Disappointed!

[Sybo]

I have lived through all kinds of guitar issues. Bad guitars, bad necks, bad frets , All intimidating. Even here in Nashvegas there are the incompetent that profess to be experts. I learned to do my “ work” myself. I feel to be fully immersed in something requires total understanding of operation and adjustment. I can dial in most guitars, of course I am a perfectionist. Learn to do your own setups. It will make you better all- round..

 

[ScottR]

I second what @Sybo said. PRSi are the only guitar I've bought online that comes from factory set up beautifully. I've had 3 new SE's and a new Silver Sky. I've only had to "touch tune" any of them. As others have stated, this is a dealer issue not a PRS issue, but it's cool that they are willing to reimburse you.

I usually just tweak the set-up with the first string change to my taste. For future reference...when you purchase your next PRS...don't let ANYONE touch it.

I was intimidated the first time I did my own set-up, but it's easily done by just knowing the parameters and working within them. Just be very careful with the trussrod adjustment they are especially sensitive on PRSi.

IIRC Skitchy from PRS has a Youtube tutorial on how to set up your PRS. I'll see if I can dig it up for you.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Nothing that I can add, other than well wishes for a positive outcome.

 

[Daveporter33765]

I second what @Sybo said. PRSi are the only guitar I've bought online that comes from factory set up beautifully. I've had 3 new SE's and a new Silver Sky. I've only had to "touch tune" any of them. As others have stated, this is a dealer issue not a PRS issue, but it's cool that they are willing to reimburse you.

I usually just tweak the set-up with the first string change to my taste. For future reference...when you purchase your next PRS...don't let ANYONE touch it.

I was intimidated the first time I did my own set-up, but it's easily done by just knowing the parameters and working within them. Just be very careful with the trussrod adjustment they are especially sensitive on PRSi.

IIRC Skitchy from PRS has a Youtube tutorial on how to set up your PRS. I'll see if I can dig it up for you.

Scott,

Thank you for your help. I have already completed a typical set-up, nothing (truss rod relief set to factory spec., string height set to factory spec., the nut appears to be cut correctly, etc,) seems to correct the fret buzz. I am hopeful that my luthier will find the issue and be able to easily correct it; this is a really great guitar except for the buzz) and I would hate to return it to PRS.

I have already seen the video you referenced, it’s available on YouTube.

Have a great day.

 

[László]

I agree with Simon. This is a dealer setup issue, and yet PRS is stuck with a hit to their reputation.

That’s probably why the forum rules say:

“If you have a customer service issue or concern with your PRS product, please contact customer service at [email protected], or 410-643-9970. Customer service and support issues will only be addressed via email or phone and not on the PRS Forum.”

Why people can’t seem to abide by this is beyond my understanding.

 

[bodia]

I agree with Simon. This is a dealer setup issue, and yet PRS is stuck with a hit to their reputation.

That’s probably why the forum rules say:

“If you have a customer service issue or concern with your PRS product, please contact customer service at [email protected], or 410-643-9970. Customer service and support issues will only be addressed via email or phone and not on the PRS Forum.”

Why people can’t seem to abide by this is beyond my understanding.

Totally agree

 

[alantig]

I agree with Simon. This is a dealer setup issue, and yet PRS is stuck with a hit to their reputation.

That’s probably why the forum rules say:

“If you have a customer service issue or concern with your PRS product, please contact customer service at [email protected], or 410-643-9970. Customer service and support issues will only be addressed via email or phone and not on the PRS Forum.”

Why people can’t seem to abide by this is beyond my understanding.

You act like reading comprehension is still a thing.

Plus, you're showing your age, Les. All the cool kids know when you have a complaint, you find a forum and post away. Rules? Guidelines? That's old people stuff!

 

[László]

You act like reading comprehension is still a thing.

Plus, you're showing your age, Les. All the cool kids know when you have a complaint, you find a forum and post away. Rules? Guidelines? That's old people stuff!

That must be it.

 

[Bill SAS 513]

I'll 2nd/3rd/and 4th what everyone already stated…
It could have absolutely happened during shipping, as drastic temperature changes often effect most guitars' actions.
Should definitely be an easy fix.

Another thing to consider is that everyone's preferred action is different. If you like really low action, than I'll kinda assume you have a pretty soft touch.
If you play chugga chugga (Heavy Stuff), a higher action might suit you better.
There are also some players that prefer high action , so they can dig in to bend strings...(Robben Ford/ SRV...)
Well...you get the point...a players' preferred action is very individualized, per each player.
I just hope you get it sorted out quickly.

 

[Drew]

People just need to learn to dial a guitar in. If you are going to play guitar, you should know how to set them up. The only time a dealer/manufacturer should be held accountable is if a nut wasn't cut right, neck twist, or something else along those lines.

