It’s in the Numbers
Do you know your 305 from your 408? We break down the code of PRS’s number-based model names
The PRS mantra has always been ‘more sounds’ and over 30 years we’ve seen numerous pickup/ control set-ups that offer both humbucking and single coil sounds achieved in very different ways, with the 24-08, based on the multi-tap switching of the current 408, the latest. “We work on this everyday,” laughs Paul Reed Smith. “It’s a non-stop quest. Every time we learn we try to adjust it to the guitars. We learn, we apply. If I was the guy that got it exactly the way it was going to be for 50 years on day one… but that’s not us. We’re the baby-step company.”
The original PRS recipe from 1985 featured two humbuckers, a five-way rotary pickup selector switch and a sweet switch (a preset tone roll-off ). That five-way switch divided opinion and PRS took until 1989 to settle on: treble humbucker, both outer screw coils in parallel, both inner coils in series, both inner coils in parallel and, finally, neck humbucker. The sweet switch (still an unlisted option) began to be phased out in favour of a standard tone control on the ’87 Special then the Studio, Classic Electric and original Limited Edition before becoming standard by late 1991.
When the McCarty Model appeared in 1994 it swapped the five-way rotary for a three-way toggle pickup selector. A little later a pull-push switch on the tone control was added that applied a coil-split to both pickups simultaneously. This ‘McCarty electronics’ set-up has been used on numerous subsequent models.
The start of the coil/sounds-named guitars began with the 513 back in 2004. Via its five coils – the outer pairs placed as humbuckers – and two lever switches: one selecting the three pickups in Strat-style combination the other offering single coil, clear and heavy humbucking modes, it created the stated 13
sounds. When the 509 arrived earlier in 2017, it dropped the heavy humbucking voices and replaced that lever mode switch with two mini-toggles, effectively offering the ‘single coil’ and the ‘clear humbucking’ 513 sounds. Before that, in 2010, the 513 platform was given the same Strat-like makeover as the 305 with three of the 513’s unique pickups voiced in Strat-fashion.
So, the 24-08’s origin lies with the 408 (introduced as a Core model in 2012) which offers two humbuckers (four coils) each with its own humbucking to single coil mini switch and a three-way lever pickup selector.
More Numbers…
Just to confuse us, when the McCarty 594 was introduced last year, its name didn’t signify five coils with 94 sounds but refers to its scale length of 24.594 inches, or as Paul observed at the time, a ’59 spec guitar with four controls. It also added, of course, separate volume and tone controls for each pickup – laid out in classic Gibson fashion – plus a shoulder-placed three-way pickup toggle selector switch. Each tone control has a pull-switch which applies a partial coil split that, via a different resistor for the bridge and neck pickups, retains some of the dumped coil to beef up the voiced single coil. The 408 and 24-08 achieve the same number of sounds as both the single and double-cut 594s but with just master volume and tone controls and, of course, those two mini-switches.
There’s more confusion when it comes to the ‘date series’ pickups which began with the 57/08: a ’57 ‘PAFstyle’ pickup introduced in 2008; the current opencoiled 85/15 and covered 58/15 humbuckers being the primary pickups used on the current Core guitars.
And while the 24-08 introduces the multi-tap ‘MT’ versions of those uncovered 85/15 pickups (some Wood Library versions feature multi-tap versions of the covered 58/15 humbuckers), the multi-tap concept was offered early in PRS’s history. The addition of an output wire part way through the coil wind, typically for a lower powered output, was as an option in conjunction with the five-way rotary switch to offer a ‘Thin Coils’ sound where the tapped output of both the bridge and neck pickups’ inside slug coils, in parallel, produced a thinner version of the untapped ‘Thick coils’ voicing of the same coils.
Back in the day Paul Reed Smith said he didn’t think the original MT pickup system worked that well. Today, however, he says, “I like the way the 24-08 sounds, it takes the 408 wiring and puts it on a Custom and it’s gone over very well.” Progress is good!