1997 CE 22 action issues

E

elwoodblues1

New Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2018
Messages
13
Hi,

First post here. Normally, I can solve my issues with extensive searches but I am stuck on this one...

I just picked up a 97 CE w/tremelo and I cannot get the action even close to normal. I think this guitar hung on the wall for roughly 16 years un-played at all. It was bought new in 2000 and the seller told me his son played it for a year or two then it went un-played. The strings were black when I bought it and I thought it just needed a setup. However, I am struggling to get it playing.

I have done the following: Neck relief is set to maybe get a piece of paper under the 8th fret when holding down on the first and last fret. I also watched the John Mann video and did the 2.5 mm allen wrench trick to set the tremelo screw height correctly. The nut seems to check out fine. The saddle on low E string is bottomed out and I have a 4/32 string height still at the12th fret. I'm using 10-46 strings. (I have since gone back and basically bottomed out the tremolo in an attempt to lower the action - still no luck. I did relieve all tension and pulled the springs before making adjustments)

I am thinking this guitar needs a neck shim and I'm OK with that but I cannot find anything online about a PRS needing a shim so I thought I would ask here. A shim seems to be the logical next step but I'm new to setting up guitars so I could very well be missing something that is specific to this guitar.

Just curious what thoughts may be out there on this issue? Or if I'm missing a thread on others that have shimmed their CE necks...

Thanks!

Chris
 
We're gonna need pics if we are going to help find an issue. The Allen wrench for set up works great, but you need to make sure the trem is riding in the grooves of the set screws after. If you are out of the screws the action will be way too high. Still need pics to be sure.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think I need to post twice more to upload pics. Here is 2nd post.
 
Here are some pics where I had the same action height before dropping the trem. I have basically the same too high action now with the trem on the body. I wanted to share these first since I had followed everything I could find prior to messing with it some more. Let me know what you think. Thanks again.
IMG0585.jpg
IMG0581.jpg
IMG0579.jpg
IMG0578.jpg

http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0585.jpg
 
The trem looks a little high to me. Not as high as you have action, but a little high anyway. The trem should be about 1/16th off the body and level when up to pitch. Use a smaller than 2.5mm Allen wrench and get it to where the trem sits 1/16th off the body and see what your action is. I am pretty sure it will help but maybe not as much as you need.

Maybe you can give us a couple shots of the neck.
 
AP515 said:
The trem looks a little high to me. Not as high as you have action, but a little high anyway. The trem should be about 1/16th off the body and level when up to pitch. Use a smaller than 2.5mm Allen wrench and get it to where the trem sits 1/16th off the body and see what your action is. I am pretty sure it will help but maybe not as much as you need.

Maybe you can give us a couple shots of the neck.
Click to expand...

This was my first thought. Just make sure you take all the tension off the strings before turning those screws!

http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/bridges.html
 
Thanks again for the replies.

Here are some more pics. Trem is on the body now. Action still high. I took some other pics of the neck attempting to show that it doesn't appear (to me anyway) to be completely messed up. The E strings are not quite the same distance from the outer edges of the neck for what its worth.
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0598.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0597.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0602.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0600.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0603.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0599.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0604.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0605.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0606.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0607.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0611.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0612.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/elwoodblues1/IMG0596.jpg
 
I've attached a photo of the string height on my Cu24 (6mm). Try your measurement and see what you have. You may be pretty close from the looks of your photo. If you are, the problem has to be with the neck.
yVWbMc9.jpg
 
Well I stand corrected it looks like you need to shim the neck , the angle looks wrong.
I would set the bridge properly and work from there.
OR just send it to PTC but it looks like you have all the tools it should come it pretty easily
 
elwoodblues1 said:
Thanks AP515. I think I am just under 3/8" or about 9mm.
Click to expand...
That's interesting. 3 mm higher is a significant amount. That goes directly to the action as you know. Looks like we need to figure out why the trem string height is still too high.
 
I've only heard of one other person that claimed their guitar needed a shimmed neck. This is really odd.

I would check neck pickup cavity to see if the hand written serial number matches what's on the neck plate. The neck pu cavity will expose the neck as should have a gand written serial number.

Something doesn't add up.
 
That's really weird. AP515's bridge is very low, too.

Not exactly apples to apples, but checking my CU22, the bridge is 1/16" above the body and string height from the top at the bridge on both sides is at 10 mm. I haven't touched it, so that should be how it left the factory.
 
garrett said:
That's really weird. AP515's bridge is very low, too.

Not exactly apples to apples, but checking my CU22, the bridge is 1/16" above the body and string height from the top at the bridge on both sides is at 10 mm. I haven't touched it, so that should be how it left the factory.
Click to expand...
I agree with you that mine appears low but it's the photo angle. Lenny from the PTC did the set up on it. Maybe they just vary that much.
 
AP515 said:
I agree with you that mine appears low but it's the photo angle. Lenny from the PTC did the set up on it. Maybe they just vary that much.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. To me, your bridge looks like it's practically touching the top in the pic. The geometry is probably different between the 22 and 24 fret guitars.
 
Post close up pics of the nut. One photo I saw looms like the nut is taller than it should be or the slots aren't deep enough.
 
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