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The Pickup Place / Re: It's time to revisit the pickups in my PRS

« on: September 05, 2026, 03:43:11 PM »

It’s still a vintage wind so parallel mode will still tend toward the brittle end of things. A loading resistor in parallel mode can help, as can a small capacitor which will lower the resonant frequency.

I am not a fan of parallel wiring. I did it for a few years but moved on to passive filtering.

On the vintage end of the spectrum… The neck pickup in my #1 is a Duncan 59 with an A3 magnet. My Tele has a DiMarzio EJ Custom Neck. I also like the Full Shred Neck, though it lacks a little body. I also like the Alnico II Pro. I’ve always wanted to try a Lace Sensor Purple/Emerald Dually and simply wire it to access either pickup rather than combine them. I hear good things about the Bluesbucker and am intrigued by Nash wiring on the tone control rather than series/split/parallel swotching, but have never played one.

I love parallel clean or dirty. It's the regular series sounds I want to change. I listened to some clips of the High Voltage and wasn't impressed. I might go with a Pearly Gates set instead.

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The Pickup Place / Re: It's time to revisit the pickups in my PRS

« on: September 05, 2026, 11:55:06 AM »

What about the SD High Voltage set? It's 4 wire so it'll do the series/parallel thing. And it was developed for an SG, which has the same pushed back neck pickup as 24 fret guitars do.

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The Pickup Place / Re: It's time to revisit the pickups in my PRS

« on: September 05, 2026, 01:05:51 AM »

Roll back your tone control to the point where it is as low as you’d ever want it to go. Measure the resistance and then put the closest value resistor between the control and the wire feeding it. This will solve the problem of not being able to easily dial in the sweet spot. This assumes you don’t ever turn your tone control all the way down, of course.

There are other options short of modding or swapping the pickup, this just happens to be the one I primarily use. I also happen to like swapping magnets as well as passive bass shelves.

I'm all over the place with volume and tone knob settings. I'm usually somewhere between 3 and 10, but I've gone lower before.

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The Pickup Place / It's time to revisit the pickups in my PRS

« on: September 05, 2026, 12:07:50 AM »

Many years ago, thanks to you kind folks, I bought a Virtual PAF set for my PRS Custom 24. It solved the problem of obliterating the front end of my Mesa Subway Rocket so I could actually get a clean tone when I wanted one. It was a perfect match at the time. In the ensuing years, the rest of my gear has completely changed but the PRS continues to be #1. It's time to at least revisit the neck pickup if not both.

My basic setup is the PRS into a Red Llama or RAT, Catalinbread Echorec, and then into an Allen Encore, which is basically a tweaked out Fender Vibrolux Reverb. The guitar has a 3 way switch with two 500k push/pull pots for series/parallel on each pickup.

In parallel, the DP196 neck is clean and spanky and bright. A little too bright. In series it's undefined, particularly with distortion. The DP197F bridge sound is pretty good, if a little trebly as well. Rolling down the volume and/or tone either takes not enough edge off or too much.

If I had my druthers, I'd like a set that sounds like the Super 70s in my old Ibanez AR50. That guitar has an authority the PRS simply doesn't. Though I can dial both in to sound fantastic, if different. Understanding that's probably a pipe dream, I'd be very happy with a solution that just makes it sound like the best SG ever, which is how I think of it.

I don't have a lot of experience with pickups. My Ibanez RG had an Air Norton and AT-1 and I hated it. I sold the AT-1 and rewired it with the Air Norton in the bridge and got another VPAF for the neck. The Air Norton in that guitar sounds good in the bridge, though it doesn't compete on output with the Super 70s. The VPAF has the same issues as on the PRS.

I'm probably sticking to Dimarzio and Duncan, if that matters. Thanks for your help!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Anyone have experience with Ibanez Super 70s?

« on: June 03, 2016, 07:43:37 PM »

use your vol pot?

The Ibanez on 5 is the same volume as the PRS on 10. Since I ride the volume anyway, this is more about getting similar range on the pots than anything else.

No experience with the Super 70s but the AT-1/Air Norton combination will sound quite different from the VPAFs, probably significantly less bright.

Cheers Stephan

I'm ok with that. The Super 70s aren't as bright either. I'm more looking for matching power than anything else.

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The Pickup Place / Anyone have experience with Ibanez Super 70s?

« on: May 27, 2016, 12:43:29 PM »

Last month I bought a 1980 Ibanez Artist with original Super 70 pickups to backup my PRS Custom 24 with Dimarzio Virtual PAFs. I'd like to match the output between both guitars, and the Ibanez is a monster. Raising the VPAFs in the PRS doesn't do enough.

I do have an Air Norton/AT-1 set in a beater Ibanez that I can put into the PRS. I feel like the output will better match the Super 70s, but I'm not sure the tonal profile will match up. I'm also open to buying a set of Super 70s (if I can find them).

