From Stock to Stun: Fishman Pickup Install on PRS Custom 24 SE

[@mikechristy1840]

Man, I've watched quite a few beginner soldering videos and put together a few DIY pedals, but the simple soldering tips you give in the video are hugely helpful.

[@IPGuitars]

Thank you so much!

[@finaljesus]

the step by step of how to install these pickups is amazing thank you i have never watched a video like this this is an excellent video

[@IPGuitars]

Thank you for watching the video, I'm glad you found it useful :)

[@IPGuitars]

The next installment of setting up this PRS to be my dream guitar. Fishman pickups can be tricky if you're not used to guitar wiring, but I tried to make this video as simple as possible. Sidenote: goal was to make this into a 16 minute (max) video..... yeah...... about that...

[@syntheticsun]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video! It was exactly what i needed to install my fishman's in my parts caster. Your step by step and your diagrams are awesome!

[@IPGuitars]

I'm very happy to hear that this was helpful!

[@muurimc]

Great video. Thanks for sharing. Got some soldering and installation hints from this.

[@IPGuitars]

And thank you for watching! I'm glad that you found this video helpful

[@bineetpanda]

I am musically challenged but watch this guy is a habit now! Awesome stuff!!! Hand made in Finland!!

[@IPGuitars]

Thanks for the kind words Panda!

[@ryanbobadilla2527]

Honestly dude this video help me a lot since I the Matt Heafy Fishmans in my CE 24 and I don't have the fund to have someone else do it, so thanks bro.

[@IPGuitars]

So great to hear you found the video useful!

[@timothyweesner6286]

I just got an PRS standard 245, set of Fishman open core classics, switch craft switch, prs locking tuners, graptech nut…see what I’m going for?!?!? I’ve got experience installing pickups, switches etc. But!!! This helps immensely with the Fishman pickup installation. I don’t want to screw it uo. Too much invested. Thank you so much for the clear, concise explanation and demo!!!

[@IPGuitars]

Ooooh that sounds like a sweet upgrade! So glad to hear you found this video helpful. I remember struggling pretty bad with my first Fishman install, so I knew that making a video like this might help at least some folks out there :)

[@MultiTate12]

I wanted to say that you need to replace your soldering tip and look up a brass pad for cleaning the tip make them last alot longer

[@IPGuitars]

Literally been on my shopping list for years now.. and no, I have literally zero excuses😅

[@tonybowen455]

Omg they sound so good

[@lukecaggiano8621]

Amazing walkthough brother i just got this pickup set and im setting mine up now

[@lukecaggiano8621]

So I decided to use my old pickup wires from my emg set I took out for the jumpers and grounds and output wires. But I was wondering what guage wires you use for stuff that wasn't included from fishman?

[@IPGuitars]

I generally opt to go with 0.5mm as it is something I still have quite a lot of at hand honestly.

[@lukecaggiano8621]

Hey what's the deal with the jumper block that they provide for the neck pickup? I didn't use it. It works great and sounds amazing thanks to you man again thanks for the video

[@IPGuitars]

Jumper block for the neck pickup? Is this from the EMG wiring, because that doesn't sound familiar?

[@lukecaggiano8621]

@@IPGuitars no if you look at the wiring diagram from fishman it says there's an optional jumper for the neck pickup. There's two unused pins on the back of the pickup. If you still have the little diagram it's on there

[@danrao3707]

I recently installed a set of Devin Townsend in my ESP M-1000. My only complaint is I realized I don’t like push/pull pots. I’m switching them out for push/push. Much more fluid motion to activate. It was difficult to find these pots in 25k. Eventually I found Ernie Ball sells them. However they’re 1/4” solid shafts and the 3 hook-up pots are PC mount tabs so you’ll need new knobs and 22 gauge pin connectors if you’re going to go this route. I wish Fishman would just offer these in their parts list. Push/Push makes much more sense IMO. These pups do sound amazing though.

[@IPGuitars]

I am looking to get the Devin ones myself. But I totally agree with push-pulls not being quite as intuitive. Although personally I have started to switch out push-pull/push-push pots to mini toggle switches as I find those the best of the bunch for switching. A personal thing for sure, but I totally get where you are coming from.

