PRS SE CU24 (Mahog/maple body with maple neck & RW fingerboard) PUP advice

[addisj]

Hello all,
I am hoping you might be able to help me choose a set of BKP's for my PRS.

My favorite pickups thus far are my Dimarzio MO Joe in the bridge of my Alder Strat and my '59 in the bridge of my LP.

I play a mixture of Classic hard rock stuff and my band stuff which is mainly hard rock, lots of octaves and saturated barr chords/riffs.

Im not 'too' bothered about cleans but I would like to get a good split coil sound too.

I love doing alot of bending when playing lead - Kinda like Bonamassa so I NEED something with a sweet 'full of feel' lead tone for single note bending but also be able to get a thick crunch when hitting barr chords..

I play with a resonably high gain setting.  More than classic Rock, so I guess hard rock but not metal.
Around the ballpark of Joe Satriani.

I also want the sound of the guitar to come through.

From the research I have done it seems it could be down to;

VHII
Rebel Yell
Black Dog
Crawlers

I have had a listen to the clips of all 3 but they aren't helping.
Help!

[JebusKryst]

Black Dog. They'll suit your PRS

[darkbluemurder]

My favorite pickups thus far are my Dimarzio MO Joe in the bridge of my Alder Strat and my '59 in the bridge of my LP.

Both very different pickups and guitars.

but I would like to get a good split coil sound too.

I love doing alot of bending when playing lead - Kinda like Bonamassa so I NEED something with a sweet 'full of feel' lead tone for single note bending but also be able to get a thick crunch when hitting barr chords..

I play with a resonably high gain setting.  More than classic Rock, so I guess hard rock but not metal.
Around the ballpark of Joe Satriani.

I also want the sound of the guitar to come through.

From the research I have done it seems it could be down to;

VHII
Rebel Yell
Black Dog
Crawlers

Out of that selection the Crawlers would best fulfill "sweet full feel lead tone" and "thick crunch". They could work well with the PRS and they also split well.

Another option would be the Abraxas set if your guitar has a darker basic tone.

Rebel Yells would probably be too bright for what you want.

Cheers Stephan

[Alex]

I love doing alot of bending when playing lead - Kinda like Bonamassa so I NEED something with a sweet 'full of feel' lead tone for single note bending but also be able to get a thick crunch when hitting barr chords..

I would recommend the Black Dog for those sweet and full single notes.

[addisj]

Thanks for your replies guys.. anyone else?

[Philly Q]

I have yet to try the VHII, but I agree with Alex and Stephan that the Black Dog or Crawler are better suited to the thick/sweet tones you're after - Rebel Yell is much brighter.

However.... I know the SE Cu24 has a flame maple veneer, but is there a proper thick(ish) maple top underneath, or is it just veneer over mahogany?  If it's the latter, Crawlers (in particular) might be a little dark.

[addisj]

maple top with flamed maple apparently..
I have heard alot of good things about the VHII's.

[Telerocker]

You could have a look at the Abraxas. Has more air in the topend then a Crawler, but still a fair amount of creamy mids. It's a meaty, hotrodded Mule. Has enough oomphh for your style.

[ericsabbath]

However.... I know the SE Cu24 has a flame maple veneer, but is there a proper thick(ish) maple top underneath, or is it just veneer over mahogany?  If it's the latter, Crawlers (in particular) might be a little dark.

I had a SE Custom 22 and although it had an amazing looking top, it was definitely a fotoflame fake top
I only noticed it after checking the body piece line on the mahogany back
it was visible on the top, and that means it didn't have a veneer at all
didn't see other PRS SE's at close range, but all the schecters and ltds I've seen had fotoflamed tops (not sure if the others had any maple under it, but mine definitely didn't)
some don't even try to fake the two piece bookmatched effect
no way they would find a 1 piece quilted top for a $400 schecter or ltd (or any other more expensive guitar I've ever seen)

[Philly Q]

You reckon they're fotoflame rather than veneer?

I've been looking at the Fredrik Akesson SEs, and they all seem to have different looking tops, so I was assuming it was veneer (over a thicker piece of plain/cheap maple). 

Whereas when I had two Edwards Potbelly guitars, they both had exactly the same fotoflame tops, in different colours!  :lol:

[ericsabbath]

fotoflame is more common than flamed veneers these days, but what really pissed me off is that it didn't have any maple at all, or the body line wouldn't be appearing through the top  :x