PRS Custom 24 owners - need pup advice

Yep, I'm going home tonight and measure, just to be certain, the black covered version of the pups fit.

BK was VERY quick to recommend a pup set (Holy Divers) with my regard to my tonal preference. Really looking forward towards the install!

The "Nailbombs" the bomb?;)
 
stink said:
The guy doing the demo did PRS no favors by his choice of playing. I'm glad I saw this video AFTER my purchase, otherwise I'd have never considered it. Unplugged, the resonance this guitar has is truly amazing. It has such sweet acoustic qualities which ring out clearly and loudly.

I'm 100% convinced it's the \m/ pups, they are not my cup of tea.
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Generally speaking- if you want the unplugged character of the guitar to come through more- you will want lower wind PAF range pickups (less than 8.0 ohms) that do not add a lot of compression or push the front of the amp.

The \m/ pickups are ceramic and high output. Pretty much the opposite of PAF.
Pretty much mask the guitar in favor of adding gain.
Treble DC Res: 15.7k
Bass DC Res: 8.5k
 
Lkdog said:
The \m/ pickups are ceramic and high output. Pretty much the opposite of PAF.
Pretty much mask the guitar in favor of adding gain.
Click to expand...

Although the guitar has some amazing acoustic qualities, I do want it to push the amp and provide some balls. As mentioned, it has a very distinct woody tone and it's this tone I want to exploit further.

First time I ever played ceramic pups. To quote the Ren & Stimpy Show, "no sir, I didn't like it." They sound prickly and artificial to my ears... then again, being an old guy, my ears are likely shot anyway :(
 
stink said:
Although the guitar has some amazing acoustic qualities, I do want it to push the amp and provide some balls. As mentioned, it has a very distinct woody tone and it's this tone I want to exploit further.

First time I ever played ceramic pups. To quote the Ren & Stimpy Show, "no sir, I didn't like it." They sound prickly and artificial to my ears... then again, being an old guy, my ears are likely shot anyway :(
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Really hard to get that woody acoustic tone AND push the front end of an amp.
You can always add gain, but harder to pull it back.
Enjoy the journey, we all like different things.
 
I've had so many pups in my PRS Custom 22 I almost lost count:
  • Dragon II: This was the stock pups. I only remember that I didn't like them. Quickly removed.
  • BKP Abraxas set: Really good all around, slightly hotter PAF style pickups.
  • BKP VHII: I ordered these with reverse neck pickup magnet to be able to use the original PRS split (outer parallel, inner parallel and inner series) sounds but I've realised I don't use these splits at all. They are close:ish to position 2 and 4 on a strat that I don't really use either.
  • BKP Crawler Bridge: It was just a bit too much for me in this guitar. Love this as the bridge pickup in my Suhr strat.
  • DiMarzio Bluesbreaker neck: Cool P90:ish humbucker. Worked well with BKP Abraxas Bridge as well.
  • DiMarzio Air Norton Bridge: Sort of non-descript good (not great) sound. Didn't use for very long.
  • BKP Black Dogs: Didn't work at all well for me in this guitar for some reason (I was really surprised actually).
  • PRS 59/09: My favourite PRS traditional pickup by some margin (I do really like the 408 pickups as well that I read somewhere are based on the 59/09s and that would make sense to me). These have the bridge magnet reverses so I've reversed the neck pickup (screw coil towards the back) to get a more traditional dual humbucker setup and be able to use the PRS DGT resistor split trick when splitting humbuckers (https://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/2015/dgt.pdf).
My favourites so far have been the BKP Abraxas set, the BKP Abraxas bridge with the Bluesbreaker neck, and the 59/09s.

From reading the comment about the BKP Rebel Yell's I feel I need to try these as well. I have the BKP Rebel Yell's in my Les Paul and those are probably my all time favourite pickups. Never occurred to me to try these out in the Custom 22. I also probably want to reverse back the magnet in the VHII neck and give them another go at some point.

Never tried the BKP Holy Divers. I'm sure they will be excellent as all Bareknuckle Pickups are. Please report back when you get them!
 
I just got the BKP Holy Divers put in my Jackson Soloist. I think they are only slightly better than the SD Distortion pickups that came stock. I had planned on putting them in my PRS too but now not sure it is worth it. I think for now on I will stick with the less expensive options since I could probably just EQ the differences in my Axe-FX II anyway.
 
Lkdog said:
Really hard to get that woody acoustic tone AND push the front end of an amp.
You can always add gain, but harder to pull it back.
Enjoy the journey, we all like different things.
Click to expand...

I think we just have a different opinion of what the term "woody" tone defines.. for me, this is the ultimate "woody" solo tone (starts at 2:21)
 
Johan Allard said:
I've had so many pups in my PRS Custom 22 I almost lost count:
  • Dragon II: This was the stock pups. I only remember that I didn't like them. Quickly removed.
  • BKP Abraxas set: Really good all around, slightly hotter PAF style pickups.
  • BKP VHII: I ordered these with reverse neck pickup magnet to be able to use the original PRS split (outer parallel, inner parallel and inner series) sounds but I've realised I don't use these splits at all. They are close:ish to position 2 and 4 on a strat that I don't really use either.
  • BKP Crawler Bridge: It was just a bit too much for me in this guitar. Love this as the bridge pickup in my Suhr strat.
  • DiMarzio Bluesbreaker neck: Cool P90:ish humbucker. Worked well with BKP Abraxas Bridge as well.
  • DiMarzio Air Norton Bridge: Sort of non-descript good (not great) sound. Didn't use for very long.
  • BKP Black Dogs: Didn't work at all well for me in this guitar for some reason (I was really surprised actually).
  • PRS 59/09: My favourite PRS traditional pickup by some margin (I do really like the 408 pickups as well that I read somewhere are based on the 59/09s and that would make sense to me). These have the bridge magnet reverses so I've reversed the neck pickup (screw coil towards the back) to get a more traditional dual humbucker setup and be able to use the PRS DGT resistor split trick when splitting humbuckers (https://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/2015/dgt.pdf).
My favourites so far have been the BKP Abraxas set, the BKP Abraxas bridge with the Bluesbreaker neck, and the 59/09s.