[@danrao3707]

I removed the push/push and went with installing a mini toggle centered between my volume and tone. Fits nicely and works perfect. Thanks you for you advice. @@IPGuitars

[@frankiechan9651]

I am so bad a wiring. Lucky that my brother-in-law is an electrical technician that can fix all my mistakes. Why can't everything be quick connect/quick swap now - like what GuitarFetish does? (joke) I like the progressive diagram you had going as you made the loom up.

[@IPGuitars]

I was exactly the same way haha It took me many years until I started to... sort of.. like wiring. Yeah, the diagram was a last minute addition (which took forever to do) when I thought the video needed "something"

[@peterbrown2890]

Heaps brighter ..

[@genoroberts8918]

Loved the video! What heights did you set both pickups to on the high and low sides? I'm trying to get better tone and less extra back noise but I'm having trouble

[@IPGuitars]

Glad you enjoyed the video. My go-to setup for pickup height is by fretting the last fret, then measuring 2mm from the top of a pole piece (in this case, the pickup itself) and the bottom of the string. It is pretty close, but a good place to start

[@pi451]

The thing with the clamps for holding the tone knobs, what are they called?

[@IPGuitars]

Helping hands :) came with my soldering station

[@LifeHawkeye]

Loved the video! I ordered a lefty PRS SE custom 24 charcoal burst back in March and it won’t arrive until September. I had ordered a Schecter 7 string at the same time and it arrived by April so I’ve had tons of time playing that one and that’s how I fell in love with the Fishman Modern pickups because they come stock in my Schecter. I now want to put either Fishman Moderns or Fishman Abasi’s in the PRS coming in September. Your video helped me a lot thank you. Also, I recently discovered that I have a mint condition set of PRS Dragon 1’s I bought back in like 2002 or so and might try putting those in the PRS. Which would you swap out for, the Fishmans or the Dragon 1’s? Thanks!

[@IPGuitars]

So glad you found the video helpful! The Dragon 1s are an acquired taste for some and honestly it really depends on what you want to go for :) more of a slight vintage vibe or more modern. In the end, you could with very little effort install the Dragon 1s, because all you need to do is replace pickups. If you then decide to go with Fishmans, you can then go through everything I did in this video.

[@LifeHawkeye]

@@IPGuitars Appreciate the reply my friend! I just spent the last 20 minutes going over your older videos and wow you’ve got some experience making cool guitars brother. And WOW you sent Matt Heafy a guitar that he showcased on his show! What an amazing moment for you! Congrats!

[@IPGuitars]

Thank you so much for the kind words! Yeah, that MKH guitar and working with him on it has been a personal highlight for me.

[@v1sav1s24]

Are these helping hands where you just took the mirror off? What is the contraption you used to hold the volume and tone knobs while soldering

[@IPGuitars]

I'm holding everything in place with the helping hands on my soldering station. As far as I know, that's the only thing I've heard of them being called.

[@v1sav1s24]

@@IPGuitars nice you have a lot of patience for this kind of work! I've heard good things about the tci 85/15 pickups. Trying to get a prs where I like the stock ones

[@mikeyb9677]

Hey man, did you solder the main power from the pick ups to the pods or to the pick up switch? I can’t tell from the video

[@IPGuitars]

The live/hot/out of the pickups go to the switch in the video :)

[@mikeyb9677]

You’re great, thanks!

[@johnnydswing]

I wish we could hear the sound of the pick up’s without distortion

[@IPGuitars]

Made an entirely separate tone demo of the pickups: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4XNoaF-arx7bM0

[@SpookyApparition]

very informative video, I referenced it when installing standard Fluence Moderns in my guitar. Overall I'm impressed with the tone, but I'm kinda disappointed that there isn't more of a difference between voice 1 and voice 2. I thought voice 3 with the Heafys might be dramatically different, but even that sounds fairly similar to me?

