NGD Bernie Marsden Black Cherry

[grausch]

Since the tuner issue elicited a lot more feedback than I ever expected, I decided to have a look last night. First time I ever took of a tuner off a guitar, but I can say that it is just a matter of the bushings not being 100% knocked in straight. With the strings removed, it turned out that 5 of the 6 tuners need to have the bottom 2 screws fastened, i.e. noticeable rattle once the strings were off. I tried to lighlty hammer in one of the bushings using a block of wood as a buffer, but it would not budge, and once I determined that it was just the bushing, I did not really care to damage the finish for something that does not matter.

So the guitar has been properly cleaned, the fretboard conditioned, and the guitar has been restrung with 8s. When I was restringing the guitar I noticed something that looked like graphite in some of the nut sluts. If it was, then kudos for PRS for going the extra mile with the setup. After setting up the guitar myself, I can say that the PRS setup was absolutely perfect.

Final note - I just rubbed off the shavings off the binding at the neck and right, except for the finish at the tuners, the finish itself looks perfect.

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Awesome...Glad you are satisfied. Again, gorgeous finish!!!! Enjoy the "Bern"...(sorry, couldn't help myself) (this joke in NO way implies my political beliefs!!!)

 

[prsrocker1988]

Love that color. Congratulations!

 

[grausch]

So after I purchased my Bernie, my Gibson SG has gotten almost no playtime. I did occasionally play it just so it doesn't get too jealous. Two weekends ago, I had the chance to really turn up the amp and decided to play them head-to-head.

I never would have noticed this if I did not play them side-by-side, but the Bernie is significantly brighter. It could be that the strings on the SG are two months older, or it could be that the Bernie had some fret buzz after I changed strings, but whenever I play a note on the SG the only sound I hear is the string ringing. With the Bernie there seemed to be some kind of sympathetic ringing which could be the fret buzz or the perhaps the strings ringing behind the nut.

In any case, that was the catalyst for me to take the Bernie in for a professional setup and have them set up the guitar for 8s. Since it was going to the shop, I decided to have the nut replaced as well. The luthier there really likes using bone, so my Bernie now has a bone nut as its first upgrade.

There are some imperfections in the nut which can be seen as the brownish marks. These are small grooves in the bone that can be felt if I run my finger across it in just the right way. Adds to the character and I love the way the nut looks and feels.

Once my original 8s were played in, the guitar was very stable tuning wise. I am going by shoddy recollection here, but I would say the bone nut is somewhat easier to tune to pitch, i.e. the pitch doesn't jump suddenly, rather it tunes extremely smoothly now. That being said, the old nut was pretty good and I had no complaints - the new nut just seems to do it all a noticeable amount smoother.

After the nut upgrade and setup, the Bernie is still brighter and I will need to replace strings on the SG before I can reasonably compare them, but initial impressions are that the fret buzz is quite reduced.

Next planned upgrade is the tuners. I have received some locking Gotohs (SD-90 MG) that should drop in and will do that with the next string change. The guitar doesn't need them, but it a) gives me a chance to remove the bushings (Gotoh has a nice tool for that) and correctly install them, and b) locking tuners just make string changes that much easier.

While tightening the screws on the original tuners, I noticed that there was no resistance once they were fully turned in. Almost as if the wood was already overthreaded when I got it, but the screws themselves weren't loose so I just left it.

The Gotohs have longer screws, so I have the chance of threading into new wood, but I was thinking of glueing in some toothpicks and then screwing into those to make sure that the thread bites all the way. Not planning on drilling a pilot hole, just shortening the toothpicks so that they leave enough of a hole for the screw to go into. Is this a good idea, or would it be better to drill pilot holes? Also, does it matter if I use woodglue or superglue? Woodglue tends to be stronger than wood, so I was thinking superglue might be the safer option.

 

[Barquentine]

My Bernie came new with D'Addario's. 3 of the tuners were loose - had to use bits of a toothpick as dowels. I replaced the pickups with Bare Knuckle Abraxas set. My tech guy sorted the nut out - he just filed it a little. It's now the only guitar I play. Love it.

 

[bodia]

My Bernie came new with D'Addario's. 3 of the tuners were loose - had to use bits of a toothpick as dowels. I replaced the pickups with Bare Knuckle Abraxas set. My tech guy sorted the nut out - he just filed it a little. It's now the only guitar I play. Love it.

Nice! Love the Abraxas too. I've got them in my Benrie as well.

 

[grausch]

My Bernie came new with D'Addario's. 3 of the tuners were loose - had to use bits of a toothpick as dowels. I replaced the pickups with Bare Knuckle Abraxas set. My tech guy sorted the nut out - he just filed it a little. It's now the only guitar I play. Love it.

