Dylan, Yes and No. I have some "Paul's" pickups pulled from an American guitar, have put them on my bench to figure out the wiring combinations and even some that the factory doesn't offer. Most of the time we deal with single or double coil pickups that only have wires to choose one coil, the other, both in series, both in parallel. If you've ever used a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Lead pickup... it is a true single coil with a massive amount of windings, and then a true "coil tap" wire to choose a smaller portion of those same windings. What Paul and Co have done is essentially put two multi-tap coils side by side. Depending on the guitar and the voice selection options, they will choose the partial or full winding of one coil, with the partial or full of the other to create mild humbucker, hot humbuckers, unevenly wound (Full one coil, partial other) which creates a voice like a single coil but with the half humbucking coil next to it to eliminate most of the hum. I've also been able to coax out Full winding true single on one coil as well as full windings both coils super hot humbucker. An active version of this is the Fishman Fluence classic humbucker with 3 voices. PRS is using passive wiring to accomplish this, and it sounds much much better than when they tried the same thing with the 513 wiring, and it can be retrofitted to other guitars (when you can get your hands on the pickups).
It seems to me that what PRS are saying is that they have a way of tightly controlling and possibly even fine tuning the inductance and capacitance of their pickup coils. If this is purely a manufacturing method it won't necessarily be obvious to a casual inspection. For example finding a way to continuously measure inductance and capacitance while the coil was being wound and adjusting the coil winder accordingly. You would have to measure the inductance and capacitance of a large number of the same model of TCI pickups to see how close they were. If PRS achieves their fine tuning by perhaps adding a capacitor inside the pickup then that would not necessarily be easy to see either. It is my impression that most pickup manufacturers spend very little time measuring and recording the parameters of their pickups once they have chosen which bobbin size to use, which magnets, which wire, which insulation and so on...
Exactly,, i agree with you, Dylan said "we all do that (TCI)" I disagree, no most don't. Most just slap on top seller pickups or cheap pickups and ship it. Dylan is quite downplaying the fact that most guitars for sale at a music store were not matched up like this. Slap em together, paint em, and ship them from China or whatever. I think they use a different process here. But the results speak for themselves.
PRS use just usual basic wiring cnc methods. That is obvious from their videos with showing of their small industrial coil CNC machine. No any special wiring patterns, no any super precise windings. Just usual. No any scattering patterns or so. Only wire gauge and length ("warmness" and hi/bass), 1 or 2 layers of coating (more or less capacitance/inductance), and geometrical difference in coil tallness and wideness plus magnets and base plates difference. Yes maybe coil tap too, if they use. Nothing something special. All same usual basic methods that all good pickup builders do.
@@ArwndrI'm betting that when they make the prototype, the process they use to 'tune' the pickup to the guitar is what is possibly inique. When I play them, it sounds like they used electronic scope to find a sweet spot that agrees with the natural resonance frequency of the guitar itself. The guitar strings are like microphones. That's why when you tap a wax potted pickup'd guitar, you still hear it through the guitar amp. Regardless, even my custom shop Gibson Les Paul with S buckers barely rival the PRS core with TCI pickups. All my SD, EMGs. DIMARZIOS. ETC can't touch them. But they weren't designed for a particular guitar either. That's another thing, aftermarket pickups weren't designed for any particular guitar. So, roll the dice and hope they work great. I've had both, success and less than.
@@realtruenorth That's very possible, that PRS check resonance of they new guitars series. That's not hard at all. And than make pickups for that series with needed proper resonance for them, to work together in a best combination. That's shure not individually for every guitar, but average for this new type. That's not hard to make any pickup with needed resonance frequency, capacitance, induction, resistance, that could be calculated with formulas in a few minutes before actually making. And after that get same results as was counted. So yea, that is quite possible that PRS do that. If yes - than that is really smart ingeniring move from them.
@@Arwndr I agree with you 100%, I just don't thing all or even very many manufacturers take as much time focusing on that aspect of producing a guitar. I was the anti- PRS guy because the hype put me off. Then I played one and was in awe. I knew that went through painstaking efforts to produce such an instrument. Every little detail adds up to a large difference Peace.
That and, I don't know, take apart the pickuo to inspect how it's put together and what the components are? Maybe measure the henries? Measure anything besides the capacitance?
I didn't think TCI was about looking different, but more about tuning the pickup to sound good with a particular model. Kinda like tuning a hot rod. And I think the process they use to do this is where 'TCI' comes from. They were probably looking for a sweet spot while watching the sustain and resonance on a scope. They sound very wide range and clear and I have to say, starting as a naysayer/doubter,, I think they are the best pickups I have ever heard. Even beating my custom Les Pauk with custom shop S buckers.
Is anyone else a little disappointed? Dylan, it seems like you went into this review with a certain bias. I respect your knowledge about pickups. But I really expected you to tear down one of those pickups so we can really see what’s inside. What gave us were the resistance values. I don’t think that would be enough to differentiate between, for instance, a Jazzmaster pick up and a P90, or P100 pickup. For a professional at your level I expected a complete breakdown and analysis of the pickup.
I did do that. jist not on camera. they are just pickups. lol people think I'm being negative, but for get the part where I sit on my couch and talk about how awesome this guitar really is. people just jump to whatever negative energy THEY have. I loved this guitar.
They use a special machine designed for them by an electrical engineer to do the capacitance and inductance tuning on the pickups made in the USA that are labeled TCI.
A gutsy and inspiring move Dylan. Congratulations and I hope its as great a life change as you hoped. Looking forward to seeing your future posts in various locations.
Dude ,, I find it rather incredible that you purport to know 'that there's absolutely nothing different going on here", when all you've done is measure the resistance.. (up to the point that I was willing to watch) Whilst I agree some of PRS marketing hype is rather incredulous , too,,,, you need to address the issues at hand, fairly and technically: ie. capacitance, and inductance,, and are they, or are they not 'Tuned'. And do you understand what that actually means? (for a reference in the old sense of the word google 'tuned circuits' - OK ,, but they're generally RF,,, my guess is that PRS is either playing on this terminology,, or in fact perhaps they have alluded to doing something similar at an audio level - I doubt it but give them a chance to shoot themselves in the foot prior to you doing it.. .. ) Would be interesting what they have actually done..
either there pis some physical tech in these pickups... or there is not. .... there is not. that can be done with a physical inspection.... which I did. the "tuning" is in the design and testing.... which EVERY reputable pickup builder does. these pickups are not different.
@@DylanTalksTone You show some lack of technical knowledge.. Even if you were to only read the Seymour Duncan article ,, you would have read there are so many variables that you can read the same resistance for... ie the length and gauge of wire, bobbin, etc etc can all be varied and still measure the same resistance,, (which is basically all you did).. These variations (having the same resistance) will demonstrate different inductance and capacitance parameters of the pickup.. Without measuring Capacitance and Inductance of the pickup ,, how can you even assume there 'is nothing different here' by measuring resistance? .. (after all they were talking about TCI -TUNED CAPACITANCE INDUCTANCE) ?? I would say they've perhaps experimented and found some sweet spots with the variables.. ,, feel free to delete or hide.. , but I suggest you do some swatting up prior to your next 'gimmick' expose on this subject..
@@quirkydownunder you show some lack of paying attention. I didnt say they didnt do some work here. I said.... they did the same work we all do.... they just branded it.
This video shows me my guitar has TCI. I picked cheap pickups alltered the gauss of the magnets changed the polepieces to 1018 to get the frequencies I want and Bam = TCI. We all do TCI when we just swap pickups we prefer. Paul Reed smith is a clever marketing genius. He gave us the perception we are getting more than what he is already doing standard and charging a premium. Paul Reed Smith is printing money.
We all do TCI based on picking technique and dynamics alone.... Change string guage, bam TCI, string height, TCI, pickup height, TCI, pick a low the high string, TCI....
TCI is about altering a pickup's resonant frequency and quality factor via wire gauge, insulation, number of turns, and winding pattern. These parameters affect a pickup's inductance, self-capacitance, and resistance. Tuning a tuned circuit (a pickup and the entire guitar circuit is a tuned circuit) is nothing new. It is just new to Paul's design approach. A lot of pickup winders will wind X number of turns of Y gauge wire onto a bobbin and call it a day. This approach can lead to pickups where no two pickups are the same with respect to inductance and capacitance. That's why old Fender pickups are so hit or miss. If one gets a good one, it is magic. If one gets an average one, well, it is not bad, just average. One of the things that PRS is doing with the Silver Sky is wiring a resistor across the volume pot in order to obtain a specific resistance. The volume pot alters the circuit's q-factor. A higher q-factor results in a sharp resonant peak frequency where the amplitude of the signal drops quickly on both sides. A lower q-factor results in less sharp resonant peak with a slower drop on each side.