Thoughts on how to match up these two incredible instruments?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Advice for pairing with a Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) in a HH Superstrat

« on: May 23, 2016, 09:15:03 PM »

Thanks guys.  Just going to roll with it and enjoy.  Excited for the project.  Just struck a deal on a good used Fender Blacktop HH Strat to use as my modding base.  Should be fun!

DON'T DO IT 

Hi there fancy seeing you here. ;-) do you mean use that pick up, or is this more about your traditional dislike of strats? 

#fuqastrat 

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The Pickup Place / Re: Advice for pairing with a Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) in a HH Superstrat

« on: May 23, 2016, 10:56:02 AM »

Thanks guys.  Just going to roll with it and enjoy.  Excited for the project.  Just struck a deal on a good used Fender Blacktop HH Strat to use as my modding base.  Should be fun!

DON'T DO IT 

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The Pickup Place / Re: I'm like a throwback to 2006 - Looking for suggestions

« on: September 10, 2015, 05:46:07 PM »

The PG bridge is relatively hot for a PAF, and it is bright. It has some cut. I had to use 250k pots with a PG bridge on a strat.

 The PG neck is warm. The PG set are like opposites on the same guitar, and that provides for a wide range of possible tones from warm to bright.

From the specs, it doesn't seem any hotter than the Virtual PAF, which is my reference. It just has a different tone profile.

At this point, I'm leaning towards the Dimarzio. The set is $30 cheaper. That's all I got to go on.

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The Pickup Place / Re: I'm like a throwback to 2006 - Looking for suggestions

« on: September 10, 2015, 11:09:43 AM »

You owe it to yourself to try the Air Classic.  There's not a more musical pickup made and its not too hot.

I'm down to the Air Classic set and the SD Pearly Gates set. I dunno...

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The Pickup Place / Re: I'm like a throwback to 2006 - Looking for suggestions

« on: September 08, 2015, 01:43:37 PM »

I have to admit, I'm totally confused about the PAF Master set. Is it hotter than the 36th set? Reviews say yes, specs say no. And I'm shying away from the 36th set because they're hotter than my VPAFs.

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The Pickup Place / Re: PETITION TO DIMARZIO: PLEASE BRING BACK THE VIRTUAL PAF SET!

« on: September 07, 2015, 09:04:32 PM »

I guess I'll post this here too. Consider this my entry into the petition!

Greetings, Earthlings! This is my second post on your fine forum. (I also started a thread if you'd like to post there)

I have a 2005 PRS Custom 24. I've owned this guitar for 10 years. It's #1 and always will be. Complete with it's matched Virtual PAF humbuckers, installed in '06. Not even the Hot. Straight up VPAFs. For nearly 10 years! At the time, I also modified the McCarty switching. Each pot is a push/pull, which puts a pickup into parallel. So there's a lot of combinations here.

I've always played another style of guitar as a backup. Usually a Tele or Ric. But I've started using a lot of alternate tunings and so I'm contemplating a custom build. Think Fano LPjr if that helps (and if not, just think LP without the maple top).

I need pickups! And Dimarzio doesn't make the VPAF anymore. What I love about them is they're balanced and clear sounding. There's not a lot of gain, which allows my amp and pedals to do the work (Skreddy Hybrid Fuzz Driver -> GGG Red Llama clone -> Catalinbread Echorec -> Allen Encore).

I've used the Air Norton in the bridge of an old Ibanez RG, and that sounds cool. But I think it might be too hot, and have too much bottom end for a mahogany hardtail. The Air Classic was the pickup I passed on way back in '06, though it's a consideration.

What recommendations do you young whippersnappers have for an old Rip Van Winkle like me?

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The Pickup Place / I'm like a throwback to 2006 - Looking for suggestions

« on: September 07, 2015, 08:59:34 PM »

Greetings, Earthlings! This is my first post on your fine forum.

I have a 2005 PRS Custom 24. I've owned this guitar for 10 years. It's #1 and always will be. Complete with it's matched Virtual PAF humbuckers, installed in '06. Not even the Hot. Straight up VPAFs. For nearly 10 years! At the time, I also modified the McCarty switching. Each pot is a push/pull, which puts a pickup into parallel. So there's a lot of combinations here.

I've always played another style of guitar as a backup. Usually a Tele or Ric. But I've started using a lot of alternate tunings and so I'm contemplating a custom build. Think Fano LPjr if that helps (and if not, just think LP without the maple top).

I need pickups! And Dimarzio doesn't make the VPAF anymore. What I love about them is they're balanced and clear sounding. There's not a lot of gain, which allows my amp and pedals to do the work (Skreddy Hybrid Fuzz Driver -> GGG Red Llama clone -> Catalinbread Echorec -> Allen Encore).

I've used the Air Norton in the bridge of an old Ibanez RG, and that sounds cool. But I think it might be too hot, and have too much bottom end for a mahogany hardtail. The Air Classic was the pickup I passed on way back in '06, though it's a consideration.

What recommendations do you young whippersnappers have for an old Rip Van Winkle like me?