would you change pickups on a prs custom 24 (oldish one - can't remember year) and to what?

chromatuna

Well this is embarrassing, I realised that my quest didn’t end with the PRS 59/09s but rather with Oil City Tubesnakes! I did try Nightfighter IIs too but the big mids and compression weren’t my cuppa. 59/09s also too fat for my liking. Tubesnakes have A2 warmth but with the dynamics and openness that I prefer. Just to say that as soon as you go down the pickup rabbit hole then amps, speakers, drive pedals all have a part to play and that one person’s wonderful is another’s yeeurghh... 

guitars4you

OilCityPickups said:

nickp said:

just lookig at the bkp ones that thorpy mentioned.  Ash @OilCityPickups ; also does similar on the face of it

My NightFighter alnico II Customs were designed originally to replace PRS pickups ... more cream and less spike ...

I fitted this combination on a PRS restoration project some while ago - Certainly more pleasing IMO - As Ash states more cream and less spike

Funkfingers

nickp said:

would you change pickups on a prs custom 24 (oldish one - can't remember year)

thegummy said:

If it came with VB and HFS, I'd definitely not change them

I looked into this on my 1993. I went as far as unfastening the mounting surrounds to measure the pickup cavities. Offered up a covered humbucker. Found that it fouled the corners of the cavity. 

PRS eventually changed the cavity corners to accommodate their own covered humbuckers.

Meanwhile, on an Anniversary SE Custom 24, I found Seymour Duncan Distortion and a modified Gibson '57 Classic to do da biz. (I converted the Gibson to four conductor + shield output cable and swapped the bar magnet to Alnico 4.) Schaller Megaswitch P. Job done.

guitargeek62

I’ve just swapped the pickups on my ‘87, though admittedly the original Standard T&B’s were long gone, so the after-market SD something-or-others got replaced by a set of used 85/15s from a newer Cu24.

John_P

I’ve always found the hfs a brill shrill and changed them for Suhr Aldrich.

nickp

thanks to the genius and helpfulness of young ash @OilCityPickups ; a set of his alnico 2 nightfighters are on their way to see if we can reach sonic nirvana.  special shout to Ash for answering stupid questions, even on a Sunday morning

OilCityPickups

nickp said:

thanks to the genius and helpfulness of young ash @OilCityPickups ; a set of his alnico 2 nightfighters are on their way to see if we can reach sonic nirvana.  special shout to Ash for answering stupid questions, even on a Sunday morning

No problem mate. So long as I have a couple of cups of tea inside me I'm good to go with the questions :-)

mudslide73

nickp said:

thanks to the genius and helpfulness of young ash @OilCityPickups ; a set of his alnico 2 nightfighters are on their way to see if we can reach sonic nirvana.  special shout to Ash for answering stupid questions, even on a Sunday morning

I love the A2 Nightfighter - it really works in maple fingerboard HSS Strats too. Lovely stuff.

Let us know how it works out!

OilCityPickups

mudslide73 said:

nickp said:

thanks to the genius and helpfulness of young ash @OilCityPickups ; a set of his alnico 2 nightfighters are on their way to see if we can reach sonic nirvana.  special shout to Ash for answering stupid questions, even on a Sunday morning

I love the A2 Nightfighter - it really works in maple fingerboard HSS Strats too. Lovely stuff.

Let us know how it works out!

Many people get the NightFighter all wrong ... they think of it as a high output pickup. In fact it's only about 10% overwound compared to a classic PAF. The swap down in wire grades and mild overwinding push up the mid authority to give a 'PAF on steroids' sort of tone ... not at all a 'fire breather' ... unless you want it to be. 

Kebabkid

If you do swap them out, keep them and don't sell them as you may regret it and if selling on, certain 'PRS buyers' seem to prefer keeping stuff original or retaining all the bits, tags etc

I changed mine (Bass & HFS) in my 1989 CU24 to Lollar Imperials and there was a difference (not as modern) but I thought they were great. I also did a conversion from 5 way rotary pickup selector to a 3 way switch with coil tap and swapped out the sweet switch and made it a Tone control.

Luckily, I sold the old pair to a mate who ended up buying said CU24 and he put the original pickups back in and to me, they sounded better than the replacements. Better at cleans, more singy and well-suited to the guitar.

PhilKing

I've changed all the pickups in my PRS's to Bare Knuckles.  I'm just not a fan of the old PRS pickup sound.  I've tried all the standard ones, including HFS, VB, Dragons, T&B and Artists.  I didn't like the 57/08's on my ME II either.  I have VHII's on that, Rebel Yells on my 89 Standard, Mules on my Artist II, Abraxas om my 2001 SC and a Crawler/P-91 combination on my EG 4.  The VH II's do work really well, but don't discount the Mules or the Abraxas either, if you want more of a vintage tone.

nickp

PhilKing said:

I've changed all the pickups in my PRS's to Bare Knuckles.  I'm just not a fan of the old PRS pickup sound.  I've tried all the standard ones, including HFS, VB, Dragons, T&B and Artists.  I didn't like the 57/08's on my ME II either.  I have VHII's on that, Rebel Yells on my 89 Standard, Mules on my Artist II, Abraxas om my 2001 SC and a Crawler/P-91 combination on my EG 4.  The VH II's do work really well, but don't discount the Mules or the Abraxas either, if you want more of a vintage tone.

my gut about the prs sound is that it works really well in a modern amp setting and copes weil with the gain, and it's a distinct voice also, but I'm more of a marshall and pedal for crunch and lead so I'm looking for the fabulousness that is the prs neck and setup with cream and scones in my sound

guitars4you

nickp said:

PhilKing said:

I've changed all the pickups in my PRS's to Bare Knuckles.  I'm just not a fan of the old PRS pickup sound.  I've tried all the standard ones, including HFS, VB, Dragons, T&B and Artists.  I didn't like the 57/08's on my ME II either.  I have VHII's on that, Rebel Yells on my 89 Standard, Mules on my Artist II, Abraxas om my 2001 SC and a Crawler/P-91 combination on my EG 4.  The VH II's do work really well, but don't discount the Mules or the Abraxas either, if you want more of a vintage tone.

my gut about the prs sound is that it works really well in a modern amp setting and copes weil with the gain, and it's a distinct voice also, but I'm more of a marshall and pedal for crunch and lead so I'm looking for the fabulousness that is the prs neck and setup with cream and scones in my sound

I tend to agree with you Nick - saturated gain and the PRS p/ups work fine - More classic rock and less gain then they tend to be  more 'choir boy' and less Paul Rodgers - Yet the DGT  pick-ups are excellent, if you can get them