PRS Wiring Mods Resource Thread

I have a request....is there a way to wire a 5 way rotary (PCB) with a Tremonti in the bridge and a Vintage Bass in the neck and each pickup having a separate volume? Assuming the tone pot would become a volume for the Vintage Bass.

Definitely. Hot wire from each pickup goes to its respective volume first (just like a Tremonti) and then out to the corresponding lug on the rotary. Then, the hot wire out from the rotary (that would usually go to the master volume on a Custom) goes straight to the jack.

The only question mark I have is pickup polarity. It might take a little testing/tweaking to make sure you're in phase and getting the desired coil combinations.
 
So the good news is, I'll be getting the TCI versions, bad news is I'm on my own :)
But hopefully I can get it sorted with PCT. If I have a ready made solution for it, I will post it back here. Thanks!
Ok, I got original PRS mini toggles (just like in the Paul's Guitars) and went ahead to start modding my HB II. Sidenote: it's been over a month and still no answer from PTC...

Since I had to pull the piezo to install the toggles it basically is a Paul's Guitar now, with TCI 58/15LTs, so I used that wiring diagram as a base:
1.png


But since I also wanted to mod the tone pot to be a bass mod I mixed it with the lower portion of this diagram:
2.png


So instead of going out of the volume pot to the output jack, as in pic 1, I went out of the middle lug of the volume pot into the middle lug of the the tone pot as in pic 2 and then straight to the output jack.

But all I get is static...

I s there something fundamentally flawed with my approach? Also now when I touch the tone pot (which as to the wiring diagram is not grounded) most of the hum goes away (no cap on it yet), but no guitar sound.

By the way, the bass mod worked great on a Les Paul style guitar. The tone pots aren't grounded there either, according to someone on some other forum it is not necessary in this scenario and it does work like this. That's all great, except I get the occasional audio spikes, but only when I play! That's another construction site... maybe there is someone going 'I know why that is' and feels like sharing?

Thanks!
 
Some more ways to get the stock 5-way selections. These are for the PRS single conductor pickups with the white tap wire.

In this scenario, Bare is shield and ground, Black is hot, White is tap. Pickups are same polarity.

At first I worked it out like this. It makes an easy replacement for the stock wiring since you can reuse all the jumpers that were already there. You just need to find a happy place to ground those braided wires. You may want to use some heat shrink tubing to avoid shorts.
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I later realized you can do this with only one row of lugs, which frees up the second row for other ideas if you want.
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Got a super switch? You only need one row of lugs there, too. Or purchase a 2-pole super switch to save some room.
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Pardon me if this has already been covered, but I have a Swamp Ash Special HSH with a 5 way blade switch and a push pull pot to split the humbuckers. I was wanting to put another push pull pot in the volume position so I can engage the two humbuckers at the same time without drilling a hole for a dpdt switch. Anyone know of any diagrams for this?
 
Pardon me if this has already been covered, but I have a Swamp Ash Special HSH with a 5 way blade switch and a push pull pot to split the humbuckers. I was wanting to put another push pull pot in the volume position so I can engage the two humbuckers at the same time without drilling a hole for a dpdt switch. Anyone know of any diagrams for this?

This is a common move for Strats, so you can just borrow the push/pull setup from here.

3S_5W_1VppENB_2T.jpg
 
Hmm..so how would I route the signal to have both humbuckers together using that diagram? Run wires from the hot of each to the dpdt?
They come from the factory with them together on one switch. I’m thinking you won’t need to worry about how to do that.

Or perhaps I didn’t understand the question.
If you want both to be humbuckers, you leave the knobs pushed in. If you want both humbuckers live at the same time, you push both knobs in and put the switch in the center position. No need to rewire.
 
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Apologies if this has been covered before. I’ve been scouring this and other forums looking for the answers but have come up empty so far.

I’m the proud owner of an SE 24-08 and have upgraded the bridge, nut, and tuners, and am now working on the pickups.

I have a set of dragon2 pickups which I have installed and work perfectly in humbucker mode. When I split the coils I get sound from both of them but it is very faint. Im not able to wire the dragons exactly as the stock pickups were because the dragons don’t have a green wire. For reference I’ve been looking at the wiring diagram for the SE Paul’s guitar. (Let’s see if I can embed a good picture of what I have. I may not be able to yet because of forum rules.)
 
I used a small green lead as a jumper on the black wire. Had a mishap while stripping the main sheath and lost a good chunk of both the white and black. Where you see the green wire here is the black from the bridge pickup.
 
I used a small green lead as a jumper on the black wire. Had a mishap while stripping the main sheath and lost a good chunk of both the white and black. Where you see the green wire here is the black from the bridge pickup.
I could be wrong, but it’s my understanding that whenever we split a humbucker for true single coil, there will be substantial signal loss. I think some manufacturers beef up the signal with extra windings or stacking single coils. But I think in this case, signal loss is to be expected. I, and some others, make up the difference by setting levels with the singles, and cutting in the buckers for soloing, or using a booster to make up the difference.
 
