Struggling With SE Hollowbody 2 w/Piezo - HELP

[ShawnF1222]

I bought a SE Hollowbody 2 w/Piezo on line. It's a beautiful looking instrument but the piezo was overloading and the pickups are dark and uninspiring. It looks awesome and plays GREAT, but sounds eh. I think I have the piezo issue dialed back, but now those pick ups. They were adjusted very high and close and I lowered them a bit.

I am also now realizing that anything I do will be costly because it won't be easy to work on.

I would want good clear low output pickups such as Tv Jones Classic (in HB mount); Lambertone Crema's or Lollar El Rayo. Further, if I send money to replace pickups, wouldn't that be the time to put in higher quality pots?

So that's my dilemma. Keep the guitar and work on it over time ($$$) or return it, if I can; or sell it.

Can any other PRS SE Hollowbody owners chime in and let me know your thoughts and observations from owning one. Will a pickup change help or am I pissing in the wind?

 

[Lewguitar]

So you just want to swap the SE humbuckers for something better at this point? Nothing else?

Pickups are where they cut the corners in student guitars but SE's are some of the nicest student guitars around!

If you know a good tech who can do the work, swap the pickups. If you make the right choice, the guitar will sound like a totally professional guitar after.

Professional pickups make an enormous difference.

Simple.

Let a tech do it if you're inexperienced and lack the tools.

What pickups are you thinking of putting in there?

 

[ShawnF1222]

So you just want to swap the SE humbuckers for something better at this point? Nothing else?

Pickups are where they cut the corners in student guitars but SE's are some of the nicest student guitars around!

If you know a good tech who can do the work, swap the pickups. If you make the right choice, the guitar will sound like a totally professional guitar after.

Professional pickups make an enormous difference.

Simple.

Let a tech do it if you're inexperienced and lack the tools.

What pickups are you thinking of putting in there?

TV Jones Classic (in HB mount); Lambertone Crema's or Lollar El Rayo's. Clear low output humbuckers. I didn't see that SD had anything.

Just want sure if it would be worth the investment in an import. I thought maybe others had a similar experience. If I am going to do the pickups I imagine it would be the time to put quality pots (920d / RS Guitarworks) in there.

 

[markd21]

If you are struggling with the guitar, return it. The prices have been cut on those at a lot of dealers. You will take too much of a beating if you sell it. Mine is killer stock - of the 3 SEs I recently bought - the HBII Piezo is the only one that was left intact.

As a side note, I had a P22 that had piezo issues. It was an unending headache, and was too expensive to fix. I just it like a Custom 22 and ignored the piezo. Eventually it annoyed me enough that I sold the guitar at a massive loss because the piezo was sketchy.

Just my 2 cents....

 

[FragileThunder]

If you are struggling with the guitar, return it. The prices have been cut on those at a lot of dealers. You will take too much of a beating if you sell it. Mine is killer stock - of the 3 SEs I recently bought - the HBII Piezo is the only one that was left intact.

This is probably sound advice. Like @markd21 though, I've been super happy with my HBII P. Don't know where/how you bought yours, by mine was from my local dealer, who had it set up and dialed in perfectly and had already adjusted the piezo level. And I'm very happy with the stock PUPs and don't find them dark (and I don't play "dark" music, so...). As with everything, YMMV and of course instrument to instrument differences, etc.

 

[ShawnF1222]

This is probably sound advice. Like @markd21 though, I've been super happy with my HBII P. Don't know where/how you bought yours, by mine was from my local dealer, who had it set up and dialed in perfectly and had already adjusted the piezo level. And I'm very happy with the stock PUPs and don't find them dark (and I don't play "dark" music, so...). As with everything, YMMV and of course instrument to instrument differences, etc.

Thanks man. I had a PRS S2 with stock pickups and those sounded way better. Nice. They were splittable and sounded very Strat-like. These are eh and dark. Or maybe I'm not used to these when my other guitars have bright, clear and low out humbuckers. Not sure.

 

[show_a_little_faith]

I have one of these myself, and actually like the pickups so much that I bought another set and installed them in my SE 35th anniversary 24-08. I'd say in the Solidbody, the 58/15 "S" pickups are warm and smoother, not as bright and cutting as the stock TCI "S" that I replaced. In the Hollowbody, those qualities are even more emphasized because of the nature of the sound of a hollow-body itself.
So it may be that these pickups aren't what you want in that guitar. I would suggest to continue trying to tweak the adjustments (pickup height, Piezo control) if they've helped get you closer, see if you can get what you want with more. But you might ultimately be happier with replacements.
But also keep in mind that any pickup is going to sound different in a hollowbody than it would in an otherwise identical solidbody. That's just the nature of an HB. That warmth, "airiness", etc. that's inherent all HB guitars

 

[ShawnF1222]

I reached out to my tech and his answer made me rethink keeping it. I don't want to gamble that I might like it - investing in a quality set of pickups (300) and the labor, isn't worth the gamble, to me anyway.

