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*Help Needed* PRS SE Kingfisher pickup upgrade..

#21
Rod Barchetta said:
I totally agree the build quality of the PRS Kingfisher is impeccable. It is my favorite 4 string bass to play.

However, I bought it from Dave's Guitar Shop for $450 brand new. I actually bought it twice. The first one was even more beautiful than the one I have (due to the grain), but I was SO disappointed with the pots and pickups that I traded it at Guitar Center less than a month after I bought it.

Turning the pot 10% produced and/or reduced all the volume all the way. The tone knob had almost no effect. The output of the pickups was lower than any other bass I have ever owned or played.

I immediately bought Seymour Duncan SSB-4 pickups which were a direct replacement. I later added a Bartolini HR3.3 918 preamp (just enough space to hold everything with no mods). It is the SWEETEST sounding bass I own. It always gets unsolicited compliments every time I play it.

I have no idea why PRS uses these pickups or pots. If yours work well, you are the exception. There is a reason why Dave's can sell them at $450. PRS basically gave these guitars away. They mat have made improvements over the years. I think mine was a leftover 2014 that I bought in 2018.

If you are happy, then rock on. But I can tell you I am not alone in my experience as witnessed by this thread. The people at PRS probably don't want to discuss this matter.
Click to expand...


The more people I talk to the more I'm coming to understand that there seems to be a wide variation in how the factory pickups sound.
Since my last post here PRS tech support has begun an email discussion with me.
As follows:

The "humbucker" pickups on the SE Kingfisher basses are wired in such a way to be hum cancelling when both pickups are used in combination. If using one pickup, or the other, only one slug side of the pickup will be active, which can result in some light background noise with these settings. This is by design to help attain a punchy tone with the instrument.

Interestingly my bass is as its noisiest when both pots are turned up full.

The Alpha Pots they used are generally middle of the road serviceable pots but as I've said mine were definitely not Audio Taper. Which in my opinion they should have been.
My Tone control worked as it should. I had no issue with that.

The copper shielding appeared to help a bit and the CTS pots are in but I haven't gigged it with them yet.

Rod Barchetta,
1. How different was the sound/tone of the bass with the SD's?
2. What was the reason for installing the Bart preamp? (Extra tone control I'm assuming?)
 
#22
Bret64 said:
The more people I talk to the more I'm coming to understand that there seems to be a wide variation in how the factory pickups sound.
Since my last post here PRS tech support has begun an email discussion with me.
As follows:

The "humbucker" pickups on the SE Kingfisher basses are wired in such a way to be hum cancelling when both pickups are used in combination. If using one pickup, or the other, only one slug side of the pickup will be active, which can result in some light background noise with these settings. This is by design to help attain a punchy tone with the instrument.

Interestingly my bass is as its noisiest when both pots are turned up full.

The Alpha Pots they used are generally middle of the road serviceable pots but as I've said mine were definitely not Audio Taper. Which in my opinion they should have been.
My Tone control worked as it should. I had no issue with that.

The copper shielding appeared to help a bit and the CTS pots are in but I haven't gigged it with them yet.

Rod Barchetta,
1. How different was the sound/tone of the bass with the SD's?
2. What was the reason for installing the Bart preamp? (Extra tone control I'm assuming?)
Click to expand...

The difference in tone was amazing right out of the gate. I didn't trust myself to do the soldering, so I put the pickups in with wire nuts until my luthier had time to do the work. But just doing this, made an incredible difference. Once I had the wire and pots changed, even better.

All my basses except my fretless are active. The control cavity was large enough to add the preamp without any mods. I use just a little treble and bass boost to get the perfect sound. Sometimes I use the treble cut when I want to just blend into the mix.

It is my favorite 4 string bass. Put a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats on there and experience the bliss.

Not a spec of noise, zip.
 
#23
Rod Barchetta said:
The difference in tone was amazing right out of the gate. I didn't trust myself to do the soldering, so I put the pickups in with wire nuts until my luthier had time to do the work. But just doing this, made an incredible difference. Once I had the wire and pots changed, even better.

