Best PRS CE24 mod?

[zionstrat]

Folks-
Guess I've been getting a bit of mod fever recently- I had gone about 15 years without picking up a soldering iron and I guess I'm just making up for lost time-

Anyway, I've got a great mid-90s bolt on neck 24fret PRS that I have never modified in anyway because I like everything about it, can't imagine it working much better with my setup, and I would hate to mess up something that works so well-

But on the other hand there are a number of very simple mods that I would consider if the PRS used 'regular' wiring- In other words, what can I do with a push pull or two and what are the most useful sounds? I would appreciate if you can comment on any of the following, how well they worked, or point me to other resources?

I must admit part of my concern is that the PRS switching is a bit complex for my thinking, but maybe you have experience that will make me give this a try-

Anyway, this is what I believe I have:
1. Bridge
2. Inner parallel
3. Inner series
4. Outer parallel
5. Neck

So the first ones that came to mind were:
Full Bridge and Neck in series
Full Bridge and Neck phase reversed
Phase reverse of other positions

I searched the archives but probably missed other strings that might include diagrams- But I really would like to identify mods that would add diversity and would not be incredibly hard considering PRS wiring-


Although my sounds cover blues/rock, this guitar gets more of the rock/heavy rock duty as the lightest strung (9) and lowest action of my guitars-

Thanks in advance!

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Best PRS CE24 mod?

Hey Zionstrat, I just recently rewired my PRS (the day I got it) and if you follow the instructins, I really think you'll be alright. Being that it is a mid 90's you probably won't have to put up with the IC nonsense that I did. But if you wanted you could replace the rotarty and put in a 3 way with a coil split on one of the pots, or both.

Luke

 

[aleclee]

Re: Best PRS CE24 mod?

There aren't many mods that'll work with the rotary switch as it's wired--you'll get some odd behaviors like "dead" positions.

Another issue is the rotary itself. Since the mid-90s, the rotary switches have been pre-configured and wired to a PCB in such a way that it's virtually impossible to change the switching combinations. The older switches allowed you to rewire them so you could modify the combinations to your heart's content.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Best PRS CE24 mod?

Ok, sounds like I first need to detirmine if the switch is accessible since mine seems to be on the cusp of the the preconfigured change- Looks like the back cover will be comming off tomorrow for the first time-

Hey Zionstrat, I just recently rewired my PRS (the day I got it) and if you follow the instructins, I really think you'll be alright. Being that it is a mid 90's you probably won't have to put up with the IC nonsense that I did. But if you wanted you could replace the rotarty and put in a 3 way with a coil split on one of the pots, or both.

Luke

Luke- Should I read this to say that there are instructions posted somewhere regarding PRS mods? I searched their site and thought I had found some, but they were dead links-

Also I understand why it would make sense to go to a3 position, but am a 5 poistion slot nut and was hopping to keep the current positions plus some new ones with push/pull pots

Thanks for the fast input!

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Best PRS CE24 mod?

Ok, sounds like I first need to detirmine if the switch is accessible since mine seems to be on the cusp of the the preconfigured change- Looks like the back cover will be comming off tomorrow for the first time-



Luke- Should I read this to say that there are instructions posted somewhere regarding PRS mods? I searched their site and thought I had found some, but they were dead links-

Also I understand why it would make sense to go to a3 position, but am a 5 poistion slot nut and was hopping to keep the current positions plus some new ones with push/pull pots

Thanks for the fast input!

It seems to me that you should be able to buy an old style rotary switch and configure to your hearts content as Aleclee said.

The only thing off the top of my head I can think of is splitting the buckers while on full humbucking mode, but you'd have to solder on another set of leads I think. Then again I might be imagining things that can't be done! :laugh2:

Luke

 

[Artie]

Re: Best PRS CE24 mod?

The only thing that I can add to this would be to suggest that you probably wouldn't care for the neck/bridge in series tone. I put two Quarter Pounds in series once, (hot single coils), and it was a dull, powerful tone with no highs. Two humbuckers would probably be worse.

The only exception to that might be if you really wanted a bass-heavy death-metal type of sound for heavy distortion. That might work.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Best PRS CE24 mod?

Thanks artie-
Again, I have no real agenda for this gtr, but the sound I would love to get is one that Glenn Phillips has in an entirely different setup- He runs a tele bridge in series with a neck PAF out of phase- It's a very strange but powerful sound, but of course it's a tele pup not 2 hums-

Thanks all- Fun to think out loud here!

 

[Robbocopy]

Re: Best PRS CE24 mod?

Here are a few cool things you can do with a CE24 w rotary:

Replace the tonepot with a push pull. The switch is connecting the neck pu to the volume pot to get the twin pickup sound that you can get with McCarty switching but not with a five way. So in position five you can pull the tone pot to get both the humbuckers in parallel

An even better mod is to do the same but to add a separat hidden trim volume pot to the circuit. Neck pu - to - 500k pot - to - push pull switch - to - output socket (or tone pot, depending on taste)

Use the hidden pot to trim the neck volume pot to get the so called Les Paul Crossroad setting. I e bridge pu on full and the neck pu backed off to somewhere between 5 and 8. This will give you a sound with almost as much edge ad the bridge HB alone, but with more beef and fullness.

When you have found the trimpot's sweet spot, you can replace the pot with two resistors to make the setting permanent (if you wish).

The third thing you can do, which I like is to change the volume pot to a push-pull and use that one as to get single coils a'la McCarty.

PRS pickups works really well with the model they are made for. I really like my Dragon2s in my CE22. I am temted to a try pair of Duncans (I have a few laying around...), but I will probably use my energy on other guitars...

All the above will give you some really usable sounds, for your already very flexable guitar.

/R

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Best PRS CE24 mod?

Robbocopy-
Superb! I had never heard of the crossroad setting, but it's a marvoulous idea! Can imagine how usefrul that would be when playing rhthem in 2 or 4 and want to swithc to lead- Kind of a modified blower with ballance where it works best-

Didn't get the pannel off yesterday but will take a look asap!

Thanks again for the input!