Modified Monday

[sergiodeblanc]

There must be some more fodder for this thread, I need some motivation to get a couple of projects done while I'm home...

All mine are old.

 

[Egads]

I miss Tales from the STC.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I miss Tales from the STC.

Me too.

 

[Maertl513]

I was asked if the 513 electronic mod does have any influence on the sound.
Til 2014 the core line 513 models dealt with a PCB (starting in 2004 with the first line of 513 with Brazilian rosewood neck (513 ROSEWOOD) leading to 513 Maple Top in 2007 as new line of 513). I can't name the exact time but I remember an advertising of a 513 Private Stock. It was mentioned that the electronic has been handwired. In Paul's own words this deliveres more transparency.
PRS introduced hand wiring into the production line of the core 513 MT in 2014 (I guess they started the implementation in the second half of 2013. My 513 was assembled in August 2011 and the installed 2012 specs (new nut, Phase III tuners)).

After meeting Paul on an escalator at Musik Messe 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany, he surprised me by presenting me the electronic mod for free.

The guys at PRS Europe questioned why I wanted the mod, 'cause my 513 sounds well with PCB.
Hey, Paul donated me this mod!
Therefore they started their work.

After I got my guitar back, we managed an appointment with 4 513.
A 2005 513 ROSEWOOD, a 2011 513 MT (with PCB and ordinary 2011 production line specs (513 nut, Phase II)), a 2011 513 MT (modificated), and a 2013 513 MT.

Sounds: unplugged: no differences in the group of MT, the Rosewood sounded a little more balanced. The MTs had more attack and little higher frequencies.

We plugged all the 513s directly into a Mark V Combo. Settings: clean as clean could be.

Comparing both 2011 the PCB carrying guitar with little dully in the high end than mine.
The 2013 (PCB) was very quick into overdrive.
We went through all the modes and pickup positions.
The Rosewood sounded nearly the same manner as mine.

I have no complaints having the mod done.

There are more effects to thecsound than electronics (wood density, weight, vibrations...).

PRS did not make a lot of fuss to that modification.
Let me go more into detail: They said nothing.

Comparing my guitar's sound I persuade myself it sounds in position 2 and 4 with the mod more like a Strat than before.

 

[justmund]

Bump.

I know it's not Monday but things are brewing in the JTC...

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Old one from the vault.

It started as a SE Soapbar II with a chunk missing from the headstock that I bought at 11:00 at night off a crackhead ( it could've been meth..no judgement) on Craigslist for $125. I beat somebody in line scheduled to purchase it early the next morning, and while it's true that the early bird catches the worm.. the dude with nothing to lose meets in a stranger's house upon the witching hour and gets the guitar.

You can read the whole thread here: http://prsguitars.com/forum/showthread.php?5896-Design-on-a-Dimebag-IV-It-s-really-not-that-bad&highlight=


The headstock repair was done, and I wound up with a pretty cool Soapy for cheap.


I was feeling pretty smug until forum member Egads called me on my bullsh!t... disappointed in the lack of sparkles, style, and flair that I had previously attained. Deep down I knew he was right, so I grabbed the tequila, the router, and cut a hole in the top freehand keeping my good eye open.



There was a late night Walmart parking lot deal for a Louis Vuitton bag, huffed and sprayed some 3M adhesive, superglue, sandpaper, spray paint, and Boom! Bourgeois on a Budget:



Gotoh locking tuners, SE soapbars (flipped), SE HFS or VB (can't remember which one because: tequila) in the bridge with the mini-toggle activating middle P90 in ant position. Also my only guitar with a tone control.

 

[justmund]

:cheers:

*adds have tequilla (anejo) with Sergio to bucket list

 

[Dusty Chalk]

There was a late night Walmart parking lot deal for a Louis Vuitton bag, huffed and sprayed some 3M adhesive, superglue, sandpaper, spray paint, and Boom! Bourgeois on a Budget:



Gotoh locking tuners, SE soapbars (flipped), SE HFS or VB (can't remember which one because: tequila) in the bridge with the mini-toggle activating middle P90 in ant position. Also my only guitar with a tone control.

Egad, there's...something terribly...'haunting' about that.

I like Dobel and Casa Noble.

 

[Mixstar]

So, I guess with the addition of the Louis Vuitton stuff, it's worth a couple of grand?

Fine job BTW!! :top:

 

[John Beef]

OK, this pic doesn't show it, but I did something interesting just for grins in the split circuit and really like it.

I took a single 2.2K resistor and wired it across BOTH split lugs on the split switch and then to ground, like you would wire up a bare wire to ground like you see in the pic.

For the uninitiated, the bare wire grounds out one coil and leaves the other on. You can have one ground wire for both pickups because it's grounded out and there's no signal from either slug coil in either pickup. When you want to add a resistor, you typically add two - one for each pickup. That way each pickup's slug coil has a significantly reduced volume, but isn't totally off, and the result is a much fatter and more usable split tone with less volume drop.