@@DylanTalksTone The whole TCI thing is actually specific to the Silver Sky, not all Stevensville PRS guitars and the Asian produced almost PRS guitars (i.e., the guitar you purchased has nothing to do with TCI). What Paul and company did was to tune the circuit in the Silver Sky guitar to react just like John Mayer's 63 Strat. That is no easy feat because creating exact, repeatable clones of scatter wound pickups is challenging to say the least. The wire used, insulation type, coil form, winding pattern, and the resulting inductance and capacitance are all important. The self-capacitance values of scatter wound pickups are much more varied because the strands of wire are not precisely laid next to each other in perfect layers like they are on a modern machine wound pickup. That is due to capacitance being distributed throughout a pickup. A scatter wound pickup will have more space between the conductors (and the extra space will vary between different scatter wound pickups), which results in less capacitance. Lower capacitance results in a pickup with a higher resonant frequency (i.e., a brighter sounding pickup).
@@DylanTalksTone The fact that you used a multi-meter instead of an LCR meter to take your measurements demonstrates that you do not understand the inner workings of magnetic transducers. Why pickup manufacturers continue to promote the myth that DC resistance (DCR) is an accurate measure of pickup output defies logic. DCR has very little to do with a pickup's output or resonant peak frequency. The only thing that DCR affects is the sharpness of the resonant peak frequency when a pickup is not wired into a guitar (the tone pot and tone cap alter a pickup's resonant peak as well). A pickup is a magnetic transducer where output is determined by its inductance and the strength/shape of its magnetic field, not its DC resistance. The reason why a lot of higher output pickups have high DCRs is because the geometries of off the shelf pickups require a winder to use a smaller gauge of wire in order to increase the number of turns, which, in turn, increases, a pickup's inductance. However, smaller gauge wire has a higher per foot resistance; therefore, comparing the output of a pickup wound with 42-gauge wire with a pickup wound with 44-gauge wire using DCR is about as an useful as putting an elevator in an outhouse, which is why the proper basic piece of electronic test equipment for measuring pickups is an LCR meter. Inductance and capacitance define a pickup's output and its resonant peak. DCR determines how sharp the resonant peak is with respect to the other frequencies on both sides of the resonant peak.
I recently toured the Bowers & Wilkins speaker manufacturing plant and they have the same TCI term used in their speaker engineering software. For them it is an algorithm that measures the cabinet acoustics for which the speaker is going to be placed inside. Mr. Paul Reed Smith announced in 2018 that they also invested in a software that measured the acoustics of the woods used in each individual guitar to be assembled so that the best possible pickups would be selected. I’m wondering if this was his precursor to where TCI came from… 🤔
From Leo: It is always good to see a man live his dreams. Most men dream. Most men forfeit their dreams at the wedding ceremony. Happy for you. It will be interesting to see what you come up with in the future. I have to partially disagree with your assessment. Your $39 multimeter really proves nothing. The design work of measuring and engineering inductance/capacitance criteria is a fine detail. Yes, it is a very carefully selected and assembled sum of usual parts. The naming TCI is a tip of the hat to tell that those factors were carefully selected and assembled, not something misleading. Even pickup makers who cannot make two identical sets in a row name their product something. I agree, the parts are not magic, but the effort put into the assembly a carefully controlled process makes the final product above common manufacturing. Just like your customers are willing to pay a lot extra for your work above the $14.95 pickup sets on ebay. There is a performance difference. The worth of that performance is valuable to a customer that likes the sound. I do not think Paul Reed Smith is selling snake oil, he is selling his attention to detail. I don't care what he calls it, or if he didn't call it anything at all, If I like the sound, I will pay for it. .
I think the tolerance on the electronics usually means that such detail design - even if you could hear it - is probably not practical. Pickups are determined by the number of windings of a wire and the magnetic strength of the pickup (and I think magnet type, although I am not sure). People are going to want different amounts of these, sometimes on different guitars. For example, I like to shred with high resistance pickups and also play clean through lower resistance pickups, and so I have a guitar for each.
@@valueofnothing2487 Tolerance of basic electronic parts like pots and capacitors can be quite broad (up to 20%) so there is an additional job to do in measuring them and either filtering them out or rearranging them in fitting groups that would match the also varying characteristics of pick-ups. It requires no added parts, only the extra step to make sure the shoes fit the feet better before putting them on.
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Are you saying he does this? And he did it because there is a study that shows this makes an audible difference? You cannot appeal to precision and at the same time ignore science.
I watched a video of a guy that bought a new core model identical to his long time owned guitar (a 24-08) except that the new one has TCI pickups and he A/B-ed them extensively and there was a noticeable difference in clarity. He is a very seasoned player and did a wide range of tone variations and you can hear the difference. By the end of the video he concluded that they are different. Perhaps there is something different in their winding or material used that you can’t measure.
I think the TCI process is really more about consistency in pickup production. It's a way to help make sure all the pickups come out sounding exactly the same every time. I don't think there is anything special about the pickups otherwise, just a production method. Also having played a number of PRS guitars with non TCI pickups I can tell you that they sound great and are extremely consistent even without the TCI process. I've yet to hear any complaints about the tone from my non-TCI equipped 594.
Yea paul has said its the winding process thats special, its getting a exact combination of capacitance, inductance and resistance and winding each pickup to those numbers whatever they might be. He has spend alot of time perfecting his pickups and everyone ive played sounds great to me there awesome pickups in anyway you look at it . And his pickups have evolved so much. Looking at a SE isnt the same as a core model, ones imported and they do sound different, phil mcknight did a comparison and they do sound different, they both sounded good but the core models pickups sounded more vintage like lower output slighty or more chimey.
At least they're spending time on the SE model pickups, my older SE had some crappy pups in it, they were replaced with Seymour Duncan's as soon as I got it. Looks like one can now buy an SE and not worry about swapping.
Tim Dunn hey man, and what did you put in your PRS? I tried Jazz Neck and JB bridge, and did not like it at all in my 2015 Custom 24 SE. Too nasal and bright, highlighting worst things in PRS tone. 59’ neck sounds a bit better, but still same PRS nasal signature, nothing comparable to sweet LP tone or clean Strat glass. Nothing from both worlds.
@@timndel whooops, i put Phat Cats into one of my Les Pauls, and really love it. I feel i don't need another pair of Phat Cats in PRS, as it is intended to sound like modern humbucker (preferably warmer) and versatile (with coil splits).
LOL.... Zzounds, and the other major retailers who are advertising them as such all must be wrong? and all the research I did befor this video? .... tje PRS SE Paul's Guitar most certainly has them.
@@DylanTalksTone Actually they have TCI "S" which in multiple reviews people have pointed out are just regular humbuckers with different rings. The real TCIs may or may not be special, but the SE guitar was the wrong one to use if you really want to judge whether TCI pickups are "special".
It would very much help if you started with the guitar that was in tune. It’s hard to take any kind of test of the tone of the pick up seriously if you don’t have an in tune guitar.
PRS most certainly did sell some 85/15 TCI pickups (at least some 58/15LT TCI as well). MSRP for a set was /is $500. They only made a limited number, which was not revealed. But I bought a set in a PRS box, from a dealer, that said TCI right on the back of the pups.
Prs said that he was able to create a vintage sound above the spec of the hardware. My guess is that they bake the magnets to weaken them like old pickups
YOOOOOOO! Do it! Congrats to both of you! Looking forward to what you both have coming. Also, Send It. Maine in August is Amazing. Go rafting and hiking. Downeast Maine is beautiful.
I wish I could stop tying luthiers knots when I string up guitars. I've just been doing it so long I can't stop. I'm just going to go all locking tuners It's the only way I can get my head around not doing it. Why am I like this?
I've been watching a lot of UA-cam videos demonstrating guitars, pickups, pedals, effects processors, etc. over the last year or so. It seems to me that a kind of plateau has been reached regarding pickups and tone quality. Just about all the guitars sound the same - less than 10% difference between $100 and $3,000 guitars. I'm sure there is a difference in build quality, but nothing a little cleaning up couldn't remedy. Cool to see your new digs Dylan. Congrats, and looking forward to seeing more awesome videos!
Paul's response to this would be that anyone can simply "Look" at a pair of humbuckers and simply call them everyday humbuckers....and I would have to agree. I was expecting a deeper dive a more 'scientific' evaluation like pulling the pick up apart to look at the winding, the magnets....etc... not just pull the pick up out and say yep......looks like a black pickup.....disappointed.
I find it hard to believe that Paul Reed Smith would do anything gimmicky or for marketing hype. He's incredibly creative and dedicated to his craft, and I admire him for that. He seems like the Steve Jobs of the guitar world and wants to put out the best product he possibly can. So your take on these pickups, inferring that they're a "gimmick", diminishes your expertise in my view.
