gpdb
Guitar Pickup Database
- Joined
- May 13, 2022
- Messages
- 30
Hi everyone - Ever since the TCI nomenclature came out, it's been incredibly confusing to follow. From many posts I've seen on the internet about it, it seems that a lot of other people were confused too. So I did a bunch of research, and I think I've written a clear and concise article describing its history and what it really means. Here's the link to the full article:
guitarpickupdatabase.com
I'll create a summary here though for anyone who just wants the main points. The TCI name was first released at the end of 2018 when PRS announced the 2019 Paul's Guitar. It had the first "TCI" pickups, and were named exactly that. When it was first announced, there was no mention of a process, and they focus on the mini-toggles. In the video overview, Bryan Ewald mentions that the TCI pickups and the way they switch came from research between Paul and John Mayer on the Silver Sky, so technically the 635JM was the first TCI-tuned pickup. I'll get to the mini-toggle system later as that's still a part of this whole thing. At the end of 2019, PRS announced that all core models for 2020 would be getting the TCI treatment, which was one of the first mentions of TCI being a process. There was an earlier mention in Guitarist Magazines May 2019 issue, and there they go into a bit more detail. However, I'm sure many people didn't have access to that.
In January of 2020, PRS posted a video titled "TCI Pickups with Paul Reed Smith." This is the first full communication from PRS about TCI being a process. Paul mentions how inductance and capacitance combine to create a whistle/note, and that they are trying to approach pickups now by targeting that note. The whistle Paul is talking about is the resonance curve of the pickup. Every pickup has a resonance curve and peak, and the character of that peak is what more or less defines the sound of the pickup. I have the equipment to measure this curve, see below for the curve of the 85/15 "S" pickups:
If you can hit consistent capacitance and inductance numbers on your pickup, you can consistently replicate this curve, and therefore make a consistent sounding pickup. This is the core of what TCI is - find the best sounding pickups, measure them, and recreate them. As for their measuring process, there's a bit of confusion here. There's been mentions on this forum from an employee that Paul was using technology from his other company, Digital Harmonic, to measure pickups beyond what a simple oscilloscope and drive coil can create. However, in the Guitarist Magazine article, they show an image of a basic oscilloscope (exactly what I used to make my charts above), with the caption that reads “this signal analyser allows PRS to ‘see’ how its pickups will sound.” So whether they're just using that or Digital Harmonic is a mystery. Regardless, the outcome is still the same. Get the measurements, and recreate them.
As to how they are intentionally hitting inductance and capacitance numbers, my theory is they've created a winding machine that measures those numbers in real time. That's just an assumption though, they may not be doing that. But that would explain what they mean when they say they're targeting those metrics.
Now for the mini-toggles, which are also part of the TCI system. While mini-toggles may seem like a simple convenience to the player instead of push-pulls, they actually are doing a couple other things. First, they allow a humbucker to be split into an isolated single coil. This means that instead of sending one coil to ground, it gets removed entirely from the circuit. PRS claims this is better, but they still sell many guitars that split their humbucker by sending a coil to ground. Secondly, they allow for additional sound tuning when engaged. In the same way that a pickup has inherent capacitance, you can also add more capacitance to affect the sound before the signal leaves the guitar. This is what they do on the mini-toggles, they're effectively reshaping the sound of the pickup without having to design it in a way that would affect the humbucker. This feature only appears to be on the core models, as the SE Paul's guitar doesn't do this. I've got an image in the full article showing the wiring.
So overall, TCI is a pickup model name (TCI and TCI "S"), an updated version of many pickup models since 2020 (you could almost think of it as a v2), and for guitars with mini-toggles like the Paul's Guitar or 24-08, it's also an electronics system.
For anyone that's interested in the resonance curve of other SE pickups, I made a post yesterday with all the humbuckers curves: https://forums.prsguitars.com/threa...resonance-curve-comparison.51736/#post-715199
PRS TCI Pickups Explained
PRS TCI has been confusing guitar players since it's introduction. Find out everything we know about PRS TCI pickups.
guitarpickupdatabase.com
I'll create a summary here though for anyone who just wants the main points. The TCI name was first released at the end of 2018 when PRS announced the 2019 Paul's Guitar. It had the first "TCI" pickups, and were named exactly that. When it was first announced, there was no mention of a process, and they focus on the mini-toggles. In the video overview, Bryan Ewald mentions that the TCI pickups and the way they switch came from research between Paul and John Mayer on the Silver Sky, so technically the 635JM was the first TCI-tuned pickup. I'll get to the mini-toggle system later as that's still a part of this whole thing. At the end of 2019, PRS announced that all core models for 2020 would be getting the TCI treatment, which was one of the first mentions of TCI being a process. There was an earlier mention in Guitarist Magazines May 2019 issue, and there they go into a bit more detail. However, I'm sure many people didn't have access to that.
In January of 2020, PRS posted a video titled "TCI Pickups with Paul Reed Smith." This is the first full communication from PRS about TCI being a process. Paul mentions how inductance and capacitance combine to create a whistle/note, and that they are trying to approach pickups now by targeting that note. The whistle Paul is talking about is the resonance curve of the pickup. Every pickup has a resonance curve and peak, and the character of that peak is what more or less defines the sound of the pickup. I have the equipment to measure this curve, see below for the curve of the 85/15 "S" pickups:
If you can hit consistent capacitance and inductance numbers on your pickup, you can consistently replicate this curve, and therefore make a consistent sounding pickup. This is the core of what TCI is - find the best sounding pickups, measure them, and recreate them. As for their measuring process, there's a bit of confusion here. There's been mentions on this forum from an employee that Paul was using technology from his other company, Digital Harmonic, to measure pickups beyond what a simple oscilloscope and drive coil can create. However, in the Guitarist Magazine article, they show an image of a basic oscilloscope (exactly what I used to make my charts above), with the caption that reads “this signal analyser allows PRS to ‘see’ how its pickups will sound.” So whether they're just using that or Digital Harmonic is a mystery. Regardless, the outcome is still the same. Get the measurements, and recreate them.
As to how they are intentionally hitting inductance and capacitance numbers, my theory is they've created a winding machine that measures those numbers in real time. That's just an assumption though, they may not be doing that. But that would explain what they mean when they say they're targeting those metrics.
Now for the mini-toggles, which are also part of the TCI system. While mini-toggles may seem like a simple convenience to the player instead of push-pulls, they actually are doing a couple other things. First, they allow a humbucker to be split into an isolated single coil. This means that instead of sending one coil to ground, it gets removed entirely from the circuit. PRS claims this is better, but they still sell many guitars that split their humbucker by sending a coil to ground. Secondly, they allow for additional sound tuning when engaged. In the same way that a pickup has inherent capacitance, you can also add more capacitance to affect the sound before the signal leaves the guitar. This is what they do on the mini-toggles, they're effectively reshaping the sound of the pickup without having to design it in a way that would affect the humbucker. This feature only appears to be on the core models, as the SE Paul's guitar doesn't do this. I've got an image in the full article showing the wiring.
So overall, TCI is a pickup model name (TCI and TCI "S"), an updated version of many pickup models since 2020 (you could almost think of it as a v2), and for guitars with mini-toggles like the Paul's Guitar or 24-08, it's also an electronics system.
For anyone that's interested in the resonance curve of other SE pickups, I made a post yesterday with all the humbuckers curves: https://forums.prsguitars.com/threa...resonance-curve-comparison.51736/#post-715199
Thanks!
