Valentine pickup swap/rewiring?

[Alfi27]

Highly recommended, the Valentine now feels/sounds like I wished the PRS Mira did... Always thought I would need mahogany to be happy, but turns out I was wrong.

Just a few more technical questions, although EBMM Support have been very helpful there are still a few things that are unclear and they seem a bit reluctant to answer:

Apart from the boost pot that I managed to locate, I don't have a clue what the others do... Most importantly, which pot is for the silent circuit (for the bridge pickup)? From what I understand that one should be turned all the way down now that there is a humbucker there? And is there another pot that is balancing the output or something? I feel like there should be more output from the new humbucker, it's fairly close to the strings (should be sufficient).

 

[beej]

Do you have a pic of the circuit board?

For the Silent Circuit- it's wired up to ground wire of a pickup and introduces out-of-phase noise which subtracts. So just wire your humbucker to ground, rather than the point on the board where you wired the ground of the bridge single. That'll bypass it. You can then potentially use it for your coil split. (I do this by running the silent circuit output to where the coils meet, rather than wiring them to ground, assuming you want to split the top coil.)

 

[KDude]

Highly recommended, the Valentine now feels/sounds like I wished the PRS Mira did... Always thought I would need mahogany to be happy, but turns out I was wrong.

Just a few more technical questions, although EBMM Support have been very helpful there are still a few things that are unclear and they seem a bit reluctant to answer:

Apart from the boost pot that I managed to locate, I don't have a clue what the others do... Most importantly, which pot is for the silent circuit (for the bridge pickup)? From what I understand that one should be turned all the way down now that there is a humbucker there? And is there another pot that is balancing the output or something? I feel like there should be more output from the new humbucker, it's fairly close to the strings (should be sufficient).

I'd take Ash too. Maybe not my favorite, but it's up there. I kind of started on a Tele (my second guitar, after a crappy pawnshop Strat copy). Those Miras and all mahogany PRS Standards are kind of neutral to a fault (that can be a great thing though.. it lets you focus on amp and electronics to shape your tone more). I used to think this was what I wanted, but went back more distinctive guitars. And wood has a lot to do with it... I don't care what the detractors say. Heh

 

[Alfi27]

Do you have a pic of the circuit board?

For the Silent Circuit- it's wired up to ground wire of a pickup and introduces out-of-phase noise which subtracts. So just wire your humbucker to ground, rather than the point on the board where you wired the ground of the bridge single. That'll bypass it. You can then potentially use it for your coil split. (I do this by running the silent circuit output to where the coils meet, rather than wiring them to ground, assuming you want to split the top coil.)

EBMM support managed to send me a user manual that described all the trim pots and how to dial them in (including readings for if I ever want to put it back to stock), so it's all good! Thanks a lot for the tip though, I thought about using that for the coil split bridge but I wasn't quite sure how to implement it. Would the 'hot' wire from the humbucker still go to the same place on the PCB?

The trim pot manual revealed that one of the pots is in fact balancing the split neck coil with the rest, which probably explains why all 6 lugs on the tone push push switch are in use. As a super switch only has four common lugs and the neck pickup alone needs two just for the switching, I'm not really sure if my 5 way switch-plan is realistic to accomplish...

I'd take Ash too. Maybe not my favorite, but it's up there. I kind of started on a Tele (my second guitar, after a crappy pawnshop Strat copy). Those Miras and all mahogany PRS Standards are kind of neutral to a fault (that can be a great thing though.. it lets you focus on amp and electronics to shape your tone more). I used to think this was what I wanted, but went back more distinctive guitars. And wood has a lot to do with it... I don't care what the detractors say. Heh

I find the 'tonewood discussion' very interesting, and shortly summarised I don't think there is such a thing as a neutral sounding wood. And sometimes, even two different pieces of wood from two different trees of the same species, can vary a massive lot. I remember doing a trade many years ago, a Suhr Classic S (SSS with alder body) for a Standard (HSS with basswood/maple body). Unfortunately it was done via the post service, so I didn't get to try the Standard beforehand. Honestly, I have never been so brutally disappointed by the tone of a guitar ever... Basswood, which is supposed to sound "neutral", sounded incredibly dull and muddy with no definition or character whatsoever. I kidd you not, less than two hours after I unboxed it I put it up for sale again.

 

[KDude]

I find the 'tonewood discussion' very interesting, and shortly summarised I don't think there is such a thing as a neutral sounding wood. And sometimes, even two different pieces of wood from two different trees of the same species, can vary a massive lot. I remember doing a trade many years ago, a Suhr Classic S (SSS with alder body) for a Standard (HSS with basswood/maple body). Unfortunately it was done via the post service, so I didn't get to try the Standard beforehand. Honestly, I have never been so brutally disappointed by the tone of a guitar ever... Basswood, which is supposed to sound "neutral", sounded incredibly dull and muddy with no definition or character whatsoever. I kidd you not, less than two hours after I unboxed it I put it up for sale again.

Well, what I mean by "neutral" is just woods that are heavier in Mids. I guess it's up for debate if that's even neutral. I'm just going with conventional wisdom here. Mids are said to be a natural fit for guitars in a band...apparently with less overlap and that better cut through.

As for that Suhr, I think you should have messed with it more imho. But like you said, there's even variation in the same type of wood. I had a Japanese Fender Jazzmaster that was basswood. I modded everything I could about it and put in American electronics, but never really bonded with it. So I ended up selling it. But I'm also playing a Reflex now, which is mostly basswood/maple and rocks. And you won't find people hating on the Axis much.. probably a more pure example of basswood/maple (the Reflex has a mahogany block in the center).

Alright, sorry for derailing. Enjoy the guitar

 

[MILHOUSE]

Has anyone tried putting some EMG pickups into a valentine i was thinking of putting the Marty Friedman set into mine but i cant seem to find which solderless pickup selector i need im actually in the process of modding my sterling pretty heavily im gonna be adding a hipshot bridge as well as the EMG set so itll be a super shredder haha thanks guys