 

[Rhythmisking]

This is why I personally will never buy a guitar that will be shipped in the winter. God knows what the temperaure, humidity etc fluctuations were between leaving the dealer and arriving at your house. Even letting it acclimate for a couple days at your place only means nothing bad will happen inside your house. You have no control of airplanes, sitting on tarmac, baggage handlers, back of trucks, etc all of which can present extreme temperature environments. I hope this all gets sorted quickly for you.

 

[alantig]

This is why I personally will never buy a guitar that will be shipped in the winter. God knows what the temperaure, humidity etc fluctuations were between leaving the dealer and arriving at your house. Even letting it acclimate for a couple days at your place only means nothing bad will happen inside your house. You have no control of airplanes, sitting on tarmac, baggage handlers, back of trucks, etc all of which can present extreme temperature environments. I hope this all gets sorted quickly for you.

Even so, that's not a guarantee that you won't have some sort of issues. I once bought a guitar in a store 3.5 hours from home. Played it in the store, drove it home myself. Two days later, unplayable. The neck shifted that much, and that's with no drastic temperature changes.

You could argue that summer is an equally bad time to ship a guitar. It sits in a truck, maybe a shipping container, in the sun all day, moving from location to location. Move it into a building then out again, another temperature shift.

I've had guitars delivered at various times of the year. Gave them an hour or two to acclimate at most - including a PS - and I've never had a serious issue.

 

[dogrocketp]

The last one I bought came to me after several bitter cold days on a truck over the weekend. The neck definitely has some things that need to be fixed. To make it worse, I looked for the guitar for 3 years, and now I can't play it above the 12th fret till it gets sorted out. It's a triple soapbar custom 22 that came from dry high altitude Colorado back to 90 miles from the factory. You never know.

 

[Daveporter33765]

I agree with Simon. This is a dealer setup issue, and yet PRS is stuck with a hit to their reputation.

That’s probably why the forum rules say:

“If you have a customer service issue or concern with your PRS product, please contact customer service at [email protected], or 410-643-9970. Customer service and support issues will only be addressed via email or phone and not on the PRS Forum.”

Why people can’t seem to abide by this is beyond my understanding.

I totally disagree with you. An authorized dealer is as much a part of the PRS organization as PRS itself. Any issues that arise from something a factory authorized dealer does wrong is no different than if a PRS employee caused an issue.
Secondly, this is not yet a “customer service issue”. I have no customer service complaint, I was hoping that fellow forum members more familiar with PRS guitars than I would have good advice to offer. As for your snarky tone, don’t try it on me.

 

[Daveporter33765]

I just came back from visiting my luthier. The problem was that the typical PRS specification for neck relief will not work with this guitar. Instead of 7 to 10 thousandths of an inch, it required 12 thousandths and the string height had to be set 5 thousandths greater than recommended height. Rather than have my luthier go deeper into the investigation I had him stop and took the guitar as it is. It is fully playable with these settings for now. I will take it back to him in a couple of weeks when it’s time to change strings for a full set up to see if he can dial it in better. When I checked the set-up I only went as far as PRS standard set-up recommendations, had I pushed it I could have saved the trip to my luthier until later. To those of you that offered help and information, thank you very much. To those that acted like I was blaspheming to state that there was some sort of problem with a new PRS, even something as minor as buzzing, thanks but no thanks!

 

[Ovibos]

I totally disagree with you. An authorized dealer is as much a part of the PRS organization as PRS itself. Any issues that arise from something a factory authorized dealer does wrong is no different than if a PRS employee caused an issue.

They're not, tho.

Dealers buy guitars from PRS, do who-knows-what with them, then sell them to you.

If something is clearly a manufacturing issue (peeling finish, misconnected electronics) then it's on PRS. Other than that, PRS has no idea what the dealer did to the guitar, how they stored it, how they shipped it, etc.

"Authorized dealer" just means that PRS sold it to them directly and will support warranty claims thru them, vs. an 'unauthorized dealer' who got it from who-knows-where.

 

[Daveporter33765]

They're not, tho.

Dealers buy guitars from PRS, do who-knows-what with them, then sell them to you.

If something is clearly a manufacturing issue (peeling finish, misconnected electronics) then it's on PRS. Other than that, PRS has no idea what the dealer did to the guitar, how they stored it, how they shipped it, etc.

"Authorized dealer" just means that PRS sold it to them directly and will support warranty claims thru them, vs. an 'unauthorized dealer' who got it from who-knows-where.