People are concentrating on the pickup where I believe it’s about the wiring. This is what I’ve found. While the mini-toggles are talked about as being a convenience for the player instead of push-pull pots, they are actually doing much more. First, they allow the humbucker to become a “true single coil” when split. When most humbuckers are coil split, the unused coil is technically still in the circuit. It’s being sent to ground. The mini-toggle allows the PRS humbucker to become an isolated single coil, which removes the unused coil entirely from the circuit. On the neck pickup’s toggle switch, there’s a 330 picofarad capacitor between the hot and ground that works only on the single coil mode. This is effectively adding more capacitance to the circuit when in single coil mode, altering the sound coming from the guitar. On the bridge pickup’s toggle switch, there is extra lead wire connected from the toggle switch to ground, adding a slight capacitance as well. It appears that PRS has dropped the extra lead wire and added a capacitor to the bridge toggle switch instead. This extra wiring is also considered part of the TCI system. As an aside, this is not dissimilar in concept to what Fishman Fluence pickups are doing. Fishman is accomplishing this by creating a consistent base pickup with stacked circuit boards and managing the sound using an onboard DSP. The DSP is creating the curve. This is how they can have multiple voices, it’s simply (through complicated technology) switching the resonance curve. The technologies are very different, but the goals are the same.
Just curious: where did you buy that guitar? I went to PRS web site and they do not offer the Trampas green as an option. I've been saving money for a new amp ,cab, and guitar. And of course the options are endless and I am not sure what I want. I am interested in a prs , an ibanez, and a telecaster, especially a tele or any guitar in those styles, it does not have the be those brand.
I'm gonna have to disagree with the statement that most guitar manufacturers do this matching/tuning process. I think it's quite the opposite. Most guitars are sold with pickups that somebody picked out for some other reason and they try them, and say "great, sounds fine" and ship them. But, that's why most guitars are cheap. Less man hour spent on R&D. Just slap them together and ship em off. The results speak for themselves.
H, Dylan. I heard that there is a difference between the core version and SE version of the pickups. The volume changes of the pickups in the core version are almost imperceptible. i wonder know if you have tested the TCI pickups in the core version?
Congratulations on your move. Thanks for sharing your findings on the PRS. The only thing that was missing were a few fishing poles since the lake is your office today LOL. Be safe, and if you ever make it close to Northern Ky, I would enjoy meeting you. Be Blessed
I find the 85/15’s to have a little more treble than my ears would like. Sounds pretty good on the bridge position but not so much on the neck position.
What I know about PRS pickups is they’re very good and sound great. PRS do tune the pickups and they have figured out the factors involved so they can move the peak frequency of the pickup around by varying things such as the amount of wire in the coil, wire coating, combination of magnet types, widths of bobbin. So lots to play with. It’s nothing special just means making a lot of different pickups cataloging the variables and identifying which one will be most popular. So Paf sounds, tele sounds, strat sounds, filtertron sounds, P90 and every variation of each.
I'm skeptical that you can infer much about the build process from just looking at the outside of the pickup. Just for instance, if a pickup was built to achieve a consistent 'capacitance and inductance' from pickup to pickup, I'm not sure you would be able to tell that from pickups where the builds are built to simply have a consistent number of winds. The difference would be in more consistent tonal character from pickup to pickup, which is not something tearing one set apart would tell you. If you tore multiple sets apart, I bet you'd find a wider range or dc resistances than non-TCI pickups based on their description. It seems kind of obvious there would be much difference in how the pickups look, so I'm kind of weirded out by the quality of the review...
@@DylanTalksTone I guess I'm just confused about why you would expect a difference in what you looked at. Admittedly, I won't claim to know that much about pickup electronics and I do feel like your videos have helped me understand them better, but I've never gotten the impression TCI adds anything but a more a more precise calibration of tonal character during their manufacturing process ~ same electronics overall, just more consistent production. They also claim it's easier to get the tone they want, but I'd be the last one who'd be able to tell...
Nice office ! What happens when you stick an extra bar magnet underneath a pickup ? Can you enhance your tone that way ? Thx mate. Greetingz from the Netherlands Marcus
From Leo: We would commonly do that in the 1960's. Aftermarket pickups were not really available then. It does change the tone, not always for the better. It you wanted a raw, in your face tone, adding bigger and stronger magnets was the garage band way to get it.
It's a pretty guitar and playing it clean shows the beautiful tone it has. I wonder, in this day and age why anyone would build a guitar with only a tail piece bridge. A retro like the early SG's and Juniors is ok but not today. Cheap tuners and a fancy name at a thousand dollar price tag. I like the new home, it's beautiful. Really enjoy your videos. Lots of good info and you explain things well. Thanks.
@@MrDrewseph Yes but it doesn't do the job nearly as well. Tail piece bridges are very hard to intonate the guitar properly compared to a bridge with adjustable saddles.
@@realtruenorth No one was referring to tremolo. I was talking about a tail piece bridge that has very little adjustment for intonation. Most guitars today have a tail piece and a bridge with adjustable saddles. Or the strat style bridge with very adjustable saddles. Whether it is a hard tail or a tremolo bridge was not in question.
@@jamess.829 I have no experience with that style bridge, not sure how must adjustment they have. Looks like it has some adjustment. I can't imagine they would make a guitar that doesn't allow you to set intonation to be spot on. That would be quite a fail.
The SE TCI pickups are not equivalent to the cores, from what I've heard in side by side comparisons. I can not speak to the differences in material and manufacture, but the sound and feel is different between the two. Mr. Smith describes the foundation of the TCI design on trying to compensate for the "darkness" of humbuckers due to high inductance from high wind number and strong magnets, by changing capacitance via modifying wire alloys, insulation, and winding pattern, I am guessing in an attempt to restore some of the upper mid and high end character. I don't think measuring DC resistance on the pickups is a fair evaluation of what is different about them. I don't think that TCI is a "gimmick" as such, but that observable physical and tonal characteristics may be relatively subtle. Without opening up the pickups (and performing metallurgic analysis on the magnets and windings), it would be impossible to verify his claims regarding differences in wire alloys, winding patterns, and insulation. One of Pauls specialities is spectral analysis (he and his father developed some processing algorithms that have been applied to military signal analysis and medical imaging applications), and he could probably offer more objective information regarding TCI design impact on tone. I believe, but have not been able to establish, that the Core model pickups have a narrower, more focused field than the SE TCI pickups, which may explain at least some of the tonal differences I hear (more clarity, better note separation, better cleans in the Core), but I doubt that is the only difference. The SE Paul is, regardless of pickup design hocus pocus, is a pretty decent guitar. You get a lot of the key features of the core line, including an identical wraparound bridge design, and a true maple cap on the mahogany body. Neck feels great, and there is nothing to complain about regarding how the guitar plays. The SE model does, unlike the Core, use standard size humbuckers that you can replace if you prefer. Great bang for the buck at around $1K. I have the SE Paul, and am not in love with the SE TCI pickups due to the fact that, in humbucker mode at least, they always seem to have a little hair no matter how much I try to clean them up. Good for some things, but not a great all-around pickup. I prefer the single- coil mode.
If you manage to find new PRS Silver Sky it has capacitor between gound and lead in the pickup itself - that's TCI. I bet that guitar from your video also has it somewhere under the tape
I’m not yet ready to say ‘Ol Mr. Smith is selling snake oil...cuz the dude makes a great guitar...my old CE 22 is without a doubt the best guitar I have ever owned...it just plain works perfect...so there’s that!!!
I realize that I'm probably late to the party here... But hopefully someone can answer this: I just ordered the SE Custom 24 35th anniversary edition guitar. It has the same pickups/switching as the SE Paul's Guitar. In past experience, I could never keep a decent balance between the output of my humbucker and my humbucker split (usually a significant volume loss.) How do you suppose this was done?
Ty for your videos. They are extremely helpful. I know I'm A year late but I'm considering getting that guitar. My concerns are the fret wire. I believe they are medium jumbo. Since you actually played it, do you think that they are high enough for one who likes A light touch? Buttery bends? I use A heavy pick with variable attacks. I have played 12 in radius guitars my whole life. Will I be comfortable with the 10 in radius? I mainly play distortion thru my Boogie. This is going to be a very important decision for me and I respect your opinion. Hope to hear from you. Thanks for your time, Jim
Downsizing to live on the road is not for everybody. I hope you'll be fulfilling your dreams ! As to PRS, I'd be curious to hear Paul's answer. Maybe he's got something to say about it ? I own a DGT that is great, very versatile but still, I like to have a Strat and a LP. You get similar tones with the PRS but not quite like it. From my experience (since 1968) the PUs I like most are CustomBuckers (a lot of character) and one I discovered by chance: the Seymour Duncan Jazz B (for bridge), the SH-2B. I have it on a Thinline build in the back position, with a split switch, and it sounds AWESOME: fom Tele to LP, lots of harmonics, one of my favorite PUs. Good luck in your new life ! \m/
Suggestion for a hype gig..... I have been considering to buy either an Epi verses a Gretsch semi-hollow. Streamliner or a Sheraton/Casino. Gretch by Fender made in Indonesia or Epi by Gibson made in same country. Dont know where exactly city/manufacturer. The comparison for price is very close. Your tonal knowledge of pickups or pots cud be a big help. I'm sure they both use alphas. I just discovered your channel & subscribe. Keep it up.
