PRS CE 24 Special Pickup Swap - Help!

[grahamdkelly]

Hi Everyone - first post here! I have done a lot of searching and haven't found anyone talking specifically about swapping pickups on a PRS CE24 special. The CE24 special is "special" because it has a middle single coil (HSH), and a switching scheme that is fairly unique. It operates like a traditional fender 5-way switch, with the addition of a push/pull coil tap, which taps both humbuckers.

Anyways, I don't like the humbuckers included, and prefer SD59s. I have a set of 4-conductor 59s and want to make the swap. I can't wrap my head around if this is a simple swap, or if I need to do anything special. The fact that the PRS pickups have 5 conductors is also a little funky.

Anybody have any tips?

Thank You!

 

[jeremy]

welcome to the forum!

your 4cond 59s actually have five wires too. black, white, red, green, bare. it should be a fairly simple swap. black as hot, green and bare to ground, solder the red & white wires together as the series link and solder that connection to the push/pull to split the coils

 

[grahamdkelly]

@jeremy - thank you!

Looks like the PRS color scheme is all over the place... Based on your comment, and this: CE 24 Special wiring diagram

I am thinking this is the logic?:

Bass side:
PRS A and C = SD59 Red+White
PRS B and E = SD59 Ground (green, bare)
PRS D = SD59 Hot (black)

Treble side:
PRS G and I = SD59 Red+White
PRS F and J = SD59 Ground (green, bare)
PRS H = SD59 Hot (black)

Thanks again!

 

[AdrianSD]

@grahamdkelly that looks about right to me, that diagram looks interesting. Do PRS pickups use different color scheme for bridge and neck pickups?

 

[grahamdkelly]

@AdrianSD - yes, that's what made me put the cover back on and re-think my strategy (and post here) before making any changes. The colors for bass and treble are different, that and the addition of a 5th conductor (though I guess that 5th conductor, orange in this case, is ground)

EDIT: And, I had seen elsewhere with some of the PRS swaps that magnets had to be flipped in some cases. Sounds like that shouldn't be the case here?

 

[justFred]

Here are color codes (notice: PRS uses different colors for bridge and neck):

 

[grahamdkelly]

@justFred - That image you posted doesn't correspond to the pickups in my guitar. Some time recently, PRS changed their color coding system and there are now 5 conductors: Green, Red, White, Black, and Orange. They still are different for Bass and Treble as well.

 

[soulforger]

Anybody else out there feel like there ought to be a universal color coding system for pickup/guitar manufacturers? Is there a reason there isn't?

 

[justFred]

Not that it really matters, the instructions Jeremy provided is all you need but FWIW:

Neck:
Black - Hot
White / Green - Coil Tap
Red - Ground
Orange - Chassis Ground

Bridge:
White - Hot
Black / Red - Coil Tap
Green - Ground
Orange - Chassis Ground

 

[Chistopher]

Anybody else out there feel like there ought to be a universal color coding system for pickup/guitar manufacturers? Is there a reason there isn't?

The large pickup makers started out making their pickups in isolation of each other and they don't particularly want to change