2019 CE24 Action

Em7

deus ex machina
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
946
I have a bunch of guitars that I rarely play, but I finally figured out why my 2019 CE24 feels so much different than the other PRS guitars I currently own or have previously owned. It has ridiculously high action. I purchased the guitar new from Chuck Levin's in early 2020, so it has had no previous owners. Has anyone else received a CE24 with ridiculously high action? It is difficult to believe that the guitar shipped from the factory with the saddles set so high in the bridge. Is it just a function of the cheap Korean bridge that is now used in the CE24?
 
I have a bunch of guitars that I rarely play, but I finally figured out why my 2019 CE24 feels so much different than the other PRS guitars I currently own or have previously owned. It has ridiculously high action. I purchased the guitar new from Chuck Levin's in early 2020, so it has had no previous owners. Has anyone else received a CE24 with ridiculously high action? It is difficult to believe that the guitar shipped from the factory with the saddles set so high in the bridge. Is it just a function of the cheap Korean bridge that is now used in the CE24?
Maybe try adjusting the bridge before taking shots at the hardware as cheap?

Maybe do a truss rod adjustment, since it’s been a year and the neck could have moved?

Maybe the dealer is responsible for the setup of a guitar that goes thru their hands?
 
No, the high action is not due to a relief issue. I have never owned a PRS guitar where the neck moved that much and I have owned PRS guitars since 1995. In fact, I am fairly certain that PRS would be surprised if the neck moved that much. It is definitely a function of the bridge saddle height, which is pretty high for a PRS guitar. I have never seen or owned a made in the USA PRS guitar with such a high action from the factory. It has been that way since I purchased it in early 2000. I doubt that Chuck Levin's messed with it because they are store at which Paul cut his luthiery teeth; therefore, there is a lot of respect for Paul and the people that work with him. What has me worried is that the guitar was not setup with the standard PRS action for a reason. My 2009 Mira Korina has kept a PTC-level setup for almost a decade. My 2011 McCarty 58 is still perfectly setup. My 2011 one-off CU24 with a wide-thin neck was rock solid and so was my 1995 Standard 24. PRS necks do not move. It is the cheap SE hardware that has been used on the CE24 model since 2016 that is part of the problem. I am not ruling out the scarf-joined neck, but PRS knows how to make a stable neck, scarf-joined or not. The Korean-made trem is a big step down from the first, second, or third generation made in USA PRS trems. Anyone who does recognize that difference is delusional. I have never had the ball end of a string stick in an American-made PRS trem. That is a common ocurrence in the Korean-made PRS trem.
 
Korea-made is kinda silly. You know that the core tuners are imported from Asia, right?

If the action has been too high since you purchased it, why haven’t you lowered it? Guitars are meant to be adjusted to the player.

McKnight said in another video that many makers ship guitars with action on the higher side of what most people play - reason being that if you pick it up in a store and action is too low, you dismiss it as a buzzy unplayable mess.
 
If you’re in the DMV, send me a private message. I can fix it in about 1/2 hour. By the way, the Korean bridges aren’t “inferior”. I have 1 of each PRS bridge, and also 1 of each Mannmade model. They’re all fine if set up properly, but they do sound different from each other. That’s why I have them all on guitars.
 
If you're not happy with the guitar as is, I will gladly take it as a gift, set the action myself and all the while smile like a looney toon.

You knew the bridge was import when you bought the guitar, why not pay John Mann for a new bridge at the same time? Either way, you will have to pay to have it set to your liking, or do it yourself.
 
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Actually, like a lot of people who were out of the loop when PRS re-introduced the CE24, I was unaware of the downgrades that occurred when I purchased the guitar. It had been eight years since my last PRS guitar purchase. I was not looking for CE24 when I made the purchase. I went to Chuck's to look at Silver Skies. I came home with the CE24.

I received my ManMade bridge yesterday. In my humble opinion, anyone who can equate the quality of the Korean-made PRS bridge to one of John Mann's bridges and maintain a straight face is truly delusional. The is no comparison in build quality. I wound up going with the 2040 bridge because the 2000NOS is on indefinite hold due to not being able to find a foundry that is up to John's specs. As much as it sounds like heresy, the 2040 bridge is higher quality than even the Gen II PRS bridge.

