Today a tried a prs for the 1st time...... oh my word !!! More prs info needed !

GuitarZero

riffpowers said:

SimpleSimon said:

I switched to PRS from Gibson a few years back and haven't looked back. I've not come across a bad one yet and anything else just feels cheap and nasty by comparison.

A McCarty is a good starting point as is a Mira if you prefer the Gibson end of PRS. The DGT takes the McCarty to another level. Search for a used PRS for maximum bang for buck, There are a few bargains knocking about on here at the moment........

EDIT: Coda have a nice early Used Core Mira with case for £699..........

Actually I'm not sure what the double cut I played was ...... looked like a Mira but it has a trem.

Could be a Standard 22 or 24.  They have the scratch plate on them which is similar to the Mira.

http://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/electrics/s2/s2_standard_24_2017

Floof

I have a great Les Paul and after a long time playing mostly that I tried a PRS McCarty and loved it and gigged one for a time.

i missed the double volume controls so have a DGT now. 

Il never sell my LP but when playing out I now default to the PRS 

bloodandtears

bloody hell @ the price of a DGT

Whitecat

bloodandtears said:

bloody hell @ the price of all new Core (and up) PRS guitars

FTFY.

The prices are astronomical now. For a mass-produced guitar, it's no longer viable IMO. Thankfully, it's a buyer's market in the secondhand world and there are tonnes of beautiful pieces in great condition.

sweepy

You rarely see roadworn or bashed up PRS guitars in the Classifieds, you’d be hard pushed to buy a Pup

guitarfishbay

Whitecat said:

bloodandtears said:

bloody hell @ the price of all new Core (and up) PRS guitars

FTFY.

The prices are astronomical now. For a mass-produced guitar, it's no longer viable IMO. Thankfully, it's a buyer's market in the secondhand world and there are tonnes of beautiful pieces in great condition.

Yeah the core and up are expensive.  But everything is expensive these days if it's from the USA.

They're easily as good as anything in terms of quality from the Gibson or Fender Custom shops I've tried though.

Mooster

I bought a PRS CU22 in 2008 I believe, and I had to sell it in the end. The Dragon 2 pups were a touch too dark and dominant in the mids, the 5 way rotary knob was hard to switch in a hurry, and the wide fat neck was a touch too wide. Also, it was neither as sweet sounding as a Fender nor had the balls of a Gibson.

However, I tried a CU22 Wood Library very recently and ending up buying it because they have solved all the issues I had with it. The 58/15 LT pups are perfect PAF style pups, the neck has been narrowed out in the Pattern carve, and the 5 way blade switch is much better than the rotary knob. Add in the looks, the perfect set-up, the stable trem, the ease of playing, it's the best guitar I own.

Mooster

Whitecat

guitarfishbay said:

Whitecat said:

bloodandtears said:

bloody hell @ the price of all new Core (and up) PRS guitars

FTFY.

The prices are astronomical now. For a mass-produced guitar, it's no longer viable IMO. Thankfully, it's a buyer's market in the secondhand world and there are tonnes of beautiful pieces in great condition.

Yeah the core and up are expensive.  But everything is expensive these days if it's from the USA.

They're easily as good as anything in terms of quality from the Gibson or Fender Custom shops I've tried though.

No question that they are good - anecdotally, probably not quite as good as they used to be but still fairly top-shelf. But, as they are well north of £3k now for a non-10 top is a bit of a p*sstake. Some of that was the sterling fall, but there was also just a generic "because-we-can" price increase this year.

I still think the all-mahogany S2s are a decent buy and a solid value, even new, especially if you can wrangle 10% off. The compromises on them aren't really compromises per se, and can be corrected over time if you like, but they are very good guitars for not too much cash (comparatively).

But the classics... damn... unless you REALLY want a particular one...

Mooster

If you know where the look and who to ask, you can get them at a good discount. I got mine with a 31% discount. Behind the scenes, I don't think they're selling very fast at all - with guitar sales slowing down in general, the higher £ slowing sales further, and PRS sales not being as robust as Gibson or Fender, some retailers are prepared to sell them cheaper if you are willing to hunt down a deal.

Whitecat

Mooster said:

If you know where the look and who to ask, you can get them at a good discount. I got mine with a 31% discount. Behind the scenes, I don't think they're selling very fast at all - with guitar sales slowing down in general, the higher £ slowing sales further, and PRS sales not being as robust as Gibson or Fender, some retailers are prepared to sell them cheaper if you are willing to hunt down a deal.

True, especially older-stock models.

guitarfishbay

If you pay £3k for a Fender or Gibson CS you don't get a 10 top either, fancy top custom shop Gibsons seem to start at £4k and up these days and well the more you pay for a Fender the more they seem to pre-damage it for you and I can do that myself for free! 

Fancy tops don't make it sound any better anyway.  I've got a 10 top on my CU22 and it's lovely but I actually didn't want a 10 top - it was just the best s/h deal available when I wanted to buy (as it had a few dings on it).

The S2 satins seem like a great deal to me, I don't want any more guitars but if I did want another expensive one I'd consider one for sure.

