@@mathiasjapri He's saying the opposite. He said the pickup is the microphone. Not the voice. Tonewood deniers say the pickup is the voice - and materials are irrelevant. He stops short of talking about tonewood as he knows this video is going on TH-cam and would be lit up with rage if he said anything about it. He's a smart fellow
The wood gives the strings vibration s. So maybe it’s the the wood you are hearing. But the strings reacting to wood. The pick ups. Hear the reactions.
yea, even if some of it goes against physics. If your pickups are microphonic, get new pickups. A microphone is a transducer that converts vertical pressure waves into electrical waves. A pickup is a transducer that converts magnetic waves into electrical waves. A well-made, shielded pickup is impervious to vertical pressure waves... This FACT is very bad for guitar manufacturers who like to sell expensive tone wood... Having said that PRS makes some of the best sounding guitars in the world, they do because they use nice pickups, none of it comes from the wood- 0% of it, ever. The neck vibrations and wood tone parts are all wine snifting....
If he had graphically illustrated their respective signal to noise ratios as well it would have given a much better picture of the sonic differences between HB and SC pickups. When the frequency response is weighted with a bunch of noise it can make single coil pickups a lot less desirable.
As an engineer, do you ever wonder about the glacial progress of electric guitar design? For instance, we are still using 1/4 inch connectors that were designed in the late 19th century, and high impedance pickups with passive electronics. Of course, there are some guitars with active electronics, but they are far less common, and even they still use 1/4 inch connectors.
@@markkeneson6806 It is the nature of guitarists to want the exact same instruments that their heroes play and played. Whenever Gibson or Fender try to modernize or improve their instruments they are thanked with sales slumps and bad mouthing. For example; Gibson could fix their head-stock splitting problem tomorrow by changing the way the head-stock is made by making the head-stock separately with through grain and putting it on the neck with a scarf joint. If they did that Les Paul sales would stop completely.. "Jimmy Page never had a scarf joint on his LP how could I sound exactly like him on a LP with a scarf joint?" As long as "vintage tone " is considered sacred and the myth of "tone wood" prevails nothing on popular guitars will ever evolve.
@williard billmore , thanks for the response, and I think you are right. It's unfortunate, but that's what the market demands. Look at bass guitarists, they have on-board active electronics and sometimes XLR connectors. I guess bass players are less obsessed with having the exact same instruments as their heroes.
Paul is no joke. He really knows his stuff and the main reason why his company is one the biggest in the world now. I bought a new PRS Custom 24 back in 1992 and barely knew anything about the company. At that time, it was the most I ever paid for a guitar. 30 years later it is still one of the best guitars I've ever owned. The thing is magic thanks to Paul and his team.
I completely agree!!! I bought my first PRS Custom 24 in 2021 not knowing much at all about the company. Best guitar I've ever owned hands down... So good in fact I bought 2 more PRS that same year. Getting ready to purchase another one in the next few months. Love me some PRS!!!
You are lucky to have that much money to spend on guitars. Gibson won’t change anything and are way overpriced. Still decent investment though. I like PRS including their imports. For playing and investing. Not bad. Nice to have the original inventor and owner still alive and running the company.
This man deserves a lot of praise. He is one of the few people in this industry that never stops innovating while staying true to the heritage of the electric guitar. That is just something very special. Proud to own one of his instruments!
Also this is a great primer on how pickups work. There are things that you know instinctively but this begins to put some intellectual meat on the bones. I still can't se those ears, dose he gel them down, maybe?
Paul is a total guitar nerd and he makes no secret about it. He is also one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He remembers names like nobody I've ever met before, and he personally signs birthday cards for every employee. PRS factory employee here.
The other day (a clinic in NL) a woman asked why there were no prs tours, especially when they were in DC/usa in a few weeks. He answered it was not possible (due to covid restrictions), but he offered her to contact him for a meet up upon arrival. For a personal meet up and when possible a personal tour. She asked for her husband. How much must the dude adore her?!?!😊
Nice, good stuff. you think i can put Pauls pickups in my 35th S2. My most favorite ever. they sound awesome. I think the 35th anniversary copied Paul's gtr switching for the toggles. Keep up the exceptional work.
Yeah he is like the one man show too Gibson had a lot of moving parts Leo was kind of like Paul too but he didn't even play guitar Amazing like two sides of the same coin Very cool
This is a 13 minute masterclass! Paul explained and demonstrated so well. Pickups and positioning is not easy thing to understand/hear for me, but this demonstration showed day and night difference. Beautiful content and Paul gave 10, and to my ears he got 9.9 back :)
85/15 are masterpiece, I bought my first PRS just because of their magical sound Now I’m totally a PRS fanboy Want more and more of your guitars and already ordered Horsemeat Keep going Paul! You and your team are genius wizards
It's interesting because it's one of the most replaced and disregarded pickup from PRS. Tons of Custom 24 players purchasing replacement pickups. Main argument is always: sounds is very thin.
since prs keeps their quality, unlike other companies newer is better but i like the old ones too since its cool to see how paul evolved from the early days.
