New 'The One' Guitar Day

ICBM · October 2020

I've just acquired this... it used to belong to a good friend of mine who sadly passed away last year, and I've bought it from his family - partly because I always quite liked it, and partly to solve a pickup problem for one of his other guitars which I already had.

It's a 2004 PRS Swamp Ash Special - as you would expect an ash body, maple neck with separate board, two PRS McCarty pickups and a Duncan Vintage Rails, in see-through red. It's *very* red - like the brightest possible lipstick or nail varnish red

.

I had modified it previously to my friend's tastes - he always preferred more Fendery sounds really, and the coil-splitting options as stock are a bit limited - the pull switch on the tone control turns on the middle pickup and splits the neck pickup at the same time, so there are several combinations you can't get, including the "Strat neck pickup" and "bridge single coil + middle" sounds. So I changed it for him, and added an extra pull-switch - now, the tone control splits both pickups, and the volume control adds the middle pickup, so you can get all the combinations apart from the middle pickup alone... which is no real loss, since the Duncan Vintage Rails is a truly terrible-sounding pickup! But it works very well in order to suck out the mids from the humbuckers and produce more Stratty sounds.

Although I liked the guitar itself a lot, I never did like those McCarty pickups in it - they sound a bit muddy and lack the sparkle for Fender sounds, even split. So my plan was to swap them for the Duncan Jazz and Pearly Gates in my Hollowbody, which I always felt was a bit too 'rocky' sounding with them.

Hopefully this will make it my 'The One To Rule Them All' guitar - almost all the normal sounds you can get from a solidbody guitar, in one - there are a total of 12, if you haven't worked it out

. That doesn't necessarily mean I will sell all the others of course...

(And no, I don't know why PRS mount the middle pickup backwards...)

tone1 · October 2020

Looks fantastic.....

DrJazzTap · October 2020

Congratulations, always liked those models. And good that you'll always have a reminder of your friend

GuyR · October 2020

Sounds like this PRS has found a most appropriate keeper. Congratulations.

guitars4you · October 2020

Funny you mention this - I'm a big PRS fan - They are so slick 'n' easy to play - I've wanted a Strat for a while and can't quite get the one I want - But a few months ago traded in a similar SAS and I keep playing it and it does what I want - Certainly regarding the feel - I'd want to tweak the wiring and probably go with partial coil taps - But I just keep thinking just go for it

Devil#20 · October 2020

That looks great John. Nice figuring on the top and no daft birds.

ICBM · October 2020

guitars4you said:

Funny you mention this - I'm a big PRS fan - They are so slick 'n' easy to play - I've wanted a Strat for a while and can't quite get the one I want - But a few months ago traded in a similar SAS and I keep playing it and it does what I want - Certainly regarding the feel - I'd want to tweak the wiring and probably go with partial coil taps - But I just keep thinking just go for it

I’ve actually rewired it this evening - it now has the Pearly Gates (uncovered) in the bridge, the Jazz (covered) in the neck, two good quality push-push (not push-pull) pots, and DGT partial coil split resistors. The pickups are reverse magnetic polarity so the both-split setting is also hum-cancelling.

What’s interesting is that the best split sounds are actually the original ones - middle with split neck, and middle with full bridge - so PRS did get that right - but a couple of the others, especially the both outer single coils, are well worth having. Curiously the split bridge & middle doesn’t sound that great, and surprisingly less different from the full humbucker than I expected - I think that might be the downside of the DGT split. I’ve used the 2K2 resistor value, so perhaps it needs a lower one.

At least with the rear control cavity it’s easy to tinker with...

GuyR said:

Sounds like this PRS has found a most appropriate keeper. Congratulations.

I think so - if there’s an afterlife, my friend is laughing to himself now

. He always did like all the switching options and tricks either of us could think of, to make his guitars as ‘versatile’ as possible... even though of course he sounded exactly the same on all of them!

ICBM · October 2020

The McCarty pickups have gone into the Hollowbody as well now, and they also do what I wanted... it’s much ‘woodier’ sounding and more like what I think a semi-acoustic archtop should be. I had been thinking of selling this on if it didn’t work out, but I’m inclined to keep both of them and sell something else instead - or even everything, apart from my old Aria. (Which will always really be ‘The One’, but isn’t quite right for everything I want to do.)

Parker · October 2020

Good purchase ICBM. I had one for a while - very versatile and good all rounder.

danishbacon · October 2020

Always fancied an SAS, nice colour too! HNGD and sorry to hear about the loss of a friend

polotska · October 2020

What make of push-push pots did you use? I don’t need any at present but am always on the lookout for decent ones—your description of them as “good quality” intrigued me, since mostly they aren’t! But I much prefer them to push-pulls regardless.

ICBM · October 2020

polotska said:

What make of push-push pots did you use? I don’t need any at present but am always on the lookout for decent ones—your description of them as “good quality” intrigued me, since mostly they aren’t! But I much prefer them to push-pulls regardless.

