Members SPONGEBOB Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 I just bought a set of PRS McCarty pickups for a Jay Turser ES 335 clone I recently bought @ Music123.... The stock pickups are really NOT bad... Clean, not muddy.and fairly hot, but just have that "generic" vibe in the tone that rears its ugly head in SO many Chinese and Korean guitars.. . I usually don't put real hi end stuff in cheap guitars, but I want something special tonewise from this 335 clone... What do you guys think??.. Good move?... waste of time and money?.. Actually I am paying about $112 shipped for the Pickups, so I should not have to take a big hit if I don't like them and want to sell them off,... ANY PRS USA pickup should fetch $50 I would think,, any way, I'd like your thoughts on this pickup choice ..... bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Electric Blues Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 It depends... Do you enjoy the guitar and does it play well enough for you to keep for a while? Does it sound good unplugged? If so, yeah go for it. I upgraded a Epiphone Sheraton II with pups and a few other things and loved the way it turned out. Now, I bought an Ibanez AGS83 ( http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=AGS83B ) as a beater and am about to drop some Pearly Gates into it. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mboyd784 Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 My first guitar was a crappy late-80's Dean Bel-Aire. I pulled it out of storage about five years ago and dropped a vintage Dimarzio X2N in it...and, DAMN, that thing rips!! I should have done it 20 years ago. Of course, in 87 the Dean cost $299 and the X2N cost $90. Anyhow, it worked for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SPONGEBOB Posted May 15, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 DG.. Yes.. It IS quite a nice guitar for the cheap money I paid for it.. looks and feels good, and DOES resonate quite well acoustically..VERY good sustain out of the guitar with the stock pickups too. Just lacks that special sound of a real top quality axe... Not bad certainly, just not very complex... as stated, kinda "generic"... I hope the PRS pickups will give it a dose of "complexity" and color .. IF that makes any sense... lol... bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members voneville Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 I didn't realise PRS pups were highly regarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Electric Blues Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 Go for it.While you are at it, you may want to do pots, caps, switch and jack. Semi hollows are a pain in the butt to work on. You don't want to do it more than once! I'm not familiar with PRS pups. I hope they work out well for you. You may also want to ask around. Maybe some around here may have suggestions for pups that will work especially well on a semi hollow. A while back, someone had suggested Kent Armstrong P90 in humbucker size but I never got around to trying them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Johansolo Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 While the pickups will have an effect on the overall sound...the woods play a big part in the sound and performance. I think of it this way - If you have a singer(or guitar) with a really great voice but a bad mic (or pickup) you'l still know that the singer is good. however ...it you have a great mic (or pickup) and a really bad singer(or guitar)...well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members walfordr Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 Originally posted by HungPhat While the pickups will have an effect on the overall sound...the woods play a big part in the sound and performance.I think of it this way - If you have a singer(or guitar) with a really great voice but a bad mic (or pickup) you'l still know that the singer is good.however ...it you have a great mic (or pickup) and a really bad singer(or guitar)...well Except that we are talking about an electric guitar. The pickup can be more closely compared with the singer's vocal chords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members walfordr Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 In my experience with pickups, their price and quality do not correlate very well. There are some very good cheap pickups and some very bad expensive pickups. It's a matter of taste as to what you like and a matter of brand value as to what they cost you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JimH Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 I think it's one of those questions which relates to the guitar in question. - If the reason it's cheap is primarily pickups then go for it. - If it's cheap all over then don't bother as it's probably good money after bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dimmypage Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 Ifin you put expensive pickups on the guitar it wont be much of a cheapie anymore eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted May 15, 2006 Moderators Share Posted May 15, 2006 Originally posted by HungPhat While the pickups will have an effect on the overall sound...the woods play a big part in the sound and performance.I think of it this way - If you have a singer(or guitar) with a really great voice but a bad mic (or pickup) you'l still know that the singer is good.however ...it you have a great mic (or pickup) and a really bad singer(or guitar)...well Thats not a very good analogy. Most guitars have the potential to be good, or at the very least be good enough to sound good, and no matter how good the wood, bridge and nut and tuning stability is, if the pickups cant express the quality then a good guitar will sound {censored} to average, on the other a hand an average guitar with very good pups will sound better. Walfords analogy of the pups being the vocal chords is closer, but to all intents and purposes you have to accept