Ok I have a question On the riffs Chanel he talks about getting real precise like what resistors and caps he uses for his treble bleed, So when you looked at the circuit what were the values for the tone cap, the treble bleed cap and resistor and what value pots is he using in the tci treatment, And the rv is great, we are now saving up and planning to get into that lifestyle, very inspiring, Well you can always come thru the 303, mb we will see you here, good luck, and I just picked up a 15 lp special, it has these bright Tele sounding p90s, so I’ll be inquiring about gettin a set that growls,
I was under the impression the TCI pickups are only on the amaeircan Core line and are the American in-house built pickups , the S2 and SE are import pickups .
It's mostly marketing hype. I wind pickups and I tore apart a set of DGT pickups just to see why people pay $500+ for them. They were just basically super overwound T Top style things with A2 magnets. Like you said, nothing very special.
Red rock. You need to check out that music venue for tone. Total business expense. Nothing to do with gorgeous views. Same with Grand Canyon. Business trip to record echo echo
Hey Dylan, there's a thread with a bunch of criticisms on a prs Facebook group, some are just hot air but some seem pretty legitimate. Totally up to you, but addressing the ones that are skeptical about your methodology in this video would go a long way. Or, save yourself the trouble. - longtime subscriber who has dug your science-based and stripped down approach
I dont care. a bunch of people esp PRS fans are saying all I did was check resistance.... they were not paying attention lol. people will see what they want to see no matter what the facts are lol.
So the coil splitting system is just as any other coil splitting system out there? I thought these TCI pickups actually isolated the single coils from the circuit, rather than having an "emulation" of just one coil. Could you give a little bit more detail about that? Thanks, Dylan! (I am a PRS fangirl and I think I'll always love what they do; I'm just curious about this topic).
Recent and avid subscriber,very happy with your content! I would love to see your take on Reverends Railhammer pickups.Best of luck with all your projects. Jim in Ct.
Awesome stuff! This probably belongs to Music&Mascara more than here, but also relevant: how do you organize logistics for everyday business stuff like getting anything shipped and delivered, from regular supplies to preordered gear, when the office is a motorhome?
Let's be serious for a moment. The whole quality of a guitar is in matching its parts together. Neck angle, bridge height, fret levels, pick-up placement and everything else. So yes, matching the electronics parts together is one of the obvious ways of caring for a better end result and putting a label on it only tells "done with care". PRS make a business of selling a quality image and being up to it. It's not a gimmick, it's one of the bases of civilised human behaviour.
4:30: this thing sounds beautiful and YOU, Dylan, can make it sing. Disclaimer: i'm a Big PRS fan. Don't forget that these are SE pups. They are "reproduction" of US pups.
hey Dylan congratulations I wish you all the best on this new venture. Yeah really cool man traveling around the country and they were in your thing who could ask for more. When I was able excited I did mucho trips around the country of via car and motorcycle yeah what a blast kind of jealous lol all the best sincerely yours, Bob the blind bedroom guitarist guitarist it
@@DylanTalksTone I totally agree, I've just never seen the SE's use the same PU's as core model's. I really hadn't researched what TCI PU's were. From what I've now discovered he is just building and winding the coil's in a way as to achieve a desired capacitance and inductance, I assume more consistently to achieve a desired tone. So my take away would be that they may not look any different,(cause construction would be the same as every other PU). Yea, kinda marketing hype, not untrue, PU makers have kinda been doing this for years, Paul was just smart enough to actually use it for marketing purposes.
OOp's, in watching your video further I guess your pretty much saying the same thing I came up with. Guess I should watch video first. Does he use the exact same PU's. In the past SE's have had import versions of his US made pickups, & the specs have alway's been slidghtly different.
Hello from England. So, did you sell your house or were you renting/living with in-laws? Sorry for being nosey, just curious about the lifestyle, which is very cool by the way. I'd love one like yours but our roads are narrower over here. Good luck to you both mate, living the dream!
The SEs have the Indonesian pickups, it’s not true TCI. I have both SE and Core and the SE pickups sound drastically different and are incredibly muddy. The core pickups are some of the most musical pickups I’ve ever heard.
True TCI? Not sure what that even means. A few SE's like 35th anniversary model have TCI pickups. But they arent gonna be the same piclups and the TCI US versions. For sure they aren't gonna sound the same. Different guitars.
At 11:20 in the video, you hit the nail on the head. As a radio amateur (ham), I know that any circuit that consists of a capacitor-inductor-resistor combo is by definition a tuned circuit. What PRS advertises in the video "TCI Pickups with Paul Reed Smith" is just that. They have adjusted their pickup parameters (in conjunction with the other parameters of the guitar) to favor a particular sound. That's it. If that is the sound a player wants, there it is. If not, the player goes a different direction. So, marketing. Smart marketing in my mind since it enhances the PRS mystique, but mostly marketing.
You didn’t need to buy one, I would have sent you mine or I would have sent a pickup from it. I’ve upgraded all my guitars and I don’t use it too much. I went to a S2 and a CE. If you get to New Jersey feel free to stop in an have a meal
Wow, so much bad information. TCI "S" pickups are absolutely better than the regular 85/15 "S" pickups. Others have explained why the individual coil splits are special, so I won't delve into that. This is a few years old so I'll cut you some slack but this was a bad take.
Dylan, Yes and No. I have some "Paul's" pickups pulled from an American guitar, have put them on my bench to figure out the wiring combinations and even some that the factory doesn't offer. Most of the time we deal with single or double coil pickups that only have wires to choose one coil, the other, both in series, both in parallel. If you've ever used a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Lead pickup... it is a true single coil with a massive amount of windings, and then a true "coil tap" wire to choose a smaller portion of those same windings. What Paul and Co have done is essentially put two multi-tap coils side by side. Depending on the guitar and the voice selection options, they will choose the partial or full winding of one coil, with the partial or full of the other to create mild humbucker, hot humbuckers, unevenly wound (Full one coil, partial other) which creates a voice like a single coil but with the half humbucking coil next to it to eliminate most of the hum. I've also been able to coax out Full winding true single on one coil as well as full windings both coils super hot humbucker. An active version of this is the Fishman Fluence classic humbucker with 3 voices. PRS is using passive wiring to accomplish this, and it sounds much much better than when they tried the same thing with the 513 wiring, and it can be retrofitted to other guitars (when you can get your hands on the pickups).
It seems to me that what PRS are saying is that they have a way of tightly controlling and possibly even fine tuning the inductance and capacitance of their pickup coils. If this is purely a manufacturing method it won't necessarily be obvious to a casual inspection. For example finding a way to continuously measure inductance and capacitance while the coil was being wound and adjusting the coil winder accordingly.
You would have to measure the inductance and capacitance of a large number of the same model of TCI pickups to see how close they were. If PRS achieves their fine tuning by perhaps adding a capacitor inside the pickup then that would not necessarily be easy to see either.
It is my impression that most pickup manufacturers spend very little time measuring and recording the parameters of their pickups once they have chosen which bobbin size to use, which magnets, which wire, which insulation and so on...
Exactly,, i agree with you, Dylan said "we all do that (TCI)" I disagree, no most don't. Most just slap on top seller pickups or cheap pickups and ship it. Dylan is quite downplaying the fact that most guitars for sale at a music store were not matched up like this. Slap em together, paint em, and ship them from China or whatever. I think they use a different process here. But the results speak for themselves.
PRS use just usual basic wiring cnc methods. That is obvious from their videos with showing of their small industrial coil CNC machine. No any special wiring patterns, no any super precise windings. Just usual. No any scattering patterns or so. Only wire gauge and length ("warmness" and hi/bass), 1 or 2 layers of coating (more or less capacitance/inductance), and geometrical difference in coil tallness and wideness plus magnets and base plates difference. Yes maybe coil tap too, if they use. Nothing something special. All same usual basic methods that all good pickup builders do.
@@ArwndrI'm betting that when they make the prototype, the process they use to 'tune' the pickup to the guitar is what is possibly inique. When I play them, it sounds like they used electronic scope to find a sweet spot that agrees with the natural resonance frequency of the guitar itself. The guitar strings are like microphones. That's why when you tap a wax potted pickup'd guitar, you still hear it through the guitar amp. Regardless, even my custom shop Gibson Les Paul with S buckers barely rival the PRS core with TCI pickups. All my SD, EMGs. DIMARZIOS. ETC can't touch them. But they weren't designed for a particular guitar either. That's another thing, aftermarket pickups weren't designed for any particular guitar. So, roll the dice and hope they work great. I've had both, success and less than.
