Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

[Lewguitar]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

I agree with Lew in saying *the average* PRS SE is overall better bang-for-the-buck than the *the average* Epiphone. However, there are both lemons and gems to both, IMO.

I don't know if it was just me, though, but the stock tuners in both my PRS SE's needed immediate changing. They just wouldn't stay in tune. I think PRS really cheap out on those. Them and the nuts are the weakest links in otherwise solid guitars. JMO.

Mine are both from 2007. The tuners work fine on mine.

Only real weak spot was the pickups. They had to go.

But my gosh...I only paid $300 each for those guitars!

I have played a new PRS SE Tremonti in Guitar Center in 2016 that was very poorly set up: warped neck, high action at the nut, fret outs, etc.

But again, if that guitar were mine I could have fixed it right up in a couple of hours with a truss rod adjustment, some nut files to cut the nut slots more perfectly, new strings and adjustments to the action and intonation.

The pickups needed adjusting too. They were way to far away from the strings and the polepieces did not match the arch of the fingerboard.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

If you find a good deal on the SE's, they're hard to beat, I agree. I got mine for pretty cheap too. My SE Nick Catanese is a great guitar. I go back and forth between it and my Ibby Prestige as my number one. Very different guitars, though, so it's impossible for me to pick one. I used to have an SE Singlecut Korina which was OK, but was nowhere near as good as the NC. It was a bit too bright and not as rich-sounding, so I ended up selling it.

 

[Diego]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

I tried to like those SEs. Tried more than a few at my local stores. 245, Standards, Tremonti, Santana, just about every model with 22 frets they have.
For some reason I just don't like them. The neck has a strange proportion that doesn't feel like "home" to me, the sound isn't too inspiring and I didn't find the natural resonance all that great either.
You know, when you drop a couple of chords unplugged you can tell so much about a guitar straight away.

I ended up buying an Epiphone which IMO beats the crap of those PRS SE I tried, and with decent pickups (Probuckers, splittable)
Can't say I feel like I missed much.

 

[Stratomaniac]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

Our experiences DEFINITELY are different.

I think I have owned more guitars than you have repaired. And nearly all of the ones I have owned got full make-overs including new pups. You don't have enough experience to tell me I'm wrong. Especially to tell me that I am "totally wrong". If you like, I will prove it to you, I will send you a bunch of Epi pups that I have removed from my guitars that have four conductor wires. I will admit that there are many Epi pups that only have two conductors, but most of mine have four.

But the biggest problem with your post is that you emphatically assert that if there are only two wires, that proves the pups are crap. You would do well to make sure the mind is engaged before putting the mouth into gear. As I said, there are many really great quality pups that only have 2 conductors.

But in any case, I think you need to be a little careful about what you say and especially about your unfounded accusations of other forum members like myself. You are way off base here. I'm not trying to "bicker" with you either, and if you look at my "likes given" you'll see that I am actually a pretty agreeable person. And I could agree with you now about this 2 wire thing, but then we'd both be wrong.

Wow! No need to get defensive. It's only a discussion. Here are photos of my 2015 Black Beauty. You can see it is an extremely well finished guitar with nice binding and rounded edge frets. However, the pick ups only have two wires coming from them and they are very poor sounding pick ups. This is a $700 guitar and 'supposed to be' the highest quality Epiphone LP (with crappy two wire pick ups). Furthermore, I only implied Epiphone pick ups with two wires are crap, which is what I know from my experience. The Fender hunbuckers usually only have two wires as well and they 'tend to' have a good range of output. However, when you get down to the cheaper brands, they all have two wires and sound like a cat scratching on a tin can.

 

[gregory]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

I guess 59s must really sound like junk.

 

[2ndhandband]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

Honestly I've been disgusted with the electronics in any recent Gibson I've seen as well. Jesus, the pickups that came in my Firebird were HORSE****. Not only were they not authentic FB pickups, they weren't even a good example of what they are. Insanely hot (they measured over 17k) with super-thin cheapy wire and poor build quality. They sounded grainy and awful. And don't even get me started on the crap capacitors that were in that guitar.

You know what's REALLY f-ed up? Gibson uses those some pickups when they make their historic reissue FBs. Seriously, what the hell? I discovered just the other day that the expensive historic Lesters are shipping with Custom Buckers, NOT the '57 Classic which is an actual repro of the correct pickup. Come on Gibson, you're better than this.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

Come on Gibson, you're better than this.

Well, no, not really.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

I tried to like those SEs. Tried more than a few at my local stores. 245, Standards, Tremonti, Santana, just about every model with 22 frets they have.
For some reason I just don't like them. The neck has a strange proportion that doesn't feel like "home" to me, the sound isn't too inspiring and I didn't find the natural resonance all that great either.
You know, when you drop a couple of chords unplugged you can tell so much about a guitar straight away.

I ended up buying an Epiphone which IMO beats the crap of those PRS SE I tried, and with decent pickups (Probuckers, splittable)
Can't say I feel like I missed much.

That's exactly my experience with SEs. I haven't played one that I like (either unplugged or plugged in), but I've played (and own) many Epis that I really like...there's a big difference, not just subtle. But like I said earlier. it's not because I had some preconceived negative opinion about them. I tried REALLY hard to like them because every one of them that I played was gorgeous. Maybe the SEs have gotten better in the past couple of years, the last time I played one was about 3 years ago. But I doubt I'll even try another in the future.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

To be fair, PRS's 22 fret & 25" scale models don't sound anything like Gibson/Epiphone models, stock or modded. They have a particular sound to them that not everyone will like, different when you sit and compare side by side. Their SE models aren't bad build wise, the nut on mine needed work, tuners were fine, pickups had to go, electronics worked fine. The prices on them outside US are usually higher than Epiphone on most models. I have Korean made SE models, haven'ttried the Indonesian made ones yet, not sure of the build quality on those.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

To be fair, PRS's 22 fret & 25" scale models don't sound anything like Gibson/Epiphone models, stock or modded. They have a particular sound to them that not everyone will like, different when you sit and compare side by side. Their SE models aren't bad build wise, the nut on mine needed work, tuners were fine, pickups had to go, electronics worked fine. The prices on them outside US are usually higher than Epiphone on most models. I have Korean made SE models, haven'ttried the Indonesian made ones yet, not sure of the build quality on those.

