2020 Silver Sky QC issues

[fuze]

Finally pulled the trigger on a Silver Sky from MF.

Outside of the neck being a little chunkier than i like.... everything else on the guitar is nice. Sounds insane!

My gripe is the quality control. 2 different guitars, both with different but really bad QC. Nothing like ive seen on any PRS ive owned.

1st one... truss rod cutout super jagged and chipped. Neck pocket 1/2 inch hairline crack in finish.

2nd one... cracked pickguard and a 1/8 inch dent on top of neck near 15th fret. Super noticeable.

Both guitars had weird white finish streaks on rosewood fretboard edges.

Some of you could look past this... but for a $2500 strat, i cant.

So frustrated having to re-pack and waste gas to return them, especially after reading people say theirs were flawless.

/rant

 

[dogrocketp]

The finish streaks are usually polish, and can be removed with a cloth and/or a soft dry toothbrush. The other stuff........send it back.

 

[Faded]

As much as I love PRS guitars the QC has seemed slip as production has increased. I think they’re struggling to keep up with demand and have added additional shifts/new staff and that always comes with pains.

 

[slide13]

Where did you order it from? Some of that could be due to poor shop handling rather than poor QC.

I purchased mine from GC, off the wall, and it has a neck pocket finish crack too. Not a big deal, I saw it before I purchased it but the guitar itself was so good I didn’t want to risk trying to get another I liked as much.

 

[ThePanda]

I was wondering about that. Some fret ends on this maple one at a store were sticking out. It still played great just was a bit shocked.

 

[Rider1260]

I have had ZERO issue with my 3 most recent PRS guitars ( 2 Silver Skys and a Special Semi Hollow ) Its a bummer you had issues the good thing is PRS would have replaced or repaired under warranty. I believe your guitar is an outlier not the norm.

 

[shimmilou]

Stop buying from MF and GC, they are horrible with handling and storage of their equipment, especially from their "warehouse". I would only buy from them things I can inspect before purchase, unlike most all other retailers. It is insulting to blame PRS for GC problems, which most of this seems to be.

 

[dmatthews]

Sorry to hear about the PITA @fuze
Yeah... I'm another guy with no issues. Maybe MF is trying to recycle some bad ones.
Look elsewhere.

 

[mr_spoons]

My SS arrived a few days ago, my 4th PRS I'm generally delighted with it, it sounds and plays beautifully. However, there is one annoying gripe, the saddle adjustment screws are badly finished and really sharp, when I rest my palm on the bridge it's distinctly uncomfortable to the point of scratching my hand. This is not a problem I've ever come across on any of my 20 guitars, from a £250 Epiphone and upwards. Have to say I'm a little disappointed and quite surprised, I didn't expect this 'ha'p'orth of tar' kind of issue on a £2500 PRS instrument.

I think you get a sense of how sharp the edges are from these pics.

 

[aphantomvaper]

As much as I love PRS guitars the QC has seemed slip as production has increased. I think they’re struggling to keep up with demand and have added additional shifts/new staff and that always comes with pains.

I second this. It seems to be the USA models. At least these issues could be corrected, hopeful!

 

[DISTORT6]

My SS arrived a few days ago, my 4th PRS I'm generally delighted with it, it sounds and plays beautifully. However, there is one annoying gripe, the saddle adjustment screws are badly finished and really sharp, when I rest my palm on the bridge it's distinctly uncomfortable to the point of scratching my hand. This is not a problem I've ever come across on any of my 20 guitars, from a £250 Epiphone and upwards. Have to say I'm a little disappointed and quite surprised, I didn't expect this 'ha'p'orth of tar' kind of issue on a £2500 PRS instrument.

I think you get a sense of how sharp the edges are from these pics.

Oof! Looks like you had the “Ugly Filter” on when you took those pics of the bridge.

 

[Bret Trammell]

I've had to send a few guitars back to MF, not because there was anything overtly wrong with them, but because they were not in new condition. I found out they had been packed and shipped from GC stores; they had been out on display. I still like MF but would recommend calling and asking where the guitar is shipping from. Make sure it's from the warehouse and not a store.

 

[mr_spoons]

Oof! Looks like you had the “Ugly Filter” on when you took those pics of the bridge.

LOL Yeah, it's amazing what nasty little creatures turn up when you zoom right in, isn't it.

 

[Ovibos]

My SS arrived a few days ago, my 4th PRS I'm generally delighted with it, it sounds and plays beautifully. However, there is one annoying gripe, the saddle adjustment screws are badly finished and really sharp, when I rest my palm on the bridge it's distinctly uncomfortable to the point of scratching my hand. This is not a problem I've ever come across on any of my 20 guitars, from a £250 Epiphone and upwards. Have to say I'm a little disappointed and quite surprised, I didn't expect this 'ha'p'orth of tar' kind of issue on a £2500 PRS instrument.