@@realtruenorth That's very possible, that PRS check resonance of they new guitars series. That's not hard at all. And than make pickups for that series with needed proper resonance for them, to work together in a best combination.
That's shure not individually for every guitar, but average for this new type.
That's not hard to make any pickup with needed resonance frequency, capacitance, induction, resistance, that could be calculated with formulas in a few minutes before actually making. And after that get same results as was counted.
So yea, that is quite possible that PRS do that.
If yes - than that is really smart ingeniring move from them.
@@Arwndr I agree with you 100%, I just don't thing all or even very many manufacturers take as much time focusing on that aspect of producing a guitar. I was the anti- PRS guy because the hype put me off. Then I played one and was in awe. I knew that went through painstaking efforts to produce such an instrument. Every little detail adds up to a large difference
Peace.
At a glance, it seems like you'd need to look at the Core model to answer this question definitively.
That and, I don't know, take apart the pickuo to inspect how it's put together and what the components are? Maybe measure the henries? Measure anything besides the capacitance?
Yes. The core model has the TCI pickups
The Core model TCI pickups sound better than the SE pickups.
I didn't think TCI was about looking different, but more about tuning the pickup to sound good with a particular model. Kinda like tuning a hot rod. And I think the process they use to do this is where 'TCI' comes from. They were probably looking for a sweet spot while watching the sustain and resonance on a scope. They sound very wide range and clear and I have to say, starting as a naysayer/doubter,, I think they are the best pickups I have ever heard. Even beating my custom Les Pauk with custom shop S buckers.
Is anyone else a little disappointed?
Dylan, it seems like you went into this review with a certain bias. I respect your knowledge about pickups. But I really expected you to tear down one of those pickups so we can really see what’s inside.
What gave us were the resistance values. I don’t think that would be enough to differentiate between, for instance, a Jazzmaster pick up and a P90, or P100 pickup. For a professional at your level I expected a complete breakdown and analysis of the pickup.
I did do that. jist not on camera. they are just pickups. lol people think I'm being negative, but for get the part where I sit on my couch and talk about how awesome this guitar really is. people just jump to whatever negative energy THEY have. I loved this guitar.
DylanTalksTone, thank you so much for your response. I’m really enjoying your channel.
Weren't these pickups designed so as to not loose volume when split? Wouldn't this mean that one of the coil has more winds than the other?
They use a special machine designed for them by an electrical engineer to do the capacitance and inductance tuning on the pickups made in the USA that are labeled TCI.
A gutsy and inspiring move Dylan. Congratulations and I hope its as great a life change as you hoped. Looking forward to seeing your future posts in various locations.
Dude ,, I find it rather incredible that you purport to know 'that there's absolutely nothing different going on here", when all you've done is measure the resistance.. (up to the point that I was willing to watch) Whilst I agree some of PRS marketing hype is rather incredulous , too,,,, you need to address the issues at hand, fairly and technically: ie. capacitance, and inductance,, and are they, or are they not 'Tuned'. And do you understand what that actually means? (for a reference in the old sense of the word google 'tuned circuits' - OK ,, but they're generally RF,,, my guess is that PRS is either playing on this terminology,, or in fact perhaps they have alluded to doing something similar at an audio level - I doubt it but give them a chance to shoot themselves in the foot prior to you doing it.. .. ) Would be interesting what they have actually done..
either there pis some physical tech in these pickups... or there is not. .... there is not. that can be done with a physical inspection.... which I did. the "tuning" is in the design and testing.... which EVERY reputable pickup builder does. these pickups are not different.
@@DylanTalksTone You show some lack of technical knowledge.. Even if you were to only read the Seymour Duncan article ,, you would have read there are so many variables that you can read the same resistance for... ie the length and gauge of wire, bobbin, etc etc can all be varied and still measure the same resistance,, (which is basically all you did).. These variations (having the same resistance) will demonstrate different inductance and capacitance parameters of the pickup.. Without measuring Capacitance and Inductance of the pickup ,, how can you even assume there 'is nothing different here' by measuring resistance? .. (after all they were talking about TCI -TUNED CAPACITANCE INDUCTANCE) ?? I would say they've perhaps experimented and found some sweet spots with the variables.. ,, feel free to delete or hide.. , but I suggest you do some swatting up prior to your next 'gimmick' expose on this subject..
@@quirkydownunder you show some lack of paying attention. I didnt say they didnt do some work here. I said.... they did the same work we all do.... they just branded it.
@@DylanTalksTone ,That's what I said earlier, Paul was just smart enough to use it for marketing, nothing wrong with that, he didn't lie.
This video shows me my guitar has TCI. I picked cheap pickups alltered the gauss of the magnets changed the polepieces to 1018 to get the frequencies I want and Bam = TCI.
We all do TCI when we just swap pickups we prefer. Paul Reed smith is a clever marketing genius. He gave us the perception we are getting more than what he is already doing standard and charging a premium.
Paul Reed Smith is printing money.
We all do TCI based on picking technique and dynamics alone.... Change string guage, bam TCI, string height, TCI, pickup height, TCI, pick a low the high string, TCI....
Are they the TCI-S that usually come with the SE’s or are they the TCI that comes with core lineups ?
TCI is about altering a pickup's resonant frequency and quality factor via wire gauge, insulation, number of turns, and winding pattern. These parameters affect a pickup's inductance, self-capacitance, and resistance. Tuning a tuned circuit (a pickup and the entire guitar circuit is a tuned circuit) is nothing new. It is just new to Paul's design approach. A lot of pickup winders will wind X number of turns of Y gauge wire onto a bobbin and call it a day. This approach can lead to pickups where no two pickups are the same with respect to inductance and capacitance. That's why old Fender pickups are so hit or miss. If one gets a good one, it is magic. If one gets an average one, well, it is not bad, just average. One of the things that PRS is doing with the Silver Sky is wiring a resistor across the volume pot in order to obtain a specific resistance. The volume pot alters the circuit's q-factor. A higher q-factor results in a sharp resonant peak frequency where the amplitude of the signal drops quickly on both sides. A lower q-factor results in less sharp resonant peak with a slower drop on each side.
yes... nothing special.
@@DylanTalksTone The whole TCI thing is actually specific to the Silver Sky, not all Stevensville PRS guitars and the Asian produced almost PRS guitars (i.e., the guitar you purchased has nothing to do with TCI). What Paul and company did was to tune the circuit in the Silver Sky guitar to react just like John Mayer's 63 Strat. That is no easy feat because creating exact, repeatable clones of scatter wound pickups is challenging to say the least. The wire used, insulation type, coil form, winding pattern, and the resulting inductance and capacitance are all important. The self-capacitance values of scatter wound pickups are much more varied because the strands of wire are not precisely laid next to each other in perfect layers like they are on a modern machine wound pickup. That is due to capacitance being distributed throughout a pickup. A scatter wound pickup will have more space between the conductors (and the extra space will vary between different scatter wound pickups), which results in less capacitance. Lower capacitance results in a pickup with a higher resonant frequency (i.e., a brighter sounding pickup).
@@DylanTalksTone The fact that you used a multi-meter instead of an LCR meter to take your measurements demonstrates that you do not understand the inner workings of magnetic transducers. Why pickup manufacturers continue to promote the myth that DC resistance (DCR) is an accurate measure of pickup output defies logic. DCR has very little to do with a pickup's output or resonant peak frequency. The only thing that DCR affects is the sharpness of the resonant peak frequency when a pickup is not wired into a guitar (the tone pot and tone cap alter a pickup's resonant peak as well). A pickup is a magnetic transducer where output is determined by its inductance and the strength/shape of its magnetic field, not its DC resistance. The reason why a lot of higher output pickups have high DCRs is because the geometries of off the shelf pickups require a winder to use a smaller gauge of wire in order to increase the number of turns, which, in turn, increases, a pickup's inductance. However, smaller gauge wire has a higher per foot resistance; therefore, comparing the output of a pickup wound with 42-gauge wire with a pickup wound with 44-gauge wire using DCR is about as an useful as putting an elevator in an outhouse, which is why the proper basic piece of electronic test equipment for measuring pickups is an LCR meter. Inductance and capacitance define a pickup's output and its resonant peak. DCR determines how sharp the resonant peak is with respect to the other frequencies on both sides of the resonant peak.
I recently toured the Bowers & Wilkins speaker manufacturing plant and they have the same TCI term used in their speaker engineering software. For them it is an algorithm that measures the cabinet acoustics for which the speaker is going to be placed inside. Mr. Paul Reed Smith announced in 2018 that they also invested in a software that measured the acoustics of the woods used in each individual guitar to be assembled so that the best possible pickups would be selected. I’m wondering if this was his precursor to where TCI came from… 🤔
Dang Dylan, can't run from them warrants for ever dude....
