Specs of PRS McCarty pickups?

[dr.barlo]

Hi fellas,

Illuminate me!

Which wire, which magnet, what's the average DC resistance? I'd appreciate all the details I can learn.

Thanks in advance,

B

[sosomething]

They use a special "muddy suckage" winding that's proprietary to PRS and only Paul Smith himself knows the secret.

[dr.barlo]

You mean nobody has ever measured the resistance with a multimeter (also by doing the same in the split mode)? Or better yet, opened up the pickup and make an educated guess by trying different alnico grade magnets?

B

[sosomething]

Nope.

The covers are designed so that if they're ever removed, a tiny explosive device is detonated and destroys the pickups before anyone can reverse-engineer them.

[Binnerscot]

Lol ^

I have pulled covers off of Dragon IIs (after calling in the experts to disarm them) and installed them in a Jackson...nice pups, they fit the bill pretty well for that guitar. My understanding is that the Dragon IIs are similar to but hotter than the McCarty pups. I think the McCarty/Dragon IIs are Duncan 59/C5 territory respectively.

[Gearjoneser]

I'm not at home, otherwise I'd check the 2 sets of McCarty pickups I have in my box of pickups. I believe they're around 8K/7.2K A5. Probably similar to putting A5's in Antiquites. PRS is very vague about the details of their pickups.

I think the McCarty pickups are decent vintage toned humbuckers that sound good in McCartys. For some reason, I've never installed them in a Les Paul, but I'd like to see how they sound. I know they'd be very vintage like weaker 59's.

[dr.barlo]

Thanks man. I'd very much appreciate if you could check out yours. Am not in a hurry or anything.

B

[VHTJay]

HATE mccarty p-ups.........very muddy and dark sounding. They came out within hours of playing.

[jeremy]

bump for gj results

[dr.barlo]

bump for gj results

+ 1

B

[Gearjoneser]

I'll check it out tonight with my ohm meter and post the numbers. PM me if I forget.

[dr.barlo]

Thanks man.

B

[dr.barlo]

A shameless bump!

B

[dr.barlo]

GJ you forgot the thing man!

Nevermind...

Here are the ohm values measured "outside" the guitar with a chord. Thus, the measurement is not precise, but still gives a good idea.

The bridge pickup measured 9.00K on my (calibrated) multimeter. Thus, because that the pots are on the way, the real value should a bit higher, like 9.40K. When split the measurement I got was 4.60K (the stud coi) so it was wound quite evenly.

The neck pickup was 7.80K again measured outside the guitar with a jack. And its stud was like 4.00K.

I do not know what the magnets are, but I hear an alnico 5 in the bridge and an alnico 2 in the neck. Am almost sure about the bridge, but that I cannot say for the neck. That is, these are my guesses.

I have to say that I have not opened up the guitar and swapped magnets and all, to have a better idea about the magnets.

Hope that helps to people looking for this information in the future.

B