Pick up suggestions

[Frethead65]

Hi all,
I am seeking input on a pick up question:

I have a guitar that love, BUT-
It’s a bolt on, maple neck with maple board
(PRS DWCE24) and has an LOT of snap, basically too much.
It is currently outfitted with gen II Mojotone DW Tomahawks- which I do not like.
They’re great clean and good with a ton of metal gain, but I don’t like them in between and everything I do is “in between”.
So I’d like to change them out for something more vintage & hopefully tone down a bit of the brightness.
Wondering about pickup suggestions.
Thanks in advance.

 

[QQQ]

I’m a fan of Lollar Imperials. Great vintage PAF vibe to me.

 

[newholland]

does rolling the tone knob back some help? i have a maple neck tele with 1 meg pots and i love it- but i always dial the tine knob back about half way or below for the same reason. its nice to have a little ways to go up if i need a little cut, too.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I think they're wired in a way that splits the coils for the in between tones. It's on a 5-way switch, correct? Split pickups will almost always have more treble and less low energy. So yes, you can change pickups to something else but that can be tricky because you may run into the same issue. The easy solution is to use the tone knob more or figure out another wiring scheme.

 

[Jarick]

Welcome!

I have a PRS CE-24 that's very similar, 24 fret PRS with maple bolt on neck, although mine has a rosewood board and regular tremolo not Floyd. Mine had PRS 85/15 pickups which are I'd say vintage-hot alnico 2 pickups and are on the brighter side. I've had a few pickups in there and noticed that with this construction I prefer something a bit hotter and warmer to offset the brightness of the guitar.

What I have right now are Suhr Andy Wood humbuckers which are alnico 2 with a vintage output neck and a medium hot bridge. I think those are a really good fit for this guitar because the alnico 2 has a little softer high end and a more chewy vintage response but the bridge is a little hotter to get a bit more push out of the guitar for rock.

If you don't want to spend up in the Suhr range (which is getting close to $350/pair for signature covered pickups), you could check out Seymour Duncan where something like the Custom Custom bridge and Alnico 2 Pro neck would be a similar vibe for closer to $225/pair. Dimarzio has a lot of great offerings too, you could pair a 36th Anniversary PAF neck with a Fortitude bridge or even a Norton or AT-1 depending on how hot you want to get.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

Dimarzio Tone Zone. Air Zone if you like less output.

Duncan Custom Custom would be good too.

 

[Eagle]

Duncan Seth’s are a reliable way of getting what you want.