Mooster

Whitecat said:

Mooster said:

If you know where the look and who to ask, you can get them at a good discount. I got mine with a 31% discount. Behind the scenes, I don't think they're selling very fast at all - with guitar sales slowing down in general, the higher £ slowing sales further, and PRS sales not being as robust as Gibson or Fender, some retailers are prepared to sell them cheaper if you are willing to hunt down a deal.

True, especially older-stock models.

Mine wasn't NOS, it's 2017. To avoid all the mystic, the simple rule to getting a discount is to avoid going into a store to try to it out and getting trapped into the buy it or don't buy it decision. At that point the sales psychology of the deal is that the price is written on a label and either you can afford it or cannot afford it. You can meekily whimper "What's the best deal you got?" and they might throw in a couple of picks and a new set of strings at your sorry ass. Instead, you need to start with the price, find a pool of potential dealers that are able to discount, and then try the guitars out in store, then leave to negotiate further.

For me, after trawling through all the major stores (and boy do we know them all!) I found the most potential to be from GAK. And the reason is because they do a price matching guarantee where they will aim to not only match but beat a competitor's price. So I trawled around the web for the lowest core guitar possible - NOS, B-stock, it didn't even need to be the same model. I found a 30th anniversary 2015 B-stock CU24 selling at clearance price. I used that as my lever to extract a price beating quote by negotiating over the phone and on their online sales support service. After I got that, I then took that quote to about 5 other stores and said "GAK is willing to sell me a 2017 PRS Wood Library for X discount. What can you do?" Then I took the best offer from that and brought it back to GAK for another round of negotiations.

axisus

I had a superb PRS for a few years - I couldn't fault it. I only sold it in the end as it was a bit too bling and new, and I'm more of a relic type person.

riffpowers

Right, I got questions!!!


I played the S2 singlecut standard satin and an S2 standard 24.

My question is about pickup specs and neck profiles.

I'm struggling to find the info I want.

Neck profiles -  on the PRS website they list both guitars as having a "Pattern Regular" neck profile.

The singlecut I tried definitely had a chubbier neck, especially near the nut in comparison to the standard 24..

Do the 2 modeals have different profiles in general or is it just variation between different guitars??


Pickups - Both these guitars had different pickups, but I can;t find any info on pickup spec, sound, character or anything for comparison.

Does anyone know??!!

Mooster

riffpowers said:

Right, I got questions!!!


I played the S2 singlecut standard satin and an S2 standard 24.

My question is about pickup specs and neck profiles.

I'm struggling to find the info I want.

Neck profiles -  on the PRS website they list both guitars as having a "Pattern Regular" neck profile.

The singlecut I tried definitely had a chubbier neck, especially near the nut in comparison to the standard 24..

Do the 2 modeals have different profiles in general or is it just variation between different guitars??


Pickups - Both these guitars had different pickups, but I can;t find any info on pickup spec, sound, character or anything for comparison.

Does anyone know??!!

Apparently PRS does a lot of hand sanding of the necks after the CNC process so there are minor variations from guitar to guitar, but here is the official dimensions:

https://prsguitars.com/csc/neckprofiles.html

As for the pickups, the S2 standard 24 has HFS/VB, and the S2 Singlecut Standard has #7. PRS is very coy around the specifications of their pickups, so I'd just go with what you like the sound of.

Guitar_Slinger

I'd never been tempted by PRS in the past because walls of mutli-coloured flametops reminded me of the swimming pool opening credits for This Morning with Richard and Judy. At the Guitar Show a couple of years ago, Marshall had a SE Bernie Marsden on the stand. Ironically, it was next to the PRS stand and in the six years of going to to the show, I've never tried one! The Bernie Marsden one was launched the year he was playing at the show, and is supposed to be like his 1958 LP, including binding and vintage tuners.

Philly_Q

Mooster said:

riffpowers said:

Neck profiles -  on the PRS website they list both guitars as having a "Pattern Regular" neck profile.

The singlecut I tried definitely had a chubbier neck, especially near the nut in comparison to the standard 24..

Do the 2 modeals have different profiles in general or is it just variation between different guitars??

Apparently PRS does a lot of hand sanding of the necks after the CNC process so there are minor variations from guitar to guitar, but here is the official dimensions:

https://prsguitars.com/csc/neckprofiles.html

That would echo my experience - I've owned quite a few PRS guitars, both US core models and S2s, and no two necks have ever felt exactly the same.  I'm not saying they vary massively, but I can certainly feel the difference.

Right now I've got three S2s - a Singlecut Standard, Mira and Mira Semi-Hollow - and the neck on the solidbody Mira feels chunkier than the other two (I prefer the Semi-Hollow but I wish it had a fatter neck!).

Floof

bloodandtears said:

bloody hell @ the price of a DGT

bought mine 2nd hand - it went cheap like the budgie 

grungebob

I have two S2’s a Satin Standard 24 and a Vela. Both great guitars and both where bought for less than the secondhand price of a core custom 24. 

The necks are are supposed to be identical but the Vela feels a tad chunkier although this could be due to the 24 having a longer neck. I might be mis remembering but PRS don’t change the bridge position for the 24 fret guitars they make the necks a tad longer, maybe this is what’s throwing you off on the neck dimension?
im S2 all the way now , much prefer them to the core models. I’m hoping in 2018 they make an alder body version of the standard 24 with a maple neck and HSS set up.