Tell me about 57/08 Pickups

Dirty_Boogie

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My wife wants to buy me a 25th Anniversary CU24 for our 25th anniversary this year (lucky me!). I see that the those guitars came loaded with 57/08 pups - if you’ve had personal experience with them, please give me your impressions. Are they really vintage sounding? If I have a McCarty with 58/15’s, will they be of a similar vintage vibe. I really want a CU24 to be my hard rock/metal guitar, so am on the fence now. I could, of course, switch them out for something hotter and more modern like 85/15’s. Decisions...
 
My wife wants to buy me a 25th Anniversary CU24 for our 25th anniversary this year (lucky me!). I see that the those guitars came loaded with 57/08 pups - if you’ve had personal experience with them, please give me your impressions. Are they really vintage sounding? If I have a McCarty with 58/15’s, will they be of a similar vintage vibe. I really want a CU24 to be my hard rock/metal guitar, so am on the fence now. I could, of course, switch them out for something hotter and more modern like 85/15’s. Decisions...
Congratulations on your upcoming 25th! I’ll be interested to hear what those with 57/08s have to say, particularly in how they compare with 58/15LTs. I’ve considered putting a set of 57/08s in my HB-I to get it closer in tone to my 594 HB-II, but I’ve got zero firsthand knowledge on them. And I don’t want to give up a kidney for another set of LTs.

Monitoring your channel, sir..
 
57/08's are pretty "vintage" sounding--more so than the 58/15's. Although that doesn't necessarily mean they're not good for metal (everybody likes different pickups to get high-gain tones; heck, Slash's signature set are not all that hot) but just know that they're not terribly strong output compared to other more "high output" humbuckers.

On the plus side, one strongly-recommended set by PRS enthusiast Phillip McKnight (on YouTube) is the 57/08 in the neck/bass position and a \m/ "metal" pickup in the bridge/treble position. So perhaps if you end up not liking the 57/08 in the bridge, you could always swap it out for a \m/.

Oh, and the 25th Anniversary birds & the two-tone cases from that year are both pretty cool, and unique to that year (2010). I think they're pretty cool...
 
My 2012 P22 was one of the first to get 57/08 when they ran out of 53/10.
Although they are not hot in any way, they are clear and beautiful.
They take gain well and clean up perfectly.
I have a special run 2021 CE24 with 57 08s ,I'm tryna to get an idea of how well that will work for me...or not? What do you think
 
Well, I'm suddenly feeling old if people are asking about 57/08s as if they're ancient history... Kinda like somebody I heard of who was asked "are you really old enough to have seen a Playstation 2 for realz?"

Anyway, I digress...

The 57/08s are not a high-output pickup, they were meant to compete with vintage PAFs. They were a breakthrough for PRS in trying to get that sound, and they are really good-sounding pickups. So much so that I retrofitted all my pre-57/08 PRS guitars with 57/08s, or their sibling 59/09 or 53/10 pickups. Yeah, I play metal with 'em (courtesy of an Axe-FX III).

I find the 58/15 LT pickups (I don't have any not-LT 58/15s to compare to) to be lower output and brighter than the 57/08s. I know the 58/15s and 58/15 LTs have pretty much taken over the PRS pickup world of late, but I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to buy one with 57/08s. And the ones I have now aren't getting swapped. If you want them to drive a vintage-style amp into screaming distortion they won't do that, but if you've got a modern amp (or modeler or whatever) with a decent amount of preamp gain, yeah you can play hard rock and metal with 57/08s. And they'll sound really good.
 
Well, I'm suddenly feeling old if people are asking about 57/08s as if they're ancient history... Kinda like somebody I heard of who was asked "are you really old enough to have seen a Playstation 2 for realz?"

Anyway, I digress...

The 57/08s are not a high-output pickup, they were meant to compete with vintage PAFs. They were a breakthrough for PRS in trying to get that sound, and they are really good-sounding pickups. So much so that I retrofitted all my pre-57/08 PRS guitars with 57/08s, or their sibling 59/09 or 53/10 pickups. Yeah, I play metal with 'em (courtesy of an Axe-FX III).

