The dreaded PRS thread - love (and hate)

tekbow said:
It's interesting, because I Find mine perfectly comfortable, more so than my Axis with squared edge radius.

I'm also unsure what issue there is with the necks
Click to expand...
Yeah I hadn’t heard a lot of critiques about playability so that’s why I’m curious.
 
1663444577265.png
 
The only PRS that interest me is the McCarty 594 double cut.

I tried to buy one when they hit the market but, at least here in Italy, was difficult to find and I never saw one with a finish I liked.



I ended up buying another custom shop Les Paul.
 
They generally have thin necks. Some reason I used to love thin necks a lot, even though I have long fingers. I was just jammin’ though, the Strat to be honest. 😝
 
the swede said:
Isn’t PRS the only brand that moves the scale relative to the body in some weird way when creating a 22 vs 24 fret guitar? It’s something I think I read somewhere… not certain though.
Click to expand...
Found a couple pics that show the difference.

So note the closer spacing of the pickups on the 24.

This is because the 24 fret neck has its last fret in the same position on the body as the 22 fret neck, so there's effectively a longer neck On a 24 fret PRS.

To maintain the scale length, they need to shorten the distance between the last fret and the bridge, then the bridge pickup gets moved correspondingly, the neck pickup stays were it is, and theres less space between the two.
1396626374-14783300.jpg
1461677663-55768100.jpg
 
tekbow said:
Found a couple pics that show the difference.

So note the closer spacing of the pickups on the 24.

This is because the 24 fret neck has its last fret in the same position on the body as the 22 fret neck, so there's effectively a longer neck On a 24 fret PRS.

To maintain the scale length, they need to shorten the distance between the last fret and the bridge, then the bridge pickup gets moved correspondingly, the neck pickup stays were it is, and theres less space between the two.View attachment 646View attachment 647
Click to expand...
Good explanation. I guess it’s their way, to be able to keep the same body shape/carve… I guess? Because the body always meets the neck at the same fret (counting backwards) for both 22 and 24 necks.

I can’t think of another reason. Other than the obvious… scale length reason… I guess :idk

Now when I look at those two, the 22 fret guitar looks more natural in its symmetry, especially considering the bridge placement. If they had based their 24 body on the same bridge placement as the 22, the 24 body would have looked completely different, deeper cutouts etc.

I wonder if PRS user ponder about such meaningless things as I do :bag and I don’t even have a PRS.
 
...and that's another reason why I can't get along with the 22s, look at where my pick ends up on a 24.

20220917_153938.jpg


22s are a tight fit for me
 
the swede said:
Good explanation. I guess it’s their way, to be able to keep the same body shape/carve… I guess? Because the body always meets the neck at the same fret (counting backwards) for both 22 and 24 necks.

I can’t think of another reason. Other than the obvious… scale length reason… I guess :idk

Now when I look at those two, the 22 fret guitar looks more natural in its symmetry, especially considering the bridge placement. If they had based their 24 body on the same bridge placement as the 22, the 24 body would have looked completely different, deeper cutouts etc.

I wonder if PRS user ponder about such meaningless things as I do :bag and I don’t even have a PRS.
Click to expand...
I'll bet PRS/knaggs thought very carefully about it when they created the design.

To be fair, the 24 came first, it was their first standard model, so I guess they actually Moved the bridge to the rear for the 22 fret guitars.
 
TSJMajesty said:
I used to be a huge PRS fan. I've had 4; kept 2. But from the generally (on the ones I've had) poor switching ergonomics, to that F$^&ing ridge along the top of the body that cuts into my arm, to the lack of upper-fret access compared to other guitars, they're no longer for me.

Sure, they make the most gorgeous guitars, and I still love to monitor-shop, but aside from becoming very wealthy and buying a PS to hang on the wall, I probably won't get another.
Click to expand...
I actually think the S2’s are more comfortable.
 
Re: what I don’t like about my PRS.

The neck profile. I thought I’d get used to it but never did. It sits too wide in my hands. A deep neck is fine for me but a wide neck is tough for me to play.

The pickups. I think they’re dragon pups. They sound a bit too compressed where every note sounds identical. Hit an E anywhere on the neck 10 times and it sounds exactly the same 10 times. No English to it. Sterile. Maybe good for some people but to me that’s a ding.

The coil tap. Guitar came with witch hat knobs. Who in the hell thought it was a good idea to make the coil tap to pull up off a knob? It’s hard enough to do seated while looking at the knob. Forget about standing at a gig mid song. Things like this lead me to believe people aren’t even playing who are designing this stuff.

Anyway, other than this the guitar really is beautiful. Very well made.
 
Bruce said:
Re: what I don’t like about my PRS.

The neck profile. I thought I’d get used to it but never did. It sits too wide in my hands. A deep neck is fine for me but a wide neck is tough for me to play.

The pickups. I think they’re dragon pups. They sound a bit too compressed where every note sounds identical. Hit an E anywhere on the neck 10 times and it sounds exactly the same 10 times. No English to it. Sterile. Maybe good for some people but to me that’s a ding.

The coil tap. Guitar came with witch hat knobs. Who in the hell thought it was a good idea to make the coil tap to pull up off a knob? It’s hard enough to do seated while looking at the knob. Forget about standing at a gig mid song. Things like this lead me to believe people aren’t even playing who are designing this stuff.

Anyway, other than this the guitar really is beautiful. Very well made.
Click to expand...

The neck is subjective I suppose. I have a variety of neck types and radii, and the only one I shy away from is my MIJ strat with a 7.25" radius, though even that has its charms if i adjust my picking and playing. I don't think there's anything objectively problematic with them.

Yeah, fair enough on the pickups. I can't speak for their newer pickup designs, but my McCarty's original pickups weren't good. I put Bareknuckles In there and it sings. I'm not the only person to comment negatively on their legacy pickups like the HFS. A good friend says "noone buys a PRS for the pickups".

Mine came with speed knobs, so no issues. The rotary switch was their "premier" switching method, so I suppose top hat knobs wouldn't, in theory, be so problematic as the rotary knob took care of tapping (didn't it?). Originally the toggle switching and coil tap was an option if I remember rightly, so they probably didn't select knobs for their ease of pulling on. Did you buy yours new?

But as I say, they must have brought speed knobs in later.

I agree with the PUs, but even then, none of these are particular flaws in the design of the guitars.
 
Last edited:
Alex Kenivel said:
The S2 at the time was the cost-cutting American line so no birds or tops, imported hardware and electronics. I like the more simplistic look personally. It reminds me of an SG but without the neck dive
Click to expand...
Actually the S2’s all had maple tops and birds, until the introduced the Standard and Standard satin models.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top