I think you get a sense of how sharp the edges are from these pics.

I thought painful grub screws was the whole point of getting a vintage bent saddle bridge? Every Fender I’ve played was like that.

 

[ThePanda]

Stop buying from MF and GC, they are horrible with handling and storage of their equipment, especially from their "warehouse". I would only buy from them things I can inspect before purchase, unlike most all other retailers. It is insulting to blame PRS for GC problems, which most of this seems to be.

I don't think anyone is blaming PRS. These seem few in number for issues, but I'm sure PRS would be happy someone is bringing it up. We all have faith that PRS will fix the issues and address these things especially with the stores.

 

[László]

The white streaks are no doubt polish. The other stuff...I'd truly suspect bad handling at MF. Who knows where they were stored, or handled by customers?

But really, it's the dealer's responsibility to make sure the guitars are perfect before they ever reach the consumer. This is why I shop with a smaller dealer who is also a luthier, Jack Gretz. Jack's setups are real-deal, excellent setups, the guitars arrive in perfect shape, and the service I get is highly personalized. I would never in a million years buy a guitar from a big box store like MF or Sweetwater (I buy a lot of recording gear from Sweetwater, however).

My Fall, 2020, McCarty from Jack's shop is utterly flawless.

Re: the grub screws - You probably know that PRS doesn't manufacture its own grub screws, it buys them from a manufacturer of screws, nuts and bolts. One wonders if better ones are available from a different supplier? Of course, yours could always be removed and gently smoothed with a metal file. A PITA but perhaps worth it. Or perhaps there are better options out there in the aftermarket.

 

[Tosca]

My SS arrived a few days ago, my 4th PRS I'm generally delighted with it, it sounds and plays beautifully. However, there is one annoying gripe, the saddle adjustment screws are badly finished and really sharp, when I rest my palm on the bridge it's distinctly uncomfortable to the point of scratching my hand. This is not a problem I've ever come across on any of my 20 guitars, from a £250 Epiphone and upwards. Have to say I'm a little disappointed and quite surprised, I didn't expect this 'ha'p'orth of tar' kind of issue on a £2500 PRS instrument.

I think you get a sense of how sharp the edges are from these pics.

Sorry to hear of your troubles with the SS...was this a new one you purchased? I posted a detailed comparison of the hardware differences between my SS, other PRS S-type guitars and some pretty high end Fender Strats a while back, and felt the SS had by far the nicer hardware.

https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/the-official-silver-sky-thread.29556/page-62

 

[SinSir]

My SS arrived a few days ago, my 4th PRS I'm generally delighted with it, it sounds and plays beautifully. However, there is one annoying gripe, the saddle adjustment screws are badly finished and really sharp, when I rest my palm on the bridge it's distinctly uncomfortable to the point of scratching my hand. This is not a problem I've ever come across on any of my 20 guitars, from a £250 Epiphone and upwards. Have to say I'm a little disappointed and quite surprised, I didn't expect this 'ha'p'orth of tar' kind of issue on a £2500 PRS instrument.

I think you get a sense of how sharp the edges are from these pics.

I agree its all part of the vintage strat experience. I like the way they look myself but hell on the hands out the box. Its common to replace the saddle screws with shorter, file them down, or they even have replacement saddles.

 

[mr_spoons]

Sorry to hear of your troubles with the SS...was this a new one you purchased? I posted a detailed comparison of the hardware differences between my SS, other PRS S-type guitars and some pretty high end Fender Strats a while back, and felt the SS had by far the nicer hardware.

https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/the-official-silver-sky-thread.29556/page-62

It's brand new. Maybe I've just been unlucky. I can of course sort it out myself, it's just not a job I expected or want to spend the time doing. It's beautifully set up as is, I didn't even have to tune it, let alone alter the action or intonation, but now....

No matter, I still love her, although not quite as much as my DGT which is far and away the best guitar I've ever held, I'm totally besotted with than beauty. And you're not wrong about Fender, I just returned a 79 Strat which was nothing short of horrific.

 

[zerolight]

The bent vintage style saddles are almost always like that. They aren't the nicest feeling against your hands. Sometimes I love the zingy sound the bent saddles provide, other times I prefer the solid saddles. I've owned a few guitars with them, and on one I ended up swapping them out for solid regular saddles.

You can however find 3rd parties selling replacement screws, or indeed screws and saddles. Raw Vintage come to mind. I'm fairly sure the RV saddles come with two sets of screws (longer vs shorter) so you can attempt to minimise the amount of thread poking through by a combination of screw length and saddle height. And I stumbled on a guy on YouTube who recommended buying different lengths of these to suit your needs. Looks like Callaham sell them in 3 different lengths too.

These Highwood saddles look pretty cool. They have recessed screws to alleviate the problem completely.