New Silver Sky - First Impression/Tone and Buzz?

PeteM

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Apr 25, 2021
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Just got a new lightly used store model Onyx Silver Sky and first impressions, wow, what a great look and what a nice neck! It's so much faster and smoother than my US Strat. Lots to look forward to.

The guitar was shipped across the country so it'll probably take a day or three to settle in. I mention this because I get a fair bit of buzz on my lower three strings even though setup is very close to factory settings. I tweaked the truss rod a bit to add relief and this has helped, but I'd like to stay close to PRS specs. Any advice on this?

What's very unusual for me is to see how much the tone knobs affect how much buzz your hear. The neck is pretty hot on 10 and the buzz is fairly loud unless I turn up the volume. That said, when I turn down the tone to 7-8, the buzz almost disappears! Can anyone explain the connection between audible buzz and tone? Thx!
 
You say buzz twice - the first time sounds like string buzz. The last paragraph sounds like buzz when you’re not playing - more like electrical hum than string buzz. Is that correct? If so, it’s a consequence of using single coils. You can confirm this by going to positions 2 and 4 on the blade switch - the hum should disappear there.
 
No, string buzz for both. It's like the neck pickup accents the buzz when tone is at ten.
 
Are the pickups too high (causing extra pull on the strings)? Really stumped, never heard of that before. I have to get real hamfisted to get any kind of buzz out of either of mine, but that’s just on the days when I feel like I have 10 thumbs.
 
I thought of that but they are at spec, I'm surprised to hear you don't have any buzz! Do you have a light touch? I'm used to some. I'd appreciate it if you could let me know what the height of the 6th string is at your 12th fret. Maybe I have to go the saddles. Thx.
 
I thought of that but they are at spec, I'm surprised to hear you don't have any buzz! Do you have a light touch? I'm used to some. I'd appreciate it if you could let me know what the height of the 6th string is at your 12th fret. Maybe I have to go the saddles. Thx.

sure thing - both of mine are at 2mm on the low e (actually it’s pretty much that on all strings except the b and high e which are a hair lower).

My neck relief at the eighth fret is .009 (capo on first fret, depressing at the last fret.

Too lazy to type it out but I use these for pickup height - my Rosewood is dead on, my maple is a hair higher. https://prsguitars.com/index.php/support/article/pickup_height_adjustment

And after years of forcing myself away from a death grip, I do finally have a lighter touch lol
 
I raised the saddles a fair bit and all is well. I was fixated on factory spec. Maybe when the guitar settles, I'll make another adjustment
 
Am I nuts , but isn’t 2 mm high for an action at the twelfth? Mine is 1.25, basically all of my PRS. Some a bit higher if I feel I get a better tone. I used to have the grip of Goliath, I used to think a guitar should have the LOWEST action possible. Not so much any more. Also doesn’t 2 mm fight you?
 
You must have a pretty light touch. As well, the 7.25 radius makes lower action harder to achieve without significant buzz.
 
I was truly shocked how low the action was on my silver sky for such a radius. The fender I had similar to it had much higher action to avoid the higher frets from causing too much buzzing. My SS is pretty close to factory specs and hasn’t required a truss rod adjustment. I measure slightly higher than 1.25 but lower than 1.5 mm on my low E.
 
Am I nuts , but isn’t 2 mm high for an action at the twelfth? Mine is 1.25, basically all of my PRS. Some a bit higher if I feel I get a better tone. I used to have the grip of Goliath, I used to think a guitar should have the LOWEST action possible. Not so much any more. Also doesn’t 2 mm fight you?

yeah, that’s my bad, read the ruler wrong. It is roughly 2/32nds, not 2mm - right line, wrong half of the ruler! So somewhere between 1.25/1.5mm.
 
String buzz is mostly high frequencies so it makes sense that the tone on "10" would make the buzz louder.

Factory specs are just a starting point - your setup will change based on the strings you use, how you play, and how much buzz you can tolerate. I like the make the strings smack the frets with a hard attack but ring true with a softer attack. To do this I raise the saddles until there is absolutely zero buzz, and then I lower the saddles as much as I can to the point where there's a little bit of buzz.
 
Is the bridge flush to the guitar like stock? I saw the PRS video of floating the bridge that requires a shiv under the neck joint to avoid buzzing.
 
For now, I'm set with relief at about .008-.010 and 12th fret height at 3/32 on the low E. Some buzz on the bass strings, but nothing I'm not used to. Can't really go any lower without creating some buzz on the E and A that I think I hear through my amp. I may increase relief a bit and lower saddles at some point to see if action can be reduced, but this setup works well.
 
Is the bridge flush to the guitar like stock? I saw the PRS video of floating the bridge that requires a shiv under the neck joint to avoid buzzing.
Yes, it's flush. I don't use a whammy much so I won't be altering it for now.
 
Man, totally bummed to see how widespread this is. I've bought 3 PRS guitars site unseen before this. Zero issues. Mine buzzes everywhere and the action isn't even really low. It's about the same as my DGT which is highest of all my guitars but the DGT buzzes nowhere. Go figure.
 
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