Suhr Aldrich pickup Is this the way it suppose to sound?

[prsdiezel]

I just bought an Suhr Aldrich bridge pickup and installed it in my PRS CU24. Plugged into the Herbert and the top E string sounds real edgy. Lowered the top of the pickup down to take it away but its still there.

When I slide my fingers to the next chord I get that string slide noise. The rest of the strings sound great singing sustain and really tight and shreddy. Leads sound great hell better than any other pickup I've used.

Its just that top E string that has a strong edgy mid tone. I've even turned the mid down on the Herbert from 1 oclock to 10 oclock and its still there. I tried to turn the bass up too still there.

Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[stefvorcide]

I don't have the same pickups but it's the same in my guitar.... Maybe it's the string height or tension???

it's very weird.

 

[prsdiezel]

I don't have the same pickups but it's the same in my guitar.... Maybe it's the string height or tension???

it's very weird.

The dragon II sounded good never had that problem.

I just wanted some more output.

I do have the Aldrich coil tapped. I went over the wiring diagram numerous times. I don't know.

Maybe someone can chime in and tell me if there Aldrich has the same characteristics.

 

[Dale B]

I don't have the same pickups but it's the same in my guitar.... Maybe it's the string height or tension???

it's very weird.

The dragon II sounded good never had that problem.

I just wanted some more output.

I do have the Aldrich coil tapped. I went over the wiring diagram numerous times. I don't know.

Maybe someone can chime in and tell me if there Aldrich has the same characteristics.

The 3 that I have are bright in the high end. They remind me of a Duncan JB, but without the nasal qualities. I don't think I would like the Aldrich in a PRS. I like them in Les Pauls and the one I have in my Ibanez sounds pretty good.

 

[prsdiezel]

I don't have the same pickups but it's the same in my guitar.... Maybe it's the string height or tension???

it's very weird.

The dragon II sounded good never had that problem.

I just wanted some more output.

I do have the Aldrich coil tapped. I went over the wiring diagram numerous times. I don't know.

Maybe someone can chime in and tell me if there Aldrich has the same characteristics.

The 3 that I have are bright in the high end. They remind me of a Duncan JB, but without the nasal qualities. I don't think I would like the Aldrich in a PRS. I like them in Les Pauls and the one I have in my Ibanez sounds pretty good.

So you think its the guitar? Well that might be it then.

Its a Custom 24 solid mahogany with a flame top and a stop tail.

Might be to dark of a guitar for the pickup.

thanks

 

[JTyson]

I have one in a McCarty, it kills. Not sure why you would be having that problem. I really think they are pretty even in the Mc, but Mc's are a lot fatter sounding than the customs I had. wierd

 

[prsdiezel]

it was the coil taps I bought it used no wiring diagram

I had to run it with out them Taped them together and BAM

Beefy has hell on top E now.

I kinda knew it was suppose to sound better than that

WOW this thing sounds GOOOOOD now

I guess the coil tap wires are different than the Dragon I just pulled out. PRS wiring is a little funky anyway.

I looked for Suhr wiring diagrams and found nothing.

 

[JTyson]

So you like eh? I like that pup a lot. Its a little compressed sounding, but in a good way. Fist I loved it, then I thought it was slightly too compressed, then after trying some other stuff I went back to it. Glad you got it into combat form

 

[prsdiezel]

So you like eh? I like that pup a lot. Its a little compressed sounding, but in a good way. Fist I loved it, then I thought it was slightly too compressed, then after trying some other stuff I went back to it. Glad you got it into combat form

Yes this was what I hoped it would sound like

I wanted something with more output than the Dragon2 and didn't want to put EMGs in my PRS

How does the coil tap sound?

I have the McCarty electronics. Volume, Tone/coil tap and 3 way switch. Maybe my Tone knob is bad. I just tried to reverse the White and Red wires with the tone coil tap and sounded bad again.

How do you have yours hooked up?

 

[Capulin Overdrive]

glad you got it!


i had PRS with an Aldrich for awhile, it was pretty nice sounding, but i did end up adjusting the individual pole pieces and thought that helped.

 

[carl roa]

I have one in a McCarty, it kills. Not sure why you would be having that problem. I really think they are pretty even in the Mc, but Mc's are a lot fatter sounding than the customs I had. wierd

Yeh, it does have a more compressed sound to it. Very cool sounding pickup. Depends on what you're after ...

