NGD: PRS SE DGT (was: Suitable Locking Tuners for PRS SE)

[Sascha Franck]

Sounds like a bit of a turd, sorry to hear it. Hope it turns out good with some setup.

It's a lot better already. Seems to be no turd but a pretty bad setup. Fwiw, I had to lower the vibrato studs by now because E1's saddle was sitting flush on the plate already and could still be lowered without buzzing.

Also, just look at this, they have 4 springs installed for 10-46s:

Barely any tension in these springs. I have never seen vibrato springs with that little tension on any guitar. Doesn't seem to cause tuning issues so far, though. But I'll likely take one out later on.

Have you considered returning it?

Sure. But for the time being I'll just give it some more play time and see how I'll get along with it. Defenitely feels like a nice guitar now already, but that factory setup was quite a shocker. I'll defenitely drop them a line or two...

 

[Dave Lewis]

I put these PRS locking tuners on my Silver Sky SE.
They just drop in .
I did use the new screws because they are stainless steel.
Not the best designed but they work.

 

[Dave Lewis]

I put these PRS locking tuners on my Silver Sky SE.
They just drop in
I did use the new screws because they are stainless steel.
Not the best designed but they work.
View attachment 54988
View attachment 54989

 

[Jarick]

I really like the PRS locking tuners, the brass post and the screw on top make it super easy and solid tuning, zero problems ever.

Back when I had a couple SE's I swapped them out for Gotoh SD90, those were direct drop ins and worked great. The locking mechanism is annoying but I have them on my Ibanez AZ and they've always worked really well.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Too late folks, no need for tuner recommendations anymore. Got the Gotohs and will likely slap them in this evening. Guitar seems to be a keeper inspite of the horribly bad factory setup.

 

[DrewJD82]

That’s a bummer it arrived with a shit setup. Figures, the one time someone buys one sight unseen after a few years of rave reviews and that’s the situation.

They must have changed their gigbags, when I sold my semi-hollow I told my buddy I’d rather give him a hardshell case than give him the bag the SE came in. That gigbag is pretty much all I use when I leave the house!

 

[Sascha Franck]

Figures, the one time someone buys one sight unseen after a few years of rave reviews and that’s the situation.

Yeah well - and I already told myself I'd never buy a guitar unseen/untouched again. But then, with no-questions-asked-money-back policies it's actually no risk, just dissapointing. However, now that it's set up, it already starts growing on me, so I'll be fine.

They must have changed their gigbags, when I sold my semi-hollow I told my buddy I’d rather give him a hardshell case than give him the bag the SE came in. That gigbag is pretty much all I use when I leave the house!

Well, it's actually not *that* bad, but I've got two others (not even very expensive) with thin carbon-enforced plastic (whatever it might be) layers under the actual cushion, and I think a guitar would survive a fall from several meters high in these. Not so with the PRS one.

 

[paisleywookiee]

They must have changed their gigbags, when I sold my semi-hollow I told my buddy I’d rather give him a hardshell case than give him the bag the SE came in. That gigbag is pretty much all I use when I leave the house!

I agree with Sascha, the bags are just okay, and not nearly as robust as they used to be.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I just gave the bag another try. Sorry but no. This isn't even something I'd use for a cheaper guitar. No proper neck support, padding very wobbly, any harder impact will easily get through and destroy whatever it might be. I'd rather pay 20 less and wouldn't have to throw the bag away - because that's literally what I'll do in case nobody wants it for free. What a waste of resources, really.

 

[Progressive_disclosure]

I just gave the bag another try. Sorry but no. This isn't even something I'd use for a cheaper guitar. No proper neck support, padding very wobbly, any harder impact will easily get through and destroy whatever it might be. I'd rather pay 20 less and wouldn't have to throw the bag away - because that's literally what I'll do in case nobody wants it for free. What a waste of resources, really.

When did they get crappier? I haven’t really used mine much that came with a 2019 Cu24 SE to tell.

 

[Sascha Franck]

When did they get crappier?

No idea, it's my first contact. But have a look:

 

[AlbertA]

Ok, guitar arrived.
Looks great, sounds great, neck feels fantastic.

