Advice required for my PRS SE Custom 24 - 7 strings

[Kiichi]

Nice! In most axes I still have somewhat of an issue with the blackhawks looks, but in that baby they work!

Now the regular BKP advice is play with your pickup height a bit, they usually are pretty sensitive to that. If you love them now, chances are good they can be even better.

Also I (I suspect I am not alone on this one) would be interrested in any and all additional thoughts on tone, qualities and weaknesses from either early impressions or further down the road.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Yes, it's a great looking guitar and it does seem to suit the Black Hawks. Glad (and relieved) you like them. I'd also like a really detailed review of what they're like. My reviews are usually epic so you don't need to go that far but good quality reviews help us all to learn more.  :D

[sulistef]

So, some more days with the pickups, and I if they are really sharp, I have quite a lot of difficulties to find "my sound".

The "organic" side of the pickup is very present when I get on my modern canal on the recto and it sounds like I have "gain over the gain". It's hard to describe and I will try to get some samples (tomorrow because I can not play my recto at 23:38 :-D ). Of course I can get the gain down, but then the sound loses all the power during palm-mutes.

On the other side, the clean sound is sweet and warm ... and for my ears, close from perfect !

I will anyway get an EQ pedal (MXR M 108) and I know it will reduce the "bee effect" from the Hi gain recto chanel, but will it help with my gain on the gain ?

Perhaps is the height of my pickups not good tuned, can it influence these tonality ?

[sulistef]

And here are the samples :

the "gain over the gain effect" : https://soundcloud.com/sulistef/gain-over-the-gain

Modern mode : https://soundcloud.com/sulistef/red-modern
Vintage mode : https://soundcloud.com/sulistef/red-modern

My favourite here is the Vintage sound but it sounds already very "grainy" (french translation, I'm not sure it's the correct word :) )

[GuitarIv]

Sounds like you have the pickup a bit to close to bridge, that can happen easily especially with Ceramic ones, my Painkiller likes to breathe a bit farther away from the strings than my Holydiver. I would mess with pickup height again, should solve the problem :)

Cheers

[sulistef]

Thanks !! Operation screwdriver !! :-)

[sulistef]

So I "played" with the pickups height, I have some variations of course but the sound is always approximately the same. I think it's part of the pickup character, or the couple Black Hawk / Dual Recto.

[GuitarIv]

Well, BKPs are usually very sensitive to height, so if the sound doesn't change fundamentally it in deed is the character of the Blackhawk.

[sulistef]

Yes I think so too. So I contacted BKP for an exchange for Aftermath pickups, these are more conventional but I think it will fit my sound better.

But the blackhawks are really good pickups and I was very impressed by the sound change compared to my stock pickups. And the clean sound was absolutely gorgeous. I think the fizz I have in my sound is due to the high response in the treble band that push the rectifier sound a little bit too much for me. They would be better for my style on an other amp or in lower gain.

I just want to add to the people who adviced me these pickups that I don't regret my first decision because I had the chance to test it on my rig. Unfortunately it was only this "fizz" in the sound that I didn't like but I repeat these are excellent pickups.

I'll keep you informed when I get the Aftermath (black battleworn covered :) )

[ericsabbath]

I don't think aftermaths will fix whatever is causing that  :?