alex1fly
Well-known member
okay, so, the 85 is AWESOME. awesome. dude. playing on that pickup with heavy distortion literally brings a grin to my face. i'm absolutely sold on the 85. i love the way it responds as well - super sensitive to my fretting hand. i can play with a light touch but still get a massive, punchy sound. and cleans are great too, woody, clear - i just have to work that volume knob. for clean playing i'm running the volume knob at about halfway. i find that I'm playing things that I've only just thought about before; with the 85, I feel like the guitar is working with me rather than against me, like it picks up all the stuff i want to hear. its great to have silence between palm mutes on heavy breakdown-type riffs. sounds fine enough for more of a breakup type tone with the guitar volume cut and into a slightly overdriven channel... better than with the guitar volume on full into a clean channel, i think... the first way sounds more natural, the second way sounds not that great, but then those kinds of tones are not my thing as much.
the 60a is an interesting beast. It sounds surprisingly similar to the stock soapbar. Of course it is not the same, but it has many qualities in common, such as getting that honk when you dig in with the pick and having a lighter glassy tone when picked lightly. It has some definite vintage vibe to it, and sounds and feels more like a soapbar or PAF than does the 85 while the 60a is snappier, ruder, bites, and makes you work for the sound you want much like a regular soapbar does. With a little work from the volume knob and EQ, I can get jazzy tones, twangy tones, single coil-esque tones, all that. in fact the top end is bright and clear much like a single coil, while the mids and lows are woodier and fuller like a humbucker. there is something to be desired with this pup and a lot of gain however - it reminds me of a vintage single when heavily overdriven, bright top, boomy lows, not a lot of definition. my neck VPAF by comparison is still bright and full but retains note definition better, and sounds vocal with some highs rolled off.
both sound great with effects, i hear a lot of tone through the effects, and i've been inspired to jam with delay and phaser more... but this could be in my head
i'm not sure about the 60a's fate. i went active in this guitar because i wanted the active feel and sound, and aside from having massive output with guitar volume on 10, the 60a is not that different from the stock pickup. that can be good, in that it makes me clean up my playing and gives a different feel to the neck position, which inspires me in a different way than the 85; but there is quite a difference in feel when switching between the two, rather than a seamless transition like the Virtual PAFs in my les paul. i will not scratch it soon, and before i do i will try the 18v mod, swap the 60a and 85, try 9v and 18v there as well.
in conclusion, the 85 is a definite keeper, the 60a will take some more work before i'm happy with it. the 60a sounds very much like a pure amplification of the guitar strings - an amplified version of the unplugged sound. the 85 in contrast adds more of its own voice, i think. it still sounds like a prs, but it sounds like "a certain prs", if that makes any sense. it sounds like my prs-wielding bands, which is exactly what i wanted, but to get that, there must be a more aggressive voicing. whatever it is, i dig it.
guitar is a prs se soapbar... mahogany body and neck, rosewood fretboard, set neck. 85 is in the bridge, 60a is in the neck.
the 60a is an interesting beast. It sounds surprisingly similar to the stock soapbar. Of course it is not the same, but it has many qualities in common, such as getting that honk when you dig in with the pick and having a lighter glassy tone when picked lightly. It has some definite vintage vibe to it, and sounds and feels more like a soapbar or PAF than does the 85 while the 60a is snappier, ruder, bites, and makes you work for the sound you want much like a regular soapbar does. With a little work from the volume knob and EQ, I can get jazzy tones, twangy tones, single coil-esque tones, all that. in fact the top end is bright and clear much like a single coil, while the mids and lows are woodier and fuller like a humbucker. there is something to be desired with this pup and a lot of gain however - it reminds me of a vintage single when heavily overdriven, bright top, boomy lows, not a lot of definition. my neck VPAF by comparison is still bright and full but retains note definition better, and sounds vocal with some highs rolled off.
both sound great with effects, i hear a lot of tone through the effects, and i've been inspired to jam with delay and phaser more... but this could be in my head
i'm not sure about the 60a's fate. i went active in this guitar because i wanted the active feel and sound, and aside from having massive output with guitar volume on 10, the 60a is not that different from the stock pickup. that can be good, in that it makes me clean up my playing and gives a different feel to the neck position, which inspires me in a different way than the 85; but there is quite a difference in feel when switching between the two, rather than a seamless transition like the Virtual PAFs in my les paul. i will not scratch it soon, and before i do i will try the 18v mod, swap the 60a and 85, try 9v and 18v there as well.
in conclusion, the 85 is a definite keeper, the 60a will take some more work before i'm happy with it. the 60a sounds very much like a pure amplification of the guitar strings - an amplified version of the unplugged sound. the 85 in contrast adds more of its own voice, i think. it still sounds like a prs, but it sounds like "a certain prs", if that makes any sense. it sounds like my prs-wielding bands, which is exactly what i wanted, but to get that, there must be a more aggressive voicing. whatever it is, i dig it.
guitar is a prs se soapbar... mahogany body and neck, rosewood fretboard, set neck. 85 is in the bridge, 60a is in the neck.
