Having just purchased a new PRS SE custom 24, I was a little disappointed with the tone of the guitar, compared to my older PRS SE Custom 22. (or I should say both of my custom 22's).
I expected it to sound a bit different due to the different neck wood and more so due to the neck pickup position which is obviously different due to the extra 2 frets. (Actually the tremolo bridge is in quite a different position too, as a result of the different neck, despite being the same scale length. So all these changes will influence the tone).
Anyway, (as usual) this got me interested in the actual pickups, compared to my other 2 SE's, so I did a comparison of all three guitars tone, and pickup impedance measurements. What I found was quite surprising, and not what I expected based on all of the information I had seen previously about the pickups.
PRS SE Custom 22 about 7 years old. Sounds great clean and dirty, (which is why I later bought another custom 22 in a different colour) More output generally and a fuller sound particularly the neck pickup. Certainly not overly bright but great balance, and good mid punch.
PRS SE Custom 22 about 4 years old. Also sounds great, but is different from the older one. Slightly less output, a little brighter sounding overall and less mid range. the difference is quite noticeable when doing a direct A-B comparison, but not so much that it would be noticeable if you played these guitars in isolation.
PRS SE Custom 24 about 1 month old. Noticeably, less output than both 22's, and much brighter thinner sound, particularly the neck pickup. It doesn't sound "bad" but is VERY different than the others and not what I was hoping for. However, it is still a great guitar and the coil tapping option is very useable for more "Strat" type tones.
As a side note: the neck profile is quite different on the Custom 24, being the Wide Thin as opposed to Wide Fat on the 22's, which I actually prefer.
Due to the above differences in tone I checked the pickup impedances, and the results are below.
Older Custom 22 - Neck 14.14 ohms - Bridge 14.92 ohms (both much higher than expected)
Newer custom 22 - Neck 9.07 ohms - Bridge 9.63 ohms (Closer to expected)
New Custom 24 - Neck 8.60 ohms - Bridge 14.25 ohms (big difference between the two, and bridge a lot higher than I expected)
As you can see the results are quite different, and not what I expected.
Interestingly the pickups on the older Custom 22 have 4 core conductors with the green/white cables joined together and insulated at the control cavity end of the cables. These pickups will therefor allow for a simple coil tapping/splitting modification.
The newer Custom 22 has only 2 core conductor cables.
The cables on the new Custom 24 are obviously 4 conductor cables with the green/whites connected to the push/pull pot for coil splitting option.
So, there you go. I would be interesting to see what results other PRS SE owners get, as there is always a lot of discussion on the web regarding the pickups fitted etc.
PS. The impedance measurements were taken in-situ at the jack socket, with volume on full and tone rolled right back. I know that the reading will not be exactly the same as measuring with the pickup wiring disconnected, but it is close enough, particularly for this comparison.
