PRS 277 Baritone Advice/Help

[Whizzinby]

Hey guys, I got a 277 Baritone a few weeks ago and am having some difficulty dialing it in. It came with .14 string which I assume is standard but it felt like playing a bass guitar and was virtually unusable on my setup due to excessive low end. Very very muddy tone. So I swapped strings to a .12 gauge string set which certainly improved playability and slightly the low end unruliness, but it’s still too suffocating tone wise. Frankly only the bridge is semi-usable. I understand lower tunings will be darker, but this is not merely darker tone, it’s just extremely muddy. I tune my standard guitars to drop C so I’m familiar with lower tunings.

Has anyone faced this and done anything to improve the tone? The setup doesn’t look like the issue. If considered dropping to .11 strings to see if that would clean it up any, but I don’t know if the guitar is meant for strings of that gauge. I was pondering maybe it needing a pickup swap but it’s hard to consider putting in more time/money when it’s not remotely in the barllpark.

I’m running it into the SLO30 with a Mesa 2x12 cab. Tuning is DADGAD in B.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Serious Poo]

Try scooping the mids on your amp, that should help a lot.

IMHO, running a baritone guitar into an amp not made for extended frequencies will result in muddiness. The SLO is an amp that emphasizes midrange, and muddiness comes from too much low midrange. This is one of the reasons certain amps are frequently used with drop tunings, especially Engl, REVV, Driftwood & Bogner.

Good luck & enjoy!

 

[Whizzinby]

Try scooping the mids on your amp, that should help a lot.

IMHO, running a baritone guitar into an amp not made for extended frequencies will result in muddiness. The SLO is an amp that emphasizes midrange, and muddiness comes from too much low midrange. This is one of the reasons certain amps are frequently used with drop tunings, especially Engl, REVV, Driftwood & Bogner.

Good luck & enjoy!

Thanks for the reply.

I’ve tried scooping the mids and it doesn’t really help.

Interesting thoughts on the SLO. I’ve seen the SLO demoed with Baritones and not have this sort of smothering low end. Also, I’d consider the SLO a much more neutral mid amp than the 5150 Stealth that preceded it in my rig. (Though I didn’t get my 277 until after the SLO)

 

[dogrocketp]

Try dropping the pickups. Some PRSi respond very well to that.

 

[Utkarsh]

Few thoughts here from a SE277 soapbar owner and someone dabbling in low tunings for the past few years with multiple scale length guitars
DADGAD in B is quite low so the muddiness is no surprise when you plug in and play in standard settings.

Even before the guitar, the amp and pedal setup is critical. There are plenty of good videos on YouTube but the quick and dirty tip I can give you for improving muddiness is a boost (either a mid or treble works depending on the guitar and amp, and of course there are specialist products like Horizon devices Precision drive).
For amp settings generally I don’t scope the minds. I lower bass vs noon and increase treble.

Try free options like fiddling with your existing boosts first. If that doesn’t work, strongly consider specialist boosts as an investment especially if Low tunings is where you plan to spend a lot of time. I don’t have a precision drive but I have figured out how to use my Strymon OB 1 boost and tube screamer for acceptable results.

Now on the guitar itself, am assuming you have the humbucker version. Honestly se pickups aren’t the best for Low tuning applications (the soapbar is an exception but it is helped by the fact that soapbars are brighter than humbuckers) but they can do a passable job (I have a SVN tuned to drop A). If you really want humbuckers designed for these tunings, consider a few options from Bare Knuckle or Seymour Duncan. My favourites are the Juggernaut, Aftermath and the Nazgul but the Impulse is specially designed for Low tunings. In general anything with a ceramic magnet will do as those are tighter than Alnico magnets.

 

[Whizzinby]

Few thoughts here from a SE277 soapbar owner and someone dabbling in low tunings for the past few years with multiple scale length guitars
DADGAD in B is quite low so the muddiness is no surprise when you plug in and play in standard settings.

Even before the guitar, the amp and pedal setup is critical. There are plenty of good videos on YouTube but the quick and dirty tip I can give you for improving muddiness is a boost (either a mid or treble works depending on the guitar and amp, and of course there are specialist products like Horizon devices Precision drive).
For amp settings generally I don’t scope the minds. I lower bass vs noon and increase treble.