This would have been bread and butter to Leo Fender … He was first and foremost an electronics engineer. But he had an incredibly rare ability … he could listen to what people (musicians) wanted and turn it into reality.
That was so interesting. Please do more primers about anything you want to enlighten us on. I have a grasp about pick ups that I didn’t have before. Many thanks.
The pickups were one of the first thing I noticed about PRS when I first tried a Custom in '87. I then tried all the PRS at that shop in West L.A. and they ALL sounded great. Their pickups are perfectly matched to their instruments. Superb.
Simply superb. I'm sure glad that Paul has taken the realization of knowing he'd maybe never be a guitar God, to being the God of guitar tone. Just look at what his contributions were, are, and going to be. He's the Leo Fender and Les Paul of our time. BTW, my PRS/Doug Sewell HDRX-20 is heavenly. I am in the midst of upgrading my sweet PRS SE Custom 24 lefty with a custom adjustable nut as well as D'Addario Auto-trim locking tuning machines to make my guitar dream come true. PRS has helped make it all possible for me.
It would be awesome to have shown (or even release on the PRS website) the frequency response spectra for each pickup, so we can see quantitatively how they are voiced and compare output levels.
I love my P.r.s. it only gets played for special occasions. It's 20 yrs old and pristine..I will never change the pickups.. I feel blessed that I own your product. Thank you so much for gifting us with your intelligence, and guitar innovation.
You know you're really something. I love the fact that you are always evolving. Always thinking always growing musically tone. Thanks for your commitment if just incredible what you done with your brand..
At 4:45, Paul takes out his test rig guitar: “So, what we have here is a guitar that we can stick pickups, slide them in and out…” - that’s the PRS guitar I want!
First PRS I ever played was a rich friends $2K and wow! That was 1991 and being chronically broke never dreamed I would own one. Fast forward 2024 Just bought my second SE and I love how the weight of the instrument is balanced. I love the radius of the fretboard, the finish and even the 85/15s pups. I know it's not one of Paul's high end but it's still an outstanding working class guitar.
Really enjoyed this explanation of how PRS pickups are voiced. My personal favourite is the 57/08 for classic rock styles, but the 85/15 is the most versatile humbucker for any style in my humble opinion…
Paul loves to talk, but he also owns the only company that specifically routed out a guitar to test pickups and went to the trouble to show us exactly what is going on. Taking the time to make a video like this to explain this stuff to everybody really shows how cool he is.
New to PRS, but I’m really loving what I see and hear so far. I personally don’t subscribe to, or understand the criticism regarding “mojo”. I think having a reliably consistent product is terrific. I don’t want to search through a bunch of the same model guitar looking for “the one”. I want to be able to look at a guitar that turns me on and know that visual aesthetic is the only difference between another guitar of the same model. That’s gold.
I have to admit, I was skeptical whether all the PRS TCI claims was mostly marketing hype, and I wouldn’t be able to actually hear much of a difference. But I have been pleasantly surprised just how good some of them sound. Both the 58/15 LT in my core, and the MEV TCI pickups in the Modern Eagle V sound even better than my favorite Traditional Les Paul. They never get muddy no matter what pedal or amp I put them through. Very well done!
I remember you sent me a whole box of PRS pickups around 1992. I couldn't find a neck pickup I liked for my PRS Artist..I thought that was so nice of you!
PRS should produce THAT same guitar as a finished product. It would be a chameleon of tone. Imagine ONE pickup (TCI in this case), swapable between trebble and bass position, 250k/500k switch, high pass filter.. what a great idea.
I see Paul as a modern day Leo Fender: constantly innovating and never accepting yesterday’s technology as “good enough”. His passion and active involvement is what separates PRS from the “other two” big guitar brands who seem content to keep churning out instruments that have barely changed from 60+ years ago.
Glad he dropped this fact filled segment today. The timing is curious. There's been quite a bit of discussion recently about many of these topics. There's some quite frankly bad information out there regarding where the tone in a guitar comes from predominantly. The way PRS explains it, he doesn't take sides or bash the uneducated opinions of the TH-cam masses. There are soo many things that effect tone to different degrees. To glom on to any single component and insist only that specific element of the rig is responsible for where your tone comes from, is just not accurate. You can buy all the fancy parts in the world trying to replicate someone else's sound. Why? Maximize what you have and rock out!
This is so enlightening! Beautifully explained *and* played too - no frills pure sound comparing. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, Paul! 🙏😎
Wow. This really is eye opening. This just makes me think of a time I met Paul and I was in a huge Emg nu metal phase lol really missed out on tone back then.
Great to see that his approach in developing pickups results in better products. He didn’t mention several other variables, such as the difference in output between humbuckers and single coils and the frequency response of our ears. In the end it is still our hearing and feeling experience that decides which pick-up suits the best. But with the systematically approach of designing pickups, he creates great sounding products for the most of us.
