HELP! Honeymoon seems to be over...

[Draconomics]

Hello, i checked the neck and is straight so i didn't ajusted the truss rod. Maybe mine doesn't like sharp tunings :/
Here is the new video with the isolated direct sound, so you can see/hear what's happening with my guitar. Is subtle but i can notice it. Also the noise in the in between positions and the rotary doing short circuit. The dimarzio strap helped the problem with the weight feel so it will stay there

thanks for the help, i'll keep reading you!
PD: video starts at 00:14 seconds, made a mistake in the edit! sorry about that
PD2: sorry about the background today i didn't had enough time to tidy all up

Hmm..if the neck is dead flat you might want to try putting a bit of neck relief in there. If you do alot of bending, a little goes a long way. BTW, I recall you said the G string is the culprit who goes out of tune. Sometimes I put together sets with a different guage G, one thats a little heavier for lower tunings. I have found wound Gs seem to do better, but its been years since I messed with that sort of thing. I play rubberbands now. Lol

Ok, lets address the honk in the room. Ill focus on the bridge since you mentioned its the bridge you dont like. Im monitoring this thru Beyerdynamic DT770s btw. clean sounds fine to me, its brighter than what I'm used to, but nothing crazy honky to my ears. Distorted sound definitely has more midrange, but nothing overwhelming. I'm sorry if you mentioned this before, but Im curious what you used for distortion.

Im leaning on the distortion box being the reason for our honk, or perceived honk. Some color your tone in ways that will surprise you. Might also be the cause of our noise too, and it could be it or where its placed. I will get extraneous noise on mine, which have fully shielded cavities, but just by being in proximity to electronic devices (a computer for example). I often prescribe a good noise gate and eq. Guitars can be noisy things and pickup all kinds of signals. I picked up police transmissions once when I was a kid. An inline eq can remedy all sorts of problems with honky/bassy/bright tones. EVH used to swear by them. All that said...I dont think the bridge tone was crazy honky, a little but not overwhelming. The noise really aint bad either, I thought it was tolerable.

One more thing...things that sound like shorts in switches and pots sometimes is just caused by a little crumb of poop getting in there interfering with the contact areas. Spin those knobs rapidly several times and sometimes that'll do it. Its sorta rare for me to see pots and switches that are actually goners.

 

[DISTORT6]

If you decide to pull the DragonI from your guitar, I know a guy who could take it off your hands…

 

[AP515]

If you decide to pull the DragonI from your guitar, I know a guy who could take it off your hands…

You're second in line buddy...

 

[Draconomics]

You're second in line buddy...

Third.

 

[DISTORT6]

You're second in line buddy...

You’d better check again pal…
(Damn fine print…)

 

[Cris_mas]

hahahahahah easy guys! did some findings:

-thanks to your comments, i've noticed the preamp actually did something weird. Reading further i noticed this ones are capable of carrying russian tubes (6something) and the normal 12ax7's. It has a jumper on the inside (i discovered it because i wanted to change the tube thinking the one that came could be dying). Also noticed it had beer or at least stains of it (fortunately all worked fine) so changed the jumper position to "12ax7" and BOOM!! now it sings. I still don't rule out a pickup change but my itch to change them is at ease for the moment. We will see.

-It's imperative to swap the switch. The shorting is getting worse

-we had warmer weather and guitar behaved better in tuning department. That's a sign. I usually put it in a multi instrument stand but tonight i will put it in a gig bag to see how it affects her.

-Consider that the pickup is on Chile, a bit far from USA hahahah. But i will consider the order of interest in case Dragon (or Dragons) must fly.

I will report more findings after the weekend

have a good one fellow PRSholics!

The problem is it's your only PRS. You should have three by now. Trust me, it will solve all your "problems"

i wish i could sir! i still don't recover from this one haha

 

[Rider1260]

As far as tuning goes , you need to use the trem as the PRS nut is self lubing, Tune UP to pitch then do your best Steve Vai imitation , tune up to pitch again use the trem some more , give it a small wiggle , turn up to pitch REPEAT the tuning will get better. I also give the trem a good wiggle after the guitar has been sitting for any time. I would also try lowering your neck pickup even with the ring or a bit below then balance the treble pickup by ear for best tone also don't forget the pole pieces can make a big difference when fine tuning your sound.

 

[Draconomics]

hahahahahah easy guys! did some findings:

-thanks to your comments, i've noticed the preamp actually did something weird. Reading further i noticed this ones are capable of carrying russian tubes (6something) and the normal 12ax7's. It has a jumper on the inside (i discovered it because i wanted to change the tube thinking the one that came could be dying). Also noticed it had beer or at least stains of it (fortunately all worked fine) so changed the jumper position to "12ax7" and BOOM!! now it sings. I still don't rule out a pickup change but my itch to change them is at ease for the moment. We will see.

I had a feeling it was your distortion box or preamp. Glad you found the culprit.

