US Made 85/15 Pickups ...

Are the 85/15 pickups considered bright? I don't see them on thr PRS site with the EQ. I like darker pickups like the Tremonti or Rio Grande BBQ

My SC250 has the SC250 pickups and the bridge pickup is bright and articulate so I roll the volume back to about 6 and it sounds good but then I lose volume when I switch to my clean tones so I'd like to just have some darker pickups. It depends on thr song we are playing. Some songs I keep the bridge pickup wide open so that my clean remains loud enough or I drop the volume to darken up the bridge pickup if I'm only playing a song with distortion.
Its working, but I would love to get some other PRS pickups, either a set or just a bridge pickup since the SC250 neck is so nice! It's sort of like the Tremonti neck Pickup.
So are the 85/15 pickups considered bright?

This might help.. it's a draft document posted a while back. It has inaccuracies, like the LT readings, but still helpful

pups-1979e84e0b1facf87.png
 
I have a PS with the US 85/15s. I find them to be great pickups, and perfect for the CU24. Each of my PRSes has different pickups, and they tend to fit the guitars I have very well.

It's nice to have a little variety. I haven't changed the volume pot, since I find no need to do so. But I use the tone and volume controls on my guitars quite a bit, and appreciate how I can get a boatload of different tones just with the guitar's controls.

Some of this might be personal philosophy/preference, but the more tones I can sculpt as I play, the happier I am. I'm not a guy who sets the guitar to 10 on all the controls and never touches them, or leaves an amp set only one way. Seems limiting to me if I want to emphasize certain parts or emotions in a tune.

The US 85/15s are very clear-sounding, and I think they have a beautiful high frequency response. I haven't tried the offshore version of the pickups. I'm told they're different.

Pickups perhaps shouldn't be judged in isolation; the context of a given rig changes everything.

An upper-midrange or high frequency presence peak in a pickup drives an amp a little differently. The tubes are driven harder in the high frequencies, and it creates a little more upper harmonic content that changes the character of the amp (and how it breaks up) in a good way, hence the popularity of treble boosters for decades.

When I want a little less of that, I turn the guitar's knobs to get what I want.

Every guitar is probably a little different, so a lot might depend on one's guitar, but also how one sets up an amp, frame of reference, etc. I tend to set my amps up a little differently for each guitar. It's just a matter of turning one or two knobs a little bit and finding the sweet spot for that guitar.

And I'm not afraid to use a good EQ pedal when I want a little something different, for example, if I want one of my Mesa amps to sound a little more Fender-ish (scooped in the mids more with a little more high frequency content), etc. We're all different and I know that there are a lot of players who don't want to touch a single knob when they're playing or working with an amp, and that's fine, too. Just expressing my own experience here.

I think this video is a pretty interesting dissertation on using the guitar's controls to create a sound, from Joe Bonamassa:

 
I have a CE 24 Semi-Hollow. It is the guitar I pick up 70% of the time. I love it. I think the pickups seem mid to bright in this guitar. It may have to do with the bolt on neck combined with the slightly airy body. They definitely come across darker in the cu24's.
Last time I asked Paul M. about chambering, high level, the response I recall was that chambering favored the trebles. One of the reasons I love chambered PRS Guitars.
 
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