PRS McCarty sounds darker compared to Les Paul Custom

[mermer]

Hi everyone,

My PRS McCarty (which has a stoptail bridge and a 25-inch scale length) has a much darker tone compared to my Les Paul Custom guitars. I initially thought this was due to the 58/15LT pickups, but even after replacing the bridge pickup with a Bare Knuckle Rebel Yell, the tone remains darker and rounder. The guitar is currently tuned to Drop C and strung with an 11-56 gauge set; for comparison, I use 10-52 gauge strings for Drop C# and 10-49 for Drop D on my Les Pauls.

Have any of you encountered a similar situation? I’m planning to bypass the tone control, set up independent volume controls for each pickup, switch to lighter-gauge strings, and replace the existing potentiometers with 550k pots from Bare Knuckle.

 

[Music&Chaos]

Hi everyone,

My PRS McCarty (which has a stoptail bridge and a 25-inch scale length) has a much darker tone compared to my Les Paul Custom guitars. I initially thought this was due to the 58/15LT pickups, but even after replacing the bridge pickup with a Bare Knuckle Rebel Yell, the tone remains darker and rounder. The guitar is currently tuned to Drop C and strung with an 11-56 gauge set; for comparison, I use 10-52 gauge strings for Drop C# and 10-49 for Drop D on my Les Pauls.

Have any of you encountered a similar situation? I’m planning to bypass the tone control, set up independent volume controls for each pickup, switch to lighter-gauge strings, and replace the existing potentiometers with 550k pots from Bare Knuckle.

You did not mention the electronics and what is currently installed or how it is wired. I do not see pot values or caps or wiring or anything at all mentioned that greatly affects this. The roundness could also be due to the added treble bleed and the like PRS tend to have in them. You need to look at the wiring first and give some clues/data there if possible so we can best resolve the EQ issue you are hearing.


Pop it open and post a picture or two.

 

[peterc52]

Start by removing the tone pots out of circuit. I always do that. See what resistance the volume pots also are