PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

SirJackdeFuzz

SirJackdeFuzz

New member
I would love to know what you guys think.

I am getting a used PRS Santana SE (red) with no pick ups, next week.
I have a JB/59 set some where in the house.
I never did like the JB in an Epi LP, but it sounded OK'ish (better atleast) in an Ibanez S series guitar.

My other guitars all have medium out put pick ups.
I am in th e mood for something else.
The PRS will still be doing Blues Rock, Classic Rock, Grunge'y stuff, Stoner Rock and so on.

Any other combination (open to other brands aswell) that you guys think might suit an SE PRS 'better' ?

Thanks to all
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

JB wouldn't be my first choice in mahogany, but if it was all I had, I'd put an UOA5 or A2 in it.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

I'll second what blueman335 said. I have a PRS SE 245 Standard which has the same setup woods wise going on. The regular JB was a little muddy with how much bass a regular alnico 5 gave it and the mids were a little weird. I tried an alnico 2 and that sounded decent enough, but my 245 is pretty warm on the treble. I wanted the bass to be a little tighter and a little snappier treble though, so I jumped up a step to unoriented alnico 5 and that was pretty great sounding. Then I put a cover on the 59 which already sounded fantastic, but the cover just brought this fantastic warm jazzy tone that made me feel like I was sitting by a camp fire with a beer and some smores. At that point I put a cover and an unoriented alnico 5 with a Pearly Gates in. It worked, but I swear the Pearly Gates always sounds best to me as is, so I switched back to the alnico 2 and wow. It's a PAF beast now, all warm and sweet sounding with a little bite. It's funny, I was going to do a ceramic metal monster on this purchase, but I let the guitar lead me and this is what happened. One of these days I will get a good shred stick going.. I have always hated warm guitars and gone for a bright cutting tone. It's crazy that this guitar sounds so damn good, yet so warm.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

The other thing is to wait and see what the guitar itself sounds like. Sometimes, a guitar has a voice really skewed towards one end of the tonal spectrum and pickups we think we like might not work. My Music Man is like that- it is so mid heavy, that i need pickups with giant scoops in the mids, which I would normally never use.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

I have tried a lot of sets in PRS SE Santanas over the years. I did not like the JB in them at all. The complete Duncan 59 set sounds great in one, so does the Gibson 498t and Duncan 59n if you want a hotter bridge. The Duncan Seth Lovers are my favorites in them. I also really like the Dimarzio Air Zone Bridge and Humbucker from Hell Neck, and the Dimarzio Super Distortion/Super2 set.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

Like Mincer said, just wait and see how it compares to your other guitars for the sake of guidance.
I've had guitars of the exact same model/specs aside from cosmetic differences, yet their tones were quite different from one-another.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

Custom 8 bridge, Demon neck.

However, P-90s really sound good in that type guitar. One of my favorites (in a humbucker size) is the Mean 90 from GFS. For about $35 it's a steal for what you get, and if you don't like the sound you haven't wasted much money trying it.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

I agree with Mincer, before spending dosh on new ones, definitely try out what you have. I would strongly recommend that you also wire in a couple of 500k push pulls.

I have re pupped and re wired 8 SEs . They are excellent guitars although somehow Paul Smith, who is normally pretty cute about these things, did not quite make the grade with the pick up design until quite recently. I understand it costs about the same in South Korea to make a good pup as to make a bad one so not sure what went wrong. This makes them excellent guitars to upgrade pup and wiring wise especially as they used t0 be very affordable second hand.

I have never installed a JB in an SE but have installed. DD 102s and the Iron Gear Dirty Torque which are very very similar pups. . They can sometimes be a bit muddy with poor mids when played clean but a more PAF ish sound for cleans can be achieved by parallel wiring via a push pull. I would also recommend that the other PP be used to give Artie's coil swap mod. This will give you lots of pick up combinations to play with. Would also suggest that you reverse the SD wiring putting the green to the 3 way and the black to ground. This will enable you to get Bridge slug in parallel with the neck screw as one of your options which can be a very usable one.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

Gstring said:
I would also recommend that the other PP be used to give Artie's coil swap mod. This will give you lots of pick up combinations to play with. Would also suggest that you reverse the SD wiring putting the green to the 3 way and the black to ground. This will enable you to get Bridge slug in parallel with the neck screw as one of your options which can be a very usable one.
Click to expand...


Excellent suggestion.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

GuitarDoc said:
P-90s really sound good in that type guitar. One of my favorites (in a humbucker size) is the Mean 90 from GFS. For about $35 it's a steal for what you get, and if you don't like the sound you haven't wasted much money trying it.
Click to expand...


