It's a lovely 66 degrees here on the Florida Gulf Coast, but the delivery man brought some frost this morning. Frost Green Metallic, that is... Been wanting to get back in the 24 fret game for a while. Was thinking hard about picking up one of the new 35th S2 Customs, but the Standards have an undeniable appeal to me. Lean, mean, tone machines. Even less cost and easier to mod. First impressions: This color looks amazing. No wonder they're using it on the SE Starla. I really appreciate the improvements made to the S2 gig bag since the last one I had (which was a '14). The guitar is flawless. (Well I did have to wipe off a bit of buffing compound from the neck joint, GASP!) The Pattern Regular neck is pleasantly, surprisingly beefy. More girth than I remember my old S2 Singlecut Standard having. Very resonant Was pretty much in tune, except the D & G (which usually happens in a gig bag). Not too shabby since it took a trip from Indiana to Florida during winter! Plays fantastic and sounds quite good. Second impressions: Not a huge fan of the taper on the volume and tone pots. I can see why folks don't like the push/pull on these. The knobs float just barely above the pickguard, so the push/pull is hard to grab. The molded tremolo is fantastic (and I've used all three generations of USA bridges). I haven't made it go out of tune yet. Credit also due to the nut. The 85/15 S pickups really are quite good. They are a bit hotter wind than the 85/15 in my CU22, but right in line with humbucking mode of the 85/15 MT set I have laying around. They're maybe lacking a little bit of clarity, but hard to say just yet as I've only been running through my THR10. Will live with them a bit before making a final decision, but they rock for sure! Frost Green Metallic is a pain in the butt to photograph. So far the control locations are fine. The slightly more compact setup on the guard puts the whammy bar less in the way of the blade. In all, I still think the S2 line is a stellar value and the Standards are a real sweet spot in the PRS lineup. I think this is the best representation of the color: It changes like crazy due to all the angles: Gorgeous board: Mmmm, sparkles...
That looks great Garrett. I think I could have saved a bunch of money if I had discovered PRS 20 years later.
Am I to understand that this guitar does NOT have a magical tophat that makes it come to life? I guess it's still cool... (really cool actually congrats!) I haven't had an S2 with a pickguard for some time but I do remember having a bit of a problem pulling up for splits and wanting to change the knob or add a mini-toggle. Had an S2 STD24 Satin awhile back that was really a solid axe.
My apologies on the bait and switch. The push/pulls were never a problem for me on the S2 Singlecut Standard I had. I think it's an easy fix here by removing a washer and/or nut from beneath the guard to raise the pot a tad. Doesn't help that the push/pull on the new one is stiff and often hindered by the whammy bar. I'm going to fix all this by doing a custom guard with a Vela style control layout (how it should be) and dual CTS push/pull pots for individual splits. They feel great and have a very easy pull action.
