Modding a cheap pickup

Jez6345789Jez6345789 Frets: 1756
edited July 2018 in Making & Modding
I know a reasonable amount about pickups but was thinking of modding the PRS ` SE ONE to a mini humbucker more for a change.
I was wondering if anyone had torn down one of these to see how they are built. I have boxes of magnets from my home winding days and stuff if I go to the attic, but it would be handy if the cheap old Wilkinson was in the ballpark construction wise. I have had a look through google images and can't see one with the lid off. 

thankd


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Comments

  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14323
    Which Gibson pickup model does your old Wilkinson claim to emulate, Firebird or Deluxe mini-humbucker? 
    Be seeing you.
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  • Jez6345789Jez6345789 Frets: 1756
    Just presume its a standard deluxe I have not got one just thought it might be a cheap option rather than something more exotic. 
    I have spare Alinco magnets long and short I could swap out if its Ceramic just wondered if anyone had cracked one open. 

    I have an old Wilkinson P90  which not quite as detailed as my best P90's and also one of their PAF's and yes I understand the better stuff completely but both of those get you well in the ballpark for pennies. 
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14323
    edited July 2018
    I have decided to withdraw my original post. It failed to address the situation.

    Jez6345789 said:
    I have an old Wilkinson P90 ... not quite as detailed as my best P90s ... I have boxes of magnets from my home winding days
    Obvious suggestion, try magnet swaps in your old Wilkinson P90 and/or the stock (G&B, Korea) PRS SE pickup. My best guess is that these are supplied with polished A5 bar magnets. Changing one or both of the original magnets should get you closer to the sounds of your better P90s.

    One of my favourite P90s on the PRS SE One is the soapbar Duncan Antiquity. Alnico 2, 3 or 4 magnets should give your Wilkinson pickup some of the aged/degaussed vibe. Un-Oriented Alnico 5 would add grit. 

    The fly in the ointment with all of these suggestions is the lack of a treble roll-off tone control on the PRS SE One. For this reason, I am tempted to suggest either an overwound Filter'Tron type pickup or one of the EMG active humbuckers in a P90 shell


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  • Jez6345789Jez6345789 Frets: 1756
    Thanks the PRS is the beater when I am in Spain and keep promising to do something with the pickups and add a tone pot etc.

    then I thought about the cheap mini humbucker for a change.

    and all that said I had been toying with the same idea of one of the p90 sized EMG just for a change. 

    Thanks for nudging me back back to the end just got to find one in the UK. Which I think is where I came unstuck when I got that idea.


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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14323
    Thanks the PRS is the beater when I am in Spain and keep promising to do something with the pickups and add a tone pot etc.
    This is tricky within the SE One's minimalist control cavity.

    The options are;
    1. dual-concentric stacked volume/tone pot à la Mick Taylor of Guitarist magazine and That Pedal Show.
    2. cut out an extension to the cavity - probably around the back and covered with a recessed plastic plate.
    I tried the stacked controls. They were a pain in the ring finger to use. 

    As you probably already know, the basic EMG Passive Tone pot achieves very little. On the Solderless PCB version, you cannot even change the capacitor value. The active VPLF tone control has a more noticeable effect. In my opinion, neither is as usable as the hardwired 25k pot with the capacitor of one's own choice.

    I thought about the cheap mini humbucker for a change.
    An Oil City Pickups Winterizer could prove interesting but, really, you need two of them and individual volume pots to get the best out of them. That would require chopping rather a lot of the SE One away, somewhat defeating the object of its design.

    Even the EMG suggestion is likely to involve the removal of some wood to accommodate the PP3.



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  • Jez6345789Jez6345789 Frets: 1756
    Yes I nearly said sod it and pushed the button on an EMG 90 from Gak then remembered what I don’t like about EMG and tone

    you lot are one step ahead. 

    I am am not worried about routing out the wood it was bought dirt cheap as a modding platform only hardly been in Spain since I bought it and frankly been enjoying it as it is but for the odd  jam or open mike night it would be nice to have a little variation available. I was looking at the idea of doing some sort of varitone rather than a straight tone or just a switch to get something like a cocked wah for a bit of solo variation.

    got a couple of weeks more before driving down this year so will keep pondering. 


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  • AlegreeAlegree Frets: 665
    tFB Trader
    Why don't you remove the cover and see? I would have thought regardless of the construction you should be able to swap some magnets around in it one way or another.
    Alegree pickups & guitar supplies - www.alegree.co.uk
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  • Jez6345789Jez6345789 Frets: 1756
    Thanks Alex I don’t own one yet I was just speculating if the construction was roughly correct so making it worth modding it a little.
    As a cheap option for my cheap guitar. 

    I

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  • impmannimpmann Frets: 12645
    I just had a potentially daft thought but...

    Rather than fit a tone pot (with all the "fun" that will involve on the PRS), could you fit a push-push pot with a pre-selected treble roll off. To explain - when selected, the switch brings in a cap and a resistor to mimic the effect of turning the tone pot down to a pre-determined point on a "normal" guitar. Selecting the right resistor may be tricky, although I guess you could measure the resistance on a tone pot at the point you like most and fiddle around from there.



    Just an early morning thought. :-)
    Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever.

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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16546
    I think that is a good shout... the only issue is finding the right value.  Might be worth fitting a trim pot so it can be tweaked easily
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