PRS Kingfisher SE pickup weakness and noise

[phorm]

Hi Everyone,
I picked up a PRS Kingfisher SE. IT is a beautiful bass. Craftsmanship is top notch. Comfort and playability are great on this bass.

Could someone explain to me why the pickups on these basses are so noisy and have such a low output? Is there a design reason for such a pickup? I am not sure of any bassist I know that would want something with that weak of an output, in addition to the noise hum of these things. I am wondering if I am missing something or don't understand the R&D that went into their design.

Perhaps somebody could set me straight as to why they are made this way. I must be missing something.

 

[Rod Barchetta]

The stock pickups are dummy humbuckers. So they are single coil pickups designed to look like humbuckers. The pots are typically very poor as well. As for why, I have no idea. Other than the electronics, this bass is unbelievably sweet.

There are a number of excellent replacement pickups you can use without any alterations to the body of the bass. I went with Seymour Duncan SSB-4 pick-ups and the best pots and wire from Allparts my luthier could find. I was BLOWN AWAY by the improvement. See pic attached. Slid right in.

You can also use EMG G3 or Aguilar DCB-G3. It depends on the sound you want. The G3 size is the key.

I have actually ordered a Bartolini HR3.3/918 2-band, 3 knob preamp. I think it will fit in the standard cavity, but I will know for sure next week. I have heard this is one of the best preamps on the market. Single volume (pull for active to passive), pickup blend knob, and concentric treble/bass. 9V or 18V. 0-12 db adjustable trim to boost the passive signal to more closely match the active output. It's the bomb.

I love the sound of my Seymour Duncans, but I am just an active bass guy and I like to boost the bottom or top just a little extra sometimes without touching my amp. I like the fact I can go back to passive and actually boost the basic signal without affecting the tone.

Hope this helps. I think this bass is definitely worth modifying. I bought one, sold it, bought another and modified it. Now I play it all the time.

 

[Rod Barchetta]

Here's a clip you can watch and here the pickups:

 

[Rod Barchetta]

The stock pickups are dummy humbuckers. So they are single coil pickups designed to look like humbuckers. The pots are typically very poor as well. As for why, I have no idea. Other than the electronics, this bass is unbelievably sweet.

There are a number of excellent replacement pickups you can use without any alterations to the body of the bass. I went with Seymour Duncan SSB-4 pick-ups and the best pots and wire from Allparts my luthier could find. I was BLOWN AWAY by the improvement. See pic attached. Slid right in.

You can also use EMG G3 or Aguilar DCB-G3. It depends on the sound you want. The G3 size is the key.

I have actually ordered a Bartolini HR3.3/918 2-band, 3 knob preamp. I think it will fit in the standard cavity, but I will know for sure next week. I have heard this is one of the best preamps on the market. Single volume (pull for active to passive), pickup blend knob, and concentric treble/bass. 9V or 18V. 0-12 db adjustable trim to boost the passive signal to more closely match the active output. It's the bomb.

I love the sound of my Seymour Duncans, but I am just an active bass guy and I like to boost the bottom or top just a little extra sometimes without touching my amp. I like the fact I can go back to passive and actually boost the basic signal without affecting the tone.

Hope this helps. I think this bass is definitely worth modifying. I bought one, sold it, bought another and modified it. Now I play it all the time.

OK. I got my PRS Kingfisher back with the Bartolini preamp installed. As I said before, no need to turn the knobs all the way up or all the way down. But the sound pallet now is EXACTLY as I wished it could be. There is virtually no difference between the volume with the pre-amp active or passive thanks to the adjustable dial. Just a minor tweak of treble and bass gets me just where I want the sound. And it is totally quiet, no noise at all.

I am one happy camper!

 

[Mario D]

The stock pickups are dummy humbuckers. So they are single coil pickups designed to look like humbuckers. The pots are typically very poor as well. As for why, I have no idea. Other than the electronics, this bass is unbelievably sweet.

