Your top R&D priority for Paul? Mine is ...

I think it is interesting that each change that comes out of the R&D is something that surprises me. Where the f did they come up with the idea of putting a small brass rod under each string on the bridge of the Paul's Guitar? Plating vs raw brass tuning posts? Not things I would have thought to investigate. Paul keeps coming up with things I didn't know I needed. I do have to hand it to him for collaborative efforts though. We keep hearing about artist saying what they want and him putting forth a great deal of effort to make it happen. Who would have thought even ten years ago that the company would be producing what it is producing today?

I think it's a mild resurgence of the 70's hippie idea that for guitars brass = good. :p
 
I swept up two sets of 53/10s while I could still find them, and retro-installed them in a Hollowbody II, and a McCarty Archtop as well. Desert island tone (and my guitar junkie pals who have played them agree).
Well this is a most fortuitous revelation, as I have an Archtop Jazz (spruce top) that I have pretty much determined will become the resting place for my stashed 53/10s!

So tell me, how do they sound in your Archtop? Does yours have a piezo, and if so how do they all get along? I have long imagined that the Archtop and 53/10s would be a match made in heaven, and hearing of your "desert island' assessment is most encouraging! I actually like the Archtop pickups that came in that guitar, but am all but certain that the 53/10s will take it to a whole new realm.

The other good news for me living in MD. is that I'm less than a one hour drive from PRS, so all I need to do now is set up an appointment with the PTC, drive over the bridge, and I'm done!
 
Well this is a most fortuitous revelation, as I have an Archtop Jazz (spruce top) that I have pretty much determined will become the resting place for my stashed 53/10s!

So tell me, how do they sound in your Archtop? Does yours have a piezo, and if so how do they all get along? I have long imagined that the Archtop and 53/10s would be a match made in heaven, and hearing of your "desert island' assessment is most encouraging! I actually like the Archtop pickups that came in that guitar, but am all but certain that the 53/10s will take it to a whole new realm.

The other good news for me living in MD. is that I'm less than a one hour drive from PRS, so all I need to do now is set up an appointment with the PTC, drive over the bridge, and I'm done!

I have an '04 hollowbody that came with the Archtop pickups and I was never really sold on them, they sounded kind of brittle and trebly to me. I dropped a pair of 57/08s in it, and that was a vast improvement. They were a lower output pickup than the Archtops, but my ear they were more balanced across frequencies and just plain sounded better at every level of gain. Mind you, that guitar loved playing Opeth's "Blackwater Park" from the day that I picked it up, so it's weird that way, and I play it dirty a lot.

I put my 53/10s in a '10 SC Hollowbody piezo that came stock with SC245 pickups. I thought the stock pickups were too hot and bassy for that guitar, and that the 53/10s were far better suited for it. That guitar is now my late 70's Rush guitar (think "Hemispheres"), kind of a stand-in for Alex Lifeon's old white ES-335 that sounds so good in his hands. Make of that what you will...

Bottom line after all that rambling: I think 53/10s will go great in your Archtop. I'd do it.
 
So tell me, how do they sound in your Archtop? Does yours have a piezo, and if so how do they all get along?

Go ahead and drop yours into an Archtop. Mine's a non-piezo (acquired from Serious Poo here years ago). I never cared for the stock Archtop pickups in HB-IIs or anywhere else. The 53/10s made it perfect.

But don't take my word for it. Check the photos and review by my pal Dumeril Seven, who is an even better guitarist than he is a photographer:

http://www.dumeril7.com/2014/02/prs-archtop.html

=K
 
As someone who loves the Tele... Nooooooo!

The whole charm of the Tele is its primitive rawness. Having Paul finesse it just seems wrong.

More original guitars and less cover-versions, please. (Doing covers only gets you so far. ;) )
 
Custom 24 with pattern neck, dgt vvt set up, 58/15 lt pickups, and 2 coil tap mini-switches. That would make my millennium! Doesn’t even have to be a ten top...but, it would be a blue nitro finish!
 
Some new killer exotic wood to take over the mantle of Pernambuco. Bring back the Collection Series and Celtic Knots!
 
I have a satin finished unbound neck and body , mahogany les paul shaped PRS with P90's. I bought it in Nashville about 5 years ago. Does anyone know what this guitar would have been called ??? Or any other info about this model ???
 
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