This is hardly worth wasted by any more of my time on. However, so you might learn something I will try. You are totally incorrect. I owned a company for many years and had “authorized dealers” and know full well what their role and responsibilities are. An authorized dealer is a firm that the manufacturer has vetted to insure that they have the people, equipment and trained in-house technicians needed to perform pre-sale consultation, pre-shipment preparation of the product, after-sale customer support and product service. The reason the are “factory authorized” is because the manufacturer’s reputation is on the line when that firm acts on behalf of the manufacturer. To make sure that the dealers are worthy of receiving the “authorized dealer” designation and to protect their reputation, the manufacturer holds initial sales and technical training for the authorized firm’s staff to insure that they are up to speed and periodically provides refresher training to the dealer owners and staff and also regularly evaluates the dealers performance to determine if they can continue as “authorized dealers”.

Believe what you will, but you do not understand what an “Authorized Dealer” is or the relationship they have with the manufacturer.

in my case, the authorized dealer did a good job providing me with customer service when I experienced a problem. I have no complaint with them or PRS. I was disappointed when a brand new $4.5K guitar arrived unplayable. I have never experienced that in the 60 years I have been playing and buying guitars. If the fret buzz had been minor I would have chalked it up to changes in temperature and other environmental factors during shipping, but the buzz was so pronounced that the guitar was unplayable. A month ago, I purchased my first PRS, a SE Paul’s Guitar, and had it shipped from a cold climate to Florida with no issues. So, something different happened this time. When I take this guitar back to my luthier hopefully he can dial it in closer to within factory specifications and also determine what happened to cause this problem.
Since I am new to PRS guitars, I had hoped that there would be long-term users who might have had some insight into my problem, something different about PRS setups that they could point to. Again, thanks to you that tried to help! But what I got from a number of members was snarky comments of no value. If you don’t like my post, just ignore it, keep the snarky comments to yourself.

 

[CandidPicker]

Thanks for your help Steve. Based on where the fret buzz is occurring, the first five frets, one would think that it could be that there in not sufficient neck relief. Unfortunately I have already completed a quick set-up but the fret buzz persists. Hopefully my luthier will find something I missed or some other minor, easily resolved issue, and the fret buzz can be easily fixed.

Dave,

According to some YT techs, the first string fret buzz is typically caused by a bridge issue. Here's the vids regards neck relief, intonation and some set-up...

Also some good info regard what knob and switch settings to use...

 

[Daveporter33765]

Dave,

According to some YT techs, the first string fret buzz is typically caused by a bridge issue. Here's the vids regards neck relief, intonation and some set-up...

Also some good info regard what knob and switch settings to use...

Thank you very much! I appreciate your help.

 

[Ovibos]

This is hardly worth wasted by any more of my time on. However, so you might learn something I will try. You are totally incorrect. I owned a company for many years and had “authorized dealers” and know full well what their role and responsibilities are. An authorized dealer is a firm that the manufacturer has vetted to insure that they have the people, equipment and trained in-house technicians needed to perform pre-sale consultation, pre-shipment preparation of the product, after-sale customer support and product service. The reason the are “factory authorized” is because the manufacturer’s reputation is on the line when that firm acts on behalf of the manufacturer. To make sure that the dealers are worthy of receiving the “authorized dealer” designation and to protect their reputation, the manufacturer holds initial sales and technical training for the authorized firm’s staff to insure that they are up to speed and periodically provides refresher training to the dealer owners and staff and also regularly evaluates the dealers performance to determine if they can continue as “authorized dealers”.

Believe what you will, but you do not understand what an “Authorized Dealer” is or the relationship they have with the manufacturer.

in my case, the authorized dealer did a good job providing me with customer service when I experienced a problem. I have no complaint with them or PRS. I was disappointed when a brand new $4.5K guitar arrived unplayable. I have never experienced that in the 60 years I have been playing and buying guitars. If the fret buzz had been minor I would have chalked it up to changes in temperature and other environmental factors during shipping, but the buzz was so pronounced that the guitar was unplayable. A month ago, I purchased my first PRS, a SE Paul’s Guitar, and had it shipped from a cold climate to Florida with no issues. So, something different happened this time. When I take this guitar back to my luthier hopefully he can dial it in closer to within factory specifications and also determine what happened to cause this problem.
Since I am new to PRS guitars, I had hoped that there would be long-term users who might have had some insight into my problem, something different about PRS setups that they could point to. Again, thanks to you that tried to help! But what I got from a number of members was snarky comments of no value. If you don’t like my post, just ignore it, keep the snarky comments to yourself.

And this was in the world of guitars?

Or maybe in a different world where you could possibly allow that the term could mean something different?

Sam Ash, Sweetwater, and Guitar Center are all listed as "Authorized Dealers" - I have trouble believing PRS provides periodic training to GC salespeople...