For many years the Dragon and HFS pickups in my 94 Custom 22 were my fav, but now my new fav are the 85/15's. I just love those pickups, they can do everything!
GREAT explanation on pickups, Paul. I'm lucky to have built one guitar in my lifetime, and it was somewhat inspired by you. I'm itching to do another now after a 20 year break. I consider myself lucky to have met you at Bob Willcutt's 50th anniversary weekend a few years ago and everyone who has said you are incredibly kind and wise is absolutely right. Thank you for inspiring people continually. Godspeed.
Paul is not only an artist, but he's a scientist and the marriage of those things has resulted in the music industry being given such an excited and passionate point of view on instruments. Paul's the man, would love to chat with him again someday!
Very interesting presentation. I look forward to the day the antiquated, bulky pickup technology of the past will be updated and replaced by something more elegant, sophisticated, easily customizable, and smaller.
Thanks for sharing. I’ve been working in the custom shop of a guitar co for about a year now building pickups. It’s cool to see it laid out so simply. (When it’s definitely not simple!)
I have a core top 10 single cut, s-2 custom 24 with USA pickups and USA silver sky. All bases covered. Best guitars and pickups made today hands down in All categories and price points.
Thank you Paul. It is always a joy to listen to you explain your craft and I get real pleasure playing your guitars, they are pure magic. How about a Custom 24 with John Mayer single coils?
Hi Paul. Thank you for making the affordable SE line. I recently bought an PRS SE Starla, and it's a real thrill to own and play such a great guitar, one you couldn't afford before. Also thank you for your inspirational and insightful statements in every video and interview, really enlightening.
Paul, the guitars are amazing because you are a Monster of a player and you're playing demands detail, pickups being a very personal voice for the instrument we all love.
That narrowfield.....oh man. That is beautiful. You can switch polarity, in out of phase, split/tap coils....etc, and you get good different tones. That sound on that pup though...omg you can feel that waking up your soul.
Mr. Paul is a very smart and talented Luthier and business man. While PRS pickups are very good, I think the most significant thing PRS brings "to the party" is their wood, how it is seasoned, matched and put together. Over the years I have come to find that PRS guitars are remarkably stable with respect to temperature and humidity, more than most if not all other brands. I have also never played a PRS that did not have perfect intonation everywhere on the neck on every string. Not all Guitar manufacturers can claim that. I think Mr. Paul is one of the greatest Luthiers of our time. A total guitar geek who just won't quit.
Dynamic video of pickup sounds telling their unique story. These sound envelopes Paul demonstrates attribute why PRS quality stands out. Obviously not by accident.
PRS, you’re getting a lot of stuff right. I feel the products are better than ever, the innovation is real, you’re bringing great guitars to the more affordable price ranges and someone over there really “gets” the power of marketing smartly on social media. Just 2 cents from someone who used to only care about 2 other companies. I now own a S2 594 and plan to own more PRS in the future.
Side note Mr. Smith. I've seen and heard your semi hollow bodied guitars. Well done. I considered you always nipping at my sustain and tone heals. Your quality and craftsmen are top shelf and way above me. Im just a scientist and do the best I can to present a concept. Just once ditch the old timey "F" holes one one guitar and move your holes to the sides. Form them in your owne style to direct the waves up and away. I'm thinking a fellow like yourself already has a great chambering design that will adapt in a snap. The waves coming from the "F" holes are interrupting string wave. Maybe not as much as one them ole silly Acoustasonics but its enough to cheese out the very sustain your designs seem to encourage. Tone and sustain are a marriage. Build just one in the lab. If y'all want some pics and info to help with the science stuff I'll get it to ya. The difference is shocking. Build as many as you wish. More is better. I've done double and single cut versions with flat tops and carved tops which aren't easy going free hand home boy style. Some studio folks and various musicians comment that its like a coliapy or that its like the instrament is breathing. May have been musician time space stuff if you know what I mean but young or old they all get that huge ear to ear smile. After 30 years of work to solve the Chet Atkins conundrum trust me on this musical friend you will be pleased at the difference this simple style and or form function change will make. The only thing Ive really been thinking could be better is the phckups and yall got that covered. I'm cheering for ya out here friend.
