Belated NGD: I bought a PRS S2 Standard 24 Surf Green w/ Dot Inlays

[Ol'Lefty]

I soldered up a primo CTS and great caps for my S2 and I have no qualms about reaming the pot holes- if I do the custom pickups, I'll use it. It is all Gibson vintage style so the split would go and the split on mine is excellent- no real volume loss and while not a Strat, clearly single coil qualities but quiet. PRS nailed that; better than any other P/P guitar I have had.

 

[honeyiscool]

Hi Honeyiscool, I remember you from the harmony central forum prior to the mass exodus. Glad you like your guitar, and I have a very similar story having recently purchased my first PRS, a Mira. I have been tweaking mine with new electronics also, and I think it is finally done. I shielded the cavity as well (which, I agree, is a disappointment for a $1000 instrument), new pups, pots, wiring (fixed the split issue you spoke of and modified the treble bleed), and speed knobs as well. Overall very pleased with the way it turned out, and honestly the tone of the bones is awesome. One of these days I'll post clips and pics, but for now I'm just having too much fun playing the thing. Have fun w/ yours! Cheers.

Hi! It seems like your modifications are exactly what I'm looking to do. Great minds think alike?

The S2 Mira is a cool guitar, too, but I think this time, I wanted 24 frets and a whammy. And comes in great colors, too. I really like it in cherry.

 

[honeyiscool]

Is it "Surf Green" or "Seafoam Green"?

Either way, it looks awesome! I do think the understated look of dots and pick guard works well on the Standards.

And a very good review, with your pros and cons well explained. Thanks for doing that!

Seafoam, I just called it Surf Green out of confusion, but honestly, Fender Seafoam Green is a lot paler and a lot bluer, so I think the color is actually somewhere in between what I'd consider surf and seafoam.

 

[drdoom8793]

Seafoam, I just called it Surf Green out of confusion, but honestly, Fender Seafoam Green is a lot paler and a lot bluer, so I think the color is actually somewhere in between what I'd consider surf and seafoam.

Speaking of this, is it just me, or does anyone else notice a significant difference between the Seafoam Green of the Mira and Starla and the new Standards? The new ones seem to be a lot brighter of a color, where the Mira and Starla seem to be more pale as honey describes.

 

[honeyiscool]

Congrats! Use a small screw driver to slightly widen the pot's shaft and the knob will stay on. I'm sure you can find a T handle nut driver to fit the truss rod. Try raising the bridge pickup height and lowering the neck. Raising the screw pole pieces(maybe a 1/2 turn each?) could give you a hair more bite and clarity. The control cavity on core guitars has had shielding paint inside the cavity. I'd imagine S2 would have the same? You'd think they'd have that under the pickguard? I haven't opened one up ever. Maybe it's not necessary, I don't know that the core guitars have anything in the pickup routs.

I opened it up a couple days back and there was zero shielding. It was the same color under the guard as the rest of the guitar. That's good info about the pole pieces and the pots but honestly, I think I'll just go full CTS and replacement pickups anyway, so I'll just sell the stock wiring for a little bit of cash, I've always been able to recoup a little bit of money doing that and people will pay more for a fully working harness over just a pair of pickups.

As for the truss rod wrench, I've found a couple of T handled wrenches for Gibson/American sized, does anyone know what sized nuts the S2 truss rods have? I'd imagine they're American sized (5/16"), but I would want to be sure.

 

[honeyiscool]

Speaking of this, is it just me, or does anyone else notice a significant difference between the Seafoam Green of the Mira and Starla and the new Standards? The new ones seem to be a lot brighter of a color, where the Mira and Starla seem to be more pale as honey describes.

I wonder how much of this is due to the stock photos just looking different. So I pulled up some in-stock Seafoam Green S2 guitars from Sweetwater, where I'd imagine the lighting is kept more similar from guitar to guitar.

What do you think? Some pictures are clearly brighter than others, but the actual guitars don't seem too different.

 

[drdoom8793]

Those look very similar there. Maybe they changed it since the early S2s or possibly it is just a lighting issue. Who knows?

 

[shinksma]

Those look very similar there. Maybe they changed it since the early S2s or possibly it is just a lighting issue. Who knows?

Color Balance.

You can make a black dress look blue or vice versa (had to go there) based on color balance alone.

Plus, differing imaging sensors.

For example, here are a couple shots of my P24 - one shot with a DSLR, one with my cellphone camera:

Or here are a couple shots of my Archon (same finish as the P24!), also cellphone vs DSLR:

Green-blues have always been the most challenging part of the color gamut to reproduce accurately with video/photo technology (how many people remember TVs in the 80s showing the Miami Dolphins with a color that looked nothing like reality!), maybe because that is the color range to which we humans are most sensitive.

 

[ViperDoc]

Love the Surfer, dude.

 

[dogrocketp]

Enjoy the guitar. No one ever makes a guitar that is ideal for everyone. My 2007 Mira also had very little shielding, but that was easy to fix. It`s much harder to fix a bad neck or fingerboard. I think the goal is that we make them ours, whatever we do. It`s a real beauty.

 

[BALIstic]

Color Balance.

You can make a black dress look blue or vice versa (had to go there) based on color balance alone.

Plus, differing imaging sensors.

For example, here are a couple shots of my P24 - one shot with a DSLR, one with my cellphone camera:

Or here are a couple shots of my Archon (same finish as the P24!), also cellphone vs DSLR:

Green-blues have always been the most challenging part of the color gamut to reproduce accurately with video/photo technology (how many people remember TVs in the 80s showing the Miami Dolphins with a color that looked nothing like reality!), maybe because that is the color range to which we humans are most sensitive.

