Sorry..got to laugh about the co$t of 57/08 pickups

It's all just too confusing to me. The complexities of the combination of guitar and pickup just make it so I can never really tell what's due to what.

Heck, I can get as close to a PAF / Les Paul sound from NF pickups in my McCarty 25th as I can from anything. Go figure. I've never swapped pickups out of anything except for a R7 (swapped the burstbuckers with Bare Knuckle Abraxys's) Couldn't really tell the difference. A little hotter, which is nice on occasion, but I always unconsciously tweak the guitar controls for whatever sound I'm going for anyway. Taken as a whole though, the combination of guitar, pickup and wiring certainly make a big difference, but I can't sort out the contributing components.
 
LSchefman said:
And add the amp into the equation...and pedals...
Click to expand...

A-freakin'-men! The moment you generalize you miss out on options that may just release your personal grail tone. Thanks to people here, I've found some very unexpected and amazing solutions.
 
aristotle said:
It's all just too confusing to me. The complexities of the combination of guitar and pickup just make it so I can never really tell what's due to what.
Click to expand...
Toss in the bridge, relationship of where you are to the amp, the room, etc and you can be either in tone heaven or hell with all the same gear.
 
LSchefman said:
And add the amp into the equation...and pedals...
Click to expand...

Never underestimate the power of the Grunge pedal to smooth out all those pesky tone considerations. I call mine The Equalizer as it makes every guitar sound the same. Like crap.
 
Well not really stolen. Actually it jumped into the back seat of my car when I was loading grocerie... um I mean cases of Jack. Contact me so I can send it back to you. :biggrin:
 
NomadMike said:
Would those be the pickups that gave many PRS guitars the "sterile sounding" stigma that I heard so much about? Always wondered if it was true or just a aural figment of those of us who were biased to the Big G Lester sound.
Click to expand...

I think so, personally. I thought the stock PRS pickups were bright and hard sounding back then. And I had no preconceptions about Big G Lester sound because I'd never played one myself. I only "knew" that sound from studio recordings, which is a far cry from feeling it in your hands and ears.

I vastly prefer the PRS pickups from after 2008, which is when I think PRS finally cracked the code and figured out what sounded great with amps that weren't dialed to pristine clean or total filth.
 
I think we should consider the cost of NOT having 57/08s.

Not a world that most of us would like to be in. Not a good world to be in at all...;)

To maintain some sense of relevance, I find that my (rapidly aging) ears prefer lower output alnico-type magnetic pickups, whereas my younger ears leaned more toward ceramics.

This has been accompanied by a shift toward playing with less gain, fewer (if any) effects, and a migrating preference for slightly chunkier, shorter necks.

I don't like the sounds of my older HFS/VB PRSes any less now, or less than I did back then - but I sure do like the clearer, less compressed sounds of the 57/xx based pickups now (in which I include 408s).

That being said, I don't see myself paying for a PTC-installed set of 57/08s anytime soon - any guitar I have that has "needed help" has generally cost me less than those pickups would (PTC installation included). At that point, if I just can't bond with the guitar, I generally unload it. Doesn't happen too often, but it happens...

One way or another...if you want to play, you have to pay...
 
HANGAR18 said:
I cringe when I see a PRS guitar (non-SE) listed for sale on Craigslist where the guy has replaced the original pickups with third party pickups.
Then I scoff when the add referrs to the pickup swap as an "upgrade".
If I were interested in such a guitar, I would make an offer equal to what I thought the guitar would be worth without any pickups at all.
I can see installing PRS USA pickups into an SE; no problem there.
I must be a PRS purist or something.
Click to expand...

I'm right there with ya. Some dude was trying to up sell a 20th anni Singlecut that had Dimarzios in it. Dude, come on. Guy had it priced around 2 Gs, and when it didn't sell the two times around he bumped the price up $500!

I have placed USA PRS pups in all three of my SEs. Love the soapbars in my McCarty. The 57/08s in my Stripped 58 are pretty nice. I'll probably be switching out the bridge for a \m/ when I can. Placed a set of those in my new Se Tremonti Custom and they just f'n rock.
 
Tree said:
..its getting ridiculous how much the covered 57/08 & 59/09 pickups for sale..I guess people are yanking them out of guitars like teeth !! and buying
a new ax lol..or nice down payments ona new car ...
Click to expand...

In what model do they come with ?
 
Lots of different models. They are options in CU 22 CU24 also SC 245 and SC58 and Stripped 58s. Also Stdios come equipped with them in the bridge. These are the ones I can recall off the top of my head, there could be other models too.
 
I've never tried 57/08s but definitely found older PRS humbuckers not to be to my tastes: although the Mira humbuckers in my old KL1812 sounded pretty good.

I love the humbucker and single-coil tones from the 408s in my Paul's Guitar and the Narrowfields in my old Swamp Ash Special so maybe there is something magic in that wire. I went for a BKP Abraxas set in my Les Paul and I suspect the price works out comparably.
 
After many expensive years of looking for the sound in my head my 2 Prs,s have made me find what I was looking for. I have a stripped 58 with 57/08 and a custom 24 with 59/09. Both guitars sound superb and put a smile on my face everytime I play them. I had a Les paul standard for over 10 years, I changed the pickups twice for 2 sets of Bare knuckle pickups. The Bare knuckle pickups came nowhere near the Prs pickups. There's some serious mojo going on with the pickups and the guitars.
 
markj said:
After many expensive years of looking for the sound in my head my 2 Prs,s have made me find what I was looking for. I have a stripped 58 with 57/08 and a custom 24 with 59/09. Both guitars sound superb and put a smile on my face everytime I play them. I had a Les paul standard for over 10 years, I changed the pickups twice for 2 sets of Bare knuckle pickups. The Bare knuckle pickups came nowhere near the Prs pickups. There's some serious mojo going on with the pickups and the guitars.
Click to expand...


The 57/08s I am TOTALLY satisfied with. From straight ahead jazz, to all out rock, I would not even think about replacing them with anything else. I have had my guitars next to the best vintage pieces you could ever find, and the 57/08s at the very least, hold their own. I honestly think anyone who starts swapping them out looking for something more "vintage" or "gibson", is wasting their time and money. YMMV, IMO, etc etc.
 
I've got one 57/08 in my Studio model along with two 57/08 Narrowfields. I like them enough that I want to hoard as many as I can get. So I just bought a banged up NOS McCarty Narrowfield (has two 57/08 Narrowfields only) from Guitar Center and it is currently on a slow moving pack mule (haha not really, its a truck) making its way across the country as I type this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Pickup Decisions…HELP!
2
Replies
36
Views
4K
AZGiant
AZGiant
CardMeHD
Questions about my first PRS - 30th Anniversary or no?
Replies
4
Views
2K
CardMeHD
CardMeHD
TFC
A couple of NGDs
2
Replies
24
Views
3K
rugerpc
rugerpc
B
Still don't know why the Studio and the NFs had to go
2 3
Replies
53
Views
5K
HANGAR18
HANGAR18
G
Guita shop trip today
Replies
18
Views
1K
guitarman001
G
Back
Top