Looking for advice on PRS Studio's

Glooper

I'm having serious GAS for a PRS studio, what's peoples experiance of these? Don't see these come up used very oftern, any reason for this? NF pups not popular? All advice welcomed, particularly cost/condition I should expect to be paying for one. Thanks .

richardhomer

I played one a while ago. Needless to say it was beautifully made and played superbly. That said, the Narrowfields are more 'mini humbucker' than 'single-coil' tonally, so the guitar still sat very much on the Gibson side of the tracks from a sound point of view. In that sense, the middle pick-up seemed a bit pointless.

The impression I get is that they were not a big seller (I don't think they are in the 2014 line) - which probably explains the shortage of secondhand examples. You may well find a dealer sitting on some new old stock who would be prepared to do a deal.

513s seem a consistently popular PRS with a middle pick-up and would be easier to move on if you got bored with it. It is certainly more flexible, as it does really good single coil tones too.

The recent Brent Mason signature is also worth a look if you need a middle pick-up - it was knocked out by the one I played.

Glooper

I like the idea of the NFs being like mini hum buckets but that's a really Good point about having one as the middle pickup. The 513s are definitely more flexible. Don't know the Brent mason version, I'll look it up. Thanks

richardhomer

Glooper;218833" said:

Don't know the Brent mason version, I'll look it up. Thanks

It's much more Fender-like, complete with scratch-plate - not a typical PRS 'looker'. I noticed the guy in the house band on 'The Voice' used one a lot on this year's series. It is a real Swiss Army knife.

Adam_MD

I'm itching to try the 408 pickups against some paf alikes. I like the idea of no volume drop in the split sounds.

ICBM

I was expecting this to be about the original 80s PRS Studio, which are quite rare… I haven't played the new one, so I can't comment.

But I'd probably take one over a 513 anyway - I really didn't like the two I've played. I didn't find them flexible, because although they appear to have 13 sounds they're all so nondescript and bland that it seemed to be more like variations on only one sound. I also found the hype for the switching system disappointing - it isn't 5 pickups really, it's simply a HSH with series/single/parallel switching for the humbuckers - the '3' switch does nothing when the '5' switch is in the middle position, and you don't get any more interesting combinations at all… no two-humbucker sound, no outer single coils. It could have been so much more with some imagination. I also didn't particularly like the feel of them, even that seemed more characterless than a normal PRS.

I also played a 305 recently which wasn't as bad, although I still felt it was missing something. Not a patch on my old Custom 22 Soapbar, which I foolishly traded away - although admittedly for my Rick 381, so it was probably worth it.

Adam_MD

An old band mate had a custom soapbar and I loved it. I miss that guitar more than the band.

monquixote

Adam_MD said:

An old band mate had a custom soapbar and I loved it. I miss that guitar more than the band.

There is a very reasonably priced soapbar PRS on the classifieds, or so I'm lead to believe

Adam_MD

I know. I keep looking at it longingly again and again and again and again and again and again and wait... One more time.

My GAS fund is in ruins at the minute but I've promised myself when it recovers I'm picking up either a dgt or Paul's guitar. I'm tired of the endless buying and selling of cheap sub £500 ebay/gumtree bargains which I always sell on just to temporarily cure gas. Everytime I switch back to my prs I always realise its a much better guitar than any of the budget guitars I pick up and mod.

Kebabkid

@Glooper - if you're after something with the versatility of the PRS studio, good sounds and great players, but much cheaper, the 90s PRS EGIIs (HSH config) are great guitars and can be had for between £500-700. They're a full US PRS!

Here's the thread to the one I picked up (PRS have since confirmed it's an EGII not an EGI).

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/3417/i-tried-a-guitar-and-i-liked-it-edit-and-got-it/p1

TTony

monquixote said:

Adam_MD said:

An old band mate had a custom soapbar and I loved it. I miss that guitar more than the band.

There is a very reasonably priced soapbar PRS on the classifieds, or so I'm lead to believe

Have you got a link ...

grungebob

The price is off but check this out
http://www.cranesmusicstore.com/images/large/sn97695.jpg

Richardj

I haven't tried one but I had heard that there was a fair bit of mismatch with the pickup outputs on the Studios making it more difficult to dial in your tone, still a very nice guitar though.

StefB

I took a chance on a used 2012 Studio a few weeks ago, £1,299 delivered from Coda, but ended up sending it back.

Beautiful looking thing, but wasn't a patch on my 2011 Custom 22 Special which really does offer (me) the best of all worlds being a C22 with factory fitted Lindy Fralin single coil sandwiched between two coil-splitting SC245s.

Really was a case of the devil I knew and I also found the Narrowfield pickups disappointing, only beginning to resemble single coil type sounds once the volume was wound down to near half way.

thomasross20

Got to say I think they look amazing and are incredibly versatile... BUT most PRS' I've played in shops haven't felt right, especially for the price (other than my Torero).

thomasross20

I always fancied going down to World Guitars as it looks like they have an excellent selection.