My head hasn’t spun so much since I tried to understand Bill Lawrence’s website and attempted to understand his writings.
http://billlawrence.com/Pages/All_About_Tone.htm/CableandSound.htm
http://billlawrence.com/Pages/All_About_Tone.htm/CableCalculation.htm
There is plenty more there too.
With that said I was able to buy a set of used PRS Paul’s Guitar SE TCI pickups. I put them in a strat pickguard and wired them to two toggles switches for the splits. I only went that route because I wanted to try them but didn’t want to drill holes in any of my other guitars. By my understanding a lot of the true single coil sound comes from completely removing the second coil from the circuit with the use of one DPDT switch per pickup. I guess I could have replaced the vol and tone with push pull versions but that is a long way to go just to try out pickups. I used 500k pots and the same caps that are in an SE Paul’s guitar and didn’t know better to match every resistor. They sound great in humbucker and single coil mode with very convincing single coil tones in my partscaster.
All this leads me to say that I think this is the latest marketing from PRS to convince everyone they have to buy a new guitar to get this pickup technology....all while using words and complex relationships between parts that normal humans cannot comprehend.
Just my opinion. I am looking to buy a core guitar with these in it so there you go...
Believe it or not, the original Paul's guitar - before it was updated a year ago and saw the SE version introduced, sounded very good in both humbucker and split modes - very little if, any volume drop, great 'single coil' tone and praised for how good it sounded. The 'TCI' pickups are named more after the process and could of been called 'Paul's Pick-ups' to go in his Signature model, like the Tremonti's or the DGT's. The 'S' pickups are certainly regarded as 'good enough' to go into a US made guitar so I am not surprised that taking out a set of TCI 'S' (where TCI is only a name like 85/15, 408, \m/ etc) and connecting them up without marrying them up with the electronics to also get the 'full' TCI process sound good. The same pickups impressed Carlos Santana and wanted them fitted to the Santana SC hat launched at the same time as the Paul's SE guitar - just without the option to split.
PRS have released numerous guitars over the last few years that offer coil splitting/tapping and they have all been very good with minimal, if any volume drop and perhaps the best on the market. Its absolutely NO surprise that any Pup's - regardless of the name or whether they were fitted in a guitar that had or had not been through the TCI process - sounded great when Split.
The purpose of TCI is to improve the consistency of the sound of a guitar so that there isn't a 'big' difference between guitars. A lot of that is down to the fact that despite being made in exactly the same way, electronics do vary. a 500k pot could vary by +/-30k for example and pick-ups don't all have exactly the same output either. Until now, those minor differences wouldn't be taken into consideration - they would come off the production and be fitted into a guitar with the same resistor as every other in the same model. Now though, the assembler can take the next set of pick-ups off the line and then fit the perfect electronics to get the sound they want. Without that, you are still getting a great set of Pick-ups that still sound great when split/tapped like PRS have been making for years before they developed this TCI process. That was born out of the Silver Sky development, making 3 identical Single Coil pickups (as they are all JM635's and the same whether its for the bridge, middle or neck position) that all sound just the way John Mayer wants - somewhere between a 63 and 64 strat and importantly, the same 'sound' so John Mayer can walk into ANY stockist and take a Silver Sky off the wall and have it sound exactly like his own - not just feel but sound too.
Its about tuning the sound to be consistent - whether its split or not. PRS pickups are great as humbuckers and have been one of, if not the best pickup manufacturer with their split/tapped Humbucker sound without the drop in volume that many others have. What you have done with the TCI 'S' Pickups, you could do with the 85/15 'S' (which also can be split) and would have the same result too. The TCI process may help the split coil to be tuned to sound 'better' than without the process and to make the guitars sound much more consistent but that never meant that PRS HB's sounded 'terrible' when split/tapped before. Few, if any, thought the 'revised' Paul's guitar was worth trading in their 'older' Paul's guitar just because of the TCI process - its more a refinement and producing more consistency than a massive jump up. The split coil sounds of older Paul's were still excellent and highly praised by critics.
The technology is being rolled out across all core models as its an extra refinement. Its not 'marketing BS to make you go out and buy a new PRS - its 'evolution' and refinement that PRS have been known for. The Custom 24, whilst still very similar to the guitar that PRS launched with, has been refined and evolved over years and years. The TCI process has been developed from learning and understanding more about Pick-ups and the electronics. PRS can't control the impedance of the cable you have plugged into the guitar, how that changes depending on length for example, but they can make a guitar where all of that can be controlled, can be made more consistent and tuned to sound how they want coming out of the output jack. That doesn't mean that the Pick-ups were 'bad' before and certainly not bad when split/tapped either. Guitars like the 408, 24-08, Special Semi-Hollow and even the 594 - all of which have humbuckers with the option to split/tap individually and with little/no volume loss before PRS developed the TCI process so its absolutely NO surprise that any PRS pick-up, when put in other guitars without the matched electronics from the TCI process, sound great both in full or split modes. The Pick-ups are probably no different to any other pickups when fitted to other guitars without going through the TCI process and I don't expect the 58/15 LT's (for example) that are fitted to the 2020 DC594 to be any different to my 58/15 LT's fitted in my 2016 DC594. The difference is that my 594 had the stock pots/resistors that were fitted to every 594 regardless where as the 2020 594 will have the electronics fitted that are matched to the pick-ups and tuned to sound the way they wanted - that extra attention to detail, extra step in the assembly process. Of course there are other refinements with the 2020 models - like the Nitro finish for example and with the 594, a revised bridge too.
The TCI process is the result of research, development and PRS continuing to look at every aspect and continuously striving to improve. Do you feel you have to buy a new Custom 24 every few years because of some improvements? Whether that's a new Pick-up like the 85/15's that came in a few years ago, a change in Bridge or Tuners, a change from rotary to blade switch, a change in the heel length or whatever new tweak, improvement, refinement etc. The Custom 24 has had numerous updates over the 35yrs and the TCI process is just another 'update' from a company that doesn't sit still.