CTS - they’re small pot bodies but have full 3/8” bushings, so a proper fit in the PRS holes - unlike the original tone control!

They seem pretty decent quality, although only time will tell for sure...

polotska · October 2020

Thanks! I didn’t realize CTS was offering push-push pots—I’ll have to have a look.

johnnyurq · October 2020

I commend your choice of guitar @ICBM.

I have one very similar from 1999. It really is a very lovely guitar and the first PRS I have ever got on with.

https://i.imgur.com/hyOEqK5.jpg

ICBM · October 2020

polotska said:

Thanks! I didn’t realize CTS was offering push-push pots—I’ll have to have a look.

Nor did I, but someone on here was selling a few unused ones, so I thought I'd give them a try. They're so much easier to use than push-pulls that I would be hesitant to go back even if they prove to be less than perfectly reliable.

I'm pretty sure the biggest cause of failure is people not realising they *are* push-push and pulling up on the knob, in fact! Or trying to take the knob off with the switch down. You must only ever pull on it when it's already up...

johnnyurq said:

I commend your chioce of guitar @ICBM.

I have one very similar from 1999. It really is a very lovely guitar and the first PRS I have ever got on with.

Very nice - that's almost it's twin, if the red is see-through - mine's hard to photograph and see the wood grain, I took another one which looks like yours. Yours has the older 'wing' tuners too, which I actually prefer.

clarkefan · October 2020

Cracking looking guitar, I hope you enjoy it as your mate would like, and thanks for the CTS tip

johnnyurq · October 2020

johnnyurq said:

I commend your chioce of guitar @ICBM.

I have one very similar from 1999. It really is a very lovely guitar and the first PRS I have ever got on with.

Very nice - that's almost it's twin, if the red is see-through - mine's hard to photograph and see the wood grain, I took another one which looks like yours. Yours has the older 'wing' tuners too, which I actually prefer.

I love mine. Picked it up 2nd hand at Sound and Vision in Elgin of all places.

It is a crappy picture I am afraid and not showing it properly but it is pretty much identical to yours in the flesh. Your one looks very slightly redder possibly, unless that's the pic of course.

I wasn't sure on the "wing" tuners at first but find them very good now I am used to them. Plus the cost for the PRS standard locking tuners was a bit silly.

Mine sounds pretty stratty with the switch on the tone pot up, so not modded it in any way, yet. All stock pickups as far as I know which sound fine for my tastes.

I particularly like the fact there's no fancy fret markers, I prefer the plain dots to birds and moons. Might swap the push pull pot for a push-push like you have at some point.

ICBM · October 2020

johnnyurq said:

Mine sounds pretty stratty with the switch on the tone pot up, so not modded it in any way, yet.

To be honest, now that I've modded it to give the 12 sounds, the best 6 are the original ones. I've *almost* thought about putting it back to stock... but I'll live with it for a while and see.

johnnyurq said:

All stock pickups as far as I know which sound fine for my tastes.

I've also wondered if I should get a hotter bridge pickup... that way the split sound might work better with the middle.

johnnyurq said:

I particularly like the fact there's no fancy fret markers, I prefer the plain dots to birds and moons.

I've owned six PRSs now, and not one single bird! This is the first one with dots though. I do love the moons, I have to admit.

TINMAN82 · October 2020

Lovely looking guitar, congrats.

Pearly Gates perhaps not the most versatile pickup (assuming versatility is important with all those selector options). I had it in a strat bridge for a while. Great sound but very “Texas Sizzle” to my ears.

johnnyurq · October 2020

ICBM said:

johnnyurq said:

Mine sounds pretty stratty with the switch on the tone pot up, so not modded it in any way, yet.

To be honest, now that I've modded it to give the 12 sounds, the best 6 are the original ones. I've *almost* thought about putting it back to stock... but I'll live with it for a while and see.

johnnyurq said:

All stock pickups as far as I know which sound fine for my tastes.

I've also wondered if I should get a hotter bridge pickup... that way the split sound might work better with the middle.

johnnyurq said:

I particularly like the fact there's no fancy fret markers, I prefer the plain dots to birds and moons.

I've owned six PRSs now, and not one single bird! This is the first one with dots though. I do love the moons, I have to admit.

Mmmm, 12 sounds you say lol!?

You are bad man tempting me to do a similar mod now.

True Moons aren't too bad.

Yours is a lovely example though it has to be said.

ICBM · October 2020

After pickup change...

I took it to a jam at the practice room last night and had a go at full band volume - and the modded switching is staying. The bridge and neck single coils sounded amazing - really sparkly and jangly on the bridge, and clear and chimey on the neck.

I actually think this guitar might suit me more than anything I've used before - it's in that perfect middle ground of sounds I like somewhere between a Tele, Rickenbacker and Les Paul Deluxe, but with the trem and playability of a Strat and a PRS.

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New 'The One' Guitar Day

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