I've just upgraded my S2 Semi-hollow, by fitting an SC245 bass p.u in the neck position and a Dragon II treble in the bridge position. Both run through a five-way superswitch, then to two independant ICM (Integrated Control Module) controls. Giving positon 1=Bridge series HB; 2= Bridge South+Neck North in series; 3=Bridge HB + Neck HB; 4 = Neck South + Bridge North in parallel; 5= Neck series HB. The ICM is my own design that allows guitars (like the Semi-hollow) normally fitted with a master control circuit - two knobs, to operate as a dual control circuit - four knobs (Les Paul, SG, 335, Tele 72 Deluxe etc...) but on two shafts - uses an inverted dual-concentric pot (outer - tone/inner vol) controlled by gearing/dente in a push-pull fashion - push to control volume/pull to control/set tone. As I don't tend to use the tone controls as much as the volumes, these ICM units allow me to 'preset' the tone and leave the knob in the down (vol) position for most of the playing. The ICM unit is very versatile and can be used in a variety of ways, mixing differenct pots/rotary switches/blend/pan/variable treble bleed/TBX/'Q' etc. The ICM Mk1&2 is the basic device, with just two dente positions - up and down, but the ICM Mk3 has three positions on the input shaft -- fully down (vol) mid dente (tone) upper dente (switch - phase rev/dual sound/coil split/variotone filter/S1 4PDT etc...). . My S2 Cu22 SH has a far more dynamic voice than it had with the OEM (G&L) Korean jobs, which nevertheless were excellent budget pups.
There’s so many permutations I wonder what they’ll discover over time. It’s amazing what Paul has figured out to identify what makes a great guitar. I often read about people changing the pickups on their PRS for some well known after market companies pickups and I think to myself what is wrong with these people PRS stock pickups are great. I have changed pickups on a number of guitars chasing tone but on my PRS not a chance. Anyway to all the guys in Maryland and Indonesia thank you for the great guitars your work is outstanding. As for Paul he’s part luthier and part necromancer.
I feel like PRS always told us he had this innovative magic mojo pickup technology that made his pickups special. He always obfuscated the details but here he's showing it off. It's the same stuff everyone else is working with, but he's definitely put the time in to master guitar pickups.
He is such a pickup artist.🏆🖖
he want to prove tone wood is hoax.
@@mathiasjapri Because it is!
@@mathiasjapri He's saying the opposite. He said the pickup is the microphone. Not the voice. Tonewood deniers say the pickup is the voice - and materials are irrelevant. He stops short of talking about tonewood as he knows this video is going on TH-cam and would be lit up with rage if he said anything about it. He's a smart fellow
Pick ups and speakers are the two components that have the most impact of your tone. If your speakers are junk you have no shot at good tone.
The wood gives the strings vibration s. So maybe it’s the the wood you are hearing. But the strings reacting to wood. The pick ups. Hear the reactions.
I want a video like this of Paul explaining every aspect of a guitar. This is fascinating, very enlightening stuff.
He's a great salesman just due to him being still so passionate about his work!
I would love that for a video series. He's like that cool uncle that always has lots of knowledge, good story telling, and you can learn something.
Yeah, you start playing better gigs and they suddenly ask you to play in better bands, don't they? He just killed The Sultans of Dixy, huh?
I want to see a video where Paul corrects his bullshit and explains that electric guitar pickups ARE NOT MICROPHONES!
I love that explains this simply without talking down to us. What a class act.
yea, even if some of it goes against physics. If your pickups are microphonic, get new pickups. A microphone is a transducer that converts vertical pressure waves into electrical waves. A pickup is a transducer that converts magnetic waves into electrical waves. A well-made, shielded pickup is impervious to vertical pressure waves... This FACT is very bad for guitar manufacturers who like to sell expensive tone wood... Having said that PRS makes some of the best sounding guitars in the world, they do because they use nice pickups, none of it comes from the wood- 0% of it, ever. The neck vibrations and wood tone parts are all wine snifting....
As an engineer that plays guitar, I absolutely love the frequency response graph. Best way to explain the differences between pickups.
same! i do R&D and I love the research approach to it.
If he had graphically illustrated their respective signal to noise ratios as well it would have given a much better picture of the sonic differences between HB and SC pickups. When the frequency response is weighted with a bunch of noise it can make single coil pickups a lot less desirable.
As an engineer, do you ever wonder about the glacial progress of electric guitar design? For instance, we are still using 1/4 inch connectors that were designed in the late 19th century, and high impedance pickups with passive electronics. Of course, there are some guitars with active electronics, but they are far less common, and even they still use 1/4 inch connectors.
@@markkeneson6806 It is the nature of guitarists to want the exact same instruments that their heroes play and played. Whenever Gibson or Fender try to modernize or improve their instruments they are thanked with sales slumps and bad mouthing.
For example; Gibson could fix their head-stock splitting problem tomorrow by changing the way the head-stock is made by making the head-stock separately with through grain and putting it on the neck with a scarf joint. If they did that Les Paul sales would stop completely..
"Jimmy Page never had a scarf joint on his LP how could I sound exactly like him on a LP with a scarf joint?"
As long as "vintage tone " is considered sacred and the myth of "tone wood" prevails nothing on popular guitars will ever evolve.
@williard billmore , thanks for the response, and I think you are right. It's unfortunate, but that's what the market demands. Look at bass guitarists, they have on-board active electronics and sometimes XLR connectors. I guess bass players are less obsessed with having the exact same instruments as their heroes.
