Swapping Suhr Pickups with PRS ones.....how?

[gregory]

Re: Swapping Suhr Pickups with PRS ones.....how?

To be honest, I'm not sure you don't currently have a phasing problem, but I can't really tell how you have things wired and am having a hard time figuring it out from the discussion. A diagram would be helpful.

Anyway...

I would be surprised if the neck screw coil in the outer position sounded bad. The bridge screw coil in the outer position is an entirely different story.

Now if PRS is doing a hybrid thing, an internal partial split or otherwise achieving significantly higher inductance splitting to the slug coil instead of the screw coil, then sure. In the absence of concrete information, I'd give it a try.

Have you considered PRS-style wiring where position 4 is bridge humbucker and neck inner coil and the combination of inner coils is in position 2 (though PRS actually calls those positions 2 and 4, respectively)?

All these wirings are easily doable.

Standard PRS HH Wiring:

 

[andyg_prs]

Re: Swapping Suhr Pickups with PRS ones.....how?

Hi,

I thought I'd update and answer some questions. The way I wired the guitar was as per the Suhr wiring but with the appropriate lead wires for the PRS pickups. Position 4 I'm 99% sure wasn't suffering a phase issue - I've experienced that...it just seemed a little thinner / less sweet then I expected from the guitar and the pickups. Conversely Position 2, neck tapped to the slug coil....with the humbucker turned so that the slug coil was closest to the neck....that was surprising....all the lovely single coil-ness you might expect, perhaps even from a true single coil....and almost no volume drop from the full neck humbucker. Perhaps why I was a little worried about not using the slug coil in Gregory's penultimate wiring.

Anyhow, I used the guitar at band practice and it sounded great. Today I spent time with a 6mm chisel...as mentioned the neck humbucker was sitting too close to the strings...so I chiseled away from where the pickup feet would sit so that I could drop it a little lower. Having done that I re-wired as per Gregory's penultimate wiring. I'm sure his last wiring - true PRS style would be interesting, but I'm a particular fan of a neck single coil sound.

I just tried it out and things seem good at practice levels. Position 4 is much sweeter. Position 2 - it's still great....definitely not as loud and full as with the slug coil but still good. I'll know more at band practice Thursday....and I plan to gig on Friday with it as my main guitar....with my trusty PRS CE-24 as my back up.

Thanks ever so much for everyone's help....and I can't guarantee I won't be back! If I could just keep the current wiring yet have the slug coil in the neck in position 2.....that would be amazing

At least from here it's "just" wiring....the new pickups have been cut to fit (triangular feet, adjustment springs cut to size) and the guitar body routed.....and that's apart from the shannanigans I went through installing the tremol-no and creating a custom backplate with a riser due to the clamp extending beyond the body....all good experience though and satisfying doing things yourself!

Cheers,
Andy

 

[gregory]

Re: Swapping Suhr Pickups with PRS ones.....how?

Conversely Position 2, neck tapped to the slug coil....with the humbucker turned so that the slug coil was closest to the neck....that was surprising....all the lovely single coil-ness you might expect, perhaps even from a true single coil....and almost no volume drop from the full neck humbucker.

Position 4 [inner slug coils in parallel] is much sweeter. Position 2 [split to the screw coil oriented nearest to the neck] - it's still great....definitely not as loud and full as with the slug coil but still good.

I'm very happy to hear about your success as well as your opinion about the slug vs. screw coil closest to the neck!

If I could just keep the current wiring yet have the slug coil in the neck in position 2.....that would be amazing

Which PRS neck pickup are you using? Maybe you can get a second and swap the screw coil out for dual slug coils.

I'm a particular fan of a neck single coil sound.

Depending on what you ultimately want out of the neck position, you could experiment with a more traditional single-sized pickup in the 2-octave spot and stick another single-sized pickup right next to it that gives you more humbucker-like qualities.

Something like this...
http://www.lacemusic.com/Dually_Emerald_Purple.php

...or something like a Seymour Duncan STK-S10, STK-S7 or STK-S4 skirted by any of the following:

SD Hot Rails
SD JB Jr. Neck
SD Lil 59
SD Cool Rails
SD Lil Screamin Demon
DMZ Satch Track
DMZ Chopper
DMZ Air Norton S
Lace Sensor Blue​

The beauty of the Lace Sensor design, however, is that you will get minimal interference from a neighboring magnetic field.

 

[gregory]

Re: Swapping Suhr Pickups with PRS ones.....how?

These look pretty slick too:
http://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/core/408_2017

Instead of splitting, one coil is weakly tapped (something like 1500 turns) and in series with the dominant coil.

 

[andyg_prs]

Re: Swapping Suhr Pickups with PRS ones.....how?

Hi,

Yup, those pickups in the 408 do seem clever.

I'm going to live with the guitar for a while before I make any further changes. Interestingly in the past I had an idea of a custom guitar with a normal size single coil butted up against a full size humbucker in the neck position.

I think on this guitar which is direct mounted (no scratchplate) a normal sized single coil might be too big for the route.

Some years ago I had an HSH Fender HM Strat (droopy headstock model) which I wired for Fender/Gibson wiring. Eg with a switch in one direction my 5 way gave the normal selections of an S/S/S Strat and in the other position 1 was neck humbucker, 2,3,4 were neck and bridge humbuckers, position 5 was the bridge humbucker. It worked pretty well.

I also happened across a custom order SD humbucker on eBay that was actually a single coil and a stacked humbucker on the same base plate. It got sold with the guitar but I kind of wish I'd kept hold of it!

In terms of the Lace Dually, years ago I got a Japanese made Fender Squire Floyd Rose, HSS and got a full Lace set to swap out the pickups...that was my first lot of modding and it was a result of a reggae gig I did where the power was from a diesel generator and I was getting terrible hum from my pickups.....anyhow, the single coils stayed (and are still there) but the dually was the most horribly nasal thing to my ears I ever heard and no sooner had I played through it once than I took the guitar apart and removed it. It go replaced with a Seymour Duncan JB.

Anyhow today is the first rehearsal with the guitar (Rasmus (Suhr) M200) set up with proper humbucker adjustment and the new wiring, and then tomorrow I gig with it. I'll report back

Cheers,
Andy