Anybody know about PRS' Santana "S" pickups?

[alex1fly]

Anybody have insight on what these pickups are all about? They're in many of the PRS SE Santana models, but info is pretty lacking on them even from PRS.

I have two Santana SEs right now, and the one with "Santana" pickups (as shown on the baseplate stickers) sounds MILES better than the one with "245" pickups. Classic, huge, sweet, responsive, good cleans, killer dirt, subtle nuances, all that good stuff. Has some real life and spank to it. The one with "245" pickups in comparison is more of a standard PAF sound.

So what are they? Anyone know the output level, magnet type, techie stuff like that? Apparently PRS already had 245s going in the Santana's in the 2010s and then developed this "S" pickup at some point. Think they'd take to a coil tap like the 85\15s and many others do?

[pskorz]

as far as I know, the "S" pickups are made in Korea to PRS spec specifically for the SE guitar line. Prior to their introduction, the SE line was using some other pickups. I have a Zach Myers with 245 S pickups, and I like them in that guitar, especially the neck pickup. But I feel like I'm sometimes in the minority with that opinion.

[BluesIsBlood12]

It is my understanding that the "S" pickups are wound to the same specs of the corresponding PRS USA pickups, but they're made in Korea. This stared somewhere around 2012-2014. My buddy's SE with 85/15 S pickups sounds very close to my CE with regular 85/15s. It's close enough that the difference might well be in the construction of the 2 guitars, rather than the pickups. If you want to know specs on a particular S type, you can probably just look up the USA version. As for the coil tap, PRS coil taps sound better (to me) because of the way they wire it, not really because of the pickups themselves. Most models have an added resistor that lets a small amount of the 2nd coil to come through, which puts the output more in line with an actual single coil.