New to PRS. Couple of questions.

[Screamingdaisy]

As to treble bite...here's the thing. As with most pickups, the longer the cable, the more capacitance, and the more treble rolloff. I noticed in your pedal chain that you don't have a good buffer. It makes a difference, and really preserves your treble, because even with just a few pedals, if you're running say 20 feet of cable to the first pedal, and then some pedal interconnects, and then a cable to the amp, chances are you've got 30-35 feet of cable capacitance.

Unbalanced cable rolls off high end noticeably at 20 feet.

Thanks, and you were right. I'm used to intentionally running 30-40 feet of cable with a Les Paul to roll off some top end and shift the resonant peak down. Never really occurred to me that maybe PRS designed this pickup for the modern era and that it was voiced to sound correct through a normal 10-20 foot cable.

It's still a dark pickup and I'm getting nowhere near the top end of the LP... but the honky/nasal quality is gone and it sounds a little more open/natural.

Finally, of course, set your amp up differently for a PRS than for a Gibson. I generally set the amp up with the guitar volume around 5-6, to get that "edge of breakup" tone. Roll back the guitar volume to clean up more, roll it higher to get more gain, and of course, more treble bite. Do the same thing with your guitar's treble control. Want more bite? It's on your guitar, without even touching your amp!

You'll find you have a lot more control over your tone as you play this way. It's old school (heck, I'm old and therefore school was new when I started out!) and you may already do this, but it's the best way to run a PRS IMHO, and in fact that's how famous PRS session players like David Grissom do it, too. You'll also get the most out of your coil splits this way (and yeah, they're great sounding aren't they?).

That's more or less how I'm setup for an LP, except I'm generally setup to cruise on 7 and roll up or back from there. I don't really aim for a specific number on the dial, just kind of feel things out over time and 7 seems to be the spot for me on those guitars.

The McCarty I'm still feeling out. The taper on the volume seems different, so I'm rolling down a lot further before I clean up. Fortunately, between the speed knob, knob location, and the low inertia of the pot shaft riding the volume on this thing is a breeze. This control layout is primo!

The thing about a good PRS is that it has a beautiful, balanced tone that sings. It doesn't really favor any one part of the frequency response in an edgy way. But there are lots of ways to skin a cat, and with a PRS, it's not hard to figure out what is going to get the job done.

In the end, I'm rather enjoying the more rolled off top end. While it's taken some edge off my lead tone I think it's improved my rhythm sound and my cleans are a bit more piano like. It's also given me a new, smoother lead tone I never had before, and I've found I can use a pedal to put edge back on.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Awesome guitar. Love my McCarty and Black gold is a great color.

I've got a PRS \m/ pup in the bridge and it has all the bite you need. It cleans up well also. You might want to try that if you're looking for a little more umph.

Congrats again.

Conversely, I think maybe it's time for new pickups for the Les Paul and take a little bit of top end off that thing.

This McCarty I think will be staying stock. Long term however I do want to get another guitar and go high output. Currently, this McCarty is the hottest output guitar I have. I've specifically been avoiding high output with a "vintage is best" mentality, but the voicing on this guitar and how much it's improved my sound is opening up my eyes.

I know it's still the honeymoon stage so I'm going to wait awhile, but I suspect that sometime this summer I'll have a bunch of guitars that'll be looking for a new home.

 

[Luke Gibson]

Following.....:rock:

 

[Screamingdaisy]

This guitar is insane. The more I play it the more it reveals itself. Every day I hear something new.

I switched the strings over to D'addario nickel plated steel. I normally play nickel, but NPS gave it just the right amount of zing and brought some definition to the low E. It also brought out a strong sub-harmonic. It's insane... power chords ring out an octave below the fundamental.

The overtones being produced by this guitar are amazing and I can hear them clearly. There's no messiness or stray harmonics. It's like the entire instrument is tuned to A=440. When I play unplugged I can hear the bridge ringing sympathetically. A plucked low E sustained for 67 seconds. It's like the guitar is feeding back into itself.

There's times where notes explode off the neck and I can feel the back of the guitar kick me in the gut, and it's not just resonance. My Tele is more resonant... it's one of those guitars where the whole thing shakes when you play it... but notes don't explode out of it like they do this McCarty.


It's funny. My now former #1 guitar is a Les Paul R9. I've been playing CS Les Pauls since 2008 and not once did I feel like I wasn't worthy of those guitars. I love them. They feel like home.

This guitar is humbling. I don't typically wax poetic over a piece of gear but this guitar sounds incredible and fits like a bespoke suit. It's like they took my R9's neck and tailored it to exactly fit my hand. The body is contoured to exactly fit my forearm and the back cut so that the guitar sits at precisely the right angle to make that forearm contact seamless. Did I mention that it's 6.8 lbs?

When I'm not playing it I think about it, and for the first time I feel unworthy of such an amazing instrument.

Not that that means I'll sell it. I will honour it by using it to become better.

In a way it makes me feel sad. Sad that it is only one guitar and I may never know it's equal.

That is all.

:adore:22:

 

[andy474x]

I had a very similar experience switching to nickel plated steel strings on my S2 recently. Really enhanced the definition of the guitar. I might have considered a pickup swap before, but I couldn't dream of it now. Strange that the PRS spec has always been, and continues to be, pure nickel strings. But as they and we all know, it's 100% personal preference.

My dream is an AP McCarty with an ebony board, you're not helping the GAS!

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Traded in my SG. It was a bit like breaking up with a girl when you haven't really been into her for awhile, but you don't really dislike her and don't really want to hurt her feelings, so you feel really bad while you're on your way over to her apartment, but once you're done you're happy it's gone.

It felt a little odd trading a US made, nitro covered guitar for a poly covered import... but now that it's done I regret nothing. lol.

Clip - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37532735/Forum Stuff/Hoof Riff.mp3

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Also did some recordings of how a few guitars sound acoustically for comparison purposes:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37532735/Forum Stuff/Electric Guitar Accoustic Test 2.mp3

00:00 Les Paul R6
00:25 Les Paul R9
00:51 McCarty
01:19 SE Cu22 SH (w/ tape over the sound hole)

 

[Steinmetzify]

Been waiting to see this one....should have realized that I should have come over here instead of waiting for it at GAB lol.

Dude....that finish is incredible. Dig the clips too, and hear what you're saying about these guitars. It's nuts. After playing LPs and LPCs all these years to find a guitar that sounds and plays like this is insane.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

You know, I don't think I've ever done a new gear day on GAB. Maybe I should change that.

 

[gush]

I have a 2000 McCarty. Currently has M pickups in it and I keep it tuned to D. I used to have a 5909 in the bridge prior to the Ms but that was in Eb tuning. I loved the tone of the 5909 and it had some really good bite. I felt it was a little weak in D tuning so that's why I went to the Ms

Good luck.