Paul is no joke. He really knows his stuff and the main reason why his company is one the biggest in the world now. I bought a new PRS Custom 24 back in 1992 and barely knew anything about the company. At that time, it was the most I ever paid for a guitar. 30 years later it is still one of the best guitars I've ever owned. The thing is magic thanks to Paul and his team.
only took him 30 years to become a top 3 in USA, taking the fight to F and G who were around for more than twice as long.
I completely agree!!! I bought my first PRS Custom 24 in 2021 not knowing much at all about the company. Best guitar I've ever owned hands down... So good in fact I bought 2 more PRS that same year. Getting ready to purchase another one in the next few months. Love me some PRS!!!
You are lucky to have that much money to spend on guitars. Gibson won’t change anything and are way overpriced. Still decent investment though. I like PRS including their imports. For playing and investing. Not bad. Nice to have the original inventor and owner still alive and running the company.
@@dancotterman1267 It's a (( Strat o Paul )) how can you or anyone not see it ??
Hands on all the way Like Leo Geniuses
This man deserves a lot of praise. He is one of the few people in this industry that never stops innovating while staying true to the heritage of the electric guitar. That is just something very special. Proud to own one of his instruments!
Paul is the Willy Wonka of the guitar industry. That man has ears like a German Shepherd. Incredibly nice first class guy as well.
Willy Wonka you nailed it.
Sort of pointy and on top of his head? It doesn't show in the pictures.
Also this is a great primer on how pickups work. There are things that you know instinctively but this begins to put some intellectual meat on the bones.
I still can't se those ears, dose he gel them down, maybe?
My CE 24 Semi-Hollow 2022 Whale Blue Burst with Satin Neck had a bottle of Fizzy Riffing Drinks in the gig bag
Yes!
Please put Paul on camera more often. He’s such an amazing wealth of knowledge, and it’s so fun listening to him.
Paul is a total guitar nerd and he makes no secret about it. He is also one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He remembers names like nobody I've ever met before, and he personally signs birthday cards for every employee. PRS factory employee here.
The other day (a clinic in NL) a woman asked why there were no prs tours, especially when they were in DC/usa in a few weeks. He answered it was not possible (due to covid restrictions), but he offered her to contact him for a meet up upon arrival. For a personal meet up and when possible a personal tour. She asked for her husband. How much must the dude adore her?!?!😊
Nice, good stuff. you think i can put Pauls pickups in my 35th S2. My most favorite ever. they sound awesome. I think the 35th anniversary copied Paul's gtr switching for the toggles. Keep up the exceptional work.
Yeah he is like the one man show too Gibson had a lot of moving parts Leo was kind of like Paul too but he didn't even play guitar Amazing like two sides of the same coin Very cool
I'm in Australia...I'd work there.
I'll get to the factory one day.
Dream job..
This video is AWESOME! I have 4 PRS guitars and I feel validated watching Paul talk about his craft.
It's a mountain of lies built on quicksand! There is no machine!
This is a 13 minute masterclass! Paul explained and demonstrated so well. Pickups and positioning is not easy thing to understand/hear for me, but this demonstration showed day and night difference. Beautiful content and Paul gave 10, and to my ears he got 9.9 back :)
85/15 are masterpiece, I bought my first PRS just because of their magical sound
Now I’m totally a PRS fanboy
Want more and more of your guitars and already ordered Horsemeat
Keep going Paul! You and your team are genius wizards
Easily the best sounding one in the neck position.
It's interesting because it's one of the most replaced and disregarded pickup from PRS. Tons of Custom 24 players purchasing replacement pickups. Main argument is always: sounds is very thin.
@@greham exactly... too trebly,soulless, 2-dimensional/no depth...a pair of DiMarzio Transitions solved the problem
The university of Paul Reed Smith. Good stuff
I'm not a musician but I love music. Paul is such a genius in so many fields and a great teacher too. Love watching his genius at work!!
What are you Good at ?? What DO you know ? OK, then that's where & What you should comment at. Make sense ??
The TCI (Paul’s Pickup) and Narrowfield sound amazing! Like it’s the best of everything
He is a mad scientist. They’re one of the few companies where I prefer their newer models to the vintage ones because they’re just better
since prs keeps their quality, unlike other companies newer is better but i like the old ones too since its cool to see how paul evolved from the early days.
My '92 custom begs to differ ;)
@@sixslinger9951 I had a 91 custom and it was a great guitar. I wish I still had it. My 594 is pretty great too
@@sixslinger9951 you just keep telling yourself that if makes you feel better but you’re flat out wrong. Just a fact my friend.
I imagine Leo Fender had that same drive for perfection of tone and the science behind it. Really impressive.
This would have been bread and butter to Leo Fender … He was first and foremost an electronics engineer. But he had an incredibly rare ability … he could listen to what people (musicians) wanted and turn it into reality.
If it wasn't for Leo, PRS probably wouldn't even exist
This is exactly the video I’d always wished they would make
That was so interesting. Please do more primers about anything you want to enlighten us on. I have a grasp about pick ups that I didn’t have before. Many thanks.
