SE Mods

[ArtG]

...and even more






This project took me 2 years...

[Zilla]

:shock:

[gag halfrunt]

...and even more




This project took me 2 years...

Wow, very nice work.

Did you cut the inlays yourself?

[slev]

Wish I had the patience, and the skill, for a project like that. Beautiful job.

[Hopeful Sinner]

That Tremonti SE is a thing of beauty! Almost a PS SE...

[ArtG]

Did you cut the inlays yourself?

Yes sir

[John Beef]

Ok guys.
Here's my prank.
2007 Tremonti SE.

Specs:
Mahogany body with curly maple top (Tremonti SE carve) with natural curly maple binding.
IRW headstock veneer.
High gloss nitro finish on body.
Satin finish on the neck (neck is mahogany but stained to match fingerboard & headstock color).
ME headstock inlay, bird inlays & side dots hand made of abalam & paua abalone.
PS eagle TRC (I'm not sure if it fits here)
PRS RP pickups with coil tapping (LP controls layout).
Hardware (kind of) mixed, mostly gold.
Amber speed knobs.
PRS phase II tuners with ebony pegheads.
Tone Pros adjustable stoptail with locking studs
Tusq nut.
Frets are original, carefully removed from old and re-set to the new fretboard.
Stringed with 10's.

I'm sorry, am I understanding this correctly? You took an SE, removed the fingerboard and installed a new one, and planed down the body and re-topped it?

EDIT: Oh, wait. I just saw your signature: (Modded beyond the point of sanity) :lol:

[andy474x]

I have a SE CU22 with a Dimarzio Air Norton in the bridge, and push/pull pots on the volume and tone to split each humbucker independently. Right is a 25th Anniversary SE CU24 with the stock pickups, same coil split setup, Grover locking tuners. Would love to find a set of 57/08's for the CU22, but the $500 price tag for a pair on ebay is a bit steep for me. Thinking of switching the tone on the 24 over to a 250K from 500K, did the same on my HSS strat and it really smoothed out the tone.

PS - can someone tell me how to post images on here? Just switched over to this forum and all of my attempts to link from a flickr account have been in vain!

[John Beef]

I have a SE CU22 with a Dimarzio Air Norton in the bridge, and push/pull pots on the volume and tone to split each humbucker independently. Right is a 25th Anniversary SE CU24 with the stock pickups, same coil split setup, Grover locking tuners. Would love to find a set of 57/08's for the CU22, but the $500 price tag for a pair on ebay is a bit steep for me. Thinking of switching the tone on the 24 over to a 250K from 500K, did the same on my HSS strat and it really smoothed out the tone.

PS - can someone tell me how to post images on here? Just switched over to this forum and all of my attempts to link from a flickr account have been in vain!

I think I saw some 5708s on Vintage Rocker for way less than $500. This whole setup with the new forum, I don't know what's appropriate as far as linking to that sort of thing.

Air Norton, eh? How is the output on that one, sort of low-ish? I've been thinking about picking up an Air Zone for my SE Santana, or maybe just a regular Norton.

[andy474x]

I think the Air Norton is just a tiny bit lower in output than the stock pickup was. Not much. Definitely hotter than a vintage style hb, but overall a decent choice, as I didn't really want to change the output much, just get a little different tone. It was kinda hard to guesstimate what would have a matching output at the time. If you wanted to stay the same or go up a little bit the Norton or Air Zone would probably be great choices!

[Mikegarveyblues]

I have a SE CU22 with a Dimarzio Air Norton in the bridge, and push/pull pots on the volume and tone to split each humbucker independently. Right is a 25th Anniversary SE CU24 with the stock pickups, same coil split setup, Grover locking tuners. Would love to find a set of 57/08's for the CU22, but the $500 price tag for a pair on ebay is a bit steep for me. Thinking of switching the tone on the 24 over to a 250K from 500K, did the same on my HSS strat and it really smoothed out the tone.

PS - can someone tell me how to post images on here? Just switched over to this forum and all of my attempts to link from a flickr account have been in vain!

Assuming you use IE, right click on your Flickr image (after choosing the size), click 'properties' and copy the 'address'. Paste this between the Img tags. Sliughtly different in Firefox but easy enough to figure out. Not sure about other browsers and Flickr.

It's looking like i'm going to be putting a cover on the neck pup of my Bernie and swapping out the bridge. Not entirely sure what pup... Quite like the sound of the Seymour Duncan Sh-16 59/Custom Hybrid, but we'll see...

[The Ratchet]

Here is my SE mod. Actually it was my son's 5th birthday present, so technically it doesn't belong to me. Paul Miles, Director of Private Stock and bad mofo with a paint gun, did all the work!

That is BAD-ASS!! And especially attention to detail, like the carbon fiber-esque finish on the pickups

[andy474x]

I have a SE CU22 with a Dimarzio Air Norton in the bridge, and push/pull pots on the volume and tone to split each humbucker independently. Right is a 25th Anniversary SE CU24 with the stock pickups, same coil split setup, Grover locking tuners. Would love to find a set of 57/08's for the CU22, but the $500 price tag for a pair on ebay is a bit steep for me. Thinking of switching the tone on the 24 over to a 250K from 500K, did the same on my HSS strat and it really smoothed out the tone.

PS - can someone tell me how to post images on here? Just switched over to this forum and all of my attempts to link from a flickr account have been in vain!