 

[Cris_mas]

Have a great week guys and belated happy 4th of July!! (at least for USA fellow users )
News of the week:

-bought a new rotary on Amazon (expensive, did hurt the wallet ) so i will wait it to partially solve some electric issues
-also, bought two new pattern nuts (supposeddly compatible with the wide fat neck of the CE22)

both things arrive in aprox 2 more weeks so for now i just got to wait and record my guitars.

I had a feeling it was your distortion box or preamp. Glad you found the culprit.

the thing is i have two pres. One does the "Soldano" sound (i love it, but is kind of ultra mid boosted, and PRs being and already mid focused guitar did a bit of a nasty mid exagerated madness XD) and the other one is the tube pre. I'm not sure to sell the "Soldano" one, but since i've already have plenty of gain and the mid thing is a bit overkill, practicality of having it isn't great. All will be decided this week.

 

[Draconomics]

the thing is i have two pres. One does the "Soldano" sound (i love it, but is kind of ultra mid boosted, and PRs being and already mid focused guitar did a bit of a nasty mid exagerated madness XD) and the other one is the tube pre. I'm not sure to sell the "Soldano" one, but since i've already have plenty of gain and the mid thing is a bit overkill, practicality of having it isn't great. All will be decided this week.

That would do it. I never liked Soldanos or anything emulating one, always thought they were very midrange heavy amps. I would still think about getting an inline EQ pedal, so you can do a little trimming before you hit the amp. Just an extra level of control.

 

[Daniel Elam]

Maybe you could take the guitar to a shop and try it through some different amps and dirt pedals. Might help you figure out the real voice of the guitar and pickups.

 

[Cris_mas]

That would do it. I never liked Soldanos or anything emulating one, always thought they were very midrange heavy amps. I would still think about getting an inline EQ pedal, so you can do a little trimming before you hit the amp. Just an extra level of control.

Well, i use the Torpedo CAB eq for that matter

Maybe you could take the guitar to a shop and try it through some different amps and dirt pedals. Might help you figure out the real voice of the guitar and pickups.

We are in full lockdown but on thursday we go to partial so i'm planning to visit a friend and do exactly that .

In context guitar sounds like this now: (mind is a raw mix, clean and distortion guitars are PRS to AMT SS-20 to CAB M and to DAW. Effects are from DAW

https://soundcloud.com/cristian-aroca/bruma-prs-sample/s-ZrQM0JF3hc3

 

[Cris_mas]

Hello guys. Have a nice Week.

Well, i've visited my friend last week and jammed on his rehearsal place, so had the chance to try Cecil (temporary name) and had a few interesting findings:

-Playing Cecil on real amps was showing a very "bassy" tone compared to my friend's strat (sure, woods make a difference, but it lead to a point where Prs sounded "under a blanket" compared to the strat. (amp was Orange crush 120 and Marshall 1960 4x12 for reference)

-Playing her through my setup (tube pre+ digital IR Two notes CAB M+) didn't sounded so dark, neither so different to my buddy's strat. That lead me to believe it was a matter of signal chain or amp thing.

-Through my setup in the PA sounded glorious. Indeed, still sounded more on the dark side of things, but way better than on the Orange amp at least to my ears. Still not totally in love with the bridge PU. Neck sounded OKish with real amps. Please bear in mind that my sound on HB is based on being a long time Suhr SSV- SD Pegasus user, so my "HB eq settings" in the ear are still different.
Bright, open sounding but mid-high output humbuckers. In this point, CE compared to my ex SE SC, now i have way better definition and fullness to the sound to put it someway. But, still feel that low mids are quite strong, and Dragon pickups reinforce this.

New Rotary, and Pattern nut are comming,hopefully for next week. Sonic experimentation still ongoing. Tunning problems still are there. Actually i preffer to not use the tremolo for now.
Discovered that the previous owner lost the nut that holds the trem bar and the plastic is hard pressing it only :facepalm:

Despite all above (huge complaint as it seems) i don't regret buying the guitar. I've always tweaked my guitars, just thought this one would be the exception, but nah. I guess i'll never stop tweaking

 

[Em7]

I do not have much to add other than the tuning of your guitar is known as Eb, not D#. Eb is the enharmonic equivalent of D#.

 

[Draconomics]

I do not have much to add other than the tuning of your guitar is known as Eb, not D#. Eb is the enharmonic equivalent of D#.

I think Nigel Tufnel wrote mostly in D#.

 

[Em7]

I think Nigel Tufnel wrote mostly in D#.

Lol! This is Spinal Tap.

*** Skip this part if you have had training music theory ***

On a more serious note, guitarists who have not studied music theory usually have never heard of the term "enharmonic equivalent." Enharmonic keys have the same notes another key. They just have different names. For example D#/Eb is an enharmonic key signature pair. The bulk of rock and blues music is written in minor keys.

