Tell me about McCarty humbuckers

Bowtomecha

New member
I tried a PRS McCarty SE today and the pickups were amazing. I cranked up a katana 100 at guitar center and strictly with panel controls and got some of the best tones I’ve ever had. I’ve been biased because McCarty always meant grandpa guitar to me but I got on very well with this guitar. The pickups felt… intuitive. It wasn’t limiting for various aspects of my playing style. Are these just basic middle of the road pafs? I read years ago that they weren’t potted which had me rolling my eyes. But even the microphonics and feedback I got at times felt musical. What other pickups compare to these? Ive felt similarly positive about other pickups like the pearly gates and the Shawbucker, which are in paf territory. I’m curious about the dimarzio bridge pafs more like the 36 anniversary and the fortitude and what they bring to the party. Different specs but I’m wondering if I should get a paf for my seven string.
 
I don't knw much about those pickups, but non-potted pickups have a special thing going on. You won't notice it with say, modern metal, but more dynamic styles tend to come alive. I love my Antiquities and Seth Lovers for this reason.
 
Hey, an old fart who loves unpotted pickups here!... ;-)

I don't know if it's what you've played but these last years, PRS has advertised "TCI" pickups, IOW "Tuned Capacitance & Inductance" transducers.

Users seem to think it makes a difference:

https://youtu.be/GZrQULkbx48?si=fYWcbhH-aYrPzP1S&t=420

Personally, I don't know which PRS guitars host these PU's and I've not analyzed what is behind the "TCI" thing but I see two potential explanations about this:
1)PRS has found a way to obtain a consistently low stray capacitance from coils by playing with winding patterns/tension and/or wire insulation... which makes coils brigther and more "alive", with quicker and higher transients.
2)PRS has decided to release their own version of DiMarzio Dual-Resonance, which allows to obtain secondary resonant peaks "tuned" for more sparkle (but also narrow dips in the high range, allowing to avoid high pitched squealing if located at the "right" frequencies).

Low stray capacitance is more often found in hand wound coils but some winders claim to obtain it from machines programmed to scatterwind (Kinman comes to my mind). Non potted coils are also less capacitive than potted ones, BTW.

Dual-Resonance is present beyond audio range in potentially all pickups, especially those fitted with 4-conductors cables... but it's possible to shift it down in the audio range and to take advantage of it sonically, by manipulating parasitic capacitance. DiMarzio uses different wire gauges for that but there are other ways (that I won't evoke here).

FWIW.

EDIT - DiMarzio 36th do exhibit a STRONG comb filtering effect due to asymetric capacitive loads IME... but I had mixed feeling when I've tested them (there was a high sharp secondary peak around 11khz generating a very irritating "drone" effect in the hi-harmonics, as lab tests would confirm it a bit later; through a Twin or JC120, it was absolutely painful to listen).


 
Last edited:
was this a new 2024 594 model? i think those have the overseas 58/15 low turn pups
 
I don't know much about the SE series McCarty pickups, but it sounds as if PRS has upgraded them from the regular SE hums.
Even with bargain pickups, sometimes you get a magical combination, perfect synergy between pickups and a particular individual guitar.

The humbuckers used on core McCartys for many years were fairly neutrally voiced, with A4 mags, DCRs around 8K neck & 9K bridge.
Fairly touch sensitive, and very transparent to the natural sound of the wood they were in. In most McCartys they sounded great.
Kind of a split personality: sparkly, detailed and somewhat vintagey when clean, and at gain they suddenly took on a darker, thicker, smoother voice. Nice.
These were not pickups that brought a lot of their own personality to the sound, though, and in certain guitars they could seem a bit lackluster.

I have two McCartys. One of them is wonderful and quite versatile with the stock A4 humbuckers.
The other one got 57/08s and sounds great, but definitely is less of a chameleon - it has that distinctive PAF-ish voicing all the time.
I have to say the classic sepiatone character is absolutely magnificent, though.

57/08s are among my very favorite 21st century PAF types, along with 59/09s. I prefer either of them head and shoulders above the 58/15s.
 
I wouldn't think the SE pickups would be unpotted, but I might be wrong.

If they are unpotted, I'd take a look at the Seths or Antiquities.

If they are potted, maybe look into the Pearlies.

The fact that you got "musical" feedback makes me think they were potted. With high-gain, the last thing unpotted pickups do is feedback musically, IME.
 
Back
Top