NGD ‘03 CE 22 handyman special and I happen to know a guy

Daniel Elam

New Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2020
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116
...and the guy is me. Yesterday I was able to trade my 2009 Road Worn Strat + $300 for this. He said he didn’t like the “PRS sound”. Well, I didn’t like what I heard either but I figured it was a bad wiring job by whoever switched it to McCarty style. Anyway, the guy was willing to give it up for a Mexican Strat and a little pocket money. Whoever put in the McCarty harness did botch the wiring job. The volume pot did nothing, overall volume was quiet and got super quiet and thin sounding with both HBs together, and the coil splits sounded terrible. Had to switch the polarity of how the neck pickup was wired and ground the pickups to the volume pot rather than the tone pot. Anyway, it came roaring to life. This thing is so rock n roll. Sounds killer. Needed a setup and I had to shim the nut (will replace it at some point) but I came away with a killer guitar for well under 900 total investment. It came with original hard case, PRS papers, trem arm, bag o PRS tools, original wiring harness and knobs, stock TR cover, PRS guitar polish, and strap locks. It has a cool aluminum TR cover.
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Excellent trade!

I had the same issue some years back. Some guy tried to replace the switch on an 88 CE and wired the bridge pickup like anyone would who doesn't know that the bridge pickup magnet is flipped. The white is black and the black is white, (so to speak). It sounded like there was a wah pedal in the chain when there wasn't. I got it for $500 and just flipped the bridge pup wiring, and in 10 minutes I had a smoking 1st year CE!

I need to get the old girl out and play her again!
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Sweet score! Congrats

Yep, the RW are terrific (have 2), the Tex Mex pups are some of my favorite single coils, very vintage sound.
 
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