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I want to install a Duncan 4 conductor humbucker into my PRS Custom 24.
The guitar has has the 5-way rotary switch with the circuit board. I only wish to install a duncan Bridge pickup and keep the PRS neck pickup. It is unclear to me if I have to flip the pickup 180 degrees with the pole pieces facing the neck instead of the bridge. Is there a schematic for this installation? Any help at all would be appreciated...

i'm also interested in doing it! oh btw, you're keeping the stock vintage bass pickups?

check the vault .. or do a search .. i am pretty sure that one of our resident geniuses, robert_s, totally sussed out the entire PRS lt;-gt; SD wiring / wind / polarity situation

welcome to the board and enjoy!

cheers
t4d

You have to dissassemble the pickup and flip the magnet 180 degrees. Rotating the pickup itself will do nothing
If you do not do this 3 positions will be out of phase
Dom L

Ok guys, here is the deal. If you want the SD pickup in the bridge to funtion like the PRS bridge pickup you have to do two things. First you have to flip the magnet in the SD bridge pickup. It's actually pretty easy to do. Remove the black cloth tape from around the bobbins of the SD pickup. Loosen but do not remove the 4 screws in the baseplate of the SD pickup. You'll need to back them out aprox 3/16quot;. This will free the bobbins from the baseplate. You will be able to see the end of the bar magnet underneith and between the bobbins. If you wiggle the bobbins a little and grab the magnet with a pair of needle nose pliers you will be able to slide the bar magnet out from between the bobbins. Slide the magnet out, flip it over (like you would a pancake - side over side) and slide it back in. Push the bobbins back down onto the baseplate and retighten the 4 screws and then re-apply the black cloth tape.

The other thing you have to do is to use a non-standard wiring for the SD pickup. You will want to wire the white lead as hot, the red lead as ground and the black and green wires will be used as the coil tap lead. If you have the newer, pc board connected 5 way switches you will notice that the pc board is marked with the letters B, R and W over the holes where the pickup leads are connected to the board. Connect the red wire to the B hole, connect the black/green wires to the R hole and the white wire to the W hole. I found it easiest to use small lead ends (stripped) and to tin the wire ends with some solder so they thread through the holes in the PC board easier. What I did was to hold the tinned end onto the hole in the face of the pc board and to heat the hole from the rear of the pc board. When the solder heats up the hole will open and the wire should slide through. Doing this can be a little frustrating but it's the easiest way to do it short of cutting the leads on the PRS pickup and leaving the original wires connected to the switch and then connecting the SD pickup to the old leads.

It is also helpful to connect the green and black wires in a way that leaves only one of the wires copper exposed on the end. If you just twist both wires together and solder them, the wire will be too thick to thread through the hole in the PC board. What I might suggest is to strip those leads long and wrap one around the other back away from the end of the other, and then tin the whole thing so that you really only have the copper from one of the leads going into the hole. It makes things go smoother during installation.

This is the only way to mix SD and PRS pickups with the 5 way switch and keep the inner/outer thing switching correctly with all the coils properly phased and with the correct polarity.

VAULT !!!!!!

thanks robert

Hey Robert, Thanks. I just want to get one thing straight. Is the coil the gets flipped 180 the Coil with 6 screws through the base plate(outer coil) or the inner coil?

you dont flip the coil, you flip the magnet that is undeneath the coils .. it will be obvious as soon as you get the baseplat loosened

cheers
t4d

It's also good idea to hit the pickup baseplate with a HOT blowdryer for a few minutes to reset the wax potting

Thanks A Lot people for the very valuble inforamation. Deeply Appreciated!!!