PRS Tremonti Trem Neck Pickup Swap

[StevenZ73]

Hey All,

I am looking to replace the neck pickup in my Tremonti Trem guitar. My gripes with the neck pickup is that it is really dark and muddy. While it is ok for high gain lead work, it really doesn't shine for clean blues or jazz type work which I also play. I am looking for a pickup out of the PRS range that has warmth but with good clarity. Ideally, I would like to swap it for a 58/15LT bass pickup, but those are unobtainable. Out of the available pickup range from PRS, which models do you guys have experience with that you would recommend I look into?

Thanks,
Steven

 

[alantig]

\m/. Very versatile pickup.

 

[Alessandro]

57/08 is a great neck pickup

 

[JasonE]

Google search "anti mud mod" and look into that. I would try that before I swapped the pickup out. It is cheap enough to try.

 

[Greywolf]

57/08 or Lollar Imperial I have both .. Jimmy Herring swaps his PRS pickups out with the Lollar Imperials ...

 

[Maertl513]

Have you ever considered to have a look at the capacity of your guitar cable, @StevenZ73?
The lower the capacity (in pF/m), the less is a cut of the high frequencies.
The higher the capacity, the darker a guitar could sound.
My cable has got 75pF/m, which is low.

On the other hand side: Is the amp's EQ untouchable?
Prior buying a new pickup I recommend to adjust the amp setting and check the guitar cable's capacity.

 

[StevenZ73]

The guitar cables I use are the PRS high end signature line cables. I have tried to adjust my amp's EQ, but doing so doesn't yield and chime like tone from the neck pickup. It just sounds very flat. I had the same experience with the neck pickup on my Gibson Explorer which is another large chunk of mahogany. My other humbucker guitars (Custom 24 & 408) neck pickups all sound great through my amp's clean channel same settings. The Tremonti though, not so much. Very dark, muddy, and lacks clarity.

 

[Maertl513]

The VanDamme cables, which are branded for PRS, have low capacity, too, I found out after posting my comment.
Then this part of the signal chain needs no further care.

I have two of them, approx. 19 feet each, in my FX Loop Send-Return, two VOVOX sonorus protect A600 in the pre-amp area (guitar to compressor, small patch cable to Eventide 90H Dark, and then the second VOVOX connecting the Eventide with the amp).

Have you adjusted the pickup height of the treble pickup a little bit closer to the strings?

 

[StevenZ73]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions! After listening to some videos online and reading reviews, I decided to order a 57/08 neck pickup and will be installing that into the beast this weekend. I shall report back on how she sounds after the swap.

 

[FennRx]

Jim Wagner crossroads.

His pickups are better than any humbucker PRS has ever made

 

[Lindgren-Swe]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions! After listening to some videos online and reading reviews, I decided to order a 57/08 neck pickup and will be installing that into the beast this weekend. I shall report back on how she sounds after the swap.

Are you going to keep the bridge pickup ?

 

[StevenZ73]

Are you going to keep the bridge pickup ?

Ohh yes very much yes. The bridge pickup is the most fiery ridiculous sounding pickup I have ever heard and makes me laugh like a giddy school girl.

 

[Lindgren-Swe]

Ohh yes very much yes. The bridge pickup is the most fiery ridiculous sounding pickup I have ever heard and makes me laugh like a giddy school girl.

Okey, I bought a Tremonti in the middle of last year but almost knew in advance that I wouldn't like the pickups, so I ended up with a set of 59/09 and I'm very happy.
I hope you will like 57/08 and it would be nice to hear what you think. I actually bought a complete set of these too with but haven't tried them yet.

 

[Mvr6t]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions! After listening to some videos online and reading reviews, I decided to order a 57/08 neck pickup and will be installing that into the beast this weekend. I shall report back on how she sounds after the swap.

How do you like it? I have a stop tail Tremonti and have felt the same way about the neck pickup. I’d like more top end and clarity with a tight low end.

 

[Rider1260]

I would look at the 85/15 , I think it would pair well with the Tremonti Treble and give you the ability to split the neck pickup and those are available

 

[StevenZ73]

I never got around to installing it. But I did find that the neck pickup is particularly sensitive to height adjustment. When I adjusted it to the spec mentioned on the PRS video for adjusting pickup heights it sounded a lot clearer.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend the 85/15 pickup as it has a weird "aww" sound to it. Almost like a slightly cocked wah pedal and is the main reason I got rid of those pickups in my Custom 24 and swapped for a \m/ set. The \m/ bass pickup would probably pair well with the Tremonti treble.

 

[Juan Luis Vidal]

I would also go for the 85/15...sonicwise it can be a very good match to the tremonti treble: but bear in mind that the Tremonti pups are hotter than the 85/15s or some the pups mentioned in previous posts. Some adjustments might be needed.