Notes in D# minor: D♯, E♯, F♯, G♯, A♯, B, and C♯.
Notes in Eb minor: E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭, C♭, and D♭

If one works out the note spacing (intervals), one discovers that there is a whole step (two frets) between the first and second notes in the scale, a half step (one fret) between the second and third notes, a whole step between the third and fourth notes, a whole step between the the fourth and fifth notes, a half step between the fifth and sixth note, and a whole step between the sixth and seventh notes. The pattern for the natural minor scale is WHWWHWW, which is a full octave. This scale is also known as Aeolian mode. If we look at D# minor, it contains the note E#. As we know, there is no E# on a fretboard. E# is actually the enharmonic equivalent of F. The same can be said for Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb and Db in the Eb minor scale. They are enharmonic equivalents of F♯, G♯, A♯, B, and C♯, respectively. If one works out the pentatonic minor scale, one discovers that it is missing the 2nd and 6th notes (scale degrees) from the natural minor scale. Instead of having seven notes (diatonic) like the natural minor scale, the pentatonic minor scale has five notes. A lot of guitarists get stuck in the pentatonic trap when soloing. Any song over which one can solo in the pentatonic minor scale can also be soloed over using the natural minor scale. The result is usually a much more melodic solo.

 

[Cris_mas]

Lol! This is Spinal Tap.

*** Skip this part if you have had training music theory ***

On a more serious note, guitarists who have not studied music theory usually have never heard of the term "enharmonic equivalent." Enharmonic keys have the same notes another key. They just have different names. For example D#/Eb is an enharmonic key signature pair. The bulk of rock and blues music is written in minor keys.

Notes in D# minor: D♯, E♯, F♯, G♯, A♯, B, and C♯.
Notes in Eb minor: E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭, C♭, and D♭

If one works out the note spacing (intervals), one discovers that there is a whole step (two frets) between the first and second notes in the scale, a half step (one fret) between the second and third notes, a whole step between the third and fourth notes, a whole step between the the fourth and fifth notes, a half step between the fifth and sixth note, and a whole step between the sixth and seventh notes. The pattern for the natural minor scale is WHWWHWW, which is a full octave. This scale is also known as Aeolian mode. If we look at D# minor, it contains the note E#. As we know, there is no E# on a fretboard. E# is actually the enharmonic equivalent of F. The same can be said for Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb and Db in the Eb minor scale. They are enharmonic equivalents of F♯, G♯, A♯, B, and C♯, respectively. If one works out the pentatonic minor scale, one discovers that it is missing the 2nd and 6th notes (scale degrees) from the natural minor scale. Instead of having seven notes (diatonic) like the natural minor scale, the pentatonic minor scale has five notes. A lot of guitarists get stuck in the pentatonic trap when soloing. Any song over which one can solo in the pentatonic minor scale can also be soloed over using the natural minor scale. The result is usually a much more melodic solo.

Thank you sir! I appreaciate your correction and i will apply it from now on. I had only one semester of music theory when i studied Sound tech, so little i know about scales. I should study more but life always dictated i should do something else.

 

[Draconomics]

Lol! This is Spinal Tap.

*** Skip this part if you have had training music theory ***

On a more serious note, guitarists who have not studied music theory usually have never heard of the term "enharmonic equivalent." Enharmonic keys have the same notes another key. They just have different names. For example D#/Eb is an enharmonic key signature pair. The bulk of rock and blues music is written in minor keys.

D#m is the saddest key of all of course, and if you make a D#m and Ebm progression, its double sad. lol

Enharmonic equivalents are just one of those little quirks about music, and an example why I always say to any students I teach that music has no real formalities, just guidelines and self imposed limits based on your own imagination. We all use Eb as the de-facto term and on a scale chart it makes more sense, buy you can always be a rebel and demand to play Sweet Child of Mine in D#. On the subject of music theory, I remember studying charts that Holdsworth would use (from some old instructional video he made back in the 80's). Those things looked terrifying, and add to it he developed scales that ran over two octaves. Strangely, I always heard he didn't have good formal music theory knowledge, it was more like he made his own that made sense to him.

 

[Cris_mas]

i guess now i should start my posts like this: "Dear diary" :

-i had enough and removed the PU covers. Boy! i was missing some highs and this was a true surprise. It did some subtle but noticeable change in tone (for good). Also raised the polepiece screws.
-Also tried to flip the magnet in case i was missing somehting. NADA, was flipped back.
-Lubed bridge and nut with Tune-it while i removed the strings. Tunning improved marginaly.
-Hidrated the fretboard with lemon oil, this girl (cough,milf) needed it!

I may be changing my mind on Dragons now...will replace the switch and will see.

Over and out

 

[Draconomics]

-Hidrated the fretboard with lemon oil, this girl (cough,milf) needed it!

For the future, I suggest linseed oil. This is gonna be a matter of contention among players, but for me its the only thing I use for fretboards. The reason is...the stuff that we commonly buy called lemon oil really isnt. Its more like mineral oil with a small amount of lemon oil in it. Pure lemon oil is very acidic, and I advise never to use that. Mineral oil doesnt coagulate very much when it dries, however linseed oil will. Thats a good thing because it will stay in the open pores in the woodgrain and thus do a better job at blocking moisture from getting in. If you ever use it, use a very small amount, and only twice a year at most. Linseed snot can be a good friend, but too much and it can be an enemy leading to grubby fingerboards.

Other than that, looking good!