Bro youre insane! Making the road to your Home!
Im so hyped for this idea :D
From Leo: It is always good to see a man live his dreams. Most men dream. Most men forfeit their dreams at the wedding ceremony. Happy for you. It will be interesting to see what you come up with in the future.
I have to partially disagree with your assessment. Your $39 multimeter really proves nothing. The design work of measuring and engineering inductance/capacitance criteria is a fine detail. Yes, it is a very carefully selected and assembled sum of usual parts. The naming TCI is a tip of the hat to tell that those factors were carefully selected and assembled, not something misleading. Even pickup makers who cannot make two identical sets in a row name their product something. I agree, the parts are not magic, but the effort put into the assembly a carefully controlled process makes the final product above common manufacturing. Just like your customers are willing to pay a lot extra for your work above the $14.95 pickup sets on ebay. There is a performance difference. The worth of that performance is valuable to a customer that likes the sound. I do not think Paul Reed Smith is selling snake oil, he is selling his attention to detail. I don't care what he calls it, or if he didn't call it anything at all, If I like the sound, I will pay for it. .
"Paull Reed Smith is selling attention to detail". That's the whole thing. We decide how much we care for it.
I think the tolerance on the electronics usually means that such detail design - even if you could hear it - is probably not practical. Pickups are determined by the number of windings of a wire and the magnetic strength of the pickup (and I think magnet type, although I am not sure). People are going to want different amounts of these, sometimes on different guitars. For example, I like to shred with high resistance pickups and also play clean through lower resistance pickups, and so I have a guitar for each.
@@valueofnothing2487 Tolerance of basic electronic parts like pots and capacitors can be quite broad (up to 20%) so there is an additional job to do in measuring them and either filtering them out or rearranging them in fitting groups that would match the also varying characteristics of pick-ups. It requires no added parts, only the extra step to make sure the shoes fit the feet better before putting them on.
Barb I appreciate how you expressed those thoughts. 👍🏻
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Are you saying he does this?
And he did it because there is a study that shows this makes an audible difference?
You cannot appeal to precision and at the same time ignore science.
I watched a video of a guy that bought a new core model identical to his long time owned guitar (a 24-08) except that the new one has TCI pickups and he A/B-ed them extensively and there was a noticeable difference in clarity. He is a very seasoned player and did a wide range of tone variations and you can hear the difference. By the end of the video he concluded that they are different. Perhaps there is something different in their winding or material used that you can’t measure.
Use synthetic Transmission, transfer diff, and engine oils Always, less headaches 😊👍
I think the TCI process is really more about consistency in pickup production. It's a way to help make sure all the pickups come out sounding exactly the same every time. I don't think there is anything special about the pickups otherwise, just a production method. Also having played a number of PRS guitars with non TCI pickups I can tell you that they sound great and are extremely consistent even without the TCI process. I've yet to hear any complaints about the tone from my non-TCI equipped 594.
I second that. Every PRS I ever played was very well crafted.
Exactly what i have suspected after trying the guitar. It sound exactly the same. Thanks for the confirmation. Nice and honest video👍😉
Yea paul has said its the winding process thats special, its getting a exact combination of capacitance, inductance and resistance and winding each pickup to those numbers whatever they might be. He has spend alot of time perfecting his pickups and everyone ive played sounds great to me there awesome pickups in anyway you look at it . And his pickups have evolved so much. Looking at a SE isnt the same as a core model, ones imported and they do sound different, phil mcknight did a comparison and they do sound different, they both sounded good but the core models pickups sounded more vintage like lower output slighty or more chimey.
At least they're spending time on the SE model pickups, my older SE had some crappy pups in it, they were replaced with Seymour Duncan's as soon as I got it. Looks like one can now buy an SE and not worry about swapping.
Tim Dunn hey man, and what did you put in your PRS? I tried Jazz Neck and JB bridge, and did not like it at all in my 2015 Custom 24 SE. Too nasal and bright, highlighting worst things in PRS tone. 59’ neck sounds a bit better, but still same PRS nasal signature, nothing comparable to sweet LP tone or clean Strat glass. Nothing from both worlds.
@@iromanovsky Duncan's Phat Cat P90s. Really made the guitar sing, will probably never go back to humbuckers again.
@@timndel whooops, i put Phat Cats into one of my Les Pauls, and really love it. I feel i don't need another pair of Phat Cats in PRS, as it is intended to sound like modern humbucker (preferably warmer) and versatile (with coil splits).
@@timndel SE pick ups are made by B&G of S Korea!
Dylan, the SE guitars do not get the TCI pickups. I own the SE. It's great, but they make no claim of them having the TCIs.
LOL.... Zzounds, and the other major retailers who are advertising them as such all must be wrong? and all the research I did befor this video? .... tje PRS SE Paul's Guitar most certainly has them.
@@DylanTalksTone Actually they have TCI "S" which in multiple reviews people have pointed out are just regular humbuckers with different rings. The real TCIs may or may not be special, but the SE guitar was the wrong one to use if you really want to judge whether TCI pickups are "special".
It would very much help if you started with the guitar that was in tune. It’s hard to take any kind of test of the tone of the pick up seriously if you don’t have an in tune guitar.
We tune before every take with a strobe tuner. Maybe you need your ears checked.
DylanTalksTone So you’re saying that your eyes are better than my ears?
I’m saying we do the best we can and I don’t care about your ears.
THANK YOU FOR THE CLARIFICATION , I THOUGHT THEY HAVE SPECIAL MODS TO THE CIRCUIT
PRS most certainly did sell some 85/15 TCI pickups (at least some 58/15LT TCI as well). MSRP for a set was /is $500. They only made a limited number, which was not revealed. But I bought a set in a PRS box, from a dealer, that said TCI right on the back of the pups.
Prs said that he was able to create a vintage sound above the spec of the hardware. My guess is that they bake the magnets to weaken them like old pickups
YOOOOOOO! Do it! Congrats to both of you! Looking forward to what you both have coming. Also, Send It. Maine in August is Amazing. Go rafting and hiking. Downeast Maine is beautiful.
Barharbor/Ellsworth here!
I wish I could stop tying luthiers knots when I string up guitars. I've just been doing it so long I can't stop. I'm just going to go all locking tuners It's the only way I can get my head around not doing it. Why am I like this?
So happy for you to do what most of us just dream of, traveling all over the country!
I've been watching a lot of UA-cam videos demonstrating guitars, pickups, pedals, effects processors, etc. over the last year or so. It seems to me that a kind of plateau has been reached regarding pickups and tone quality. Just about all the guitars sound the same - less than 10% difference between $100 and $3,000 guitars. I'm sure there is a difference in build quality, but nothing a little cleaning up couldn't remedy.
Cool to see your new digs Dylan. Congrats, and looking forward to seeing more awesome videos!
Paul's response to this would be that anyone can simply "Look" at a pair of humbuckers and simply call them everyday humbuckers....and I would have to agree. I was expecting a deeper dive a more 'scientific' evaluation like pulling the pick up apart to look at the winding, the magnets....etc... not just pull the pick up out and say yep......looks like a black pickup.....disappointed.
I definitely think there are non-physical attributes that aren't being considered here.
I find it hard to believe that Paul Reed Smith would do anything gimmicky or for marketing hype. He's incredibly creative and dedicated to his craft, and I admire him for that. He seems like the Steve Jobs of the guitar world and wants to put out the best product he possibly can. So your take on these pickups, inferring that they're a "gimmick", diminishes your expertise in my view.
I know this is a year late but the man said "marketing" not "gimmick". It is marketing and it doesn't take a expert to realize that.
@@waynepurcell6058 literally read the title of the video 🤦🏻
@@waynepurcell6058 LOL. Video title says word gimmick
People are concentrating on the pickup where I believe it’s about the wiring.
This is what I’ve found.
While the mini-toggles are talked about as being a convenience for the player instead of push-pull pots, they are actually doing much more.
First, they allow the humbucker to become a “true single coil” when split. When most humbuckers are coil split, the unused coil is technically still in the circuit. It’s being sent to ground. The mini-toggle allows the PRS humbucker to become an isolated single coil, which removes the unused coil entirely from the circuit.
On the neck pickup’s toggle switch, there’s a 330 picofarad capacitor between the hot and ground that works only on the single coil mode. This is effectively adding more capacitance to the circuit when in single coil mode, altering the sound coming from the guitar. On the bridge pickup’s toggle switch, there is extra lead wire connected from the toggle switch to ground, adding a slight capacitance as well. It appears that PRS has dropped the extra lead wire and added a capacitor to the bridge toggle switch instead. This extra wiring is also considered part of the TCI system.
