of the six toggle positions produced sound. :( :( The coil split seemed to work for the toggle positions that worked.

Broke out the DVM and started measuring for shorts of the neck PU. Found it, then had to pull everything out of the guitar to work on it. Ugh.

Some of the things that made it a little confusing:
1) Converting the colors from the diagram to the color scheme of these pickups. The modified diagram above did help though.
2) Converting the pickup colors to the colors of the wiring I used to connect everything. They only had red and black wires in them.
3) The number of connections and their routing is a little daunting. Just doing the coil split would have been much easier.
4) Creating general schematic notes rather than detailed notes and a checklist. Note: Pilots use checklists for a reason!
5) Connecting one lead to ground that was supposed to go to a different location on the push/pull pot. Damn! :(

A couple hours later she was all together again and I've played around for about 30 minutes trying out the 6 toggle positions and 6 coil split positions. I used my AxeFXIII. I only used Input, shunts, and Output blocks (no amps, cabs, or effects) into a pair of Celestion F12-X200 cabs and a pair of Atomic CLR Neo cabs.

Positions 1, 2, and 3 sounded as they normally would.
Position 4 is very bold and a fair bit louder. (to be expected)
Position 5 is very quiet and, well... different in a strange way. I'm not used to that sound. More on that later.
Position 6 is also very quiet, but more pleasing to my ears than position 5 at first listen.
Positions 5 and 6 sound pretty cool with a piezo blend!
All 6 positions sound very nice coil tapped! I kind of prefer them to some extent.

So... I'm tired now, but I will record some tones and post them in a couple days for those interested.

Peace!
Click to expand...
Congratulations! I applaud your ambition in tackling this, and seeing it through to get what you wanted. Looking forward to hearing some samples
 
Here are the tones of the 6 positions of the Free-Way Switch and those 6 positions coil tapped. The signal path is out the Piezo/Mag output into the AxeFXIII (Input1 block > shunts > Output1 block, no effects) into Audacity. Sound was exported as a wav file and synced to video. No adjustments were made to compensate for volume differences in toggle positions and I kept things very simple playing wise for comparison sake. I have not included the piezo blending I originally recorded to keep this video short, but it really does help with the out of phase positions.

 
Last edited:
CipherHost said:
Here are the tones of the 6 positions of the Free-Way Switch and those 6 positions coil tapped. The signal path is out the Piezo/Mag output into the AxeFXIII (Input1 block > shunts > Output1 block, no effects) into Audacity. Sound was exported as a wav file and synced to video. No adjustments were made to compensate for volume differences in toggle positions and I kept things very simple playing wise for comparison sake. I have not included the piezo blending I originally recorded to keep this video short, but it really does help with the out of phase positions.

Click to expand...
Is the video still available? I'd love to hear this. I have an SE Hollowbody II as well and am very interested in doing an upgrade like this.
 
Hi! Slightly off topic, but I was wondering if you noticed the name of the pickup on the label and what your serial number is?
 
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