Assuming you use IE, right click on your Flickr image (after choosing the size), click 'properties' and copy the 'address'. Paste this between the Img tags. Sliughtly different in Firefox but easy enough to figure out. Not sure about other browsers and Flickr.

It's looking like i'm going to be putting a cover on the neck pup of my Bernie and swapping out the bridge. Not entirely sure what pup... Quite like the sound of the Seymour Duncan Sh-16 59/Custom Hybrid, but we'll see...

Thanks Mike!

[Shawn@PRS]

[quote=The Ratchet]

Here is my SE mod. Actually it was my son's 5th birthday present, so technically it doesn't belong to me. Paul Miles, Director of Private Stock and bad mofo with a paint gun, did all the work!

That is BAD-ASS!! And especially attention to detail, like the carbon fiber-esque finish on the pickups [/quote:tzkyrzf1]


Thanks man, this one is a keeper!

[John Beef]

...and even more






This project took me 2 years...

Did you finish this one?

[ArtG]

Sure.
There are more pics of finished gtr earlier in this thread.

[Mikegarveyblues]

Finally got round to replacing the pickups in the Bernie...

I've said before on this and other forums and my demo vid that I thought the SE 245 pickups where good and I still stand by that. The neck pup is fantastic but my feeling was the bridge pup just lacked something.

My initial thoughts where to replace the bridge pup and put a cover on the neck but I was concerned that may not work out too well. In the end I went for a set of Bare Knuckle Mules. Quite expensive but worth every penny IMHO. The bridge now has the character I was after and balances beautifully with the neck pup. Would loved to have tried some 59/09's but... Maybe one day!

I'll get round to doing a vid so you cn hear it but you'll just have to trust me when I say the guitar sounds incredible!!!

I'm going to try and pick up an older SE singlecut later in the year and fit the 245 pups to that. They're too good just to leave in a cupboard.

Here's the babe!!!





And a couple more...





The nut was replaced a few months ago with a Tusq nut.

Replaced the cap with an Orange Drop .022k but have kept the Alpha pots which work perfectly well.

If you're intrested... The Se 245 pups where 8.4k Neck 11k Bridge. The spacing was 50mm Neck and 52mm Bridge but I just went with 50mm Neck and Bridge for the new pups. Lines up just fine.

[John Beef]

Finally got round to replacing the pickups in the Bernie...

I've said before on this and other forums and my demo vid that I thought the SE 245 pickups where good and I still stand by that. The neck pup is fantastic but my feeling was the bridge pup just lacked something.
If you're intrested... The Se 245 pups where 8.4k Neck 11k Bridge. The spacing was 50mm Neck and 52mm Bridge but I just went with 50mm Neck and Bridge for the new pups. Lines up just fine.

Beautiful! The covered pickups add soooo much.

I replaced the magnet in my SE bridge pickup with unoriented Alnico 5, and it made a difference. A $3 and about 15-minute investment got rid of the somewhat congested nasal midrange, and opened up the top end a bit, and added some clarity. Time will tell, but it sounds really good to my ears.

I recently purchased some nickel covers for a set of SE pickups I have kicking around, and the only 52mm nickel cover I could find was in Gibson-branded packaging. There are plenty of chrome covers out there in 52mm but not nickel. 53mm, which I think is the standard for F spaced, seem to be way easier to find.

[Nahguavkire]

Hey folks, new here...

I've got a Santana SE1 in tobacco sunburst, nothing too crazy on mods, just a nickel cover on the neck pickup and a headstock shave and Kluson locking tuners. Sounds epic as is otherwise.

Also got a Tremonti SE a couple of years ago and while it feels awesome it has the weakest sound and depth I've ever experienced in a guitar so I swapped the pickups for a SD '59 neck and a SD dimebucker bridge... Still didn't do it for me so I decided to make some more changes... Taking out the PRS stoptail bridge and anchors, filling holes and adding a tunomatic bridge and a Bigsby, I'm hoping all that extra metal will increase the sustain, then I'm adding a set of GFS Mean 90 P90 pickups, I was planning to get some Mullinax P90s but I'm getting the GFS so cheap I figure they're worth a shot! Shaved headstock and Kluson locking tuners and it should be set! I'll post some pictures up soon as possible for you guys!

[John Beef]

My $11 ebay SE pickup came in Saturday so I brought my soldering iron into work for some lunchtime pickup modifications. Unfortunately I forgot my decent camera and my multimeter... d'oh. Not to mention I'm sick with acute bronchitis and on meds and wondering why the hell I'm at work int he 1st place.


Here's the pickup, plus the 2nd unoriented Alnico 5 magnet I got a while back as part of the 2 magnet set from ebay ($6 total).





Open it up, swap the magnet... easy, done.


There's a black wire running to one coil, a white wire running to other other, and a red wire connecting the two. I cut the red wire and stripped the ends.





Then I took another wire (white wire 2) (yes I should have used a different color like green or something), stripped the ends of white wire 2, and solder the 3 together. This is tough because there's hardly any slack on the red wires. Kinda ugly but it should work.





Then taped it off, gently stuffed it in the crevice between the pickup coils, and fed the other end of white wire 2 through the hole in the baseplate.





Et Voila! coil split wire for a previously unsplittable pickup. If only I had my multimeter with me I could make sure all the connections are solid and working. I hope to make it past a radio shack for a 2.2K resistor to wire in the circuit so the coil isn't canceled out entirely (like PRS is doing now on some guitars)