Rebel Yell in PRS?

[WhaleBlue]

Hi Folks!

What would you guys think about putting a set of Rebel Yells in a PRS Custom 24? Or would they be too bright?

I'm thinking of replacing the VB/HFS stock pickups and possibly changing the 5-way rotary selector to a 3-way with coil tap at the same time. I like to have a go at Classic Rock and Blues stuff - by no means competent, but I like to try :-)

I got a set of Mules for my Tokai LP copy, and I love them.

I'd value your opinion, thanks.

[PhilKing]

I have Rebel Yells in a PRS Standard 24, I used to have VHII's in my Artist II, but changed to AIV Mules.  The RY's have a lot of high mids but are not overly bright.  I think they will work fine in there.  The VHII's work very well too, with a bit less output and more bottom end.

[sjwebb90]

I have got a Crawler set in my Singlecut Trem and am very pleased with the versitility. I don't find these pickups dark at all. In this particular guitar they are well balanced, and the split coils are very good too. Mind you to complete the job I always make sure the 500K pots are close to the nominal value and also rewire the guitar with the vintage tinned wire and use a decent capacitor.

The original PRS #6 pickups in the Singlecut, the bridge sounded sterile and the neck sounded muddy. I must say of all the PRS pickups I have played, the PRS #6's I don't care for at all.

As a second comparison I have  Dragon 1's in my Custom 22 and the Crawlers sound a lot clearer/brighter and have a lot better string definition. Definitely and hot vintage vibe. I can get a decent take on Thin Lizzy, Bad Co, Led Zep etc and in split coil mode a good and usable straty sound.

I would have to agree with someone elses comments that the Dragons 1's, although a good pickup, do sound a little over compressed are a lot darker and a lot less open than the BKP's.

I am now thinking about swapping out the Dragon 1's which I have been using for a fair few years and replacing with something else.

Now we are back to that old addage of which BKP's to go for?

Out of interest are the muso's on this forum using the REBEL YELL's with or without the covers?
Anyone done an A/B of covers with and covers without?

Cheers
SJ






 compared to the

[PhilKing]

My rebel yells don't have covers because they are pre-production ones (the spec is the same as the production though).  BK compensate for covers with the wind, so they aren't as different as other makes in that respect.

[sjwebb90]

Phil, thanks for your repsonse.

Sorry to reiterate and just to clarify, do you mean that the open coil and the covered version is virtual one and the same on the tone front due to a compensated wind process for each?

It's a question I have posed to Tim and was awaiting an answer for as I prefer the open coil "look" but didn't want to sacrifice tone if the covered one were better in some respect (That last statment is obviously subjective to  individual ears & taste).

Out of interest what BKP's are other fellow PRS users using in their guitars?

Reading the forum Mules, VHII's and Rebel Yells do seem to be quite popular.

[sjwebb90]

Out of interest Tim has responded to an email I wrote and says the following:

Q1 Could you give some idea of the differences in tone between the "open coil" and "covered" Rebel Yell's?

Open coils are slightly brighter with more presence whereas covered
humbuckers are warmer in the bass and highs. The RYs were designed to
work well with either and Steve uses both covered and open coil pickups
in his guitars.

Q2 Is the clean tone with both outer coils on comparible with the
Crawlers?

Slightly brighter

[hunter]

I have a Rebel Yell set in a PRS SE Singlecut, and it's perfect, also the split sounds are just good! The PRS used to have VHIIs which was good too, but the guitar can use the slightly more meat that the RYs add to it.

[sjwebb90]

Hi Hunter thanks for joining the debate.

I have listened to a lot of your sound clips and you certainly do have some great guitar tones coming from your PRS SE.

Out of interst do your Rebel Yells have the covers or not?

[WhaleBlue]

I've taken the plunge and ordered a Rebel Yell set for the Custom 24 - looking forward to the change!

I'm also going to change the 5-way switch to 3-way with coil splitting - has anyone on the forum done this? Any problems and (more importantly!) any advice?

Thanks guys...

[sjwebb90]

I have changed out my 5 way rotary switch for a 3 way toggle and the conversion is pretty striaght forward.

You need to source a 500K push/pull pot to replace the Tone pot already fitted. Also you will need to source a 3 way toggle and put in place of the five way rotary switch.

BKP supply a schematic with the pickups on how to split the coils and you only need to use two of the poles on the switch. (Easiest Option)

PRS has a schematic which utilises all the poles on the switch. (Bit more fiddly)
http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/schem08/custom3waytoggle.pdf.

I suggest using the BKP method.

[WhaleBlue]

Did you have to enlarge the hole for the 3-way switch? If you did, how did you do that without damaging the finish?

[hunter]

Hi Hunter thanks for joining the debate.

I have listened to a lot of your sound clips and you certainly do have some great guitar tones coming from your PRS SE.

Out of interst do your Rebel Yells have the covers or not?

Neck and Bridge uncovered. Actually bought the Rebel Yells for my MusicMan Axis, but changed that back to the stock Di Marzios, put the VHIIs from the PRS SE into my Edwards Les Paul and the Rebel Yells into the SE. My Epiphone Les Paul is back to the Black Dog set (just too good a match). Now I have a spare Miracle Man that I'm thinking might be the perfect fit for my 3 PU Edwards LP custom ...

[sjwebb90]

Whaleblue
I used a reamer to gently open out the hole. This method caused no damage to my PRS.
(I would personal would NOT recommend using a drill bit.)

Hunter
Thanks reponse re:Rebel Yell's  and other, very informative.

I have actually ordered a set of RY's with the covers in the first instance and are going to give that a go. If things need less "warming" on the highs and lows up I can always get them removed.