Fascinating, cant wait to truly see what Paul's been working on behind the scenes
The Tele style prs may break the internet 😂
The pickups were one of the first thing I noticed about PRS when I first tried a Custom in '87. I then tried all the PRS at that shop in West L.A. and they ALL sounded great. Their pickups are perfectly matched to their instruments. Superb.
Thank you for playing it with clean tones. Every idiot who thinks we can hear anything with distortion added needs to see this vid.
Simply superb. I'm sure glad that Paul has taken the realization of knowing he'd maybe never be a guitar God, to being the God of guitar tone. Just look at what his contributions were, are, and going to be. He's the Leo Fender and Les Paul of our time. BTW, my PRS/Doug Sewell HDRX-20 is heavenly. I am in the midst of upgrading my sweet PRS SE Custom 24 lefty with a custom adjustable nut as well as D'Addario Auto-trim locking tuning machines to make my guitar dream come true. PRS has helped make it all possible for me.
It would be awesome to have shown (or even release on the PRS website) the frequency response spectra for each pickup, so we can see quantitatively how they are voiced and compare output levels.
Fantastic! Always knew it was more complicated than it appeared and it doesn't appear simple at all! Paul you are brilliant!
I love my P.r.s. it only gets played for special occasions. It's 20 yrs old and pristine..I will never change the pickups.. I feel blessed that I own your product. Thank you so much for gifting us with your intelligence, and guitar innovation.
Paul, your always a joy to watch and we learn so much!!
You know you're really something. I love the fact that you are always evolving. Always thinking always growing musically tone. Thanks for your commitment if just incredible what you done with your brand..
Fantastic video!!.. Love Paul's energy when he's describing things.. Not only can you hear,but you can see his passion for the craft.. 🙂✌️
At 4:45, Paul takes out his test rig guitar: “So, what we have here is a guitar that we can stick pickups, slide them in and out…” - that’s the PRS guitar I want!
First PRS I ever played was a rich friends $2K and wow! That was 1991 and being chronically broke never dreamed I would own one. Fast forward 2024 Just bought my second SE and I love how the weight of the instrument is balanced. I love the radius of the fretboard, the finish and even the 85/15s pups. I know it's not one of Paul's high end but it's still an outstanding working class guitar.
This is why PRS guitars are the best mass produced guitars in the world, his passion and knowledge are second to none for a company owner
Really enjoyed this explanation of how PRS pickups are voiced. My personal favourite is the 57/08 for classic rock styles, but the 85/15 is the most versatile humbucker for any style in my humble opinion…
Love the narrowfield pickup. Reminds me of my favorite tele neck pickup tones
I thought that too!
It's jawdropping just how single-coil like they sound. Amazing pick ups.
Paul is the only guitar company owner that I would genuinely love to meet. There's a good reason my 2 main guitars are PRS!!
Most are dead. Who wants to meet an investor group 🤣
Paul loves to talk, but he also owns the only company that specifically routed out a guitar to test pickups and went to the trouble to show us exactly what is going on. Taking the time to make a video like this to explain this stuff to everybody really shows how cool he is.
Probably the most informative video I have ever seem about pickups
Thanks very much Paul.Apprecieciate this article.I just love these TCI's.I have an Indonesian Pauls guitar-Really a lovely guitar.
New to PRS, but I’m really loving what I see and hear so far.
I personally don’t subscribe to, or understand the criticism regarding “mojo”.
I think having a reliably consistent product is terrific. I don’t want to search through a bunch of the same model guitar looking for “the one”.
I want to be able to look at a guitar that turns me on and know that visual aesthetic is the only difference between another guitar of the same model.
That’s gold.
I have to admit, I was skeptical whether all the PRS TCI claims was mostly marketing hype, and I wouldn’t be able to actually hear much of a difference. But I have been pleasantly surprised just how good some of them sound. Both the 58/15 LT in my core, and the MEV TCI pickups in the Modern Eagle V sound even better than my favorite Traditional Les Paul. They never get muddy no matter what pedal or amp I put them through. Very well done!
Thank you for an illuminating video! Keep exploring.
I own musicman ,gibson fender and I just bought PRS custom 24 in yellow tiger the feel of the neck when you play it its amazing and sound unbeliveable
I love how much we're getting to know Paul
Learn something new every day watching PRS.
THE MAN! Thanx for all your afford! 🎸🎸🎸
Please make this a series!!
I remember you sent me a whole box of PRS pickups around 1992. I couldn't find a neck pickup I liked for my PRS Artist..I thought that was so nice of you!
So clear so concise I enjoyed every minute of the video. Thank you Paul for sharing
PRS should produce THAT same guitar as a finished product. It would be a chameleon of tone. Imagine ONE pickup (TCI in this case), swapable between trebble and bass position, 250k/500k switch, high pass filter.. what a great idea.
I see Paul as a modern day Leo Fender: constantly innovating and never accepting yesterday’s technology as “good enough”. His passion and active involvement is what separates PRS from the “other two” big guitar brands who seem content to keep churning out instruments that have barely changed from 60+ years ago.