There are a number of excellent replacement pickups you can use without any alterations to the body of the bass. I went with Seymour Duncan SSB-4 pick-ups and the best pots and wire from Allparts my luthier could find. I was BLOWN AWAY by the improvement. See pic attached. Slid right in.

You can also use EMG G3 or Aguilar DCB-G3. It depends on the sound you want. The G3 size is the key.

I have actually ordered a Bartolini HR3.3/918 2-band, 3 knob preamp. I think it will fit in the standard cavity, but I will know for sure next week. I have heard this is one of the best preamps on the market. Single volume (pull for active to passive), pickup blend knob, and concentric treble/bass. 9V or 18V. 0-12 db adjustable trim to boost the passive signal to more closely match the active output. It's the bomb.

I love the sound of my Seymour Duncans, but I am just an active bass guy and I like to boost the bottom or top just a little extra sometimes without touching my amp. I like the fact I can go back to passive and actually boost the basic signal without affecting the tone.

Hope this helps. I think this bass is definitely worth modifying. I bought one, sold it, bought another and modified it. Now I play it all the time.

Thx very much for the recommendations!!!
Indeed - the bass is absolutely worth the extra costs and modification.

I tried it with the PRS "Humbuckers" - wich are actually SC - and the sound was weak,very much attack, but no basses and mids. Distorted it was a catastrophe - humming like hell.....

I wanted to keep 100% of the transparent sound/attack also in the low end and so was searching for alternative PU's from the EMGs or Seymour Duncans.
So - I was thinking about the Aguilars - but they are fixed as parallel humbuckers - so I chose the Delano Dualcoil SBC 4 HE/S-E, 89x38mm (EMG 35 standard measures, G3), wich you can connect in parallel or serial mode. I chose the serial mode.

The result is awesome. Much attack / transparent - and warm sound with much bass pressure at the same time. This bass is really extraordinary - and with this mod a real deal for the price.

Again thanks for the tips in this community - without these I would have sent the Kingfisher back to the dealer...

 

[Mario D]

 

[Rod Barchetta]

View attachment 4653844

Looks nice!!! Congratulations!

 

[Kevin Doyle]

Do they advertise those pick ups as “hum buckers”?? I’m impressed you guys are so easy-going that you’re happy to just pay for the replacement. I’m assuming they do advertise them as humbuckers and I would be super pissed if I bought something that wasn’t what the company said it was.

 

[Rod Barchetta]

Do they advertise those pick ups as “hum buckers”?? I’m impressed you guys are so easy-going that you’re happy to just pay for the replacement. I’m assuming they do advertise them as humbuckers and I would be super pissed if I bought something that wasn’t what the company said it was.

I was so passed traded it two weeks later. But a year later, I did the math. $450 for the bass, $139 for the pups, $175 for the preamp, and $150 for the luthier. Now she sounds like a $4000 PRS. The core bass with thru body neck, thru body stringing, Hipshot tuners and bridge, is too good of a platform not to mod.

But yeah, I was really passed. Emails were sent, no replies ever received.

 

[Rick_Bass]

The stock pickups are dummy humbuckers. So they are single coil pickups designed to look like humbuckers. The pots are typically very poor as well. As for why, I have no idea. Other than the electronics, this bass is unbelievably sweet.

I was in the PRS forum and was discussing this because I replaced mine instantly with EMGs. But it got me to wondering and I was going to quote your post here for backup. I got the old ones out that are in a junk box and tore them apart. They actually are humbuckers. There are one set of magnets and 2 coils. I busted open the one without the magnet in it. They were wired together and connected. The one that is opened up has no magnet in it. Anybody want to buy a humbucker.

 

[Rod Barchetta]

I took some photos. You can see the pickup only has 2 wires. One row is a dummy. In the 2nd photo to "magnets" are sitting on each other. In the final 2 pics you can see the pick up floating above the other. These are only single coil pick ups.

