You must be kidding!

[Moondog Wily]

Don't know about y'all, but this looks like a huge oversight from the Private stock team:

$12,799 (PS#8610) and you could not create a custom TRC to match the nut angle on this guitar? Still a beautiful guitar, but I would not buy it until PRS fixed what I see as a glaring cosmetic flaw.

 

[docteurseb]

It's trickier than it seems, but I agree it's awfully ugly.
The headstock is angled right where that TRC/headstock veneer stops, while the area behind the nut is likely flat.
What they could have done is route a channel for the nut in the fingerboard instead of routing out all the wood past the front of the nut. But doing so would likely cause a clearance problem for the treble strings.
If you just extend the TRC you have the same problem due to the angle: the TRC might start touching the G/b strings or even be higher than the nut slots but the time it's flush with the back of the nut.

 

[Black Plaid]

It does seem awkward. Perhaps they should have done the multiscale the way strandberg does with the nut being the perpendicular 'fret'

The problem is, the fretboard there is not co-planar with the headstock, so there'd be a gap underneath unless they did something custom with the angle of the headstock or how they cut the fretboard there.

Arguably, this is the private stock, they might should have. I mean, they made a one-off pickup, so why not?

 

[bodia]

Who puts truss rod covers back on? Easy solution: take it off. But, I agree, it looks weird.

 

[Moondog Wily]

I agree that it may have been "tricky" for a few reasons, but to not rise to the challenge on a guitar of this cost and caliber is inexcusable IMO. And cutting a piece with some extra angles (including the extra depth angles of the TRC to get it to fit correctly on the changing plane of fretboard to headstock) is not beyond their skill or technology levels. Cosmetics after all are the cornerstone of the PS program!

All that said, I would love to own this piece! Stellar in every other way as far as I'm concerned!

 

[docteurseb]

I agree that it may have been "tricky" for a few reasons, but to not rise to the challenge on a guitar of this cost and caliber is inexcusable IMO. And cutting a piece with some extra angles (including the extra depth angles of the TRC to get it to fit correctly on the changing plane of fretboard to headstock) is not beyond their skill or technology levels. Cosmetics after all are the cornerstone of the PS program!

All that said, I would love to own this piece! Stellar in every other way as far as I'm concerned!

They have a recessed TRC option which I think could have helped quite a bit in this case.

I suspect they don't even make the wood TRCs themselves, actually.
That's what I got on one of my PS, decent but a very bad match for the headstock veneer:

Interestingly it came with a mounting distance that was considerably longer than USA guitars, as if it were a SE-compatible TRC... Interesting indeed.
Anyhow I managed to find a much better match out of two ziricote headplates I had laying around:

 

[Moondog Wily]

They have a recessed TRC option which I think could have helped quite a bit in this case.

I suspect they don't even make the wood TRCs themselves, actually.
That's what I got on one of my PS, decent but a very bad match for the headstock veneer:

Interestingly it came with a mounting distance that was considerably longer than USA guitars, as if it were a SE-compatible TRC... Interesting indeed.
Anyhow I managed to find a much better match out of two ziricote headplates I had laying around:

Now that looks like a PS TRC! WAY better than the original!

 

[RickP]

That’s why they sent it to that dealer. “It looks right-ish...”

 

[Moondog Wily]

That’s why they sent it to that dealer. “It looks right-ish...”

Hilarious Rick!! But I must say, I received my first PRS from Ish Guitars in February '21 and they handled the transaction very well IMO!!! So no fault on Ish, but yes, Right-Ish fits well!!! Good catch!

 

[RickP]

Hilarious Rick!! But I must say, I received my first PRS from Ish Guitars in February '21 and they handled the transaction very well IMO!!! So no fault on Ish, but yes, Right-Ish fits well!!! Good catch!

Ish is cool, and gets a lot of really sweet custom PRS lines. But I couldn’t pass on that one...

 

[Wakester]

Some one should ask Paul. Enough of ya'll seem to know him. Maybe he could shed some light on this.

 

[veinbuster]

Y'all buy some fan frets from Ish and a different truss rod cover might show up.

 

[ViperDoc]

The headstock angle begins at the end of the fretboard blank. You can see the glue line underneath the TRC cover. I thought I saw a previous fan fret model that routed the TRC footprint to create a flat bed for the cover. I would guess that they didn’t do it on this one because that didn’t work well. I’d imagine it would make the cover harder to remove? You’d otherwise have to make a cover that had an angled bevel to fit the board. Sounds like a PITA.

 

[Tosca]

The headstock angle begins at the end of the fretboard blank. You can see the glue line underneath the TRC cover. I thought I saw a previous fan fret model that routed the TRC footprint to create a flat bed for the cover. I would guess that they didn’t do it on this one because that didn’t work well. I’d imagine it would make the cover harder to remove? You’d otherwise have to make a cover that had an angled bevel to fit the board. Sounds like a PITA.

All good points. And then there would be a bevel line across the TRC which might be even more obvious. my bet is they predicted all of these issues and discussed it with the dealer/buyer ordering this, and mutually decided this would be the best solution. The amount of planning/discussion and modifications that go into a private stock are staggering. I would not assume they overlooked anything just because it is not the solution you may have preferred if you ordered one.

 

[docteurseb]

Ish is cool, and gets a lot of really sweet custom PRS lines. But I couldn’t pass on that one...

Joking aside, Ish Guitars is among the top/best dealers around for PRS goodness.

 

[jxe]

this guitar isn’t for me because the tuners don’t even have wings, but why does a fan fret nut need to be slanted on the tuner side?

 

[veinbuster]

why does a fan fret nut need to be slanted on the tuner side?

It doesn’t have to be, but it is fairly common.
A bit of the fan at the nut end works well for my fingers.
I think I like about 20% of the fan at the nut for how my left hand works.

 

[Wakester]

Y'all buy some fan frets from Ish and a different truss rod cover might show up.

Challange accepted, let me check with the wife first.












Nope, she's still holding me to that sticky note I signed last month.

 

[Robert0s]

Everything depends on it's history. The idea is more important than the materials.