Replacing Pickups in a Piezo PRS

[Johan Allard]

Hi guys,

I just figured something out so I'd thought I'd share. I have have PRS P245 Semi-Hollow. A while ago I replaced the pickups with a DiMarzio Bluesbucker in the neck and a Bareknuckle Abraxas in the bridge. Worked well, except that the piezo blend just didn't seem to be working at all.

This last week or so I saw a Facebook post from someone wanting to install 57/08's in a P22 and PTC had replied to a query that it wasn't compatible, even with a magnet swap. Strange. So I'd thought I'd do some experimentation. First, I re-installed the original 85/15's and yes, the piezo blend now worked great again.

So then I did a magnet polarity check. Almost all pickups from other brands are:

neck | south-north north-south | bridge

but when I checked the PRS ones I have: 85/15's, 59/09's and 408 pickups they are reversed from the standard:

neck | north-south south-north | bridge

Normally, it wouldn't matter as long as you're not trying to mix one PRS pickup with one from another brand. I.e. two Bareknuckle Pickups or two DiMarzio pickups in a Custom 22 will work just fine, but using say a 59/09 neck with a Bareknuckle Bridge and you're likely going to run into issues.

So what I now figured out what happened is that the non-PRS pickups was out of phase with the Piezo pickups, and that's why the blend "didn't work". It was just a super weak signal that wouldn't really blend, it would cancel each other out. So when I tried the Bareknuckle pickups again, first reversing them to get the same magnetic polarity as the PRS pickups. But that alone didn't do the trick. I then ran the electrics in reverse, grounding red and using black for the hot signal and b-i-n-g-o, everything worked great. I then reversed the pickups again (would just look really weird otherwise with the screw coils in the middle) and it still worked great, so there's the conclusion:

When installing non-PRS pickups in a PRS Piezo equipped guitar, you have to reverse the electric polarity - ground what's normally the hot output, and use what's normally ground as the hot output.

Hope it's useful for someone .

 

[Stoopalini]

Interesting. I recently replaced the Archtop pickups in my Hollowbody II with Lindy Fralin humbuckers. I ordered the Fralins with the standard Gibson wiring (2 conductor - center wire with grounding braid) and wired them up normal. The blend on mine works fine, and I don't notice any signal loss.

How did you check the pickup polarity? I'd be happy to check the archtops and fralins ... do you just use a magnet with a known N and S pole and move it close to the pickup's pole pieces?

 

[dmatthews]

Nicely done sir!

 

[ReptilianNosewood]

Yeah science!

 

[bluenova]

Can you explain further what the PTC was talking about when they said it wasn't compatible with 57/08's? I've got a hollowbody with a piezo and 57/08's.

 

[dmatthews]

I'm told by PTC that my P22 has factory 5708s

 

[goat-n-gitter]

I'm told by PTC that my P22 has factory 5708s

If you look at the pickups in a P22/P24, the hang tag and the sticker on the back just says P22, although they are wound as 57/08s, or 53/10s in the early ones and 58 or 85/15s in the newest ones. I believe this is because they change the polarity/magnet orientation as the OP described. I had heard that it wasn't perfectly straightforward to swap pickups in these models.

 

[Johan Allard]

I wasn't in contact with the PTC myself so my info that it wasn't compatible is just hearsay from my part. But this comment is what spawned my interested in investigating this issue in my own case, which is why I mentioned it.

If you're interested in swapping pickups yourself and are not really sure, I would (and did) get a bunch of wires with crocodile clips in both ends and just wire everything up with the crocodile clips and try and see if it matches what you want. That way you can easily try every option without soldering. Makes testing everything a lot easier.

I would also get a magnet tester so you can test if your new pickups matches the magnetic polarity of the existing. And if they don't it would be a red flag that you may have to do some additional tweaking.

 

[Joe kohler]

Hey Johan, Thanks so much for posting this information. I am looking to swap out the 2 stock pickups in my p24 with 2 4 wire Dimarzios.
By any chance do you have pictures or a drawing to help me do this?
Thanks!

 

[Rider1260]

Putting new pickups in Brian Cs P24 was a bit of an adventure like the OP said

 

[Callan]

oh what? I haven't tried the blend in my HB II since putting BKP Mules into it.
I actually leave the battery out I use the Piezo so little (and like to leave my guitars plugged in at gigs)
maybe it's not a big deal for me, but now I'm curious...

 

[Andrew Paul]

I am replying to this thread since I recently installed Lindy Fralin Pure PAF pups in my PRS HBII/Piezo. I’ve had no issues with blending in the Piezo and magnetic pickups. The leads on the pickups are just the two conductor Gibson type braided and hot wire.

Below is a link to an audio sound clip, demonstrating the magnetic/Piezo blending, working completely as intended. I cannot speak for other manufacturers of pickups, but these Fralin pups work properly with PRS piezo.

PRS HBll Lindy Fralin PAF/Piezo blend

This track demonstrates Lindy Fralin, pure PAF pickups in a PRS, hollowbody I I/Piezo. Demonstrates the blending of magnetic pickups with the PRS Piezo.

on.soundcloud.com

 

[Rod/]

Hi guys,

I just figured something out so I'd thought I'd share. I have have PRS P245 Semi-Hollow. A while ago I replaced the pickups with a DiMarzio Bluesbucker in the neck and a Bareknuckle Abraxas in the bridge. Worked well, except that the piezo blend just didn't seem to be working at all.

This last week or so I saw a Facebook post from someone wanting to install 57/08's in a P22 and PTC had replied to a query that it wasn't compatible, even with a magnet swap. Strange. So I'd thought I'd do some experimentation. First, I re-installed the original 85/15's and yes, the piezo blend now worked great again.

So then I did a magnet polarity check. Almost all pickups from other brands are:

neck | south-north north-south | bridge

but when I checked the PRS ones I have: 85/15's, 59/09's and 408 pickups they are reversed from the standard:

neck | north-south south-north | bridge

Normally, it wouldn't matter as long as you're not trying to mix one PRS pickup with one from another brand. I.e. two Bareknuckle Pickups or two DiMarzio pickups in a Custom 22 will work just fine, but using say a 59/09 neck with a Bareknuckle Bridge and you're likely going to run into issues.

So what I now figured out what happened is that the non-PRS pickups was out of phase with the Piezo pickups, and that's why the blend "didn't work". It was just a super weak signal that wouldn't really blend, it would cancel each other out. So when I tried the Bareknuckle pickups again, first reversing them to get the same magnetic polarity as the PRS pickups. But that alone didn't do the trick. I then ran the electrics in reverse, grounding red and using black for the hot signal and b-i-n-g-o, everything worked great. I then reversed the pickups again (would just look really weird otherwise with the screw coils in the middle) and it still worked great, so there's the conclusion:

When installing non-PRS pickups in a PRS Piezo equipped guitar, you have to reverse the electric polarity - ground what's normally the hot output, and use what's normally ground as the hot output.

Hope it's useful for someone .

Not to confuse things but I just installed a pair of Dragon 2’s in a Corsa LP… they really sound great btw……
So that the middle tone was in phase I had to wire the bridge pickup with hot wire = black and white wire = ground
The neck pickup had to be wired as hot wire = white, and black wire = ground….