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Recent and prospective R8/R9 buyers - a few tips on setup

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  • @Twinfan brilliant advice, thank you.

    Great to see the thread turned into a PRS wank too.
    Read my guitar/gear blog at medium.com/redchairriffs

    View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
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  • Twinfan said:
    sweepy said:
    PRS aren’t that good out of the box either, they have a very “vanilla” setup 
    True, but they don't have crappily cut nuts and bridges, colour bleed into bindings etc.
    I thought the bleed was a period correct feature? It should merge / bleed more with use in your hot spots on the neck. 

    My Trading Feedback    |    You Bring The Band

    Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you
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  • teradaterada Frets: 5113
    Twinfan said:
    sweepy said:
    PRS aren’t that good out of the box either, they have a very “vanilla” setup 
    True, but they don't have crappily cut nuts and bridges, colour bleed into bindings etc.
    I thought the bleed was a period correct feature? It should merge / bleed more with use in your hot spots on the neck. 
    Indeed, the aniline dye is supposed to do this - its a vintage correct 'feature'.
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  • WhitecatWhitecat Frets: 5378
    The bleeding dye will fade with UV exposure too...
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  • It’s worth checking out some hi res pictures of real bursts, a quick check on Reverb etc and I haven’t beeen able to find a good example of dye bleed. None of my early 60s 330s have it either.

    Not conclusive but worth looking at!
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  • WhitecatWhitecat Frets: 5378
    edited September 2018
    skippy76 said:
    It’s worth checking out some hi res pictures of real bursts, a quick check on Reverb etc and I haven’t beeen able to find a good example of dye bleed. None of my early 60s 330s have it either.

    Not conclusive but worth looking at!
    ... possibly because it’s faded/disappeared ... You’d need a pic of a factory-fresh example back in the day to compare properly. 
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  • HootsmonHootsmon Frets: 15924
    is there a gauge or size with the wet and dry paper thingy?
    tae be or not tae be
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  • TwinfanTwinfan Frets: 1625
    My wet and dry is very fine - 1200 grit I think. Anything similar will do, something light rather than big old chunky grit that will strip paint at 20 metres!
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  • hyperbenhyperben Frets: 1410
    This is a great thread and sound advice. Poorly cut nuts or bridge saddles isn’t a bit poor on an instrument of this value. But neck relief and action will change with temperature so can never be guaranteed from the factory as it’ll shift over time and with different conditions. Only the guitar I received from Peach played well. The others all needed adjustment to neck relief and action. 
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  • dazzajldazzajl Frets: 5653
    Great tips thanks. 

    Although my main observation is..... you bought both an R8 and R9?  That's a good 5 or 6k splashed out right there.  Will they ever leave the confines of your house?!
    I was once told very wisely that buying guitars isn’t a meritocracy. 

    If there’s someone out there who’s built up a £10k or £100k collection just to fumble through three chords once in a while. Good call if it makes them happy. 

    On the subject of poor setups on very expensive guitars, Gretsch are famous for the same. And without wanting to generalise on quality by country too much, I’d expect much more from high end Japanese manufacturing. Still adore them though. 
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  • grappagreengrappagreen Frets: 1340
    edited September 2018
    I have no issues with having to set up an instrument to your own spec - heck we all have to do this. As for nuts cut with a like extra meat on the bone, again we all have differing requirements/playing style so sensible. 

    I do have an problem however with core issues - nuts cut that grab the strings, sitaring sadles etc.

    As for the Ferrari analogy - no issues with adjusting the seats etc to suit me but I’d be a bit pissed if on receipt I had to take it back to adjust the tappets and clutch..

    Si
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    Out of interest, what sort of height are people running their pickups?  
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  • dbphotodbphoto Frets: 716
    Can’t check right now but mine are pretty much flush with the rings, with my string height just a bit less than 2mm at the 12th.
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  • TINMAN82TINMAN82 Frets: 1845
    dbphoto said:
    Can’t check right now but mine are pretty much flush with the rings, with my string height just a bit less than 2mm at the 12th.
    That’s a pretty low string height. My 2013 R8 came setup like that too and it plays great. I can’t really get my other guitars as low (despite flat radius boards) without excessive buzzing. That’s despite similar neck relief so don’t reallt understand why. Must be the frets I guess.
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  • dbphotodbphoto Frets: 716
    edited September 2018
    I actually raised the string height on mine when it arrived from Peach as it was far too low for my heavy right hand!  (As well as adding a bit of relief as there was none at all)
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  • TwinfanTwinfan Frets: 1625
    ^ same for me.  I'm running around 2mm of string height I think and the pickups are roughly level with the rings.  My neck pickup is around 2mm when fretted at the 22nd fret, my bridge pickup is slightly under 2mm.
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  • @twinfan is back, busting out the double purchases like the good old days! And why not!
    Hope you’re well. :)
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  • TwinfanTwinfan Frets: 1625
    Ha ha, cheers Matt  :)  I'm good mate, hope you are too?

    Been very happy with my current gear for the last couple of years, but since selling a great CS LP to a mate who really wanted it a while back I've always fancied replacing it if I could find another that was as good.  Job done now I think  ;)
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  • I'm dubious about the major stores that state they check set ups on guitars before sending them out.  World Guitars used to say this but when i bought a brand new Les Paul Custom in 2015 it clearly had not been even looked at.  When I spoke with Jeff he said must have been transit ...... =)
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  • @Twinfan what feeler gauge set do you have?
    Read my guitar/gear blog at medium.com/redchairriffs

    View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
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