[@IPGuitars]

Thank you! Yeah, the differences are subtle. But I do like the "split" sounds as well. Overall, pretty much going to be switching between 1 and 3 personally

[@Sihijuoma667]

Huge thanks! Helped a lot to do all the soldering with the help of this video. And your English is good and easy to listen. And especially easy for a Finn to listen. :D Just installed Fluence Classics to my Warmoth 7/8 superstrat and the wiring was almost similar to to that PRS. Im not sure why but I had to solder ground wire between the pots before I got any sound out of it. I also grounded the 3-way switch. Just in case because the manual recommended that. I have another Warmoth with EMG H-S -routing and I was wandering is there a Fishman single coil suitable for EMG sized hole? Or is there a possibility to mod that pickup to fit there. I cut that extra piece off of one single coil Dimarzio and the pickup wires were easy to solder to different spots.

[@IPGuitars]

Kiitos paljon😁 Yeah, it's funny being a Finn but struggling with my native language still. I'm glad to hear that you found this helpful! Makes sense that you needed the ground loop. Good to hear it got working with that. I believe that pickup sizes are more-or-less standardized, so it should fit.. but if need be, it's pretty straightforward to fit the new pickup in.

[@donfoster4985]

Why on earth are the guitar strings in the way?

[@user-df1ie4vf5j]

Will the 3 blade wiring diagram work with a 2 volume, 1 tone setup?

[@IPGuitars]

Absolutely will. I cannot recommend the list of wiring diagrams Seymour Duncan have on their website enough. Perfect place to figure out different wiring options

[@Brandon-nj2vo]

Did you have to drill any extra holes into your guitar for these pickups? Per say for the voice switches?

[@IPGuitars]

Nope, didn't need to. The voicing switches are all with the push-pull knobs

[@turbomunch]

Pass

[@Gentlekimmo]

Huhhuh miten hyvää työtä! Oon hommaamas fisut mun ibanezin RG ja ne ois direct mounttina 🤔 mitää vinkkejä?

[@IPGuitars]

Kyllähän se pitäisi ihan samoilla ruuveilla mennä. Toki Ibanezis taitaa olla DiMarziot(?), jos on nii jyrsinnät vähän eri. Fishmaneist joutuis sitten klipsasee mikkien "korvista" pikkupalat pois että mahtuu ilman että lähtee jyrsimään kitaraa

[@tbt_jerry9238]

Has there been any updates on the upgrades for this guitar? 👀

[@IPGuitars]

None so far. Unfortunately I have had very little time to actually play this year :/ and upgrades for personal guitars haven't been priority either

[@TacoArKTec]

What size solder are you using?

[@Jovan_of_Suffering]

Is that a 5 way toggle switch?

[@IPGuitars]

It's a 3-way toggle on this one

[@TheOnlyGuitarFather]

Are those pots 25k or 250k? And what brand?

[@IPGuitars]

25k and they come with the pickups

[@nothinbutnetz]

Great video. Only suggestion is when you bookmark the test tones, bookmark to the tones. Don't bookmark to you saying your are about to play the tones. It would allow a much better ab comparison. Otherwise great job!

[@IPGuitars]

That is an excellent point, thanks!

[@yourbore]

Or don't be a lazy bitch?

[@emailchrismoll]

i love FF, but i only love voice 2

[@IPGuitars]

Completely understandable. Everyone has a go-to voicing that they pretty much only use.

[@stevekirkby6570]

eek .... like having a built in fuzz box that you can't turn off. :/

[@martine.210]

Could you do a video in finnish? I don't speak finnish, I just enjoy listening to it 😁

[@IPGuitars]

Haha, maybe I could? Might be fun😁

[@cda32]

Great video! Please clean your soldering iron

[@IPGuitars]

Oh most definitely do. However, this damage to the iron had been done yeeeears before. No excuse, I need a new one

[@marzbitenhaussen]

i like what EMG did in their system to have a solder less kit, would be nice to standardize or at least have solderless components commercially available, for example instead of those end points you have to solder have sockets in the pots, then simply plug a male contact, same for the switches and input jack, I understand sometimes is good to have the ability to customize things but for the common person soldering is very problematic, I know luthiers charge around 100-150$ just to do this, great video by the way , I learn a lot from your techniques.

[@IPGuitars]

While I personally don't like solderless stuff, I fully get it and agree. Though it is nice to see that it is becoming more common and there are more options around. You can even get so many pre-soldered kits now too. But it would be so cool to have more solderless options, because honestly it would make it so much more approachable for beginners to get into modding and customizing their instruments :) we'll get there I'm sure. And thank you, I am so glad you found the video helpful.