My 59 Surgery Had Complications

[misterwhizzy]

I put a 59 in the neck of my PRS SE Custom 22 not terribly long ago, and I was loving it, but the output was a bit strong in the neck, so I did what any shadetree guitar hack would do and lowered the pickup. I was met by an unceremonious "Sproing!!!" as it collapsed into the pickup cavity. "I know how to handle this!" I thought, and went online to Philadelphia Luthier Tools and placed an order for a pair of short-legged baseplates.

So I'm scrubbing in, and by that, I mean pulling the pickup out of the guitar and out of the mounting ring then starting to remove the old baseplate, when I realize I had only one wire still attached to the lead from the coils. Also not a huge problem. I've attached new lead wire before, but it was a complication I wasn't planning on handling. I went into my parts bin and dug out some four-conductor I have stored away for just such an occasion. After desoldering the braid from the baseplate, however, I realized that the broken wire was just the grounding wire, so all it took was stripping it back a few mm, tinning it, and soldering it to the existing blob on the braid.

Anyway, after the reinstall, which is annoying because it requires the bridge pickup to be removed as well, the height adjustment, and the tuning and the tuning again and the tuning again--I hate floating bridges--it sounds great and deserves to stay in there.

I might need to ask jeremy to change my username to doctorwhizzy now.

 

[Artie]

Glad you got it worked out. I'll always have 59's in at least one guitar.

 

[misterwhizzy]

Glad you got it worked out. I'll always have 59's in at least one guitar.

It's amazing how some pickups and guitars seem destined for each other. I could never get tones I was quite satisfied with having this same set in my Les Paul. I'd like it for a few days then not, realizing I want a heavier attack out of that guitar. Mag swaps were noticeable, but never enough to get it to where I was happy.

The PRS seems to have the opposite response to the 59 set. Unplugged, it may be the best -sounding guitar I own, but i must have tried at least half a dozen pickups trying to convince the amplifier to reproduce what I was hearing. Phat Cats were close but ended up being a little too noisy and a little too bright. This 59 set really seems to bring out the best in the guitar. So far, anyway. I'm never satisfied. But I am trying to be more self-aware.

 

[Artie]

My experience was similar. Didn't care for them in my LP. (Been too long ago for me to remember why. That may be where the de-mud mod was created.) Eventually, they made it into my sycamore-bodied Daisy Rock. (Schecter.) They're the DD version, but that's ok with me. That's what came in that guitar, and apparently, DR got it right. She's a keeper.