Anyway, I dropped the guitar and new bridge off with John Ingram (a.k.a. Orkie) today. For those who do not know, John goes back with Paul to the West Street days. I have had John work on guitars since the nineties. One of the things that John Ingram told me was that the 2000NOS MannMade bridges were all machined from original castings that John Mann had left over from the days when he was producing the Gen I bridge for PRS. I do not know accuracy of that assertion, but it does appear that anyone who managed to get an 2000NOS truly received a NOS bridge in the sense that the casting was NOS.
 
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  • I received my CE24 back from John Ingram today. All I can say is, "wow!" The difference in playability when I sent my Mira Korina to the PTC back in 2010 was very noticeable (I received a PTC coupon when I purchased the guitar). It was like the PTC sprinkled fairy dust on that guitar. However, the setup John performed on my 2019 CE24 in combination with the installation of the MannMade 2040 bridge took a good, but built to a price point guitar to a completely different level. The difference in build quality between the MannMade 2040 trem and the imported molded trem is even more stark after seeing the underside of the molded tremolo as well as the bridge mounting screws off of the guitar. I do not know if I would replace a functional gen II trem with a MannMade 2040. The 2040 is better made, but difference in build quality is nowhere what it is between the 2040 and molded imported trem. In my humble opinion, replacing the imported molded trem with a MannMade 2040 (or 2000NOS if the Mann's manage to find a suitable foundry) should be the first upgrade anyone should do to a 2016 or newer CE24.
 
  • I received my CE24 back from John Ingram today. All I can say is, "wow!" The difference in playability when I sent my Mira Korina to the PTC back in 2010 was very noticeable (I received a PTC coupon when I purchased the guitar). It was like the PTC sprinkled fairy dust on that guitar. However, the setup John performed on my 2019 CE24 in combination with the installation of the MannMade 2040 bridge took a good, but built to a price point guitar to a completely different level. The difference in build quality between the MannMade 2040 trem and the imported molded trem is even more stark after seeing the underside of the molded tremolo as well as the bridge mounting screws off of the guitar. I do not know if I would replace a functional gen II trem with a MannMade 2040. The 2040 is better made, but difference in build quality is nowhere what it is between the 2040 and molded imported trem. In my humble opinion, replacing the imported molded trem with a MannMade 2040 (or 2000NOS if the Mann's manage to find a suitable foundry) should be the first upgrade anyone should do to a 2016 or newer CE24.
Despite my defending of the import parts above, putting a 2000NOS on my Reclaimed Ltd. CE24 was one of the first things I did! (The discount on the Reclaimeds over the regular CE24s made it almost free...)
 
I whole heartily agree about the tremolo bridge upgrade. the 2000NOS or 2040 are infinitely better than the stock import bridge. There is simply no comparison. Once I upgraded I was literally like whoaaaaa, that's what a good bridge is suppose to do. Far better than any fender bridge that feel like toys. Far better in my mind than the silver sky's bridge that I believe is gen 3 equivalent. Even better than the Gen 3 bridge I had on a custom 24 core I use to own.
 
I would have paid $200.00 more if the guitar shipped from the factory with a MannMade 2040. A lot of people are not crazy about the scarf-joined neck and the shallow carve/non-recessed knobs, but the true Achilles heel on 2016 and newer CE24s is the molded trem. The gen II and MannMade bridges are so much smoother. The MannMade bridge also works better with the 85/15 pickups. I was thinking about swapping the 85/15 pickups out for 57/08 pickups like I did on my Mira Korina. Like the stock Mira pickups in a Mira Korina, the 85/15 pickups we just too bright for my taste in a stock CE24. A lot of that unwanted brightness is a function of the molded trem's steel block. Steel trem blocks work in Strats, but a CE24 is not a Strat, regardless of having a bolt-on maple neck.

Another thing I suggest before deciding to eBay a CE24 that is not cutting it is to have it setup by an experienced professional luthier who has a lot of experience working on PRS guitars. I am very fortunate to live close to one of the most knowledgeable PRS luthiers in the nation. The experience level of the PRS staffer who sets up a PRS is a function of the cost of an instrument with the most experienced and skilled staffers working on Private Stock instruments followed by core line instruments. It is not that the bolt-ons and S2 models are not well-made instruments. It is more that there is less margin in bolt-on and S2 lines.
 
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