PRS Vela GAS

sgosden

Getting some major vela GAS.

Any fans on the forum?

I'd be tuning it to drop C, so not sure how well the bridge would hold up. I also play heavy rock / metal mostly, so would consider dropping in a bare knuckle HD I've got on the shelf at home...

stonevibe

I have one, never tried Dropped C on it though.

professorben

Ooooh is that the bigsby type one??

professorben

As long as you up your guages a bit it should be fine, 11's at drop C are not that much different to 9's at Concert pitch. 

sgosden

professorben said:

Ooooh is that the bigsby type one??

its the Tele-esq plate style. with brass barrel saddles

sgosden

professorben said:

As long as you up your guages a bit it should be fine, 11's at drop C are not that much different to 9's at Concert pitch. 

Ive got 11-54 on my CU24 which works well. its more the intonation im not sure on, ive never played with a tele bridges, just look awkward :P

olafgarten

It should be able to handle drop C, worst case scenario is that you would have to file the groves in the saddles to better fit the thicker strings you will put on. The only other issue might be that the scale length is a bit short, I'd prefer at least 26.5'' for Drop C.

guitarfishbay

Route and stick on whatever bridge you fancy, like Vernon Reid's http://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/blog/post/ptc_guitar_overhaul_vernon_reids_s2_vela

I'm not convinced you'll get a well intonated low string on the original bridge at C.  I wish they'd do a 6 saddle version as I really like the shape but I'm in drop B and found I needed to switch from the regular PRS wraparound to the adjustable to get it to intonate well.

sgosden

eurgh Floyd...    I don't use trem much, its kinda wasted on me, floyds just annoy me (fiddly and look yucky)

the scale length with chucky strings works well on the cu24, its a bit looser sounding which fits my band, we don't do really fast picking or owt like that.

wondering if theres a gotoh fixed or similar that I could bolt on if it doesn't intonate well.

grungebob

mine handles it fine. however I only use it in that tuning for one song (weenie beanie) by the foo fighters, the starla bridge pickup works well for it too, cuts very nicely and has plenty of bass on the modern channel on my rectoverb combo.

Adamski

I absolutely adore mine, even amongst my core PRS'. 
Sure the bridge would be fine for drop tunings but I find the pickups very bluesy (especially the neck) and they are low output - not sure how they'd handle metal. 

sgosden

Adamski said:

I absolutely adore mine, even amongst my core PRS'. 
Sure the bridge would be fine for drop tunings but I find the pickups very bluesy (especially the neck) and they are low output - not sure how they'd handle metal. 

I don't really like classing what I play as 'metal'... its more like really heavy rock ? (got described as "alice in chains heavier side, on steroids" recently which made me smile)

its quite likely I'd put hotter pups in (I've already got a spare BKP holy diver sat around, which is what I have in my cu24) in the bridge.

the neck I only really use for cleaner tones anyway. it looks oddly spaced, but I thought a tele style could work in there?

Adamski

sgosden said:

Adamski said:

I absolutely adore mine, even amongst my core PRS'. 
Sure the bridge would be fine for drop tunings but I find the pickups very bluesy (especially the neck) and they are low output - not sure how they'd handle metal. 

I don't really like classing what I play as 'metal'... its more like really heavy rock ? (got described as "alice in chains heavier side, on steroids" recently which made me smile)

its quite likely I'd put hotter pups in (I've already got a spare BKP holy diver sat around, which is what I have in my cu24) in the bridge.

the neck I only really use for cleaner tones anyway. it looks oddly spaced, but I thought a tele style could work in there?

You won't wanna change that pickup, it's magic. It makes the whole guitar. Rich, woody singlecoil tones. Amazing for clean stuff so it'll be perfect. You'll just need to watch the volume jump to a high output humbucker like the BK 

guitarfishbay

olafgarten said:

The only other issue might be that the scale length is a bit short, I'd prefer at least 26.5'' for Drop C.

25" is fine down to drop B. I've got 24.75", 25", and 25.5" guitars all in drop B and honestly the best intonating guitar of the lot across the whole board is my 25" PRS Single Cut. They're all totally fine providing you can play in tune to begin with. I use a .064 for the low B.

Below a B I'd definitely look at longer scale but at C there's no issue from the scale IMO

grungebob

like I said I tune down to C and then down to G on the A string with a set of 10-56 and it handles it fine. I find the fact that the pickups are vintage in character work well when driven as it doesnt go into mud as the treble focus keep it all even.  

I also have an S2 standard 24 satin but prefer the Vela for most things, if i'd have bought the Vela first i probably wouldnt have needed the 24. The 24 has a very strong mid focus especially with the stock pickups and being all mahogany, it feels the best though as its one of the satin models, it only gets used for the heaviest side of my playing but wit hthe coil taps does a decent job for bluesy stuff too,

ChuckManual

I think it's the finest looking guitar PRS have ever made.

olafgarten

This would be amazing with a Trem, why don't PRS do this!? 

sgosden

andertons had two new ones on a mad PRS S2 sale they've got at the moment. Getting rid of old stock to make space for new ?

alas both sold very quickly

stonevibe

The new satin ones look nice in black. My one is a white one and looks great in real life, better than the photos ever do, I went for no birds as well, as not a fan of the budgies.

Whitecat

I think Andertons was just getting rid of some discontinued colours and also some models with bird inlays, which they no longer do on all-mahogany S2s of any kind. 

I'd take a serious look at the Satin Ltds... the neck is so much better feeling IMO. They are just over £1k which is pretty good going for a US-made nitro-finished instrument. 

grungebob

Here's my pair of S2's. Sold both my core models (McCarty and cu 22) as I vastly prefer these. 

http://i1034.photobucket.com/albums/a428/grungebob/93694349-3FBB-494A-B2FA-91F290D839CC_zpssm11kxua.jpg