that every combination of wood and strings that is tuned is able to carry out the task of resonating correctly. There are a few luthiers out there who boast rightly or wrongly that they can make cheap crap wood sound as good as the best handpicked tonewoods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wrathfuldeity Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 Just did custom Highorder alnico 2 pu's with coil taps in an Ibanez as73, also changed the pots, caps, switch and jack. Love the result; able to get a variety of tones out of an old Fender ss M80 combo amp....fat, sweet, honkin, clean jazz to acoustic. Total cost including the guitar (used) was exactly $335 us. Also did the job myself which was fairly easy...just take your time and use latex tubing. So for the pu and parts upgrade of $185, the cheap axe certianly compares to a $1500+ new guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 Originally posted by SPONGEBOB I just bought a set of PRS McCarty pickups for a Jay Turser ES 335 clone I recently bought @ Music123.... The stock pickups are really NOT bad... Clean, not muddy.and fairly hot, but just have that "generic" vibe in the tone that rears its ugly head in SO many Chinese and Korean guitars... I usually don't put real hi end stuff in cheap guitars, but I want something special tonewise from this 335 clone... What do you guys think??.. Good move?... waste of time and money?.. Actually I am paying about $112 shipped for the Pickups, so I should not have to take a big hit if I don't like them and want to sell them off,... ANY PRS USA pickup should fetch $50 I would think,, any way, I'd like your thoughts on this pickup choice ..... bob I have the PRS McCarty pickups in my Nelsonic Lester. I bought them prior to becoming a Kent Armstrong affecionado and dealer. Anyway, if you got them for $112.00 shipped, that's a sweet deal! I paid $160 for the pair I have. They are good, medium output PAF style pickups and should do well in that Turser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scott_335 Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 Latex tubing? Please explain, Ive never heard of that before on a guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SPONGEBOB Posted May 15, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 Thanks VC.. thats the kind of positive thought that I was looking for.. I ALWAYS liked the sound of PRS pickups.. they sound VERY close to a mid 60's Pat # to my ears.. very complex and chimey, yet enough heat to drive an amp front end when needed. THAT is what I am hoping for!!!...LOTS of guys don't like the "chime" and harmonic richness I hear in PRS pickups.. some guys want HOT.. period.. I do believe THAT is why SO many beautiful sounding PRS guitars get the pickups gutted out of them in short order... VC, if its not too much trouble, I wonder if you can elaborate a bit on what YOU hear when playing the Nelsonic Lester with the McCarty units... Your opinion is certainly valued.... bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mister Crowley Posted May 15, 2006 Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 I wouldn't say it's a waste of time. I put Seymour Duncan Antiquity pups in my MIM tele and they sound great. Sure it doesn't have an ash body or a 3 saddle brass bridge but it gets close enough to that vintage tele sound for my ears to be satisfied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wrathfuldeity Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by scott_335 Latex tubing? Please explain, Ive never heard of that before on a guitar. latex tubing, when you are taking out the old pots and switches, take off the knobs, then put the end of a 12-16 inch long latex tubing over the shaft of each pot, jack and switch, slide the nut and washer over the tubing, gently push/pull the pot/switch out through the f holes...then when installing the new pots just reverse the process...pulling on the tubing to bring the shaft of the pot through the pot hole. Just makes the job much easier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abstract Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by voneville I didn't realise PRS pups were highly regarded. IMVHO thats the only usable part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members supercow3 Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by abstract IMVHO thats the only usable part. errmm..yeah..sure:freak: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Europa760 Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 Originally posted by voneville I didn't realise PRS pups were highly regarded. i like prs mccartys jazzier sound to me, and also a nicer bridge alone sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Save The Pine Weasel Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 $56 each isn't expensive for pickups. I don't see a problem with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SPONGEBOB Posted May 16, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 STPW.. yes I did luck out on the price, Its just that I usually put high end stuff in a high end axe... Never tried this before... However,I have seen ebay sales where really good pickups brought the price of cheap guitars WAY up from identical guitars with stock pickups... So I guess at the price I paid for the guitar and 2 PRS pickups[less than $300], I can't really lose too much.. Buyers WILL pay more for a cheap guitar with good quality pickups installed.. I have seen it many times actually....bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zen Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 My friend has a Squier with EMGs in it and it just screams. IMO EMGs tend to make body wood matter less due to their frequency response i think, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jkater Posted May 16, 2006 Members Share Posted May 16, 2006 It may not be great but it might be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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