Just bought a 408

[Alnus Rubra]

Really nice and the colour accentuates the flame beautifully. Congrats

 

[bodia]

Smokin' hot!

 

[Tajtrivedi]

Thanks for the kind words! It may not be a 10 top, but I think it is gorgeous. Is the 408 a good seller for PRS? The pickup design is genius in my mind, and works as advertised. Tight focused neck sound, huge open bridge. And that volume pot, holy hell it dials back gain beautifully with zero loss of tone.

 

[László]

Thanks for the kind words! It may not be a 10 top, but I think it is gorgeous. Is the 408 a good seller for PRS? The pickup design is genius in my mind, and works as advertised. Tight focused neck sound, huge open bridge. And that volume pot, holy hell it dials back gain beautifully with zero loss of tone.

Like you, I think the 408 is an incredibly great guitar, and I love the pickups. I have a guitar with the previous Paul’s Guitar 408s, but also had the Signature Limited that preceded the 408, plus a 408 model.

The clarity and flexibility, coupled with the punch of the pickups, is (IMHO) off the charts. They’re stellar guitars with an innovative design.

I think it’s a great guitar for the player who uses the volume knob on the guitar to control the amp, as you’re doing. I do the same thing with mine.

Enjoy that beauty!

 

[Tajtrivedi]

I was honestly worried about some of the mixed response I got from the internet about the 408. The propietary pickups never scared me though. If a stock pickup sounds great to begin with, why would I change it? Of course we all have different tastes, but I'm glad I took the chance and pulled the trigger on a great deal for a used 2012 408 MT. I wasn't able to play one first and try it out, but this gamble paid off in spades.

 

[László]

If a stock pickup sounds great to begin with, why would I change it?

Exactly! The whole point of having the guitar as a separate model is the pickups.

 

[Mozzi]

Exactly! The whole point of having the guitar as a separate model is the pickups.

I agree! However, it seems that some people only buy guitars to swap out perfectly decent pick-ups. There are numerous people here that will ask what Pick-ups do they recommend to go in a guitar before they have even bought the model and seen what it can do with their gear. They may find that with some tweaks to their pedal/amp settings, the guitar does what they want. Turn the gain/drive/boost up a bit more if the guitar is known to have a low output pick-up...

However that's too much 'effort' - its easy to buy a brand new guitar and swap the PU's out so any guitar that can't or much more limiting is a 'problem'. I think its ridiculous that people don't buy a guitar based on what it offers from 'stock' and if it doesn't meet expectation, buy a different guitar instead, one that does do/sound how you want. Its even more ridiculous with the 'specialist' guitars that are built specifically around a concept - in other words specialising in a certain sound/characteristic rather than being more 'general' - like the 408, 513, Paul's, 509 etc.

Its like buying a philips screwdriver and then modding it into hammer. You buy a Philips screw driver to use with Philips head screws - its a specialist - it specialises in tightening/loosening philips head screws and, unlike a hammer which can be used to hammer any size nails in, forge metal or beat metal into a shape and probably do a lot of other jobs too rather than just be a 'specialist' tool bought to do a specific thing. Its late and this might not be the best analogy I could of come up with.

Buy he guitar(s) for what they are, what they offer etc and not what you hope they may be with changes. Don't mess with something that isn't broken and if it doesn't have the sound you want, especially the specialist range of PRS, then don't buy!

 

[grausch]

The 408 pickups are really, really nice. Doing a shootout, the wife and I both preferred the 408 over my other guitars. To me, it has a PAFish quality that I was not expecting. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that these pickups are modeled on the 59/09s, but don’t quote me on that.

 

[Mark Bois]

Congratulations love it. I agree with one of the previous posts I refuse to do pickup swaps anymore I'll just work with what comes with it that's how it was designed. If you do this you will make better choices on your instrument purchases. But I'm satisfied with the pickups on the 408 never even considered a swap in fact that's one reason I got it in the first place.