I could be wrong, but it’s my understanding that whenever we split a humbucker for true single coil, there will be substantial signal loss. I think some manufacturers beef up the signal with extra windings or stacking single coils. But I think in this case, signal loss is to be expected. I, and some others, make up the difference by setting levels with the singles, and cutting in the buckers for soloing, or using a booster to make up the difference.
Ok. Well I take that to mean I did the installation correctly. While I won’t be able to use just a split coil by itself, I am a big fan of all of the other combinations I can get with the switches. It makes all three of the possible center positions distinct, with the singles adding just a little bit of flavor. Like they are the salt and pepper to the humbucker instead of the gravy to the mashed potatoes. [sorry for the food analogy. Breakfast was light this morning and its where my brain is at right now]

The rest of the things you mentioned, (setting levels, and using a booster), those things happen in the effects chain? Is there some magic capacitor that I’m missing next to the tone knob?
 
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Ok. Well I take that to mean I did the installation correctly. While I won’t be able to use just a split coil by itself, I am a big fan of all of the other combinations I can get with the switches. It makes all three of the possible center positions distinct, with the singles adding just a little bit of flavor. Like they are the salt and pepper to the humbucker instead of the gravy to the mashed potatoes. [sorry for the food analogy. Breakfast was light this morning and its where my brain is at right now]

The rest of the things you mentioned, (setting levels, and using a booster), those things happen in the effects chain? Is there some magic capacitor that I’m missing next to the tone knob?
Let’s say you’re setting up to perform. And let’s say you’re going into a direct box and then to the house board. The sound guy is going to need to adjust gain on your channel to set your volume levels; both boosted and non boosted. I suggest that you have that done while in single coil mode. That gives your single coils the oomph they need to sound good. Then when solo time comes, you can go humbucker or booster pedal. The same is true for if you’re using an amp. Set your gain and master using single coil. Then kick in the buckers or booster pedal for soloing. If you want to use buckers for non-solo sections, cut back on your volume knob a bit.
Just a different way of looking at your initial setup.
 
Hi, would anybody happen to know how the new PRS SE Hollowbody II piezo guitars are wired at the output jack plate. There are two outputs:

1) magnetic pickups and 2) piezo/magnetic blend

I always coil split to either a push/push or push/pull on the volume knob and the stock pickups in these (though 4 wire, from what I have read) do not have the function wired to a mini or pull pot. I am going to stick a set of Irongear Blues Engines in it as they very nice in a semi or hollowbody and wire in the split option. I use it a lot in these type guitars.

Has anyone performed the mod, if so could you let me know what you encountered?

I am well used to modding guitars, I do it all the time but it is no harm to ask someone who has done this already for any tips in advance of surgery!

Thanks in advance, Gene.
 
I used this same concept on my '98 McCarty with two "push/push" pots for being able to individually coil split both. :cool:
Works out nicely, because with true coil split, you use a lot of punch. But I can get the single coil chime and put a little punch back in, with either pup. It gives me so many different tones. I like to put on a blues background track and walk through all of the different combinations.
 
I have done this on several guitars and it is great for soloing too. Do any of you happen to know the exact wiring scheme to the output jacks, how it is done?

The piezo board, is it glued in place or can it be removed?

I am either going to use a push/push or a mini toggle for the split. The mini toggles are better. I wire them so that a flick upwards of the little finger goes to full buck mode. I have fitted many to laminates but you could always get a wood split. Hasn't happened yet but the potential is there!! Yikes...........
 
I have done this on several guitars and it is great for soloing too. Do any of you happen to know the exact wiring scheme to the output jacks, how it is done?

The piezo board, is it glued in place or can it be removed?

I am either going to use a push/push or a mini toggle for the split. The mini toggles are better. I wire them so that a flick upwards of the little finger goes to full buck mode. I have fitted many to laminates but you could always get a wood split. Hasn't happened yet but the potential is there!! Yikes...........

I'm fairly useless with piezo setups, but here is the diagram from PRS. Outputs are on the PCB, so you may have to trace the circuit.

https://support.prsguitars.com/hc/a...19/prs-se-hollowbody-piezo-wiring-diagram.pdf

If it's anything like the Core versions, you can pull the whole guts out from the side.
 
I did some digging, probing, pushing, pulling and palpating and here's the answer to the five-wire 85/15TCI pickup colour codes. The request for wiring info comes up fairly frequently here on PRS forum, so I hope it will be off use to some.

85/15 TCI Bridge:
- GREEN Screw/South coil Start
- RED Screw/South coil Finish
- WHITE Slug/North coil Start
- BLACK Slug/North coil Finish
- SILVER BARE or ORANGE wire - Chassis Ground / pickup shield

85/15 TCI Neck:
- RED Screw/South coil Start
- GREEN Screw/South coil Finish
- BLACK Slug/North coil Start
- WHITE Slug/North coil Finish
- SILVER BARE or ORANGE wire - Chassis Ground / pickup shield

From here, creating the wiring of your choice, should be a breeze
 
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