Triple soapbar suits putting a p90 humbucker in bridge!

[mildew]

Cost cutting by PRS makes the triple soapbar ideal for turning into a two p90 + p90 humbucker guitar.

What am i on about?

On a proper three singlecoil set (p90 or strat), the middle pickup is reverse wound / magnet.

On a normal two singlecoil set, the bridge pickup is reverse wound / magnet.

But on the triple soapbar, instead of using a proper three pickup set, PRS puts a normally wound neck in neck position, another identical neck pickup in middle, and a reverse wound in bridge - saving money by not buying separate correct pickup sets for their three pickup models.

This completely ruins the neck/mid position - instead of being humbucking quack, its two identical pickups being mixed, and kinda pointless.

Since the pickups on the triple soapbar are really intended for a two pickup guitar, if you move the bridge pickup to middle, put a p90 sized humbucker with coil tap in the bridge,and replace the pickup selector with a standard strat 5 way, everything works much better.

Ive got the front knob on the guitar controlling the volume of the neck pickup, and the tone knob is replaced with a pullpot controlling volume and tap for the bridge humbucker.

Guitar now goes from twang to shred Its kind of a p90 superstrat!

 

[John Beef]

 

[rugerpc]

squirt

 

[toothace]

This

 

[justmund]

I had a CU22 Soapy and actually liked that the bridge was RWRP and not the middle. Why? Because the middle position of the 5-way switch is neck/bridge and not the middle pickup by itself (this is how I have my SAS \m/ setup).

I argue that it wasn't a "cost cutting" measure and more an informed choice by PRS, because of the way the 5-way works.

In fact, having the middle PU RWRP would be cost cutting, because then they would use a "regular" 5-way which would be cheaper than the 5-way they use.

The neck/middle on mine still had heaps of quack, albeit non-humbucking, but we don't play P-90 equipped guitars because they're low noise do we?

That said, putting a humbucker in the bridge is a bitchin' mod. What does it sound like in the middle position though? In phase but not hum cancelling?

 

[mildew]

Pics of the original pickups, after i moved the bridge pickup to the middle

And some with the p90 humbucker in.

It works really well - with the reverse/reverse bridge pickup in the middle, neck/mid is humbucking and quack, and having the higher output bridge pickup in the middle means i can screw the pickup low without it having a weaker output.

Luckily the default coil tap wiring on the humbucker was the correct one to make mid / bridge also humbucking quack when tapped.

So ive got 7 sounds, 3 are humbucking and 2 quack - neck, neck/mid, mid, mid/bridge tapped, mid/bridge humbucker, bridge tapped and bridge humbucker.
Even tho the mid / bridge quack is made of a p90 and half a humbucker, it still sounds really good.
Ive wired the pots as two volumes, one for neck and one for bridge - mid is always on 10
This is my only PRS with a trem, so it has to double as a widdly guitar.

Apart from the pickup change, today i replaced all the pickup springs with shims i made out of little stacks of paper, and screwed the pickups down hard onto them.
Its made a large tonal change to the guitar. More bass, more sustain, more even sustain over the fretboard, but less "twang".

imo the unusual selection options of the stock prs 5-way are a bodge to conceal that the neck and middle are both the same pickup with same polarity. But its sure worked out well for me on this guitar

A question about vol pot wiring - is it possible for one pot to control the volume of both neck and mid, and the other pot to control just bridge? I cant seem to visualize a correct hookup...

 

[bodia]

Bangin'! Sweet upgrade my man!

 

[toothace]

Very nice!!

 

[John Beef]

Love black guitars with maple fretboards! Very nice.

 

[justmund]

imo the unusual selection options of the stock prs 5-way are a bodge to conceal that the neck and middle are both the same pickup with same polarity. But its sure worked out well for me on this guitar

A question about vol pot wiring - is it possible for one pot to control the volume of both neck and mid, and the other pot to control just bridge? I cant seem to visualize a correct hookup...

Further to my points above, you know PRS sourced these pickups from Seymour Duncan right? So it would have cost exactly $0 to get the pickups in whatever winding/polarity configuration they wanted. IMO the "unusual" switching, which I believe to be intentional for different tones - the middle pos giving you neck and bridge, not unlike a tele, or ANY 3-way PRS.

Hardly a bodge.

Apart from that, I really dig the mods. Sounds like you've got a very versatile axe now! Congrats

 

[mildew]

Thanks justmund - the "bodge" im on about means that PRS only had to order two types of custom made p90s from duncan. If the triples had a reverse mid, they would of had to custom order five different types of pickups. (neck, middle, reverse middle, bridge, reverse bridge). It seems to me that ordering a larger number of just two types (neck, reverse bridge) and putting two necks and a bridge in the triples would be cheaper.

If you have a triple, i think moving the reverse bridge pickup to middle, putting in a standard 5 way, and putting a quality aftermarket pickup in the bridge position works really well - you get an extra quack/humbucker position and you can screw the middle pickup way down and still get even volume.

I only put a nasty p90humbucker in bridge because i need the guitar to double as a widdling guitar. A nice Fralin / Kinman / Lollar would be better.