Bummer, bc it is a beautiful looking guitar, but the sound is the most important thing. If they sounded as nice as the S2 pickups, I'd probably be keeping it. If you get one and both magnetic and piezo sounds great, that's a total keeper! Maybe I had pot and pickup issues and that's why it's dark.

I appreciate all your helpful answers. Thank you!!

 

[FragileThunder]

Honestly (and no offense intended), it sounds to me like you want the guitar to be something it is not. I have an S2 Cu24, fantastic guitar and completely unlike the SE HBIIP. Arguably, the Cu24 is the "better" guitar but the HB is more "my style" and gets more playing time. I love them both, and their differences are what make them unique. One trick ponies they are not, but each has a lane to fill. Maybe the HBII just doesn't slot in a place musically that works for you.

$0.02

 

[Involt]

The SE Hollowbody II Piezo is okay for me. Mine has the "85/15 S", not the LT ones, but she sounds well, better than the S2 with the same pickups.

The piezo sound, when connected to an acoustic amp, is amazing; the piezo performance on a electric guitar amp is less convincing
.

You can try lowering further the pickups; if the sound is not muddy, there is nothing that cannot be adequately adjusted by the amp tone controls.

In my opinion, if your guitar looks well and plays well, you should try to correct the sound before discarding her. You can always correct the sound, but correcting the aesthetic or the playabilty is far more difficult

 

[tdroid]

Thanks man. I had a PRS S2 with stock pickups and those sounded way better. Nice. They were splittable and sounded very Strat-like. These are eh and dark. Or maybe I'm not used to these when my other guitars have bright, clear and low out humbuckers. Not sure.

The HBII should have come with those same pickups as the S2. You might have gotten a 22 model with the original 58/15 S pickups? The SE HBII should sound very similar to the S2.

 

[Kree]

I have an SE Hollowbody ll Piezo, and (although it seems obvious) a lot of manufacturers use cheap 9V batteries and they can affect the performance of the Piezo a great deal. Once I swapped to Duracell copper top 9V, my Piezo woes dissappeared. I’ve been kicking around the idea of replacing the 85/15 S pups with 57/08’s or even TV Jones Classics. I don’t hate the tones, just curious for now. I’m mixing my signal between my Genz Benz Shen LT 60 and my Orange. The Piezo sounds amazing thru the acoustic amp

 

[tdroid]

Everyone keeps referring to the 85/15 S pickups, but the Hollowbodies come with 58/15 S pickups, which are much lower output then the 85/15s.

 

[Kree]

My mistake, that’s what I meant. I was having a brain fart when I was writing it, so I looked up at some posts above and assumed the 85/15 in the other post was the number my brain was attempting to recall. See what age can do? I meant 58 /15 S

 

[JasonE]

I have two core hollow body guitars. One is a single cut and the other a double cut. Both of mine came stock with 57/08 pickups. They sound as good in these guitars as they do in a solid body guitar. The match well with the instrument.

 

[JPTNYC]

Just so everyone is aware since this doesn't get spoken about a lot - the Piezo board itself has an adjustable potentiometer for output level.
I can't link to the thread since I am new but it is post number 574597 from 2021 - answered by [B]Shawn@PRS[/B]

 

[Nice F Holes]

Considering it's an electric guitar, I think the tech's advice was totally opposite of true.

For an electric guitar, 90+ % of the sound comes from things that are replaceable: amp, pickups, strings, and electronics. If you like how an electric guitar looks, how it feels, and how it plays, you can make it sound how you want it to sound.

If you take your favorite electric guitarist's gear and put all of it in a different electric body, most people wouldn't hear a difference.

That said, I swapped the pickups in the SE HB II just because I had 57/08s on hand that I previously bought for another guitar. And since I swapped pickups I swapped the rest of the electronics, and also had the pups tapped. And it sounds freaking amazing - through literally everything I plug it into: Mesa head, Fender practice combo, even a powered studio monitor.

 

[Kree]

So, I said I was kicking around the idea of replacing the pickups on my Hollowbody ll Piezo, and I went ahead and did it. I’ve installed two 57/08’s and a push pull splitter. I love the tones from these vintage style pickups, and although it Wasn;t cheap, I’m very pleased with my decision.

 

[bodia]

So, I said I was kicking around the idea of replacing the pickups on my Hollowbody ll Piezo, and I went ahead and did it. I’ve installed two 57/08’s and a push pull splitter. I love the tones from these vintage style pickups, and although it Wasn;t cheap, I’m very pleased with my decision.

Nice!