From reading the comment about the BKP Rebel Yell's I feel I need to try these as well. I have the BKP Rebel Yell's in my Les Paul and those are probably my all time favourite pickups. Never occurred to me to try these out in the Custom 22. I also probably want to reverse back the magnet in the VHII neck and give them another go at some point.

Never tried the BKP Holy Divers. I'm sure they will be excellent as all Bareknuckle Pickups are. Please report back when you get them!
Click to expand...

The Holy Divers are on their way. Additionally I'm swapping out that 5-way for a 3-way. I definitely do not like the tone of split humbuckers. I have a Strat and a Mathias Jabs (Dommenget) Mastercaster (which has split coils-very versatile guitar) I use for sparkly, clean tones.

I will make a before/after clip
 
stink said:
I think we just have a different opinion of what the term "woody" tone defines.. for me, this is the ultimate "woody" solo tone (starts at 2:21)
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Yeah- that is not what most people would call woody.
Most any decent humbucker guitar should get that moderately higher gain processed tone through the right amp and effects and I am sure you can find it in the Axe.
I am sure the CU24 can get you there.

Gary Moore supposedly used EMG 81 active pickups in that Heritage.
 
Just got my S2 Standard 24, it is really nice guitar. I like the pickups, I don't need to swap they sound exactly like I wanted. These are really good value at $650 new for sure. These tuners are the best I have ever used.
 
stink said:
Yep, I'm going home tonight and measure, just to be certain, the black covered version of the pups fit.

BK was VERY quick to recommend a pup set (Holy Divers) with my regard to my tonal preference. Really looking forward towards the install!

The "Nailbombs" the bomb?;)
Click to expand...
They were the first choice in my head after reading up. But when I spoke with BK and explained what I do, stuff I play, (rock covers band 60's to present day) they said without doubt Rebel Yells. They even said if you don't like 'em send 'em back and you can exchange. Cannot say fairer than that! Great company, great pick-ups, and in my opinion they know their stuff. After all the owner is a proper player knows what is good in any situation.

Enjoy, looking forward to your opinion once you get them.
 
stink said:
The Holy Divers are on their way. Additionally I'm swapping out that 5-way for a 3-way. I definitely do not like the tone of split humbuckers. I have a Strat and a Mathias Jabs (Dommenget) Mastercaster (which has split coils-very versatile guitar) I use for sparkly, clean tones.

I will make a before/after clip
Click to expand...

Yeah, the 5-way has to go. A standard 3 way is much better. I think the PRS DGT trick of using a resistor to cut sort of half the other coil works really well. Most of my guitars either have that or series/parallel switching and especially playing in a band context I never really feel the need for real single coils.
 
Johan Allard said:
Yeah, the 5-way has to go. A standard 3 way is much better. I think the PRS DGT trick of using a resistor to cut sort of half the other coil works really well. Most of my guitars either have that or series/parallel switching and especially playing in a band context I never really feel the need for real single coils.
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I dunno. I went 3-way on my Standard 24 when I ditched the Holy Divers and I kind of miss it. Even with the push-pull tone pot it's not the same. It's not a fast to switch as the 3-way, but the tonal options are really nice.

I'll have to look in to the DGT setup. That sounds possibly better than the coil cut I have now. I don't like the coil cut.
 
iaresee said:
I dunno. I went 3-way on my Standard 24 when I ditched the Holy Divers and I kind of miss it. Even with the push-pull tone pot it's not the same. It's not a fast to switch as the 3-way, but the tonal options are really nice.

I'll have to look in to the DGT setup. That sounds possibly better than the coil cut I have now. I don't like the coil cut.
Click to expand...

The DGT resistor setup is a much better way of splitting coils than just using the one coil IMHO. I found just cutting the other coil to be almost unusable. Parallel can also work well depending on pickup.

As to what's preferable to splitting coils (however method) compared to the PRS 5 way rotary switch, I'd say it comes down to if you like position 2 and 4 on a strat or not, and I don't. To me, position 2, 3, 4 on the rotary are sort of different variants of position 2 and 4 on a strat where's splitting coils (when done right) gives usable position 1 and 5 strat sounds. And for me that's just better.
 
I have a CE-24 and the HFS is a decent pickup but, as someone mentioned already, gets a bit dark. Ended up trying a Dimarzio Mo'Joe and I love it, it retains the vocal quality of the HFS but give much more clarity in my opinion. I have since gone a different direction with the guitar but I still think the Mo'Joe is a great pickup.
 
AtomicBlaze said:
I just got the BKP Holy Divers put in my Jackson Soloist. I think they are only slightly better than the SD Distortion pickups that came stock. I had planned on putting them in my PRS too but now not sure it is worth it. I think for now on I will stick with the less expensive options since I could probably just EQ the differences in my Axe-FX II anyway.
Click to expand...

I take back what I said about the Holy Divers they are amazing.
 
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