 

[JTyson]

So you like eh? I like that pup a lot. Its a little compressed sounding, but in a good way. Fist I loved it, then I thought it was slightly too compressed, then after trying some other stuff I went back to it. Glad you got it into combat form

Yes this was what I hoped it would sound like

I wanted something with more output than the Dragon2 and didn't want to put EMGs in my PRS

How does the coil tap sound?

I have the McCarty electronics. Volume, Tone/coil tap and 3 way switch. Maybe my Tone knob is bad. I just tried to reverse the White and Red wires with the tone coil tap and sounded bad again.

How do you have yours hooked up?

I dont have them tapped in this one. I went with no tone control and a volume for each pup, I can get way more tones out of it that way. I dont generally use tone controls at all. If they are in there, they are unhooked. Lots of cool tones to be had with the Aldrich pups by rolling them back a bit, especially the neck pup

 

[prsdiezel]

I never used the coil tap on the PRS dragons anyway

Yeah it sounds good....

Real quick pick attack in a classic clean boost kinda way. If that makes sense. You can hear every note even playing fast scales.

Yeh, it does have a more compressed sound to it. Very cool sounding pickup. Depends on what you're after ...

Hey Carl, what are you using in your Suhr guitars?


and by the way your video lessons are killer man!!! Great playing!!

 

[carl roa]

I never used the coil tap on the PRS dragons anyway

Yeah it sounds good....

Real quick pick attack in a classic clean boost kinda way. If that makes sense. You can hear every note even playing fast scales.

Yeh, it does have a more compressed sound to it. Very cool sounding pickup. Depends on what you're after ...

Hey Carl, what are you using in your Suhr guitars?

and by the way your video lessons are killer man!!! Great playing!!

Thanks for the kind words here! Happy you dig the videos ...

I only have one Suhr, which is the green Modern you see in the videos. I am trying to get the new 7 string, but they aren't taking orders for them yet. Hopefully soon ...

I got my Modern with Aldrich humbuckers in the neck and bridge. And I do like those pickups ... but being a bit of a lunatic with this stuff, I swapped them out for the DSV set. Which is the lowest output humbucker pickup Suhr makes. From the Suhr site:

"the DSV and SSV pickups have a broad sonic aperture with very little compression artifacts that afflict typical high-output pickups. Go with the DSV for smoother highs or with the SSV for more honk and snarl."

Basically, I have been going back and forth on high output pickups versus low output pickups ... and where to "get the gain from". Drive the amp harder with the pickups or boost pedal, or turn up the gain on the amp ... all can work. I really like the DSV, and hear the difference in the amount of compression and dynamics between the DSV and Aldrich ... which makes sense, since they sit on opposite ends of the spectrum!

At the moment, I am favoring lower output pickups with less compression ... and getting more gain from the amp. In general, I favor PAF style pickups ... but, there are many variables. Including the guitar and amp you're playing! For instance, I typically do not like ceramic magnets, but I do like them in my Fender Strat ... for a "hot strat" tone. I have a strat loaded with SD hot rails ... and I think it sounds great. But ceramics in a Les Paul ... no good for me ...

Sorry for the long response! The tone quest never ends ...

 

[johnny q]

Glad you sorted out your troubles! I was going to chime in and say that maybe the Aldrich is a bad match for the PRS, because as much as I love them ( I have them in 2 Les Pauls) they sounded absolutley awful in my PRS Custom 22, much in the way you described. Which now has me wondering if they were wired to the 5 way Rotary properly! The guy that installed them was completely befuddled by it...

JQ

 

[prsdiezel]

I never used the coil tap on the PRS dragons anyway

Yeah it sounds good....

Real quick pick attack in a classic clean boost kinda way. If that makes sense. You can hear every note even playing fast scales.

Yeh, it does have a more compressed sound to it. Very cool sounding pickup. Depends on what you're after ...

Hey Carl, what are you using in your Suhr guitars?

and by the way your video lessons are killer man!!! Great playing!!

Thanks for the kind words here! Happy you dig the videos ...