 

[Rick_Bass]

Guitar Wiring Site - How A Humbucker Works Take a look at that. I think they are wired in one of these configurations. Yes two wires coming out but there was a wire from the windings that connected the two coils together. Im'm not a pickup expert but I am learning. Some of the pickups on that diagram say they are not hum cancelling.

Am I to understand you are saying all the posts, all 8 of them should be magnetic? They are not so therefore the other pickup is just wound as a dummy? I do agree... on side is magnetic and the other is not.

If so that makes sense.

 

[Rod Barchetta]

Guitar Wiring Site - How A Humbucker Works Take a look at that. I think they are wired in one of these configurations. Yes two wires coming out but there was a wire from the windings that connected the two coils together. Im'm not a pickup expert but I am learning. Some of the pickups on that diagram say they are not hum cancelling.

Am I to understand you are saying all the posts, all 8 of them should be magnetic? They are not so therefore the other pickup is just wound as a dummy? I do agree... on side is magnetic and the other is not.

If so that makes sense.

It is a dummy.

 

[Rick_Bass]

It is a dummy.

I believe ya .

 

[Rod Barchetta]

I believe ya .

A true humbucker has magnets on both rows.

 

[Bret64]

My problem with these pickups is that I absolutely love the sound and voicing of them but the noise is killing me. I had a long chat via email with Ryan at PRS who sent me a pair of replacements but the issue remains. I understand that the pickups are dummy humbuckers. The idea of which I'm lead to believe is to achieve the sweet tone of a single coil while having minimal coils wound the opposite direction from the hot coil to give a humbucking effect. On both sets that I have I have the opposite effect. So when bot pots are turned on full I get the worst noise. The pots are Alpha which are a pretty common and reliable brand in my experience but I've had the tone pot recently causing problems. I did change all out for CTS at one point but went back to the original harness when trying the replacement pups.

I really do not want to go to another brand of aftermarket pups because as mentioned I absolutely love the sound. I'm fine with the low output as well. Its just the RF in certain locations is killing me.

 

[Bret64]

The sound of the original pickups on the Kingfisher is more like having two (Neck & Bridge) single coil 50's P bass pickups but with a dummy coil to stop RF. Which I think is a bloody great idea but is not quite working on the Kingfisher.

I understand that people are looking at the bass and seeing the two big humbuckers and they expect a MusicMan or Thunderbird type of sound and then being disappointed but I dont think it was designed to sound like that.
I think it was designed to be more like a Dusty Hill kind of sound.

 

[Rod Barchetta]

I'm sorry, these pick ups are advertised by PRS as humbuckers.

They should be ashamed.

The pots on both PRS Kingfishers I purchased were garbage.

A bass that costs this much with Paul Reed Smiths name should not have these issues.

If the noise comes with the tone then you can't separate them. No matter how good it sounds, if it's noisy, that's what people will hear.

Everything else about this bass guitar is awesome. The electronics suck. Do your self a favor, find a pick up with the tone you like without the noise and swap them out. Get some Allparts pots and you are good to go. I would change the wiring and jack as well. You will be amazed at the difference.

 

[Max Marchini]

Hi Everyone,
I picked up a PRS Kingfisher SE. IT is a beautiful bass. Craftsmanship is top notch. Comfort and playability are great on this bass.

Could someone explain to me why the pickups on these basses are so noisy and have such a low output? Is there a design reason for such a pickup? I am not sure of any bassist I know that would want something with that weak of an output, in addition to the noise hum of these things. I am wondering if I am missing something or don't understand the R&D that went into their design.

Perhaps somebody could set me straight as to why they are made this way. I must be missing something.

I also have a new one and yes the pickups really sucks. Strange from PRS standards... Also it lacks the "boom" one would expect expecially from the reviews. Maybe that is the difference between the new indonesian made ones from the old korean ones.

 

[Max Marchini]

I also have a new one and yes the pickups really suck. Very low volume and lacks of body... Strange from PRS standards... Also it lacks the "boom" one would expect expecially from the reviews. Maybe that is the difference between the new indonesian made ones from the old korean ones.