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PRS pickups in a strat?

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  • grungebobgrungebob Frets: 3331
    The carter usm reference shirt
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  • MartinverdeMartinverde Frets: 1
    Tavernor said:
    Hi all, quick question regarding a potential upgrade to a cheap strat copy. 

    I played guitar badly as a teenager, basic chords, rhythms, scales etc but stopped about 10/11 years ago. I've recently decided to pick it up again and learn properly, that's the plan anyway.

    I used to play a PRS Tremonti SE but alas through a drunken fall I managed to break it at the base of the neck which I presume wouldn't be repairable (?). Seeing as I'm essentially a beginner again I went for a cheap strat copy with three single coil pickups. I play through a valvestate half stack and it sounds alright to my untrained ears but I'm not naive enough to expect it to stack up against more expensive gear.

    Question is, is it possible to/worth swapping the PRS pickups into the strat copy? I'll show my lack of knowledge here by saying that I think the PRS has humbuckers, but they look like two pairs of single coils. Really don't know much so apologies if it's a daft question; obviously the PRS cost more so I presume it's pickups would be superior?

    Also, and sorry this is in the wrong section of the forum, would the Marshall benefit from a service (believe it has a tube in the pre-amp)? If it's plugged in and turned on but I'm not playing I get a very occasional pop/crackle.

    I'm a fan of John Frusciante so trying to learn some of the more interesting RHCP tunes to train my fingers up; I know he mainly plays a Stratocaster but if the PRS can mate with the strat copy and make it a better sounding guitar all around then that's all good, I'm only learning RHCP to get my coordination back.

    Any advice is very much appreciated!

    Dave.
    Hi there... reading this post five years later... I've done exactly what you were up to... a few years ago... I'll try and post some pics.
    I had to make some modifications to the pickguard in order to get the neck humbucker fitting in, and also had to fill the hole of the middle single coil, because It was no longer needed.  To unify the finish of the pickguard I threw some paint and then coated it  with transparent epoxy resin. 
    The sound of the guitar got A LOT better... but I had to change the pots (vol and tone) to 500k and the switch... to a 3 way.
    It was a nice project and I love that guitar now after all the time we spent together...




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  • MartinverdeMartinverde Frets: 1
    Martinverde said:
    Tavernor said:
    Hi all, quick question regarding a potential upgrade to a cheap strat copy. 

    I played guitar badly as a teenager, basic chords, rhythms, scales etc but stopped about 10/11 years ago. I've recently decided to pick it up again and learn properly, that's the plan anyway.

    I used to play a PRS Tremonti SE but alas through a drunken fall I managed to break it at the base of the neck which I presume wouldn't be repairable (?). Seeing as I'm essentially a beginner again I went for a cheap strat copy with three single coil pickups. I play through a valvestate half stack and it sounds alright to my untrained ears but I'm not naive enough to expect it to stack up against more expensive gear.

    Question is, is it possible to/worth swapping the PRS pickups into the strat copy? I'll show my lack of knowledge here by saying that I think the PRS has humbuckers, but they look like two pairs of single coils. Really don't know much so apologies if it's a daft question; obviously the PRS cost more so I presume it's pickups would be superior?

    Also, and sorry this is in the wrong section of the forum, would the Marshall benefit from a service (believe it has a tube in the pre-amp)? If it's plugged in and turned on but I'm not playing I get a very occasional pop/crackle.

    I'm a fan of John Frusciante so trying to learn some of the more interesting RHCP tunes to train my fingers up; I know he mainly plays a Stratocaster but if the PRS can mate with the strat copy and make it a better sounding guitar all around then that's all good, I'm only learning RHCP to get my coordination back.

    Any advice is very much appreciated!

    Dave.
    Hi there... reading this post five years later... I've done exactly what you were up to... a few years ago... I'll try and post some pics.
    I had to make some modifications to the pickguard in order to get the neck humbucker fitting in, and also had to fill the hole of the middle single coil, because It was no longer needed.  To unify the finish of the pickguard I threw some paint and then coated it  with transparent epoxy resin. 
    The sound of the guitar got A LOT better... but I had to change the pots (vol and tone) to 500k and the switch... to a 3 way.
    It was a nice project and I love that guitar now after all the time we spent together...




    https://postimg.cc/NyFFf0sT


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  • MartinverdeMartinverde Frets: 1
    Martinverde said: https://postimg.cc/njQLBwQh
    Martinverde said:
    Tavernor said:
    Hi all, quick question regarding a potential upgrade to a cheap strat copy. 

    I played guitar badly as a teenager, basic chords, rhythms, scales etc but stopped about 10/11 years ago. I've recently decided to pick it up again and learn properly, that's the plan anyway.

    I used to play a PRS Tremonti SE but alas through a drunken fall I managed to break it at the base of the neck which I presume wouldn't be repairable (?). Seeing as I'm essentially a beginner again I went for a cheap strat copy with three single coil pickups. I play through a valvestate half stack and it sounds alright to my untrained ears but I'm not naive enough to expect it to stack up against more expensive gear.

    Question is, is it possible to/worth swapping the PRS pickups into the strat copy? I'll show my lack of knowledge here by saying that I think the PRS has humbuckers, but they look like two pairs of single coils. Really don't know much so apologies if it's a daft question; obviously the PRS cost more so I presume it's pickups would be superior?

    Also, and sorry this is in the wrong section of the forum, would the Marshall benefit from a service (believe it has a tube in the pre-amp)? If it's plugged in and turned on but I'm not playing I get a very occasional pop/crackle.

    I'm a fan of John Frusciante so trying to learn some of the more interesting RHCP tunes to train my fingers up; I know he mainly plays a Stratocaster but if the PRS can mate with the strat copy and make it a better sounding guitar all around then that's all good, I'm only learning RHCP to get my coordination back.

    Any advice is very much appreciated!

    Dave.
    Hi there... reading this post five years later... I've done exactly what you were up to... a few years ago... I'll try and post some pics.
    I had to make some modifications to the pickguard in order to get the neck humbucker fitting in, and also had to fill the hole of the middle single coil, because It was no longer needed.  To unify the finish of the pickguard I threw some paint and then coated it  with transparent epoxy resin. 
    The sound of the guitar got A LOT better... but I had to change the pots (vol and tone) to 500k and the switch... to a 3 way.
    It was a nice project and I love that guitar now after all the time we spent together...




    https://postimg.cc/NyFFf0sT



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  • thegummythegummy Frets: 4389
    As someone already said, how good a pickup is is subjective so theoretically someone could prefer the pickup on a 20 quid guitar aimed at being a toy for kids to a 400 quid boutique pickup (aimed at lawyers lol).

    But in reality, if it's a cheap Strat copy, not even a Squier, the odds are the pickups probably aren't going to be that great - cost reduction would likely be the main thing driving the design of them. Whereas the PRS SE pickups are generally pretty high quality. In my personal opinion the ones I've used are actually as good as popular name brand pickups like Seymour Duncan (there's a PRS SE pickup that I occasionally try to find on eBay even though my main pickups are all very expensive, that's how much I rated it when I had it).

    So as long as they fit, I say it's 100% worth putting them in that guitar. It will essentially make it sound just like the PRS.

    To check, unscrew all the pickguard screws and lift it off. You'll either see that the guitar body only has enough holes to take the three Strat pickups and no more or you'll find that the neck and bridge holes are twice the size and can fit humbuckers. If so, buy the cheapest "HH" Strat pickguard you can find. You might find that the screw holes don't match up but since it's a cheap guitar you can just make new holes for the screws if that's the case.
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