As an aside, this is not dissimilar in concept to what Fishman Fluence pickups are doing. Fishman is accomplishing this by creating a consistent base pickup with stacked circuit boards and managing the sound using an onboard DSP. The DSP is creating the curve. This is how they can have multiple voices, it’s simply (through complicated technology) switching the resonance curve. The technologies are very different, but the goals are the same.
@@ElJuanSolo very interesting
Do the non TCI pup PRS's have the treble bleed circuit? Maybe thats the "special feature" in the TCI pup's
Awesome! Congrats on the new home/ride bro!!
Just curious: where did you buy that guitar? I went to PRS web site and they do not offer the Trampas green as an option. I've been saving money for a new amp ,cab, and guitar. And of course the options are endless and I am not sure what I want. I am interested in a prs , an ibanez, and a telecaster, especially a tele or any guitar in those styles, it does not have the be those brand.
American Musical Supply has them in Trampas Green. Likely an exclusive color. They also have a Charcoal Burst that I have not seen anywhere else.
Excited for your future plans!
Those are the TCI "S" pickups...any chance there IS something going on with the Core set?
Are the pickups ceramic or alinco magnets? Also, was there a resistor or capacitor along one of the picup wires?
Is there was any difference in gauses, induction and capacitance from any other good 8.4-8.2k humbackers?
How does this compare with Les Paul original pickups? Will this be a good replacement for Les Paul pups?
I'm gonna have to disagree with the statement that most guitar manufacturers do this matching/tuning process. I think it's quite the opposite. Most guitars are sold with pickups that somebody picked out for some other reason and they try them, and say "great, sounds fine" and ship them. But, that's why most guitars are cheap. Less man hour spent on R&D. Just slap them together and ship em off. The results speak for themselves.
Very cool, Dylan. Congratulations! 😎❤️
H, Dylan. I heard that there is a difference between the core version and SE version of the pickups. The volume changes of the pickups in the core version are almost imperceptible. i wonder know if you have tested the TCI pickups in the core version?
Congratulations on your move. Thanks for sharing your findings on the PRS. The only thing that was missing were a few fishing poles since the lake is your office today LOL. Be safe, and if you ever make it close to Northern Ky, I would enjoy meeting you. Be Blessed
Love your new office mate. Living the dream!! Good for you 😊
love your videos Dylan, i just found your channel a couple of days ago
I find the 85/15’s to have a little more treble than my ears would like. Sounds pretty good on the bridge position but not so much on the neck position.
What I know about PRS pickups is they’re very good and sound great. PRS do tune the pickups and they have figured out the factors involved so they can move the peak frequency of the pickup around by varying things such as the amount of wire in the coil, wire coating, combination of magnet types, widths of bobbin. So lots to play with. It’s nothing special just means making a lot of different pickups cataloging the variables and identifying which one will be most popular. So Paf sounds, tele sounds, strat sounds, filtertron sounds, P90 and every variation of each.
You must have watched his latest video… yeah… we do all that too… the same as many other pickup builders.
Congrats and best of luck with the new chapter!
I'm skeptical that you can infer much about the build process from just looking at the outside of the pickup. Just for instance, if a pickup was built to achieve a consistent 'capacitance and inductance' from pickup to pickup, I'm not sure you would be able to tell that from pickups where the builds are built to simply have a consistent number of winds. The difference would be in more consistent tonal character from pickup to pickup, which is not something tearing one set apart would tell you. If you tore multiple sets apart, I bet you'd find a wider range or dc resistances than non-TCI pickups based on their description. It seems kind of obvious there would be much difference in how the pickups look, so I'm kind of weirded out by the quality of the review...
I looked inside.... there were no extra components. period.
@@DylanTalksTone I guess I'm just confused about why you would expect a difference in what you looked at. Admittedly, I won't claim to know that much about pickup electronics and I do feel like your videos have helped me understand them better, but I've never gotten the impression TCI adds anything but a more a more precise calibration of tonal character during their manufacturing process ~ same electronics overall, just more consistent production. They also claim it's easier to get the tone they want, but I'd be the last one who'd be able to tell...
I totally agree
Duuuude!! I'm totally in awe of y'alls new living situation! Congratulations, and the best of wishes.
Factory and venue tours sound really cool, and an underserved segment of the market.
Nice office ! What happens when you stick an extra bar magnet underneath a pickup ? Can you enhance your tone that way ? Thx mate. Greetingz from the Netherlands Marcus
From Leo: We would commonly do that in the 1960's. Aftermarket pickups were not really available then. It does change the tone, not always for the better. It you wanted a raw, in your face tone, adding bigger and stronger magnets was the garage band way to get it.
CONGRATULATIONS! That is the dream! If you ever find yourself in Maine let me know!
Same here. Barharbor area here!
Sebago/bridgeton here! I have some family near you. Hit 67 today! What a trip this winter has been!
Y'all on the run, come on man be honest we've all been there, some more than others
How did you get that color for a Paul's SE model? It only comes in three colors: Amber, Aqua and Fire Red. I checked 2020 models: same thing. How?
Good luck with your new business and home setup mate. Great stuff.
It's a pretty guitar and playing it clean shows the beautiful tone it has. I wonder, in this day and age why anyone would build a guitar with only a tail piece bridge. A retro like the early SG's and Juniors is ok but not today. Cheap tuners and a fancy name at a thousand dollar price tag.
I like the new home, it's beautiful. Really enjoy your videos. Lots of good info and you explain things well. Thanks.
Because it's one bit of hardware that does the job of two. Fewer holes drilled in the guitar. Comfy with palm muting
@@MrDrewseph Yes but it doesn't do the job nearly as well. Tail piece bridges are very hard to intonate the guitar properly compared to a bridge with adjustable saddles.
Some players don't use tremelos. Simple. More stable
@@realtruenorth No one was referring to tremolo. I was talking about a tail piece bridge that has very little adjustment for intonation. Most guitars today have a tail piece and a bridge with adjustable saddles. Or the strat style bridge with very adjustable saddles. Whether it is a hard tail or a tremolo bridge was not in question.
@@jamess.829 I have no experience with that style bridge, not sure how must adjustment they have. Looks like it has some adjustment. I can't imagine they would make a guitar that doesn't allow you to set intonation to be spot on. That would be quite a fail.
Can you swap pickups and use the TCI in let's say Bareknucles? I know the core guitar has smaller sized pickups not sure if the SE is the same size??
The SE TCI pickups are not equivalent to the cores, from what I've heard in side by side comparisons. I can not speak to the differences in material and manufacture, but the sound and feel is different between the two.
Mr. Smith describes the foundation of the TCI design on trying to compensate for the "darkness" of humbuckers due to high inductance from high wind number and strong magnets, by changing capacitance via modifying wire alloys, insulation, and winding pattern, I am guessing in an attempt to restore some of the upper mid and high end character. I don't think measuring DC resistance on the pickups is a fair evaluation of what is different about them. I don't think that TCI is a "gimmick" as such, but that observable physical and tonal characteristics may be relatively subtle. Without opening up the pickups (and performing metallurgic analysis on the magnets and windings), it would be impossible to verify his claims regarding differences in wire alloys, winding patterns, and insulation. One of Pauls specialities is spectral analysis (he and his father developed some processing algorithms that have been applied to military signal analysis and medical imaging applications), and he could probably offer more objective information regarding TCI design impact on tone.
I believe, but have not been able to establish, that the Core model pickups have a narrower, more focused field than the SE TCI pickups, which may explain at least some of the tonal differences I hear (more clarity, better note separation, better cleans in the Core), but I doubt that is the only difference.
The SE Paul is, regardless of pickup design hocus pocus, is a pretty decent guitar. You get a lot of the key features of the core line, including an identical wraparound bridge design, and a true maple cap on the mahogany body. Neck feels great, and there is nothing to complain about regarding how the guitar plays. The SE model does, unlike the Core, use standard size humbuckers that you can replace if you prefer. Great bang for the buck at around $1K. I have the SE Paul, and am not in love with the SE TCI pickups due to the fact that, in humbucker mode at least, they always seem to have a little hair no matter how much I try to clean them up. Good for some things, but not a great all-around pickup. I prefer the single- coil mode.
If you manage to find new PRS Silver Sky it has capacitor between gound and lead in the pickup itself - that's TCI. I bet that guitar from your video also has it somewhere under the tape
A silver Sky does not have that. I have owned two
I’m not yet ready to say ‘Ol Mr. Smith is selling snake oil...cuz the dude makes a great guitar...my old CE 22 is without a doubt the best guitar I have ever owned...it just plain works perfect...so there’s that!!!
agreed
I realize that I'm probably late to the party here... But hopefully someone can answer this:
I just ordered the SE Custom 24 35th anniversary edition guitar. It has the same pickups/switching as the SE Paul's Guitar. In past experience, I could never keep a decent balance between the output of my humbucker and my humbucker split (usually a significant volume loss.) How do you suppose this was done?