Because he’s still alive and working. Leo’s time was well spent but he is sadly gone. Similar people except Leo didn’t play can you figure?
This was both an eye and ear opener for me.
Glad he dropped this fact filled segment today. The timing is curious. There's been quite a bit of discussion recently about many of these topics. There's some quite frankly bad information out there regarding where the tone in a guitar comes from predominantly. The way PRS explains it, he doesn't take sides or bash the uneducated opinions of the TH-cam masses. There are soo many things that effect tone to different degrees. To glom on to any single component and insist only that specific element of the rig is responsible for where your tone comes from, is just not accurate. You can buy all the fancy parts in the world trying to replicate someone else's sound. Why? Maximize what you have and rock out!
This is so enlightening!
Beautifully explained *and* played too - no frills pure sound comparing.
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, Paul! 🙏😎
Wow. This really is eye opening. This just makes me think of a time I met Paul and I was in a huge Emg nu metal phase lol really missed out on tone back then.
A huuuuge thank you Paul to this video! Now I know why I love so much my 58/15LTs !!!! 😊 always good to see your explanation videos !!!!!
I feel so lucky to watch this video. You rock Paul! I am happy to own one👍
Would love to see more of the graphs of frequencies. It is so cool how this stuff is able to be quantified and thus adjusted so precisely.
He calls it a black art. That doesn't sound very scientific to me.
Great to see that his approach in developing pickups results in better products. He didn’t mention several other variables, such as the difference in output between humbuckers and single coils and the frequency response of our ears. In the end it is still our hearing and feeling experience that decides which pick-up suits the best. But with the systematically approach of designing pickups, he creates great sounding products for the most of us.
Every time I see a video with Paul I think, "man I'm glad I have PRS guitars" lol
Excellent video, thanks. Would like to see a video on how the pickup to string distance changes the Db vs frequency graph.
The best guitar company. I love you PRS!
Paul thank you and the whole crew for everything. I don’t know where I would be without guitar and especially PRS..
Thanks for the love @erichodnett4475
For many years the Dragon and HFS pickups in my 94 Custom 22 were my fav, but now my new fav are the 85/15's. I just love those pickups, they can do everything!
GREAT explanation on pickups, Paul.
I'm lucky to have built one guitar in my lifetime, and it was somewhat inspired by you. I'm itching to do another now after a 20 year break.
I consider myself lucky to have met you at Bob Willcutt's 50th anniversary weekend a few years ago and everyone who has said you are incredibly kind and wise is absolutely right.
Thank you for inspiring people continually.
Godspeed.
Paul is not only an artist, but he's a scientist and the marriage of those things has resulted in the music industry being given such an excited and passionate point of view on instruments. Paul's the man, would love to chat with him again someday!
Most illuminating! Congratulations to PRS on all these superb instruments. 🌟🎶👍
Very interesting presentation. I look forward to the day the antiquated, bulky pickup technology of the past will be updated and replaced by something more elegant, sophisticated, easily customizable, and smaller.
The fact that the guitar they use to test pickups has a heavily flamed neck just makes me love it
keep pushing guitar innovation Paul 🙌
Thanks for sharing. I’ve been working in the custom shop of a guitar co for about a year now building pickups. It’s cool to see it laid out so simply. (When it’s definitely not simple!)
I have a core top 10 single cut, s-2 custom 24 with USA pickups and USA silver sky. All bases covered. Best guitars and pickups made today hands down in All categories and price points.
Thank you Paul. It is always a joy to listen to you explain your craft and I get real pleasure playing your guitars, they are pure magic. How about a Custom 24 with John Mayer single coils?
That passion is what makes him Paul ❤️ your amazing my brother
Bonjour Paul, i just bought a beautiful 2023 Blue PRS SE custom 24/08 with TCI S. Thanks a lot for your amazing work!!
Hi Paul. Thank you for making the affordable SE line. I recently bought an PRS SE Starla, and it's a real thrill to own and play such a great guitar, one you couldn't afford before. Also thank you for your inspirational and insightful statements in every video and interview, really enlightening.
Someday,.....long after all watching this are long gone,.....that guitar Paul is playing will be the most valuable guitar on the planet.
Thanks Pauls, loved the video!
That single coil sounds incredible
Paul, the guitars are amazing because you are a Monster of a player and you're playing demands detail, pickups being a very personal voice for the instrument we all love.
You gotta love Paul, he's a national treasure at this point.
I want that guitar and a shelf full of PRS pickups in my recording studio! What a dream for matching tones to parts and full songs!
Super cool and informative video
I love the 57/08 pickups, I've got them in both of my PRS guitars.
That narrowfield.....oh man. That is beautiful. You can switch polarity, in out of phase, split/tap coils....etc, and you get good different tones. That sound on that pup though...omg you can feel that waking up your soul.
