Pickups For PRS SE Santana

[Jakash]

Hi everyone. A few weeks back I asked about upgrading the pickups in my PRS SE Singlecut and got a lot of great recommendations. I wound up getting a set of the Alnico II Pros and they have just blown me away... So I have been upgrading the pups in a few other guitars. I put a set of Antiquities in my Bernie Marsden, a set of Antiquity Texas Hots in one strat and the Surfers in another, Seths in my semi-hollow, and finally, in my Ibanez S, I put a Distortion in the bridge, a Quarter Pounder in the middle, and a Hot Rails in the neck. Now I'm working on my last few guitars and the next on the list is a PRS SE Santana.

Since it's a Santana I thought I'd go for something in the ballpark of his tone. I've done a lot of reading and I found a post on here that said he has "Duncan '59 in the neck and a custom in bridge... and the bridge pup has a 370k resistor from its hot to ground reducing some of the high end." I'm torn between doing this setup or going with a Pearly Gates neck and a Custom Custom in the bridge—or some mix of the two. I'm going for his more modern tone (Supernatural era) with this guitar. What would be the best setup for this?

[Mincer]

Re: Pickups For PRS SE Santana

I'd think the Custom Custom is a good choice, but I would consider the buttery Alnico II Pro for the neck. The rest is how he sets his amps up.

[Mr. B]

Re: Pickups For PRS SE Santana

Wasn't Santana using Duncan Distortions during the Supernatural era?

I still have 2 of the earlier PRS Santana SE guitars. I have tried dozens of pickup sets in them. Here is what I ended up with:

Classic set: Duncan Seth Lover Set
More modern: Dimarzio Air Zone Bridge and 36th Anniversary Neck.

I also liked the Duncan Slash A2Pro set, but it worked better in my Les Paul, so that is where that set landed. I also really liked the Duncan 59 set I had in one for a while, but I like that set better in my SG.