So, by adding one resistor and using it for both slug coils simultaneously, say if I have the bridge pickup selected on the 3 way pickup selector, I'm not just reducing the volume of the bridge slug coil, I am also adding in the reduced neck pickup slug coil. Why the hell would I want to do that? I have no idea, but it sounds pretty awesome. I get the most realistic high quality tele bridge pickup type tone with the Mira now. I don't know why it works, but it does and it's staying that way.

(Earlier in this thread I mentioned putting in a DGT bridge pickup, but that didn't last. I didn't like it. It took away from this guitar what made it magical in the first place. Actually I was just commenting recently about how the DGT bridge pickup improved every guitar I put it in... this one was the exception I had forgotten about. )

 

[dogrocketp]

So.......let me get this straight, Sergio. You have a PRS Gucci, a PRS Vuitton, and the finest PRS guitar polishing video ever made. ENVY!

 

[justmund]

Nice one John! I'm still getting my head around how that works though! Something I would do (because I'm an switching options tragic), is get a DPDT on-off-on switch, wire the tap wires to the centre, then one side bridged and then the 2.2k to ground, then on the other side, resistors of the usual values (1.1k and 2.2k) separately to ground. That way you have both tapping options, your funky Tele way and the usual PRS way

 

[sergiodeblanc]

:cheers:

*adds have tequilla (anejo) with Sergio to bucket list

We could probably FaceTime that.

I like Dobel and Casa Noble.

I do too, but I had to use what was on hand.

So, I guess with the addition of the Louis Vuitton stuff, it's worth a couple of grand?

That seems like a fair offer, I accept! :girl:

So.......let me get this straight, Sergio. You have a PRS Gucci, a PRS Vuitton, and the finest PRS guitar polishing video ever made. ENVY!

That's about all I have going for me. :redface:

 

[bodia]

:cheers:

*adds have tequilla (anejo) with Sergio to bucket list

ditto this. If he decides to wander into Naperville to see Davy Knowles maybe I can cross it off my list.

BTW, that CE body from the "somebody buy me this" thread showed up. I've got some plans for it that I pray result in some form of "bangin' "!

 

[Goldfixer]

I installed a Graphtech Ghost piezo in my Goldtop CU22 a few years ago. I've owned quite a few PRSi since doing it, they have all come and gone, yet this one will always stay. Getting the courage to drill the hole for the mini-toggle was the worst....

 

[justmund]

I installed a Graphtech Ghost piezo in my Goldtop CU22 a few years ago. I've owned quite a few PRSi since doing it, they have all come and gone, yet this one will always stay. Getting the courage to drill the hole for the mini-toggle was the worst....

Nice! How did you get the piezo wires to the control cavity?

 

[vchizzle]

OK, this pic doesn't show it, but I did something interesting just for grins in the split circuit and really like it.

I took a single 2.2K resistor and wired it across BOTH split lugs on the split switch and then to ground, like you would wire up a bare wire to ground like you see in the pic.

For the uninitiated, the bare wire grounds out one coil and leaves the other on. You can have one ground wire for both pickups because it's grounded out and there's no signal from either slug coil in either pickup. When you want to add a resistor, you typically add two - one for each pickup. That way each pickup's slug coil has a significantly reduced volume, but isn't totally off, and the result is a much fatter and more usable split tone with less volume drop.

So, by adding one resistor and using it for both slug coils simultaneously, say if I have the bridge pickup selected on the 3 way pickup selector, I'm not just reducing the volume of the bridge slug coil, I am also adding in the reduced neck pickup slug coil. Why the hell would I want to do that? I have no idea, but it sounds pretty awesome. I get the most realistic high quality tele bridge pickup type tone with the Mira now. I don't know why it works, but it does and it's staying that way.

(Earlier in this thread I mentioned putting in a DGT bridge pickup, but that didn't last. I didn't like it. It took away from this guitar what made it magical in the first place. Actually I was just commenting recently about how the DGT bridge pickup improved every guitar I put it in... this one was the exception I had forgotten about. )

I'd love to hear that! Not sure how you guys think this stuff up! :iamconfused:

Nice! How did you get the piezo wires to the control cavity?

Look to be running into the bridge pickup cavity, then to control cavity.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

ditto this. If he decides to wander into Naperville to see Davy Knowles maybe I can cross it off my list.

BTW, that CE body from the "somebody buy me this" thread showed up. I've got some plans for it that I pray result in some form of "bangin' "!

Super easy to cross off your list if you're buying. :girl:

 

[justmund]

Look to be running into the bridge pickup cavity, then to control cavity.

Yeah maybe I should have zoomed in first before I asked that!

Got a couple of cool things coming, hopefully get one done over the weekend

 

[Boogie]

The land of a million pickups...

In the beginning...

Then...

Then...

Then...much later...

That's a 59/09 with the stock VB with DGT split coil resistors and Sprague cap.

Stupid image manipulation on an iPad!