Monsta-Tone
New member
I've been wanting another PRS CE (bolt on maple neck) for a while now.
My neighbor called the other day and told me that he was finally ready to part with his 1994 CE22 for $900. Not a stellar deal, especially because the very next day there was an all mahogany CE22 (2001) for $750. But....with shipping to Maui, I would have been out over $1,200 if I got one anywhere else and this one has a super nice maple top!
Here are the specs:
1994 PRS CE22
Wide Thin neck - maple - bolt on - rosewood fretboard
PRS tremolo - aluminum block (super bright with tons of clarity)
Duncan Full Shred (C-10 not the C-10n) in the neck
Duncan Dimebucker in the bridge
500k push/pull pot for volume (coil splitter on the push/pull)
500k stock PRS tone pot
Not sure of the capacitor, the numbers are turned down, so I have to remove the pot to get to it. I'm guessing that it's the stock PRS cap.
These pickups sound HUGE in this guitar, almost like active pickups with better range. It's super aggressive with gobs of sustain and output, and massive low end.
BUT.....
With the aluminum block, they are a little shrill. I can use all of my other guitars with my amp and my ears are just fine afterward. With the same amp settings, this guitar makes my ears ring! It's not much louder than my JS1000, but has WAY more upper frequency range.
I plan on experimenting with the Volume pot value a little today, and the cap and Tone pot. I've never been a fan of 250k pots in a humbucker guitar though.
When I turn the Tone pot all the way down, the guitar's tone is much warmer on the upper frequencies, but it also looses a lot of the sizzle too. If it weren't for that, I would just always play it with the tone turned down and not worry about it. I am thinking that I want to take out some of the highs, but not all of them.
Here is what I plan on trying today, but wanted to have some input in case I missed something:
1. parallel resistor with Volume pot to find the correct value where I tame the ice pick, but do not loose clarity and aggression
2. parallel resistor with Tone pot for the same reason
3. change tone cap
4. change function of push/pull to change Tone caps instead of coil split. I never use a split coil.
5. treble bleed cap w/parallel resistor?
If I decide that this guitar is just too aggressive with this pickup combination:
I also have a P-Rails neck pickup that I might try with the Full Shred in the bridge. Not sure how that will work with the Full Shred being standard spacing though.
I usually lean more toward medium output pickups so that I can have stellar clean tones and then just crank the gain on the amp (Mesa Rectoverb) for the amount of overdrive I want.
Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.
My neighbor called the other day and told me that he was finally ready to part with his 1994 CE22 for $900. Not a stellar deal, especially because the very next day there was an all mahogany CE22 (2001) for $750. But....with shipping to Maui, I would have been out over $1,200 if I got one anywhere else and this one has a super nice maple top!
Here are the specs:
1994 PRS CE22
Wide Thin neck - maple - bolt on - rosewood fretboard
PRS tremolo - aluminum block (super bright with tons of clarity)
Duncan Full Shred (C-10 not the C-10n) in the neck
Duncan Dimebucker in the bridge
500k push/pull pot for volume (coil splitter on the push/pull)
500k stock PRS tone pot
Not sure of the capacitor, the numbers are turned down, so I have to remove the pot to get to it. I'm guessing that it's the stock PRS cap.
These pickups sound HUGE in this guitar, almost like active pickups with better range. It's super aggressive with gobs of sustain and output, and massive low end.
BUT.....
With the aluminum block, they are a little shrill. I can use all of my other guitars with my amp and my ears are just fine afterward. With the same amp settings, this guitar makes my ears ring! It's not much louder than my JS1000, but has WAY more upper frequency range.
I plan on experimenting with the Volume pot value a little today, and the cap and Tone pot. I've never been a fan of 250k pots in a humbucker guitar though.
When I turn the Tone pot all the way down, the guitar's tone is much warmer on the upper frequencies, but it also looses a lot of the sizzle too. If it weren't for that, I would just always play it with the tone turned down and not worry about it. I am thinking that I want to take out some of the highs, but not all of them.
Here is what I plan on trying today, but wanted to have some input in case I missed something:
1. parallel resistor with Volume pot to find the correct value where I tame the ice pick, but do not loose clarity and aggression
2. parallel resistor with Tone pot for the same reason
3. change tone cap
4. change function of push/pull to change Tone caps instead of coil split. I never use a split coil.
5. treble bleed cap w/parallel resistor?
If I decide that this guitar is just too aggressive with this pickup combination:
I also have a P-Rails neck pickup that I might try with the Full Shred in the bridge. Not sure how that will work with the Full Shred being standard spacing though.
I usually lean more toward medium output pickups so that I can have stellar clean tones and then just crank the gain on the amp (Mesa Rectoverb) for the amount of overdrive I want.
Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.
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