Advice on PRS SE One Korina needed

[cmedcoff]

I picked up a PRS SE One Korina as "knock around" guitar to have at the office. I picked on up off of Craig's over the weekend.

Just by visual inspection I think the neck has too much relief. I could tell when I was checking out the guitar that it had some intonation problems with the A string but I bought it regardless.

Since the bridge is fixed, I'm wondering what I could do about that (very flat at the 12th fret) A string. I've yet to adjust the relief or put a new set of strings on it. Any suggestions? I've looked on the web for replacement bridges such as TonePro but I'd rather not invest that much money for a guitar that I paid less than $300 for.

Any advice?

 

[maxtuna26]

How bout the other strings? Are the intonations very off or just the A string alone? And generally too much relief will cause intonation problems too. Don't pull the trigger on a new bridge yet because the problem has yet to be identified and confirmed.

Here's the guideline for the ideal relief just in case you need it.
http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/trussrod.html

:beer:

 

[cmedcoff]

How bout the other strings? Are the intonations very off or just the A string alone? And generally too much relief will cause intonation problems too. Don't pull the trigger on a new bridge yet because the problem has yet to be identified and confirmed.

Here's the guideline for the ideal relief just in case you need it.
http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/trussrod.html

:beer:

Agreed. The intonation on the other strings doesn't seem to be a problem, though I'll follow up that statement by checking with a tuner.

Last night while doing some research I did stumble across this http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/bridges.html which identified some set screws on the back of the bridge with which some adjustments could be made. When I checked the guitar to see if this bridge did in fact have these set screws I noticed another problem. The bridge on the E side is tilting towards the nut. This seems to be due to the fact that the 'mount' that the bridge stud screws into, is lifting out of the body of the guitar. See image/pic

I'm guessing that at some point in time someone put really have gauge strings on and/or over tighten the string causing the mount to being to pull out of its body cavity. Hopefully there no permanent wood damage such that the mount cavity is too loose.

At this point I think I'll remove the strings, remove the bridge, tap the bridge stud mount in the guitar back down so that it is flush with the surface, restore the bridge and make neck relief adjustments, put new strings on, make adjust adjustments and then begin intonation adjustments from there.

Sound right?

 

[DHW]

Agreed. The intonation on the other strings doesn't seem to be a problem, though I'll follow up that statement by checking with a tuner.

Last night while doing some research I did stumble across this http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/bridges.html which identified some set screws on the back of the bridge with which some adjustments could be made. When I checked the guitar to see if this bridge did in fact have these set screws I noticed another problem. The bridge on the E side is tilting towards the nut. This seems to be due to the fact that the 'mount' that the bridge stud screws into, is lifting out of the body of the guitar. See image/pic

I'm guessing that at some point in time someone put really have gauge strings on and/or over tighten the string causing the mount to being to pull out of its body cavity. Hopefully there no permanent wood damage such that the mount cavity is too loose.

At this point I think I'll remove the strings, remove the bridge, tap the bridge stud mount in the guitar back down so that it is flush with the surface, restore the bridge and make neck relief adjustments, put new strings on, make adjust adjustments and then begin intonation adjustments from there.

Sound right?

My korina is the same way. The holes that the fittings are set in are a little shallow rather than pulling out. The lean is caused by sloppy tolerances in the threads of the studs and where the bridge slides over the studs. I remedied this with a set of metric prs tonepros locking studs. Took 99% of the lean out.

If the intonation in on for the other strings either the string is bad or you have a problem at the nut.

 

[cmedcoff]

So today I loosened the strings and removed the bridge. I was surprise by how deep the studs go, however I think it is a quality issue. From what I can tell the holes were not drilled completely orthogonal to the surface of the guitar, but I was able to tap the mount deeper. When I put it back together the intonation did improve. I still need to try adjusting the relief, replace the strings, and adjust intonation. Yes there is a enough 'slop' in the machining of the stud that it still leans a bit since it cannot be screwed in completely - otherwise the string hits the pickup, but I'm happy its better than it was. Yes a better 'tolerance' as you on the studs would help stop it from leaning so much.

I'm going to make adjustments and play it for awhile before investing more money. I'm not expecting the same quality as my Custom 24 or even my SE Torero, but just wanted to be able to tune up and play chords without offending the ear. I think I'm almost there.