Following on from the influx of recent PRS-related posts, here's my newly acquired "birth-year" PRS!
It had a few mods over the years, with Grovers added, and SD pickups & wiring replaced, and has also been played a helluva lot and has the scars to prove it. The acrylic finish on these old ones is lovely - contrary to common belief about non-nitro finishes, some of them do get better with age, and sink into the grain giving a beautifully tactile feel.
Restoration and modsI'm not quite going to do a vintage-correct restoration, but I'm a fan of the 5-way rotary switches, and thanks to
@BigNorm I've acquired a sweet switch as well to try out. I don't use the tone pot very much, except to occasionally knock off a bit of high end, so hopefully this will serve my purposes whilst looking "right" too.
In terms of pickups, it arrived with a pair of unlabelled Seymour Duncans that seem to be of a similar age to the guitar. They sound fine, but only have two-conductor wiring so I can't use them with the rotary switch. I've then sourced a set of the new(ish) 85/15 'squabbins' to bring the electronics up to date a bit, as I really liked this set in half a dozen Cu24s that I got to try in GuitarGuitar a few weeks ago.
The Grovers that had been fitted are now gone, replaced by a set of Phase 1 winged tuners. I know a lot of people aren't fans of these but I really like them in practice, and they just look "right" to me.
On top of that, I've also refreshed the bridge with a "brass update kit", which replaces the saddle and height adjustment screws, springs, etc, and have given it a bit of a hybrid hardware vibe which I quite like - furthered by the addition of brass straplocks. Last, but not least, I've also got a set of black pickup rings on the way so that I can bin the nasty cream ones.
The final step will be to fit a new nut and get the frets dressed and sorted, which should be done in the next couple of weeks.
#PRSPride
Comments
Enjoy the project - Try the Sweet Switch - To me it just doesn't work - Not sure if it is the preset value, but much prefer the tone control option - 3 or 5 way and I can go either way - But now tend to favour the 3 way with the DGT partial coil tap option
Looks like a cool project
I see it has the desirable star in the cavity, which if memory serves me right meant that Mike Deeley had a hand in its build, some would also say it meant that Paul himself signed off on the guitar. Cool.
I had an '89 in scarlet red which was a stunning guitar, I love that colour.
The sweet switch had been wired to a push/pull pot for the tone which was really handy.
I'd definitely get another 80's one if it came up.
Looks like a good year for Mr Smith too. Enjoy
@Adam_MD not at all, I love the scarlet one from the original PRS adverts though, the red/black combo has always been a favourite for me! I’ve potentially got a spare set of lampshades here now btw, depends if I stick with the sweet switch or not though, else I’ll need one of them for the tone pot.
@Strangefan if it had been all original I probably would have, but given that so many parts had already been replaced I have no qualms about further modifications.
Im surprised you went with the rotary switch I liked some of the settings but missed both humbuckers on together so switched mine out for a 3 way toggle and a push/push pot
I’ve got two rotarys here to try out, a later PCB one from BigNorm, and an earlier wafer model from an old ‘93 Cu22 I used to own. I’m not sure which variant the PCB one is yet though, as I think there’s been a few models over the years with subtly different wiring options.