Upgrading PRS SE Zach Myers- Pickup Suggestions

Rcj520

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Aug 9, 2015
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Hey guys,

I am in the process of upgrading my SE Zach Myers (Mahogany body and neck, maple top, rosewood fretboard and semi-hollow). I love this guitar, It's great stock and I have it signed by Zach and Brent Smith at this point, but I am having some fun getting the most out of it. I have my tuners sent out to John Mann for the phase 2 locking conversion and I also bought John Mann stoptail bridge and PRS USA nut. Should be an awesome setup! Ill try to review the John Mann stuff later. The next step is picking some pickups that will work well with the guitar.

I have an Egnater Tweaker 15 and the sounds I am trying to achieve would be a range from overdriven blues (Gary Moore The loner), classic hard rock (AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Megadeath etc.) and modern rock to hard rock (anywhere from blink 182 to Shinedown and Alter Bridge). So i need a bit of versatility since it is my only electric, but don't need to nail pristine clean or modern metal tones. Having a tight bridge pickup would be a plus though for the occasional palm muting. I personally like seymour duncan though, so I would like to keep it narrowed down to that. I was thinking a SD Custom bridge with a Seth lover or Jazz neck, they apparently both compliment a semi hollow nicely. Would definitely like to hear from anyone with a semi-hollow. This is my first time upgrading pickups on a semi-hollow. Thanks guys.
 
See my posting I just put up a few minutes ago under "pickup recommendations" post. I highly recommend Lindy Fralin Unbuckers (3 wire version). I actually had a ZM on order and literally, a week later, the S2 Singlecut semi hollow came out so I had my dealer switch out my order. The difference between the two, other than the obvious US versus import, is that the S2 comes equipped with push/pull tone pots that can split each pickup. So you get really excellent humbucker sounds but also individual single coil sounds too. The Unbuckers are wound such that there is no loss in volume, which is typical occurs when you split a "regular" humbucker.
Of course, you would also need to mod/change/update your tone pots on your ZM to accommodate the pickup splitting. This of course, gives you even more versatility out of one guitar.
 
See my posting I just put up a few minutes ago under "pickup recommendations" post. I highly recommend Lindy Fralin Unbuckers (3 wire version). I actually had a ZM on order and literally, a week later, the S2 Singlecut semi hollow came out so I had my dealer switch out my order. The difference between the two, other than the obvious US versus import, is that the S2 comes equipped with push/pull tone pots that can split each pickup. So you get really excellent humbucker sounds but also individual single coil sounds too. The Unbuckers are wound such that there is no loss in volume, which is typical occurs when you split a "regular" humbucker.
Of course, you would also need to mod/change/update your tone pots on your ZM to accommodate the pickup splitting. This of course, gives you even more versatility out of one guitar.

Those look nice and the sound clips are good, but that's more than I want to spend on the pickups. I've already spent a good amount on the other mods as well as a few pedals so I have to draw the line somewhere lol.
 
At this point I am set on the SD Custom in the bridge. It will handle all the heavier rock easily. Im just undecided on the neck. It is between the SD Seths, 59, Pearly gates, or possibly a jazz. Theres just a lot of contradicting info on how they react with semi hollows and getting too muddy. I would really like the neck pickup to handle at least the Gary Moore and overdriven 80s lead tones.
 
Suhr Thornbuckers ? Seems like these were designed to suit a wide variety of styles...and Pete Thorn knows tone !
 
How about classic 57s? For me, it one of the best paf style pickups for semi hollows. I installed them in my ZM, and now it really sings! I play almost any style of music at home and pretty heavy stuff with my band, and those pickups can handle everything. Actually, the stock pickups can handle everything too, but the 57s have more rich harmonics. I play throuh mesa mini rec and jet city jca22h. Hope this helps...
 
Hi friends, may i know if all humbuckers or P90 pickups could fit to PRS Zach Myers ?

Thanks.
 
Here's another one for Antiquities. I just put a set in my Bernie and I'm loving it. They are unpotted (think untamed). They are very responsive with a sizeable amount of gain. It's really fun to try to tame them. In a semi-hollow it would be just that much better.
 
SD hot rodded set. Should give you plenty of sounds your looking for. A bonus, is that they are very inexpensive.
 
Dragon 1's for the win! (But they aren't cheap if you can find any)
 
I put a Dimarzio 36th neck and Dimarzio Fortitude bridge in mine and I am VERY happy with it. I can cover all the areas you described above with this set.
 
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