SE Custom-24 Wiring Issue

[Proteus]

Thread title is deliberately vague, in hopes of capturing information from whomsoever may be of help.

The subject is a 2013 SE CU-24 7-string; usual pair of multi-wire 'buckers, 3-way blade switch, volume & tone with push-pull for coil splits.

In middle position, the pickups are so obviously and hilariously out of phase that I can well imagine the guy I got it from never could get the sound he heard in his mind's ear as he tried to get low with the guitar and his Behringer Heavy Metal pedal.

(It does seem hard to imagine the guitar came from the factory so miswired, but the wiring looks original, with no obvious evidence of after-market hackery, and nothing else about the guitar suggests it ever had much use. Both pickups sound fine individually, and coil tapping is working as expected.)

Of course I'm looking for a quick and easy answer to straighten it out. I found a great guts shot here on the site from 2015, and the wiring of my selector switch matches the picture. Next obvious place to look is the push-pull switch on the tone pot, and so far I haven't been visually acute (or patient) enough to compare the pic and my reality.

I realize there are multiple ways it could be wrong, and I'm not giving quite enough info for a clean diagnosis. I don't expect anyone to lay hands on his screen and magically discern the problem. Just hoping that - given that the switch is wired like the reference pic - someone might know the next obvious likely sites of the problem.

A corollary question: as a wiring diagram for this specific model (ie, Custom 24 7-string) doesn't appear in the stash at the PRS site, is it safe to imagine the wiring would be identical to any another coil-splittable SE C22 or C24 with blade switch?

Thanks in advance for the useful information I just know is forthcoming!

 

[show_a_little_faith]

If the wiring is indeed correct, it's possible the magnet in one of the humbuckers was flipped to reverse polarity/phase. For example:
https://www.fralinpickups.com/2020/04/14/how-to-reverse-pickup-polarity-part-2-humbuckers/

 

[Proteus]

Good reminder, thanks.

 

[Proteus]

For what it's worth (to anyone else; at the moment it's significant to me), so far as I can see, the wiring in my SE CU24-7's cavity matches that of the picture posted in this long-ago thread (https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/se-custom-24-7-string-pickup-color-code.6804/)...

... but the connections bear only a partial similarity to the wiring diagram provided by PRS for SE Custom/Standard 24s here: https://d159anurvk4929.cloudfront.net/documents/se_customs_standards__wiring_schematics.pdf.

(As a first frinstance, green & white from both pickups in the guitar go to their own poles on the P-P switch - whereas on the official PRS diagram, green&white from one pickup and red&black from the other go to those poles.) So yeah, maybe that's the obvious place to start - but because other bits of the two sources differ from each other, I'm not confident switching just those wires would improve my situation; they might instead make it worse.

So after inspection and bafflement, my pickups are still out of phase, and I wouldn't even be guessing with a hunch if I tried to make changes. And man is this guitar basically pointless with the middle pickup position out of phase.

It seems unnecessarily frustrating that I can't find authoritative diagrams for a factory PRS guitar...

 

[Proteus]

As far as I can tell (interpreting the two writers' slightly different nomenclatures and descriptions), my guitar is wired exactly as they agree it should be in this thread: https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/understanding-wiring-se-custom-24-7-string-pickups.47209/ .

But my pickups are plinkety-quank out of phase, producing that tone I heard once in the late 70s on first guitar with that option, and never cared to hear again.

Which leaves me only the magnets in the pickups, per show_a_little's reminder...and speculating how or why anyone would have done this to this guitar - and wondering in which pickup I should flip the magnet, how I could tell if that had been done in the past, and whether it matters which.

 

[Proteus]

OK, nevermind.

I love electro-magnetism. Next to gravity and the nuclear forces, it's my favorite fundamental force. I flipped the neck pickup magnet, and all is now well in the land of BIGTone.

I learned at least two things:
• "Just loosen the baseplate screws, slide the magnet out, and roll it over" is about as thorough as the instructions for swapping the engine in your car: "Remove old engine. Install new engine." The magnet does not slide out. One can eventually get it out, though.
• In terms of PITA factor, I'd way rather roll a magnet than solder color-coded angel-hair.

 

[show_a_little_faith]

OK, nevermind.

I love electro-magnetism. Next to gravity and the nuclear forces, it's my favorite fundamental force. I flipped the neck pickup magnet, and all is now well in the land of BIGTone.

I learned at least two things:
• "Just loosen the baseplate screws, slide the magnet out, and roll it over" is about as thorough as the instructions for swapping the engine in your car: "Remove old engine. Install new engine." The magnet does not slide out. One can eventually get it out, though.
• In terms of PITA factor, I'd way rather roll a magnet than solder color-coded angel-hair.

It worked, that's great!
As to how it got reversed initially, I'm wondering if rather than the prior owner doing it (since you said nothing else appears modified/tweaked), maybe it was an accident during the manufacturing of the pickup originally? Although you'd think it would've been noticed at some point during Q/C check.
Well, whatever the cause, at least you've fixed it and can now enjoy your new guitar!