Pickup Question

[mercury]

I was thinking about replacing the pickups in my PRS Custom 22 (love everything else about the guitar, but pickups are the PRS Achilles heel it seems).  I have made up my mind that I want BKs, but not sure which to pick.  I play the PRS mainly (along with some beat-up Strats) into a Guytron GT-100FV, a Matchless Chieftain, and a Fender twin, with few effects.  Basically, I am looking for good range in tone.  Sweet, detailed clean tones with lots of headroom, through nice blues grit to high-gain classic British and American rock.  I don't like super-bright or dark tones or massively distorted death metal gain.  I dig humbuckers with some authority and high output to drive the amps.  Balance, warmth, clarity, sustain, and balls, with good "stringiness" (don't know how else to put it).  I've enjoyed listening to the clips.  The Nailbomb was monstrous, but not exactly my cup of tea.  Based on the descriptions, I was thinking of Mules, Black Dogs, or Crawlers (or a combo thereof).  What would you recommend?  Also, are there any possible problems with installing the new pickups into the PRS switching system?

[rinse_master]

I think (not sure) you might need to flip the neck pickup magnet to get it to work right but if you are ordering direct I'm sure they can just do that when you order, they are nice guys a BK  :D

Other than that as long as you know the colour coding for the wires it should be ok as far as I know, I cant' really offer pickup advice though, as I only have Black Dogs and they aren't wired up yet  :oops: I'm sure they will kick ass though.

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

I think either the crawlers or VHII's would meet your needs. The VHII has a open, fat driven tone, and the Crawler is more of a hot PAF. Both have excelent cleans. HJM has a set of VHII's in his PRS and they sound fantastic.

[mercury]

Thanks, man.  The Crawlers sound like a good call, but I was not even thinking about  the VHII's actually.  They might just be the ticket.  VH's tone is not the first one I am after, but they sound quite versatile.  I think I would get them with the gold covers.  They seem to round out the highs and mids a bit, and they'll look tremendous on the emerald green PRS.  :)

[HJM]

VHIIs work well in my PRS, they're quite bright and open in my guitar as it's an old CE Mapletop from 1990 with a alder body and bolt on neck. In Mahogany with a set neck the brightness of the bridge pickup will sit well with the softer tone of the guitar. The VHII neck has a touch of brightness to avoid mud but can still sound fruity and full. It doesn't sound like your amp is under a bed like playing chords on a vintage bass does!!

Crawlers also work very well, if you want a more mid range heavy tone. I suspect you will find a greater range of tones with the VHII. The VHII lets more of the guitars natural tone through, where the Crawler was designed to give a similar result in both strats and Les Pauls.

If you wanted a hotter ceramic pickup along the lines of a HFS, try looking at a Cold Sweat. Not as harsh as the HFS but still a lot of power.

Another line of thought is the Abraxas, PhilKing has a set in a PRS I think (could be wrong, he has too many nice guitars). The Abraxas are a similar output to the Crawlers but with the brighter tone more like the VHII. Obviously theu sound great for Santana tones but if you track down some of the clips by Steve in the players Room you'll hear it can really rock too.

The other end of the scale is the Mule, these also sound great in a PRS. Real vintage tone. Less power than all of the others but a really open tone.

That's made it worse, hasn't it!!

[carlaz]

I'm jumping in late, but my first thoughts when I read the original post were Crawlers or Abraxas, both of which as noted are sort of "hot PAF".  My impression is that the Crawler bridge has a little more meat and chunk than the Abraxas bridge, but (as I now know) the neck pups are the same. :)

Don't know much about the VHIIs, though!

[PhilKing]

I think the VHII's are the pickups for you.  I have them in a PRS Artist II, which is a 22 fret model.  If you order them for a PRS they will flip the neck pickup magnet.  I get great tones from them, and the split tones are almost Fender like.  I have a Crawler with 2 P-91's in an older EG, and a set of Rebel Yell prototypes in my 90 PRS Standard 24.  The Crawler works well with the P-91's but has more gain and mid than the VHII.  The RY's have more of everything!  They put out a lot more signal than the VHII and drive the amp into feedback very easily.  They clean up and split great, but overall they are a brighter pickup (they suit the standard really well).  

I think from what you were saying you liked, that the VHII calibrated set for a PRS is the way to go.

[jt]

:D I have a PRS style Mahogany body, Maple Cap, Set neck etc.

i have a calibrated set of VHII`s & i`d definatley recommend them. HJM`s right they allow the natural tone of the wood to come through. There not overly gainy but have a great full response to`em  :D

Great sound/tone good response. I absolutley Love the neck P/U pile on the gain & just let it sing !   :P

 :D  8)

[willo]

Hey JT, did you get VHII's in your Feline custom as well?

[jt]

:D Hi Willo no mate i decided to try a different  set this time round i got Cold Sweats. Very different but that`s no bad thing  :D

I`ve played Hi gain P/U`s before but non of `em have the richness of Tone that the CS`s have. There not vintagy type sounding but there not overly modern sounding either !  :D

The bridge P/U has a clear kinda sound to it even though it`s about 15dc/k & the Neck is 17k !!! you would think that it`s as muddy as Hell but you`d be wrong, it`s got S**T loads of power but no matter how Hi gainy i dialed up a sound on the Podxt or Johnathons [ Feline ] JCM800 it never got muddy  :D

At some point i will put the VHII`s in the custom build i`m also trying to get enough money together to get a set of Mules for it.

 :D  8)