Congrats OP, great write up. Killer looking guitar. I love the single cut with the Bigsby.........Hmmm,

Yup the photos I have taken of my Paul's Guitar on the iPad have almost no similarity to the actual guitar. Inside / outside it just does its own thing. I shouldn't be so lazy and get the Canon out. shinksma, your guitar is stunning I'm questioning my choice of Jade Green ?

 

[shinksma]

shinksma, your guitar is stunning I'm questioning my choice of Jade Green ?

hah! Thanks! That's the problem with PRSi, you find a stunning example, buy it, but then you find another one that looks just as stunning, but different, and boy wouldn't it be good to have both...

To be honest, when I was shopping for the P24, Black Gold Burst was not high on my list of desired colors/finishes at first. I was thinking something a bit more non-traditional and attention-getting, like Eriza Verde or an Orange-Yellow fade. And most of my other PRSi are monochrome flamed maple tops or have plain tops like the Spruce of my HB, so I also was considering a quilt-top. But I saw this one, and realized it looked stunning for a non-10-top, and was in a very traditional wood-finish color. And then I realized the flame and finish matched my Archon (technically the Archon is in plain-old Black Gold, no "burst"), and it was something I suddenly had to have.

But that Jade Green of your Paul's Guitar in the other thread is also stunning, and I would have been just as happy with my P24 done in that finish.

 

[CakeEater]

Nice!

I never really looked at the S2 until now. Yours is gorgeous.

 

[BadMonkey]

the pickguard is ugly , someone know if prs can make s2 custom in this color?

 

[honeyiscool]

Nice guitar and very thorough write up - BTW - Who taught you how to draft electrical diagrams? I can't even read one much less draft one. Maybe consider reviewing guitars for guitar player magazine???

I've just kind of learned to create them by rewriting guitars dozens of times, rarely with a traditional configuration in mind. I almost always go for a more hot-rod approach, and I think that's what's helped me learn about parallel/series and coil splits and rewiring humbuckers and things like that. Pickups and guitar circuits are really a bunch of wire going from positive to ground, that's really all, the only tough part is getting the right controls to do the right things, and for the most part, other people have figured that out for you, so putting it together is sort of like a puzzle.

As for drawing them, I just use a drawing program on the computer (iDraw). It's painstaking but I have a file with a bunch of premade things I can drag and drop and I don't really know programs especially made for this.

If anybody's interested, I rewired my guitar over the weekend using this diagram I drew up:

I ended up using Lace Sensor Big Blocks. Replaced the pots to CTS, knobs to Mojotone USA-spec, and switch to a 4-way Fender Tele switch. Guitar sounds and feels perfect for me now.

The wiring configuration lets me have an absurdly muddy setting with both humbuckers wired in series with each other (not just the coils), which is really great for hitting the hell out of a Vox style amp without a gain control but kind of useless in most other amps (but I only play Vox, so...). In split mode (the Lace Big Blocks split to about 7 and 5), the series option is an absolute wonder, has a very warm, mellow sound that I love.

 

[BadMonkey]

someone know if prs can make s2 custom in this color?

 

[Rockula]

Minor pedantic point - Fender uses "Surf Green" to refer to a very different color. Lighter and less saturated. This PRS color is much closer to what Fender refers to as "Foam Green." There never was an official Fender color called "Seafoam Green," but there was a Crayola crayon color with that name, which is where most of us probably picked up that name memory.

Personally, I like this PRS color and think it suits that guitar better than either of the traditional Fender colors.

 

[shinksma]

the pickguard is ugly , someone know if prs can make s2 custom in this color?

Your tact is ever so graceful.

someone know if prs can make s2 custom in this color?

If you are asking whether PRS makes the S2 Custom 22 or Custom 24 in Seafoam Green, the answer is: not in 2015. Maybe next year. The Products page can tell you all the available colors for each model.

It appears Seafoam Green is being used only on the Vela, Mira, Starla, and Standard 22/24. i.e., the models with pickguards.

Of course, anyone can take any old S2 CU22/24 and paint it a color that is pretty close to, or maybe even exactly matches, the Seafoam green. Just not a factory paint job.

 

[drdoom8793]

If you are asking whether PRS makes the S2 Custom 22 or Custom 24 in Seafoam Green, the answer is: not in 2015. Maybe next year. The Products page can tell you all the available colors for each model.

It appears Seafoam Green is being used only on the Vela, Mira, Starla, and Standard 22/24. i.e., the models with pickguards.

Of course, anyone can take any old S2 CU22/24 and paint it a color that is pretty close to, or maybe even exactly matches, the Seafoam green. Just not a factory paint job.

Alternatively, you could send it to the PTC and they would be able to paint it to match exactly the Seafoam green on the other models, for a fee of course.

 

[BadMonkey]

Your tact is ever so graceful.



If you are asking whether PRS makes the S2 Custom 22 or Custom 24 in Seafoam Green, the answer is: not in 2015. Maybe next year. The Products page can tell you all the available colors for each model.

It appears Seafoam Green is being used only on the Vela, Mira, Starla, and Standard 22/24. i.e., the models with pickguards.

Of course, anyone can take any old S2 CU22/24 and paint it a color that is pretty close to, or maybe even exactly matches, the Seafoam green. Just not a factory paint job.

i know the available colors, the question is if they can do it specifically for customer.