PRS now selling 57/08 pickups

PVO_Dave

Spotted this on twitter the other night, only in the US at the minute, but they'll likely turn up in the U.K. store at some point. 

https://us.prsaccessories.com/collections/pickups/products/57-08-pickups

Nice pickups, but not so keen on the price!

Adam_MD

Wow they've given the pickup specs!  Paul has always been very guarded about that they never give out the magnet type just stating alnico or ceramic.

richardhomer

I suspect this is an interesting reflection on the state of the market. Smith always said these would never be available separately - clearly the aim was to sell you a new guitar with them fitted.

Presumably the profit on these is vast - therefore a useful income stream in a 'challenging' environment....

Kebabkid

Indeed and silly to restrict things like he did when demand appears to have been there but people swapped them out and sold them, anyway.

Perhaps if Line 6 had made the Variax available as a kit, they would've had more success.

thomasross20

Nooooo, I always wanted a set for that violet guitar lol.
I don't see any uncovered option?
Amazing pickups.

guitarfishbay

You can usually get covers off fairly easily. These are nice pickups, much prefer them to older PRS pickups

Sassafras

$220 EACH?
No wonder dentists and lawyers have to charge so much.

Majorscale

To be fair they are incredible sounding pickups... have some early versions in my 2009 PRS and they are easily the best humbuckers I've used.

Adam_MD

thomasross20 said:

Nooooo, I always wanted a set for that violet guitar lol.
I don't see any uncovered option?
Amazing pickups.

@thomasross20 just buy a secondhand set.  I had to hunt for a while but eventually picked up some for £200.  

How do you find the 85/15s now you've had them for a while? 

Strangefan

It's magnets and copper, the price is horrific. 

guitars4you

From when I was a big PRS Dealer a few years ago I acquired 2 sets of 57/08 pick-ups - brand new and boxed and never used - satin nickel covers with no engraved 57/08 on them - I was keeping them until I found something suitable to fit them on but never really got round to it - £275 a pair - 1 pair is suitable for 5 way switch the other set is suitable for 3 way switch (plus coil tap if required)

interested in them? - then  PM, e-mail on info@guitars4you.co.uk or call me on 01335 345777

grungebob

https://uk.prsaccessories.com/collections/pickups

just keep an eye on the above site for them.

thomasross20

Adam_MD said:

thomasross20 said:

Nooooo, I always wanted a set for that violet guitar lol.
I don't see any uncovered option?
Amazing pickups.

@thomasross20 just buy a secondhand set.  I had to hunt for a while but eventually picked up some for £200.  

How do you find the 85/15s now you've had them for a while? 

They're brilliant but @Evilmags  now has that guitar.

Collings

richardhomer said:

I suspect this is an interesting reflection on the state of the market. Smith always said these would never be available separately - clearly the aim was to sell you a new guitar with them fitted.

Presumably the profit on these is vast - therefore a useful income stream in a 'challenging' environment....

I think there must have been massive demand for PRS to sell these individually.

I,ve got a set on one of my guitars and they are really good paf type pickups. 

Expensive yes.

gordiji

I agree they're a really good pup. How much of that is the singlecut they're in i can't say. The treble snappy, clear & very well defined for a bucker. The neck warm and rounded but not flubby on the bass strings (relatively speaking for an AII).
I'd happily recommend them.  

richardhomer

Collings said:I think there must have been massive demand for PRS to sell these individually.

I,ve got a set on one of my guitars and they are really good paf type pickups. 

Expensive yes.

I'm sure there was/is demand - my point is that Paul used to want to sell you a new guitar, rather than just the pick-ups as (presumably) that made good business sense.

I was reflecting that his change of heart may illustrate how tough the market has become and that he'd rather get 'some' income in from selling a pair of (admittedly not cheap) pick-ups than sell the same customer nothing - because they can't or won't - buy a new guitar fitted with them.

crunchman

Let's face it the market is saturated with PRS guitars these days.  I've had 6 and sold the lot.

Whitecat

The other thing of course is that 57/08s are no longer the flavour of the month and are no longer standard in most PRS guitars anyway. 85/15s and 58/15s have taken that mantle, and they are both still unavailable separately. Maybe in 8 or 9 years they will be...

thomasross20

Have to say I prefer 57/08s.... 85/15 split better but (and maybe it's just the wood on my orange guitar) the 57/08 are outstanding. 

guitars4you

thomasross20 said:

Have to say I prefer 57/08s.... 85/15 split better but (and maybe it's just the wood on my orange guitar) the 57/08 are outstanding. 

not sure when PRS started the partial coil tap settings, but they do sound better IMO, with this simple mod - and if you are handy with tech skills, again a simple mod to alter the resistor value on the partial tap to enhance the split option

Dave_Mc

richardhomer said:

Collings said:I think there must have been massive demand for PRS to sell these individually.

I,ve got a set on one of my guitars and they are really good paf type pickups. 

Expensive yes.

I'm sure there was/is demand - my point is that Paul used to want to sell you a new guitar, rather than just the pick-ups as (presumably) that made good business sense.

I was reflecting that his change of heart may illustrate how tough the market has become and that he'd rather get 'some' income in from selling a pair of (admittedly not cheap) pick-ups than sell the same customer nothing - because they can't or won't - buy a new guitar fitted with them.

Or alternatively telling people that these wouldn't be available without a guitar, but then changing his mind, makes them seem good value now so that people might buy them? $220 sounds a lot per pickup if he started out selling them separately... but if you thought you'd have to pay $3000 for a PRS guitar with them fitted, suddenly $220 doesn't sound too bad.

Classic anchoring technique.