SE Mods

See how it plays and sounds. I think the SE electronics can be fine, unless you get a wiggly switch. If I were to go for pots, I’d do a treble bleed.

Thank you for the info!

Is that taking into account the pickups I’m planning to install?
 
I have two SEs that I have pretty much maxed out, My Custom 24 has almost nothing original (Mann tuners and trem, core nut, core pots, Bareknuckle Stormy Mondays) it is my number one, it is the guitar my professional jazz playing buddy covets.

The second is the 35th Anniversary SE, I couldn't pass on the color and the switching, I like the sounds from the TCIs and the electronics will stay original I have installed the PRS locking tuners a Mann trem and a core nut. It needs some adjusting, which I can't seem to fix, so it will go to Dave's soon for a setup.

Perhaps someday I will get an SE 22 semi-hollow, or a 594 thinline (I really can only play wide thin/pattern thin necks) but for now I am busy setting up my kitcaster.
 
Put in new electronics today along with Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz....

Wow, I love these pickups should have done this a long time ago.

Still waiting on the bridge to come in and then will do a full set up


I bought these tips for my 3 position selector and they do not fit, they look like screw on..

Anyone know the right ones to order?

Paul Reed Smith ACC-4130 Black/Cream
 
I bought these tips for my 3 position selector and they do not fit, they look like screw on..

Anyone know the right ones to order?

Paul Reed Smith ACC-4130 Black/Cream

Found the right one - ACC-4131

The ones I ordered at first were for the toggle switch
 
oh is it ever. The NOS2000 is the bomb. And it doesn't tarnish (like my core bridge from just looking at it.). I have one on a CE and one on an SE.
But it depends on the future of your SE. You won't get the cost of upgrades out of it in case you ever try to sell it.
I left the tuners in. They're pretty decent. And if you know how to string a guitar, locking tuners don't improve tuning stability. They just make string changes faster.
I put HFS/VB in the SE and 59/09 in the CE. SE pups are fine. CE pups are awesome. I stuck with PRS on pups. outside of that I'm an SD guy. They never fail me on tone, and I hold a personal grudge against DiMarzio for the double-cream patent nonsense.

So I got the NOS bridge in from Mann, installed all is well..

Just not sure about the bridge tension.

This shouldn't float correct?

What's a good tension to have on the claw and springs?
 
I believe it should float like the stock PRS bridge.

I was able to get it to float, it was just odd how far out I had to adjust the claw screws compared to the old bridge.

Haven't been able to find and specification on how much float
 
Dropped in the Jackson Electronic Luthiers custom harness into the SE245. I gotta say its gonna take some getting used to. Rand built this harness based on a Vintage 50's LP V&T set up. The factory set up has the Volume and Tone for the neck p/u in the forward position, and the bridge contols in the rear position, as they would sit on the face of the guitar. The J.E.L. harnes has the Neck V&T set on top (V front, T rear) and the bridge V&T bottom. A huge .022uf OIP capacitor spans between the V&T pots.

It took a minute to refigure the wiring, but once i wrote it down and drew cave drawings it all made sense. Install was pretty easy after that.

A couple things I noticed once everything was put back together:

- I cant roll volume up to 10, it cuts out at 9.5
- output seems a little diminished compared to the factory pots.
- it definitely has a more bluesy tone to it, but will stretch into grungy when the tones are tweaked.

I will have to play with the guitar through the week to relearn where the mojo lays in the pots.

L4HmbsE.jpg
 
Input electronics from Buhr (Reverb) in my SE custom 24.

They work great but the tone pot is not a traditional push pull, it's a push push??

Alpha 500 kΩ Push/Push DPDT Coil Split Tone Potentiometer

Wasn't use to it at first but I like it now
 
Dropped in the Jackson Electronic Luthiers custom harness into the SE245. I gotta say its gonna take some getting used to. Rand built this harness based on a Vintage 50's LP V&T set up. The factory set up has the Volume and Tone for the neck p/u in the forward position, and the bridge contols in the rear position, as they would sit on the face of the guitar. The J.E.L. harnes has the Neck V&T set on top (V front, T rear) and the bridge V&T bottom. A huge .022uf OIP capacitor spans between the V&T pots.

It took a minute to refigure the wiring, but once i wrote it down and drew cave drawings it all made sense. Install was pretty easy after that.

A couple things I noticed once everything was put back together:

- I cant roll volume up to 10, it cuts out at 9.5
- output seems a little diminished compared to the factory pots.
- it definitely has a more bluesy tone to it, but will stretch into grungy when the tones are tweaked.

I will have to play with the guitar through the week to relearn where the mojo lays in the pots.

L4HmbsE.jpg

Wait, I see now. In this pic, the two pots on the left are wired as tone controls, and the two pots on the right are wired as volume controls. It appears you have the harness rotated 180 degrees and are using the tones as volumes and vice versa, which would explain the strange behavior.

It should look similar to this, except your pickups are four conductor:

7083654_orig.jpg
 
Wait, I see now. In this pic, the two pots on the left are wired as tone controls, and the two pots on the right are wired as volume controls. It appears you have the harness rotated 180 degrees and are using the tones as volumes and vice versa, which would explain the strange behavior.

It should look similar to this, except your pickups are four conductor:

yes, the drawing from J.E.L. is very similar to that. and yes, I have 4 conductor P/U's. the hot or red lead goes to the Volume pot, the Braid to ground, and the green and white leads are pigtailed and no connected to any component. The volume works like a volume, I just have to remember not to go past 9 when rolling up. the tones work more like distortion, adding more or less as I roll that dial up and down.

this is the assembly card provided with the harness:
tN9IX6C.jpg
 
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