My SE's are all Korean made and date from 2007. I've owned three...gave one (an 09) to a friend and kept two. They have a body thickness that matches my USA made Custom 22's...one reason I'm so comfortable with them.

They're actually very much like single cutaway version of the Custom 22.

My remarks have to do with the 2007-2009 models from Korea, and every one I've owned has been a superb guitar...once new pickups were installed and an hour or two of set up work was performed.

 

[Diego]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

That's exactly my experience with SEs. I haven't played one that I like (either unplugged or plugged in), but I've played (and own) many Epis that I really like...there's a big difference, not just subtle. But like I said earlier. it's not because I had some preconceived negative opinion about them. I tried REALLY hard to like them because every one of them that I played was gorgeous. Maybe the SEs have gotten better in the past couple of years, the last time I played one was about 3 years ago. But I doubt I'll even try another in the future.

Here in Chile, the base PRS SE models are on par pricewise with Studio Epiphones, so of course I really wanted to like them as well.
And yet, I went for Pro series Epiphones, twice! Something about the newer PRS SE guitars just feels crap to me these days.

However... A friend had a PRS SE Standard back in 2009 that was absolutely killer and it haunts me until today.
Exceptionally resonant, it sounded gorgeous and it felt like an expensive instrument.

He sold it, I lost it's track and I never found another SE quite like it.
I might buy a used, late 2000s PRS SE someday if I find something like it.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

I have an Ibanez made in Indonesia. V-blade, neck thru, string thru, fixed bridge. D-Activators. No complaints here.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Securb]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

Well, no, not really.

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

the '57 Classic which is an actual repro of the correct pickup.

Where did you get this idea from? If you mean the verbatim from Gibson's site, it's wrong, together with the published specs.

The '57 Classic is a design made by Tom Holmes, and their specs are quite different from the (in)famous Patent Applied For, designed by Seth Lover in 1955, and used for the first time by Gibson on their Gold Top LP Standards in 1957.

HTH,

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

Tom never made the 57 Classic. Gibson did.

Tom did try to show Gibson how to make an extremely accurate reproduction of the 50's PAF's...their own pickups which they had lost the ability to build.

Gibson followed some of the details Tom provided but not all of them.

At the time, I was glad to see the 57 Classic and felt that it sounded the most like a 50's PAF of any new pickup I'd heard.

I've actually owned quite a few of the original 50's PAFs. Even sold a set to Ted Nugent!

When Tom left Gibson to start his own pickup company his goal was to recreate the 1959 PAF using Alnico 4 magnets.

While working for Gibson, Tom had discovered purchase orders from 1959 showing that most of the magnets Gibson purchased from their magnet maker, Thomas & Skinner, were Alnico 4.

I had a set of those A4 Holmes pickups and didn't care for them. They did get that Eric Clapton/Bluesbreakers tone but that's not my favorite Clapton tone.

I have a later set of Holmes humbuckers made after Tom started using Alnico 2 (at Billy Gibbons request) and like those much more. They're in my 2000 ES-335.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

My SE's are all Korean made and date from 2007. I've owned three...gave one (an 09) to a friend and kept two. They have a body thickness that matches my USA made Custom 22's...one reason I'm so comfortable with them.

They're actually very much like single cutaway version of the Custom 22.

My remarks have to do with the 2007-2009 models from Korea, and every one I've owned has been a superb guitar...once new pickups were installed and an hour or two of set up work was performed.

My SE cu24 was from 2009 i think, maybe 2010 can't recall for sure, let it go last year ​or so. The SE cu22 i got used is from Jan 2006 or Dec 2006. This one just sounds lively, maybe because it was played a lot & has gotten old too, very sweet sound.

I read somewhere that back then the body on these was flat & not curved/beveled around the edges because they wanted to use solid maple tops in place of veneers but still save some bucks by keeping the flat edges & reducing labour.

I wish I had picked up the SE EG model back then too.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

^The SE Customs, SE 245's, and most of the rest of the Korean SE's still use solid maple tops with a figured maple veneer on top even if they have a beveled top.

 

[Bodeanicus]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

Lew, for the most part I agree with you. But my experience with the PRS SE single cuts is that they LOOK marvelous but play and sound like crap. Give me an Epi LP over an SE any (I repeat that), ANY day.

I'll go one further and say I've never played a PRS I liked, ever.

Sent from my KFGIWI using Tapatalk

 

[metale]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

The stock Alnico Classics (the same since the 90s) are pretty lame. Muddy. I've just modded a set for a project guitar, and that improved them somewhat. If you need to make them work, throw away the horrible brass cover, unpot them and replace magnets to balance them better. They are actually nearly nice now not as nice as my BKPs, OCPs or SDs, just nice.

Better still would be to get two neck models, use the higher resistance one in the bridge, and use a 0.15 cap on the neck to balance things.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Played a Epi SG G400 the other night - pickups are horrible

I'll go one further and say I've never played a PRS I liked, ever.

Sent from my KFGIWI using Tapatalk

That's a pity. I love mine. I'd take any of these over any Les Paul I've owned with the exception of the original '59 that I owned in the late 60's.

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