I find the 58/15 LT pickups (I don't have any not-LT 58/15s to compare to) to be lower output and brighter than the 57/08s. I know the 58/15s and 58/15 LTs have pretty much taken over the PRS pickup world of late, but I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to buy one with 57/08s. And the ones I have now aren't getting swapped. If you want them to drive a vintage-style amp into screaming distortion they won't do that, but if you've got a modern amp (or modeler or whatever) with a decent amount of preamp gain, yeah you can play hard rock and metal with 57/08s. And they'll sound really good.
Thanks for your input, this gives a little more insight
 
57/08 are not terribly vintage, nor are 58/15. They are both more clear and crisp, and higher output.

I’d say 58/15LT is the right amount of output, but still crisper than vintage. I like it better than vintage in any case.
I'm using it for a wide range of studio work, wanted to make sure it was versatile enough
 
Well, I'm suddenly feeling old if people are asking about 57/08s as if they're ancient history... Kinda like somebody I heard of who was asked "are you really old enough to have seen a Playstation 2 for realz?"

Anyway, I digress...

The 57/08s are not a high-output pickup, they were meant to compete with vintage PAFs. They were a breakthrough for PRS in trying to get that sound, and they are really good-sounding pickups. So much so that I retrofitted all my pre-57/08 PRS guitars with 57/08s, or their sibling 59/09 or 53/10 pickups. Yeah, I play metal with 'em (courtesy of an Axe-FX III).

I find the 58/15 LT pickups (I don't have any not-LT 58/15s to compare to) to be lower output and brighter than the 57/08s. I know the 58/15s and 58/15 LTs have pretty much taken over the PRS pickup world of late, but I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to buy one with 57/08s. And the ones I have now aren't getting swapped. If you want them to drive a vintage-style amp into screaming distortion they won't do that, but if you've got a modern amp (or modeler or whatever) with a decent amount of preamp gain, yeah you can play hard rock and metal with 57/08s. And they'll sound really good.

This is 100% spot on!
 
I put a set of 57/08’s in my old CE 24. It’s a fantastic combination. Time to state (yet again) that PRS pickups are extremely height sensitive, more than any other pickups I’ve ever played. There always seems to be one, and only one sweet spot to my ears. When you hit it, the good stuff happens.
 
I put a set of 57/08’s in my old CE 24. It’s a fantastic combination. Time to state (yet again) that PRS pickups are extremely height sensitive, more than any other pickups I’ve ever played. There always seems to be one, and only one sweet spot to my ears. When you hit it, the good stuff happens.
Hey Dogrocketp thanks for that insight, I actually spoke with a tech at PRS and said that I should adjust the height up by a quarter turn to get the desired effect. I did it and I'm not sure of I hear or feel the difference. Maybe I should defer to a guitar tech to fine tune it some more
 
I have 57/08s in one guitar (and have had several other guitars with them), 85/15s in a CU24, 58/15s, and 58/15 LTs in others.

Of all of them, the 57/08s are my favorite all-around pickups. They're well-balanced, and a bit fatter in the midrange than the 58/15 series, which makes them well-suited for a wide variety of genres of music. The 85/15s are definitely hotter, and suit the CU24 well, so for higher-gain players (I'm not), they'd sure be worth looking at, especially for the bridge pickup.

Despite my 57/08 love, I like the 58/15 and the LT versions of that pickup, too. It's good to have choices.
 
I have 57/08s in one guitar (and have had several other guitars with them), 85/15s in a CU24, 58/15s, and 58/15 LTs in others.

Of all of them, the 57/08s are my favorite all-around pickups. They're well-balanced, and a bit fatter in the midrange than the 58/15 series, which makes them well-suited for a wide variety of genres of music. The 85/15s are definitely hotter, and suit the CU24 well, so for higher-gain players (I'm not), they'd sure be worth looking at, especially for the bridge pickup.

Despite my 57/08 love, I like the 58/15 and the LT versions of that pickup, too. It's good to have choices.

Thanks for that L Schefman
 
Thank you all for your detailed replies - I definitely respect your input and experiences. I think I’ll get to know them - they sound pretty versatile - and if I need something hotter, I’ll replace the bridge pup.
 
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