I just bought a silver sky and it’s now my favorite s type. It sounds so good
Mr. Paul is a very smart and talented Luthier and business man.
While PRS pickups are very good, I think the most significant thing PRS brings "to the party" is their wood, how it is seasoned, matched and put together.
Over the years I have come to find that PRS guitars are remarkably stable with respect to temperature and humidity, more than most if not all other brands.
I have also never played a PRS that did not have perfect intonation everywhere on the neck on every string. Not all Guitar manufacturers can claim that.
I think Mr. Paul is one of the greatest Luthiers of our time. A total guitar geek who just won't quit.
Thank you Paul for your tireless work on improving the guitar. Mine is on order.
PAUL, you got alotta money! they sell antireflective eyeglass lenses!!!! its a life changer!
Dynamic video of pickup sounds telling their unique story. These sound envelopes Paul demonstrates attribute why PRS quality stands out. Obviously not by accident.
PRS, you’re getting a lot of stuff right. I feel the products are better than ever, the innovation is real, you’re bringing great guitars to the more affordable price ranges and someone over there really “gets” the power of marketing smartly on social media. Just 2 cents from someone who used to only care about 2 other companies. I now own a S2 594 and plan to own more PRS in the future.
That Narrowfield made my mouth salivate 😂
Great video thank u
With each video I am understanding the guitar and the man better
those narrow field pickups sound beautiful.
Brilliant video. However the best bit was when the whiteboard starting to write things down itself 👀😂
Side note Mr. Smith. I've seen and heard your semi hollow bodied guitars. Well done. I considered you always nipping at my sustain and tone heals. Your quality and craftsmen are top shelf and way above me. Im just a scientist and do the best I can to present a concept. Just once ditch the old timey "F" holes one one guitar and move your holes to the sides. Form them in your owne style to direct the waves up and away. I'm thinking a fellow like yourself already has a great chambering design that will adapt in a snap. The waves coming from the "F" holes are interrupting string wave. Maybe not as much as one them ole silly Acoustasonics but its enough to cheese out the very sustain your designs seem to encourage. Tone and sustain are a marriage. Build just one in the lab. If y'all want some pics and info to help with the science stuff I'll get it to ya. The difference is shocking. Build as many as you wish. More is better. I've done double and single cut versions with flat tops and carved tops which aren't easy going free hand home boy style. Some studio folks and various musicians comment that its like a coliapy or that its like the instrament is breathing. May have been musician time space stuff if you know what I mean but young or old they all get that huge ear to ear smile. After 30 years of work to solve the Chet Atkins conundrum trust me on this musical friend you will be pleased at the difference this simple style and or form function change will make. The only thing Ive really been thinking could be better is the phckups and yall got that covered. I'm cheering for ya out here friend.
I've just upgraded my S2 Semi-hollow, by fitting an SC245 bass p.u in the neck position and a Dragon II treble in the bridge position. Both run through a five-way superswitch, then to two independant ICM (Integrated Control Module) controls. Giving positon 1=Bridge series HB; 2= Bridge South+Neck North in series; 3=Bridge HB + Neck HB; 4 = Neck South + Bridge North in parallel; 5= Neck series HB.
The ICM is my own design that allows guitars (like the Semi-hollow) normally fitted with a master control circuit - two knobs, to operate as a dual control circuit - four knobs (Les Paul, SG, 335, Tele 72 Deluxe etc...) but on two shafts - uses an inverted dual-concentric pot (outer - tone/inner vol) controlled by gearing/dente in a push-pull fashion - push to control volume/pull to control/set tone. As I don't tend to use the tone controls as much as the volumes, these ICM units allow me to 'preset' the tone and leave the knob in the down (vol) position for most of the playing. The ICM unit is very versatile and can be used in a variety of ways, mixing differenct pots/rotary switches/blend/pan/variable treble bleed/TBX/'Q' etc. The ICM Mk1&2 is the basic device, with just two dente positions - up and down, but the ICM Mk3 has three positions on the input shaft -- fully down (vol) mid dente (tone) upper dente (switch - phase rev/dual sound/coil split/variotone filter/S1 4PDT etc...).
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My S2 Cu22 SH has a far more dynamic voice than it had with the OEM (G&L) Korean jobs, which nevertheless were excellent budget pups.
There’s so many permutations I wonder what they’ll discover over time. It’s amazing what Paul has figured out to identify what makes a great guitar. I often read about people changing the pickups on their PRS for some well known after market companies pickups and I think to myself what is wrong with these people PRS stock pickups are great. I have changed pickups on a number of guitars chasing tone but on my PRS not a chance.
Anyway to all the guys in Maryland and Indonesia thank you for the great guitars your work is outstanding.
As for Paul he’s part luthier and part necromancer.
One of My dream guitar
I feel like PRS always told us he had this innovative magic mojo pickup technology that made his pickups special. He always obfuscated the details but here he's showing it off. It's the same stuff everyone else is working with, but he's definitely put the time in to master guitar pickups.
This whole video is illuminating 💛