Two PRS SE Santana mkii questions (and NGD!) - tremolo height and tremolo grub screw

imalrightjack

This is it.  Fancied one for ages.  Tremolo arm is missing but presume my USA one will fit - when I can get a screw for adjusting it.



Easy question first: does anybody know if I can get a replacement screw for tightening the tremolo arm?

Second question: what height should the tremolo sit at?  I've adjusted the truss rod and it seems okay but the tremolo seems to be sitting high.  More pictures on request!

TTony

I've got one of those.

I think its the sweet spot era in PRS SE production.  They were still working hard to establish the credibility of the SE range, and believed that credibliity would come from using decent materials and screwing it all together properly.  

Latterly, the SE range seems to have focused more on bling ...


No idea about your Qs though!

imalrightjack

It does seem a very nice guitar, @TTony - sounds great, just fighting the action a bit!

richardhomer

The bridge should be parallel to the body. The front edge looks about right - the rear can the adjusted by slackening off the tremolo springs - though hard to tell from the photo.

One thing to be aware of - if you want to lower the front edge, you should completely slacken the strings and remove the springs before adjusting the height screws. They have a groove machined into them which locates with the knife-edge in the bridge plate. They should be adjusted so they are perfectly in line. The knife-edge can easily be damaged if adjusted under tension.

imalrightjack

Thanks, @richardhomer - it's much higher than my USA PRS...which might be too low, although a 2017 production model, so I'd expect it to be spot on.

richardhomer

imalrightjack said:

Thanks, @richardhomer - it's much higher than my USA PRS...which might be too low, although a 2017 production model, so I'd expect it to be spot on.

It's hard to tell from the picture - by all means set it lower - just be careful re: knife-edges. As long as you slacken the strings off and remove the springs, there'll be no risk of damage.

Funkfingers

The grooves in the screws need to align with each other. Use a straight edge to check.

Adamski

I had one for many years. T'was a good guitar. Benefited from a pickup change and a new nut immensely though, it never stayed in tune until I modded it. 

richardhomer

Funkfingers said:

The grooves in the screws need to align with each other. Use a straight edge to check.

Good luck getting a straight-edge in between the body, bridge-plate, pick-up and mounting ring, with them set low enough to allow a reasonable action.

The knife edges in the bridge form a straight edge. If the screws are correctly set, the bridge will 'locate' positively on to the screws - but move freely.

Funkfingers

I use the straight edge across the tops of the screws. This would have been when I installed the factory upgrade kit on a 1993 Custom. I changed the vibrato screws one at a time, checking that each newly-fitted screw aligned with the other five. The saddle screws were also changed as part of the same job. 

imalrightjack

Adamski said:

I had one for many years. T'was a good guitar. Benefited from a pickup change and a new nut immensely though, it never stayed in tune until I modded it. 

Went with the usual SE guage 9s - No tuning issues at all. The pickups are surprisingly good too!

I persevered with truss rod adjustments and the tremolo springs. Much better. Think the bridge can stay where it is.

For reference, if following the PRS info correctly, I capo'd at the first fret, held down the last fret (22nd) and measured at the 8th down to. 010in (which seems very low - in fact hard to tell how close I got using my cheapo Stewmac copy measurement tool). Certainly better. The truss movement went from loose to quite stiff and I was wary of turning much more.

richardhomer

imalrightjack said:
For reference, if following the PRS info correctly, I capo'd at the first fret, held down the last fret (22nd) and measured at the 8th down to. 010in (which seems very low - in fact hard to tell how close I got using my cheapo Stewmac copy measurement tool). Certainly better. The truss movement went from loose to quite stiff and I was wary of turning much more.

My experience of US PRS guitars is that they play very well with very little relief. My general preference is for as little relief as possible - it generally makes setting a low action and good intonation very straight-forward.

The only time I'd go for more is when someone uses heavy strings, prefers a higher action and plays with heavy right-hand attack.

imalrightjack

@richardhomer My very expensive USA one has more relief - and seemed to require it to avoid fretting out. That has 10s, this 9s. No big deal - I'm happy to have got this to be more playable!

Now for that screw...

amarok1971

imalrightjack said:

Now for that screw...

i know the american grub screw that holds the trem in are 4-40 unc, i'm guessing the korean ones will be metric (M3?)

i have heard that they're the same as the saddle screws on the yank ones..... but i've never investigated

imalrightjack

amarok1971 said:

imalrightjack said:

Now for that screw...

i know the american grub screw that holds the trem in are 4-40 unc, i'm guessing the korean ones will be metric (M3?)

i have heard that they're the same as the saddle screws on the yank ones..... but i've never investigated

If anybody can check, please do Happy to order a pack of different sizes, if you've any ideas, @amarok1971 - cheers!

One concern is that, without the screw, my USA tremolo isn't going in. Will the screw open up the bushings a little before tightening?

mynamesnotbob

Not answering the question about grub screw directly, but the term arms are different sizes and I couldn't get the USA in an SE - admittedly I tried for very little time as I am not really much of a term user. SE them arm in USA just falls out

stonevibe

The SE trem arms are thinner than the US ones.

imalrightjack

Aha, that answers that question then! Anybody got one or know where I can find one? 

stonevibe

Here

https://www.thomann.de/gb/prs_tremolo_bar_chrome_se.htm

imalrightjack

Thanks, @stonevibe ;

drwiddly

I bought a used Tremonti SE Custom a couple of months ago which had the arm with it but the tension screw was missing (the seller did mention it). I bought a box of metric grub screws on eBay for about four quid. The M3 one fitted perfectly and I now have all grub screws I'll ever need