Try free options like fiddling with your existing boosts first. If that doesn’t work, strongly consider specialist boosts as an investment especially if Low tunings is where you plan to spend a lot of time. I don’t have a precision drive but I have figured out how to use my Strymon OB 1 boost and tube screamer for acceptable results.

Now on the guitar itself, am assuming you have the humbucker version. Honestly se pickups aren’t the best for Low tuning applications (the soapbar is an exception but it is helped by the fact that soapbars are brighter than humbuckers) but they can do a passable job (I have a SVN tuned to drop A). If you really want humbuckers designed for these tunings, consider a few options from Bare Knuckle or Seymour Duncan. My favourites are the Juggernaut, Aftermath and the Nazgul but the Impulse is specially designed for Low tunings. In general anything with a ceramic magnet will do as those are tighter than Alnico magnets.

Thanks for the reply man.

DADGAD in B is actually not that low of a tuning. (In a relative sense lol) The guitar came tuned to B standard. To get into dropped D I didn’t want to tune the low E to A so I actually tuned the ADG strings up a full step so that it would be in dropped B. I can’t imagine that being too low for a baritone.

I’ve been using the Compadre as a boost, I’ll have to experiment with it a bit more in depth tonight, but I’ve tried it with the clean/dirty boost options.

I thought about a Bareknuckle pickup replacement but frankly my hesitation is that one would assume the stock pickups would still be usable, so I’m not entirely confident. Especially since it would cost me $400 to replace them, on a $800 guitar.

This sucks because the guitar feels quite nice and looks sharp.

 

[Utkarsh]

Thanks for the reply man.

DADGAD in B is actually not that low of a tuning. (In a relative sense lol) The guitar came tuned to B standard. To get into dropped D I didn’t want to tune the low E to A so I actually tuned the ADG strings up a full step so that it would be in dropped B. I can’t imagine that being too low for a baritone.

I’ve been using the Compadre as a boost, I’ll have to experiment with it a bit more in depth tonight, but I’ve tried it with the clean/dirty boost options.

I thought about a Bareknuckle pickup replacement but frankly my hesitation is that one would assume the stock pickups would still be usable, so I’m not entirely confident. Especially since it would cost me $400 to replace them, on a $800 guitar.

This sucks because the guitar feels quite nice and looks sharp.

Ah DADGAD in B with D replaced with B. I thought it was a A since the A to B is what D is to E if that makes any sense. You are right, that isn’t that Low at all, though the stock strings would be super tight as they were already thickish at B.
‘it’s good that you have a compadre ..that’s one versatile pedal. Don’t think you need anything else on that front but try the treble boost option
Yeah the pickups are expensive relative to the guitar but honestly I really don’t like the 85/ 15 S. there are some fans but for me they ruin SE guitars. The SVN I mentioned ran with them for a while. It wasn’t unbearable as in your case but the pickups have since been replaced with Silos which are a dream in terms of clarity and I have another SVN which now has Warpigs.
Net I think SE guitars punch above their weight except for pickups and if you are feeling a tangible need for a pickup change, I would move forward with the investment assuming you like the guitar. I can’t vouch for Bare Knuckles enough

 

[GADonis]

No advice on dialing in your tone, but I would bet that SLO30 into a Mesa 2X12 is a BEAST.

 

[Whizzinby]

No advice on dialing in your tone, but I would bet that SLO30 into a Mesa 2X12 is a BEAST.

It has its moments. Ha

Swapped one of the V30’s out for a Creamback H75 to round out the tone, but otherwise it is pretty much a gain monster.

Not being able to dial the baritone in with it is a bummer. I may try one last string swap down to .11’s before throwing in the towel with it. Don’t know if I have the courage to try a pickup swap.

 

[ViperDoc]

I bought a set of BK HP90s to test in my 277, I was experiencing the same issues. I haven't put them in, but you might consider a single-coil pickup/pot swap. That scale length is going to deliver the goods, though, so be warned.

 

[Whizzinby]

I bought a set of BK HP90s to test in my 277, I was experiencing the same issues. I haven't put them in, but you might consider a single-coil pickup/pot swap. That scale length is going to deliver the goods, though, so be warned.

Let me know how that swap goes!

If I cant dial this in I’m considering going with something like an Ibanez RGD for lower tunings, which has a 26.5 scale length. Sorta bridges the gap between standard and baritone length.