I only have one Suhr, which is the green Modern you see in the videos. I am trying to get the new 7 string, but they aren't taking orders for them yet. Hopefully soon ...

I got my Modern with Aldrich humbuckers in the neck and bridge. And I do like those pickups ... but being a bit of a lunatic with this stuff, I swapped them out for the DSV set. Which is the lowest output humbucker pickup Suhr makes. From the Suhr site:

"the DSV and SSV pickups have a broad sonic aperture with very little compression artifacts that afflict typical high-output pickups. Go with the DSV for smoother highs or with the SSV for more honk and snarl."

Basically, I have been going back and forth on high output pickups versus low output pickups ... and where to "get the gain from". Drive the amp harder with the pickups or boost pedal, or turn up the gain on the amp ... all can work. I really like the DSV, and hear the difference in the amount of compression and dynamics between the DSV and Aldrich ... which makes sense, since they sit on opposite ends of the spectrum!

At the moment, I am favoring lower output pickups with less compression ... and getting more gain from the amp. In general, I favor PAF style pickups ... but, there are many variables. Including the guitar and amp you're playing! For instance, I typically do not like ceramic magnets, but I do like them in my Fender Strat ... for a "hot strat" tone. I have a strat loaded with SD hot rails ... and I think it sounds great. But ceramics in a Les Paul ... no good for me ...

Sorry for the long response! The tone quest never ends ...

I totally understand. I'm going threw the Hi gain pickup phase as we speak. The Aldrich pickup has allowed me to turn the Herbert gains down to 1 oclock. The Aldrich is also adding kinda of a clean boost compression ala marshall flavor on the 2 channel which I'm really digging.

I still want to try some other pickups with the PRS/Herbert combo. You got me wanting to try the DSV now

I also would like to try the Motor city Afwayu or the Solutions.

Thanks again Carl and keep up the great playing you are inspiring to watch

 

[prsdiezel]

Glad you sorted out your troubles! I was going to chime in and say that maybe the Aldrich is a bad match for the PRS, because as much as I love them ( I have them in 2 Les Pauls) they sounded absolutley awful in my PRS Custom 22, much in the way you described. Which now has me wondering if they were wired to the 5 way Rotary properly! The guy that installed them was completely befuddled by it...

JQ

Yeah the 5 way Rotary is just crazy to wire up. I got the 3 way switch with the tone knob coil tap and I tried everything trying to wire the Aldrich. Finally I just said "F" the coil tap and twisted the red & white wires together and it sounded a hundred times better.

Weird thing is when I had the coil tap hooked up it didn't sound terrible. Like OK somethings wrong for sure. So it fooled me. I though well maybe this is the way it sounds.

Yeah you might want to go threw the wiring again

Looks like Suhr would have a wiring diagram online. I couldn't find anything but the PRS diagrams.

 

[JTyson]

Glad you sorted out your troubles! I was going to chime in and say that maybe the Aldrich is a bad match for the PRS, because as much as I love them ( I have them in 2 Les Pauls) they sounded absolutley awful in my PRS Custom 22, much in the way you described. Which now has me wondering if they were wired to the 5 way Rotary properly! The guy that installed them was completely befuddled by it...

JQ

I can just about promise you it was wired wrong. Those 5-ways are a PITA to wire up. Its gonna be hard for that pup to sound bad, although I think it has more depth in some guitars than in others That 5 way sw is one of the things that converted me to McCartys, that and the fact that they are fatter sounding

 

[romanianreaper]

I kinda knew something must be wrong. I just love the Aldrich pickup in my Les Paul. I figured it might be a wiring thing because I've heard people mention having issues with that.

 

[johnny q]

Glad you sorted out your troubles! I was going to chime in and say that maybe the Aldrich is a bad match for the PRS, because as much as I love them ( I have them in 2 Les Pauls) they sounded absolutley awful in my PRS Custom 22, much in the way you described. Which now has me wondering if they were wired to the 5 way Rotary properly! The guy that installed them was completely befuddled by it...

JQ

Looks like Suhr would have a wiring diagram online. I couldn't find anything but the PRS diagrams.

I emailed Suhr about this some time ago, and the reply was to wire these up exactly the same way as Duncans, so I printed the schematic from the Duncan website and gave it to my tech. Unless he didn't follow it, it was definitely NOT correct!