Modern SE locking tuners on an old Santana SE?

[thefsb]

I have one of the old Santana SE guitars, with the oblique line inlays, as below. Do the PRS SE locking tuners I can buy today fit this guitar without mods?

 

[John Beef]

Yes, I have one of those too and the tuners are exactly the same as what comes on the newer ones, so the locking ones should fit too. By the way, that's nice looking, I like the trans-cherry. I don't know why but the photo isn't embedding, but I can open it in a new tab.

 

[thefsb]

Yes, I have one of those too and the tuners are exactly the same as what comes on the newer ones, so the locking ones should fit too. By the way, that's nice looking, I like the trans-cherry. I don't know why but the photo isn't embedding, but I can open it in a new tab.

That one does look nice but it's not mine. I wanted to include a photo to indicate which old model I was talking about and that's what I found with a quick image search. Mine is this back one.

 

[Draconomics]

You know, always had a soft spot for the original SE Santana. Wouldn't mind picking one up one of these days.

 

[EdSevered]

I have two of the early Santana SE’s, a green one, and the white pearl one in my avatar. They were my gateway drug into PRS, and I am now a covert. I have six SE’s now, and am blown away by how they all feel, play, and sound. I’m going to leave the white one stock, and put a set of Starla pickups that I picked up off of Reverb into the green. It’s my understanding that SE Locking Tuners will fit most SE’s. IIRC, in the description on the PRS Accessories website, they call out the few that the SE tuners will definitely not fit, they do not mention the early Santana’s. I have a set, but I haven’t decided which guitar I am going to install them on.

 

[thefsb]

You know, always had a soft spot for the original SE Santana. Wouldn't mind picking one up one of these days.

This old Santana SE the best PRS guitar ever! How come? Because I don't like 1) flash and fancy decorative wood tops (not my style), 2) birds under my fingers, 3) more than 22 frets, 4) skinny or narrow necks, 5) highly rounded fingerboards, 6) weird pickups. Perhaps the CE 22 would suit me but I feel bolt-on maple-neck isn't quite what PRS is about and I'm not going to buy one just to see what it's like since I have an excellent guitar with bolt-on maple-neck and two great humbuckers.

I tried a number of PRS last year when I was choosing my first new guitar in over 20 years and I thought they were all excellent, obviously from the moment you start playing very well made, and also good value relative to other products at the same price, but none were quite right for me. The Velas I tried were very appealing until I plugged one in and listened to that neck pickup. The SE Hollowbody plays and sounds superb but I was looking for a solid body. I ended up with a Schecter USA PT that I'm now firmly in love with.

But my experience trying all those PRS guitars haunted me and I was missing a glued-on mahogany-neck guitar since I packed up my Fujigen-built Roland G-303 for sale. So I took a chance on this black NOS Santana SE I found on Willcutt's web site in the fall last year. It's a lovely guitar and I quickly took to the feel of it. But I dislike the pickups and I've been trying to decide what to do with it, sell it or mod it, since then.

Now finally I decided to make it a project guitar. With locking tuners I can likely get more out of the trem. And I'm going to put P-Rails in it with this wiring.

And if, after a few months of playing that, I am still into it, I may add a Graphtech Ghost saddles, Hexspander preamp and GK-13 connector, since I'm using the SY-1000 more and more.

 

[John Beef]

This old Santana SE the best PRS guitar ever!

I like mine a lot too, but best ever? I wouldn't go quite that far. It does serve several purposes for me though, including backup guitar for my PRS gateway drug, the '05 Custom 22 on the right in the below photo, which should also tick all the right boxes for you.