But:

- Needs quite some setting up. All the praise about how the stock setup would be so great on PRSes is defenitely not true for this one, in fact, it's pretty bad, string action is almost ridiculously high.

That's a bummer. IIRC, mine was probably around 2mm on the low E at 12th fret which is kinda the range for this price point of guitars.

I mean, look at this, doesn't even need any scale for being able to tell that this is just very bad:

View attachment 54982

As it's not the truss rod (neck is pretty much perfectly straight),

That's very curious - Usually the guitars I get have too much relief - I go down to 0.005" at 6th fret,

I'm actually not even sure whether the saddles offer enough leeway to fix this, so adjusting the 6 vibrato screws might be in order. That's absolutely not what I had on my bingo card when ordering a PRS that gets praised all over the net.

Here's mine for reference:

- They seem to know shit about ergonomics at PRS. I have no idea about how you could come up with that position for a pickup toggle switch. Yes, I will get used to it, but it's pathetic. I'm already considering to flip the switch and pot positions. Sure, it's not as bad as the rotary knob they are "famous" for, but it's just not good for fast pickup switching. Let alone they mounted it so the switching direction is pretty much sideways, which is absolutely awkward (sure, that's a 30 second fix).

That's kinda on David Grissom no? I mean it is based on the McCarty but if it bothered him I'm sure he could have changed the location.

Been incredibly excited for the thing to arrive today already, but this is a real let down.

These for sure need a setup - I also replaced the nut with a graph tech nut and took care of all the high spots but once I dialed it in - nice low action, no buzz, nice chunky neck

 

[Sascha Franck]

Here's mine for reference:

Thanks a lot for that! Confirms that the main studs were just too high, because my vibrato plate is further away from the top. Not all that much anymore, but still visibly so (I need one of those Fret Guru things, btw.). That's actually quite a relief because it confirms it's not a dud but just a bad setup.

That's kinda on David Grissom no? I mean it is based on the McCarty but if it bothered him I'm sure he could have changed the location.

Sure - but they always seem to go for weird decisions. I mean, a rotary pickup selection switch isn't exactly very practicable. No way to see what pickup you're on, kinda slow to switch, etc.

I already turned my switch a little more counterclockwise already, it's feels more natural now. Still considering to change its location one day, though.

Fwiw, as said, the guitar already grows on me, by now I can even see how the volume controls would make sense. With the neck pickup cleaning up very well, I could imagine keeping it dialed back a bit most of the time and then either switch to the fullblown bridge pickup or use the middle position to either use a blend of the two or an almost full bridge pickup tone (as any dialed back pickup will get almost completely lost in middle position in LP style circuits).

Whatever, I'm a whole lot happier right now already. Still making me wonder how such a bad setup could slip through.

 

[DrewJD82]

No idea, it's my first contact. But have a look:

Oh, mine definitely ain’t that floppy.

….unless I’ve had too much to drink.

 

[Progressive_disclosure]

No idea, it's my first contact. But have a look:

I think mine’s better than that too. I’m with you that they might as well skip it if it’s gonna be that thin.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Aside from being thin, they're extremely uncomfortable on the back. Not nearly enough available slack in the straps to make it balanced


Congrats on the ngd, sorry to here it sucked out of the box but glad you're digging it now with some setup

 

[Sascha Franck]

Pretty sure already that I want a master volume one day. And I also think I want the switch in a kinda strat-alike position. Will give it some more testruns as is, but these two are really what keeps me from being super happy so far.

 

[Dave Lewis]

I’ve got four brown & one black PRS SE gig bags and all are really good quality
All have the moulded foam headstock brace inside

 

[paisleywookiee]

I’ve got four brown & one black PRS SE gig bags and all are really good quality
All have the moulded foam headstock brace inside

That foam headstock brace is just for shipping. The bags are not great, but you’re easily impressed, so I’m not surprised you’re happy.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I’ve got four brown & one black PRS SE gig bags and all are really good quality

You could possibly sew them together and they'd make up for a nice ski anorak.