57/08s FTW!!! They're my fave pick-ups of all time! I've played a few PRSes and the ones that really stood out were the ones with the 57/08s. I hope the ones being sold now by PRS are as good as the original ones as I plan to get a pair soon. Not for the Santana of course since its current set-up really sounds like Santana literally (I kid you not). All I need now is to have Santana's technique, phrasing and choice of notes and I could be called the PI's local Santana.
That should be awesome, man, Santana is one of the more successful PRS artists and his guitar has been a flagship model for years now. I bet you can nail that Santana tone, without needing a Black Magic Woman!
The aftermarket 57/08's should not fall far from the first editions. Knowing Paul's QC, he would have made sure each sounds as advertised.
I have those in 3 of my PRS, and they are great. Although I swapped out my MC58 bridge's to SD Black Winter due to its application and tuning (C standard), the 57/08s are still fine on low tunings. Howver I reckon a higher output bridge would be better on that axe.
I don't know why others are not keen on PRS pickups, but I had my share of Dragons and HFS/Vintage sets before and they really compliment the guitars they were in. I have a pair of Dragon 2 that I might put on sometime.
Don't forget the 85/15LTs (not the 58/15 since I haven't tried those yet) too, they are really warm and can take high gain amp settings like a m*th#f@kr
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The 57/08 and the 58/15LT are really versatile. The former being offered now as PRS accessory/ies is a great chance to own one, they used to be sold with a free guitar at ridonculous price, imagine paying 3 grand for pickups with free guitar:-D