All my basses except my fretless are active. The control cavity was large enough to add the preamp without any mods. I use just a little treble and bass boost to get the perfect sound. Sometimes I use the treble cut when I want to just blend into the mix.

It is my favorite 4 string bass. Put a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats on there and experience the bliss.

Not a spec of noise, zip.
Click to expand...

Here's a clip of how she sounds now:

 
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#26
Rod Barchetta said:
It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. This bass is untouchable now. After my 70 year old luthier wired in the Bartolini preamp, he thought he would set the action and intonation as a favor to me. He didn't touch it; he said it was the best set up on a bass guitar he had ever seen. I only needed 9V to get the sound EXACTLY the way I want it. It expanded the tonal range of the bass through the stratosphere. And it is crystal clear, not even a hint of noise.View attachment 4230962 View attachment 4230963
Click to expand...
Do you have any pictures of how you managed to squeeze the Bartolini preamp and the battery inside the limited cavity space? This is an upgrade I'd like to do, but not sure how to get it all in there.
 
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#27
Scrambled said:
Do you have any pictures of how you managed to squeeze the Bartolini preamp and the battery inside the limited cavity space? This is an upgrade I'd like to do, but not sure how to get it all in there.
Click to expand...

Here's what it looks like
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#30
I'll let you know. I'm not positive this will work as I realized I bought a slightly different version of the Bartolini than you. While you have the 3.3, I bought the 3.4. So, the taller (on the inside) push/pull knob is in the center to trim the low mid/high mid while yours is at the end to go passive or active. I guess I could swap the mid and the treble/bass pot positions if needed. We'll see.
 
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#31
Rod Barchetta said:
Let me know how it works out for you. I'm eager to hear.
Click to expand...

Got it installed and WOW, what an upgrade!!! The Bartolini 3.4 fit in perfectly without having to swap the mid and volume controls. Thank you Rod for posting those pics of the innards. It was helpful. Bass sounds awesome with the Seymour Duncan SSB-4's and the Pots actually do something now!!! You can actually here a change in tone/volume as you sweep the pots through their range. The original PRS SE pots were more like on/off switches. Very happy with this upgrade. Thanks again for the guidance and assistance.
 
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#32
Thanks for posting this. I do agree with the other posts as I just got my new Kingfisher this week and found that the pick-ups have a extremely weak out-put. As compared to my other two basses, a Fender & a Jackson, these PRS design pick-up are almost 1/2 the out put as the others. Using my WAZA Airs for practicing even at 100% volume I can hardly hear the bass even come through the headphones. On my fender & Jackson with the volume at 60-70% it's plenty loud enough to hear myself play with the music. I have to turn down the music streaming through the headset with the PRS just to hear myself play.

So reading through these posts I have decided to install the Big Splits as I want to keep the PRS a passive bass. Looking at the wiring the PRS has 2 black & one tan wire for the neck PU, and 2 black & one yellow for the bridge PU.

How did you wire yours? I see that the Big Splits have a black, gray & white wires.

Thanks
Dave


rbrown1969 said:
Nordstrand Big Splits!

I love my Kingfisher. The stock pickups sound great when practicing at home (although not a lot of sonic variation from neck to bridge) and they look fantastic. However, when playing on stage they are a problem. They are very low output which is an issue if you are plugging directly into a PA system. Worse, they are extremely noisy around electronically-controlled lights.

I went for the Nordstrand Big Splits. They fit perfectly and it only took about 15 minutes to do the swap. I also added some extra foam under each pickup to firm them up a bit.

Wow - this is now the perfect bass. Since the Big Splits are (obviously) split coil, using just the neck results in a vintage P-Bass sound. Using adding the bridge gives a modern J-bass sound. I couldn't believe the difference. When playing at home through a Fender Rumble on clean (not loud), my wall pictures started shaking. It was tough forking out the $$$ for these, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

These look great with their offset pole pieces. I couldn't be happier. This is now the perfect passive bass.
Click to expand...
 

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