+1. Rather than the usual neck HB as we all do, I think P-90's and mini-HB's actually do a better job in that slot. They have more clarity, & a sharper high end. Those, combined with a good bridge HB make a great combination, which should be standard on a lot of factory guitars.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

In that same kind of guitar, but a PRS SE 245 standard, I have tried some stuff and here is what worked, for me at least. In the bridge I liked JB UOA5, Custom, Pearly Gates. I tried the stock JB and it lacked definition and was mushy on the low end when doing fast muted single not runs on E and A strings. An alnico 2 was actually more defined, but it needed more attack, and that is where the UOA5 fixed the wrongs of both A2 and A5 in the wood of this guitar. The Custom works well, I bet a C8 or C5 would also work fine. I ran the Pearly Gates with a cover on it and UOA5 was a little too bright and hollow, or just seemed like something was missing, the stock alnico 2 was great. Even though it has an alnico 2 the Pearly Gates is still pretty bright. I also tried a 59 covered and uncovered, and a Screamin Demon. They both sound good, but the nice thing about the demon is being able to adjust the poles to get a warmer or brighter tone.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

Zheddar said:
I'll second what blueman335 said. I have a PRS SE 245 Standard which has the same setup woods wise going on. The regular JB was a little muddy with how much bass a regular alnico 5 gave it and the mids were a little weird. I tried an alnico 2 and that sounded decent enough, but my 245 is pretty warm on the treble. I wanted the bass to be a little tighter and a little snappier treble though, so I jumped up a step to unoriented alnico 5 and that was pretty great sounding. Then I put a cover on the 59 which already sounded fantastic, but the cover just brought this fantastic warm jazzy tone that made me feel like I was sitting by a camp fire with a beer and some smores. At that point I put a cover and an unoriented alnico 5 with a Pearly Gates in. It worked, but I swear the Pearly Gates always sounds best to me as is, so I switched back to the alnico 2 and wow. It's a PAF beast now, all warm and sweet sounding with a little bite. It's funny, I was going to do a ceramic metal monster on this purchase, but I let the guitar lead me and this is what happened. One of these days I will get a good shred stick going.. I have always hated warm guitars and gone for a bright cutting tone. It's crazy that this guitar sounds so damn good, yet so warm.
Click to expand...

GREAT info - thank you very much !
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

Mr. B said:
I have tried a lot of sets in PRS SE Santanas over the years. I did not like the JB in them at all. The complete Duncan 59 set sounds great in one, so does the Gibson 498t and Duncan 59n if you want a hotter bridge. The Duncan Seth Lovers are my favorites in them. I also really like the Dimarzio Air Zone Bridge and Humbucker from Hell Neck, and the Dimarzio Super Distortion/Super2 set.
Click to expand...


. . . well, well,well . . . it just happens that i do have a gold Seth set in the house.

Do not know how it will look with silver bridge and tuners though.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

Well, I'd say, if you already have the JB, try it! Use that as your 'control' group. Then try the Seths. I would probably like the Seths, but that is pretty specific to what I like, not a judgement call on the pickups themselves. I always use what I have first, especially if they are good pickups like that.
 
Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

SirJackdeFuzz said:
JB too hot for the wood ?
Click to expand...


No, it's the JB's wind, thinner wire, and narrower coils that give it certain total qualities, and sometimes those don't work out as well as one would hope. JB fan here 'Aceman' estimated that 1/3 of the time JB's 'fail' in mahogany. That also means that 2/3's of the time they work out. So it's not that they always bomb out, but that there is a possibility of disappointment. What some members have reported from personal experience in mahogany is a shrill, 'ice pick', 'dentist drill' high-end and a flabby, loose low-end in certain guitars. This doesn't seem to be an issue in brighter woods, where the JB is routinely praised. Can a stock JB work well in mahogany? Absolutely. Can it sound awful? Sometimes. For those that do their own soldering and have some spare PU's lying around (which is most of us here), it's no big deal. We can do what's needed to get the sounds we want. If you're specifically buying a JB for a mahogany guitar and paying someone else to do the work, then you probably want to know about a 1/3 failure rate ahead of time (even if you return the PU for a refund, you're still paying someone to install and remove, and install again). There's the Custom 'family' of PU's (several production models, and several popular user-modified models) that seem to work well in any kind of wood. That's a safer bet some people. Armed with that knowledge, make your choice.
 
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Re: PRS Santana SE and JB/59-set

No reason not to try every pickup you have in it. PRS Santana SE's are some of the easiest guitars to change pickups in. If it has a tremolo, open up the spring compartment and block the trem where it can't move (you can tape a few stacked nickels or pennies together to get the size right). If it has a Hardtail, use some low-tack painter's tape and tape around the tailpiece posts so the tailpiece doesn't fall off. At this point, you can change the pickups out without even removing the strings from the guitar. Loosen the strings until slack, then add a capo at the first fret to hold the strings in the string slots. You can loosen some more if needed, and pull up on the strings mid-fretboard to give yourself more slack while the capo stays on. You can then remove the pickup rings and pickups without even taking the string completely off. To unsolder and resolder pickups to the switch, I remove the nut from the pickup selector switch and pull it out of the control cavity because it makes it easier. (Don't lose the locking washers on the inside) Once you get the hang of it, you could change the pickups out 3 times in an hour if you wanted to.

Ps: Try an A2 magnet in that JB and it will suit the mahogany better.
 
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