Probably by adding more coils to the split
Ty for your videos. They are extremely helpful. I know I'm A year late but I'm considering getting that guitar. My concerns are the fret wire. I believe they are medium jumbo. Since you actually played it, do you think that they are high enough for one who likes A light touch? Buttery bends? I use A heavy pick with variable attacks. I have played 12 in radius guitars my whole life. Will I be comfortable with the 10 in radius? I mainly play distortion thru my Boogie. This is going to be a very important decision for me and I respect your opinion. Hope to hear from you. Thanks for your time, Jim
Downsizing to live on the road is not for everybody. I hope you'll be fulfilling your dreams ! As to PRS, I'd be curious to hear Paul's answer. Maybe he's got something to say about it ? I own a DGT that is great, very versatile but still, I like to have a Strat and a LP. You get similar tones with the PRS but not quite like it. From my experience (since 1968) the PUs I like most are CustomBuckers (a lot of character) and one I discovered by chance: the Seymour Duncan Jazz B (for bridge), the SH-2B. I have it on a Thinline build in the back position, with a split switch, and it sounds AWESOME: fom Tele to LP, lots of harmonics, one of my favorite PUs. Good luck in your new life ! \m/
Suggestion for a hype gig..... I have been considering to buy either an Epi verses a Gretsch semi-hollow. Streamliner or a Sheraton/Casino. Gretch by Fender made in Indonesia or Epi by Gibson made in same country. Dont know where exactly city/manufacturer. The comparison for price is very close. Your tonal knowledge of pickups or pots cud be a big help. I'm sure they both use alphas. I just discovered your channel & subscribe. Keep it up.
Congratulations! Keep on making your dreams come true!
Living the dream.. congratulations
Ok I have a question
On the riffs Chanel he talks about getting real precise like what resistors and caps he uses for his treble bleed,
So when you looked at the circuit what were the values for the tone cap, the treble bleed cap and resistor and what value pots is he using in the tci treatment,
And the rv is great, we are now saving up and planning to get into that lifestyle, very inspiring,
Well you can always come thru the 303, mb we will see you here, good luck, and I just picked up a 15 lp special, it has these bright Tele sounding p90s, so I’ll be inquiring about gettin a set that growls,
I was under the impression the TCI pickups are only on the amaeircan Core line and are the American in-house built pickups , the S2 and SE are import pickups .
Nice setup! Hey Dylan how was the first morning when you woke up in it ? Was it strange in any way ? Thanks!
It's mostly marketing hype. I wind pickups and I tore apart a set of DGT pickups just to see why people pay $500+ for them. They were just basically super overwound T Top style things with A2 magnets. Like you said, nothing very special.
Congrats. New home looks great.
4 minutes in, finally a guitar....I'm watching....
Nice vid what about the 85/15s from an se model?are they the same pick ups?sorry I'm just new to PRS guitar
Red rock. You need to check out that music venue for tone. Total business expense. Nothing to do with gorgeous views. Same with Grand Canyon. Business trip to record echo echo
Hi, live the dream, what happened to all your guitars & amps ?
Was totally waiting for Paul to swoop outta a tree on ya like a ninja and give you the what for...😂
Hey Dylan, there's a thread with a bunch of criticisms on a prs Facebook group, some are just hot air but some seem pretty legitimate. Totally up to you, but addressing the ones that are skeptical about your methodology in this video would go a long way. Or, save yourself the trouble. - longtime subscriber who has dug your science-based and stripped down approach
I dont care. a bunch of people esp PRS fans are saying all I did was check resistance.... they were not paying attention lol. people will see what they want to see no matter what the facts are lol.
So the coil splitting system is just as any other coil splitting system out there? I thought these TCI pickups actually isolated the single coils from the circuit, rather than having an "emulation" of just one coil. Could you give a little bit more detail about that? Thanks, Dylan!
(I am a PRS fangirl and I think I'll always love what they do; I'm just curious about this topic).
If these were the true Core TCI pickups you would have a better answer. But thee were SE pickups that are "based" on TCI pickups.
@@frankhoxsey1177 Oh I see, of course, that makes sense. Thanks!
Special thing about TCI is consistency, they should all sound same, in same type of guitar IMHO
That’s not special or new
Recent and avid subscriber,very happy with your content! I would love to see your take on Reverends Railhammer pickups.Best of luck with all your projects. Jim in Ct.
WOW...so when the zombie apocalypse breaks out we can still have Dylan talks tone vids...nice!!!!
Good video, entertaining, but also educational, not easy to strike that balance.
I have a s2 with 85/15 s pickups and I at least need to change the neck pickup though im thinking of a bareknuckle set of money permits
Is it the usual thing to have a treble bleed in an SE PRS?
Awesome stuff! This probably belongs to Music&Mascara more than here, but also relevant: how do you organize logistics for everyday business stuff like getting anything shipped and delivered, from regular supplies to preordered gear, when the office is a motorhome?
Trust the guy who changed the guitar world or the guy "livin in a van down buy the river?" Hummmm.
I don’t live in a van down by the river… but you do you boo… no one is stopping you
@@DylanTalksTone it was just a fun opportunity to quote Chris Farley
What an amazing creative idea!
Dylan, I don’t mean to over reach. How do you make pickups/guitars in a mobile lifestyle?
we will show you. you will see.
Let's be serious for a moment. The whole quality of a guitar is in matching its parts together. Neck angle, bridge height, fret levels, pick-up placement and everything else. So yes, matching the electronics parts together is one of the obvious ways of caring for a better end result and putting a label on it only tells "done with care". PRS make a business of selling a quality image and being up to it. It's not a gimmick, it's one of the bases of civilised human behaviour.
4:30: this thing sounds beautiful and YOU, Dylan, can make it sing.
Disclaimer: i'm a Big PRS fan.
Don't forget that these are SE pups. They are "reproduction" of US pups.
Congrats on the new digs!
Your office could use a leaf blower, lol...
hey Dylan congratulations I wish you all the best on this new venture. Yeah really cool man traveling around the country and they were in your thing who could ask for more. When I was able excited I did mucho trips around the country of via car and motorcycle yeah what a blast kind of jealous lol all the best sincerely yours, Bob the blind bedroom guitarist guitarist it
Can't evaluate with an SE, gotta be a core model.
if it says the guitar has the pickups... either it does, or its still false advertising... doesn't matter
@@DylanTalksTone I totally agree, I've just never seen the SE's use the same PU's as core model's. I really hadn't researched what TCI PU's were. From what I've now discovered he is just building and winding the coil's in a way as to achieve a desired capacitance and inductance, I assume more consistently to achieve a desired tone. So my take away would be that they may not look any different,(cause construction would be the same as every other PU). Yea, kinda marketing hype, not untrue, PU makers have kinda been doing this for years, Paul was just smart enough to actually use it for marketing purposes.
OOp's, in watching your video further I guess your pretty much saying the same thing I came up with. Guess I should watch video first. Does he use the exact same PU's. In the past SE's have had import versions of his US made pickups, & the specs have alway's been slidghtly different.
Very nice sounding pickups! Darrell Braun loves these guitars per his recent vid.
Awesome motor home !! Congrats !!
Hello from England. So, did you sell your house or were you renting/living with in-laws? Sorry for being nosey, just curious about the lifestyle, which is very cool by the way. I'd love one like yours but our roads are narrower over here. Good luck to you both mate, living the dream!
The SEs have the Indonesian pickups, it’s not true TCI. I have both SE and Core and the SE pickups sound drastically different and are incredibly muddy. The core pickups are some of the most musical pickups I’ve ever heard.
True TCI? Not sure what that even means. A few SE's like 35th anniversary model have TCI pickups. But they arent gonna be the same piclups and the TCI US versions. For sure they aren't gonna sound the same. Different guitars.
At 11:20 in the video, you hit the nail on the head. As a radio amateur (ham), I know that any circuit that consists of a capacitor-inductor-resistor combo is by definition a tuned circuit. What PRS advertises in the video "TCI Pickups with Paul Reed Smith" is just that. They have adjusted their pickup parameters (in conjunction with the other parameters of the guitar) to favor a particular sound. That's it. If that is the sound a player wants, there it is. If not, the player goes a different direction. So, marketing. Smart marketing in my mind since it enhances the PRS mystique, but mostly marketing.
You didn’t need to buy one, I would have sent you mine or I would have sent a pickup from it. I’ve upgraded all my guitars and I don’t use it too much. I went to a S2 and a CE. If you get to New Jersey feel free to stop in an have a meal
Wow, so much bad information. TCI "S" pickups are absolutely better than the regular 85/15 "S" pickups. Others have explained why the individual coil splits are special, so I won't delve into that. This is a few years old so I'll cut you some slack but this was a bad take.