Yeah, the tuners are a bit of a letdown, but it is a pretty simple fix. Not sure if I am allowed to link to other forums, but I asked on an SG forum and got quite a bit of advice regarding different approaches there that are pretty simple and don't require drilling. Link is here - http://www.everythingsg.com/threads/filling-tuner-screw-holes.31538/

I will probably use the glue and woodpick approach suggested and hope that I never need to remove the tuners.

I also found another method on the PRS forums with detailed pics that also looks quite good. Link here - http://forums.prsguitars.com/thread...king-tuners-installation-piicture-story.2503/

Both links are good references if someone else runs into the same problem.

I fully get what you're saying about the Bernie - my SG should have better sound with 3 '57 Classics, it feels slightly better assembled, the nitro finish just feels great and the neck should fit my somewhat smaller hands better. Yet, whenever I pick up a guitar to play it will be the Bernie. Not quite sure why, but I just love playing the Bernie.

 

[grausch]

I finally replaced the tuners with the Gotoh SD-90 locking tuners over the Christmas weekend. During this process, I glued in toothpicks to get the tuner screws in properly and it worked like a charm. To keep the setup as it was, I did the process string by string tuning up once each new string was installed. At the end, I stretched the strings lightly once and retuned. I also used the opportunity to correctly install the new bushings, and except for the high E, everything now sits flush. I may look at the high E again in the future, but I will need a much bigger hammer to get it in properly or I may need to file the hole somewhat larger.

Since then the tuning has been ROCK SOLID! Never felt I had any issues with the original tuners, but these ones are definitely a step up. Since I had the week off, I spent at least 2 hours each day playing with some days probably more than 5 hours. Every single time I picked up the guitar it was still in tune. I did retune it a couple of times when I played Rocksmith and the song was recorded with an off tuner, i.e. A being at 461 Hz, so it was probably tuned about 4 or 5 times during the week, but I am pretty confident that I could have gone a week without needing to tune.

The Gotohs have a slightly shorter shaft than the original tuners and the tuner buttons are creme instead of the greenish colour of the originals. In this aspect, I prefer the originals. However, they have significantly more resistance when turning and it makes tuning easier - it could also be the reason they stay in tune this well.

This is now my most stable guitar tuning wise, although to be fair to the Standard 24, I hit the bridge too hard with the right hand and slightly push the tuning out. The Bernie with its fixed bridge has an unfair advantage for this comparison.

 

[grausch]

Not really NGD anymore, but I did upgrade the the output jack to a Pure Tone Multi-Contact Jack today - https://puretonetechnologies.com/product/pure-tone-mono-14-jack/ - and then played with the wife's camera a bit. The normal output jack got loose, so I decided to replace it with a Switchcraft - typical desire to tinker at its best...

While searching for the jacks online, I read about Pure Tone on another forum. For the price, I ordered a couple and soldered one into the Bernie today. Didn't take pictures of that process as I was too busy struggling getting proper shiny solder joints. They just went dull once they cooled off - not sure what happened there since I am not using lead-free solder, using the same temp as always (350°C) and have never struggled with this before.

The jack itself feels fine, although the Switchcraft in my Standard 24 feels tighter. I had some noise prior to the upgrade when the amp's gain was high and that seems to be gone now. Was going to upgrade the jack on my other Bernie, but when I opened it up, I saw that a previous owner had already upgraded the jack to a Switchcraft and the need to replace the jack quickly went away. Guess I view them as about even in quality...

Now to part 2 of this post - guitar porn for all those who managed (or not managed) to get through the above text.

Black Cherry remains my favourite colour for a Bernie.

Gotoh SD-90MG locking tuners and all the bushings are in straight. Needed to really hit it HARD with a hammer using a woodblock as a buffer. I just decided "screw this", placed the headstock on my leg and hammered away. Guitar bounced quite a bit between blows, but survived the process unscathed. Not sure I would recommend this method to anyone else though...Wish that the holes for the bushings were properly done at the factory though.

While screwing in the tuners over Christmas, I managed to crack the finish a little. The finish under some of the tuners was already cracked, and then combined with the longer screws of the SD-90MGs and the fact that I used toothpicks to add resistance made it difficult to judge when to stop screwing and of course when you hear a crack it is too late. Annoying that it happened, but it took me a while to discover the crack. Hopefully it does not cause any issues down the line.

Just for good measure, an intimate close-up of my Black Cherry Bernie.

Still need to order a MannMade bridge and then decide on pickups for this one. PAF sounds are pretty well covered in my house. Am thinking of some contemporary Bare Knuckles with a Freeway switch and potentially some push-pull action for even more variety. Not sure if all those wires will fit into a Bernie and may need to take it to a pro.