NGD PRS Silver Sky - QC Questions

You'll like the next one without cracked birds better.
Believe me, the replacement will feel, look, sound, and play just the same. That's the great thing about PRS, consistency.
Cracked birds notwithstanding.
Call the dealer and get it replaced. You are deserving of that. The other opportunity is to ask for a discount if the cracked birds don't pee you off.

The replacement SS is in, in Tungsten this time. No cracked birds or flaws I could pick on.

The bad news is that even with pretty high action (2.1mm on the bass side, 1.8 on the treble side), I get a lot of fret buzz on all but the B and high E strings. That action is significantly higher than the previous guitar's and yet I'm getting quite a bit of buzz.

I've checked the frets with a Stewmac fret-checker, and cannot see any high frets. I really don't see why the guitar would buzz so much, at that action. In an ideal world, I'd like the action to be a bit lower (like the white guitar's with the cracked birds), but this is impossible as the buzz just gets out of control. The buzz happens regardless of where I play on the neck. Relief is even a bit more than minimum per PRS norms. Buzz seems to come from string contact with the upper (high register) frets.

Do any of you know what might be causing buzz even with a high-action, when there are no signs of a high fret?
 
If your basic measurements seem to be correct, maybe try new strings? It's possible they got bent or something in shipping.
 
First off sorry to hear about your issues , I have not had these issues with any of the Silver Skys I have set up or the two I own.

From what you are saying your bass side is similar to what I usually run on all my guitars the treble side is a bit high , I run around .061in ( 1.5mm ) ( 12 fret )

Is your fret buzz acoustic only or heard thur the amp ?

Some folks can hear the sound of the pick guard vibrating , part of what makes this kind of guitar sound the way it does ( IMHO )

First I would check the neck angle small changes can make a HUGE difference in bolt on neck guitars. and will let you get the action down lower.

post some pictures it will be easier to tell if something is up or it just had a rough ride in shipping.

Lastly work with your dealer , if they have an onsite tech see if you can sit down with them a tweak the action to your liking , bring a guitar you like the setup on , I for one love to see what a player likes and I can duplicate it on there other guitars.

If all else fails contact PRS they are always a great help.


The replacement SS is in, in Tungsten this time. No cracked birds or flaws I could pick on.

The bad news is that even with pretty high action (2.1mm on the bass side, 1.8 on the treble side), I get a lot of fret buzz on all but the B and high E strings. That action is significantly higher than the previous guitar's and yet I'm getting quite a bit of buzz.

I've checked the frets with a Stewmac fret-checker, and cannot see any high frets. I really don't see why the guitar would buzz so much, at that action. In an ideal world, I'd like the action to be a bit lower (like the white guitar's with the cracked birds), but this is impossible as the buzz just gets out of control. The buzz happens regardless of where I play on the neck. Relief is even a bit more than minimum per PRS norms. Buzz seems to come from string contact with the upper (high register) frets.

Do any of you know what might be causing buzz even with a high-action, when there are no signs of a high fret?
 
First off sorry to hear about your issues , I have not had these issues with any of the Silver Skys I have set up or the two I own.

From what you are saying your bass side is similar to what I usually run on all my guitars the treble side is a bit high , I run around .061in ( 1.5mm ) ( 12 fret )

Is your fret buzz acoustic only or heard thur the amp ?

Some folks can hear the sound of the pick guard vibrating , part of what makes this kind of guitar sound the way it does ( IMHO )

First I would check the neck angle small changes can make a HUGE difference in bolt on neck guitars. and will let you get the action down lower.

post some pictures it will be easier to tell if something is up or it just had a rough ride in shipping.

Lastly work with your dealer , if they have an onsite tech see if you can sit down with them a tweak the action to your liking , bring a guitar you like the setup on , I for one love to see what a player likes and I can duplicate it on there other guitars.

If all else fails contact PRS they are always a great help.

Thanks. That makes sense. My dealer isn't local, so that complicates things. The one dealer local to me who had a Silver Sky (only one!) had one in a color I didn't like and which, factoring price and taxes, would have been $500 more than the one I got. (Canadians are nailed on prices ...)

Would 500$ more have been worth it if it meant easier service? Maybe in hindsight some would think so.

What stumps me is that there's nothing obviously wrong with the guitar. Relief is a little smaller on the treble side, but not enough to tell me the neck is twisted. Most of my guitars are that way. Frets seem level. Nut is well cut.

I'll cut off the strings and see if that helps, and then maybe just assume the guitar needs a high action to work. It's just a bit more clumsy to play.

Fact is, it sounds so good and feels so good I'd want it to be my main guitar, but the playability isn't stellar enough for that yet.
 
Thanks. That makes sense. My dealer isn't local, so that complicates things. The one dealer local to me who had a Silver Sky (only one!) had one in a color I didn't like and which, factoring price and taxes, would have been $500 more than the one I got. (Canadians are nailed on prices ...)

Would 500$ more have been worth it if it meant easier service? Maybe in hindsight some would think so.

What stumps me is that there's nothing obviously wrong with the guitar. Relief is a little smaller on the treble side, but not enough to tell me the neck is twisted. Most of my guitars are that way. Frets seem level. Nut is well cut.

I'll cut off the strings and see if that helps, and then maybe just assume the guitar needs a high action to work. It's just a bit more clumsy to play.

Fact is, it sounds so good and feels so good I'd want it to be my main guitar, but the playability isn't stellar enough for that yet.
Try loosening up the neck (no string tension) and then tighten back down, that seems to have worked for others.

Try to not cut strings off under tension, replace one or two at a time. Cutting the strings make a sudden tension release on the neck and bridge. IMHO as always :)
 
Try loosening up the neck (no string tension) and then tighten back down, that seems to have worked for others.

Try to not cut strings off under tension, replace one or two at a time. Cutting the strings make a sudden tension release on the neck and bridge. IMHO as always :)

you actually want the strings tuned to pitch when loosening the neck bolts - the tension will force the neck into the right position
 
You could also check the pick-up heights. Too high causes buzzing known as strat-itus. Single coils have strong magnets that can pull the string down as it oscillates causing buzzing.
 
Wow! So now there's a constructive post!
Ok, here goes. The SS doesn’t need high action to play buzz free. I played one when they were first introduced, the action was I would call medium. The guitar had come straight from PRS to my local shop for PRS dealer day. Another forum member here and I traded the guitar back and forth for an hour. We couldn’t get it to fret out with two step bends above the 12th fret. No fret buzz that I noticed. I don’t like shredder low action on any of my guitars, so it seemed perfect to me. My take is take it to a good, local luthier and get it setup to your liking. $75 to 100 is worth it to make a killer guitar a keeper, imho.
 
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You could also check the pick-up heights. Too high causes buzzing known as strat-itus. Single coils have strong magnets that can pull the string down as it oscillates causing buzzing.

Thanks. Any concerns if the pickups are at their stock spec heights?
 
Ok, here goes. The SS doesn’t need high action to play buzz free. I played one when they were first introduced, the action was I would call medium. The guitar had come straight from PRS to my local shop for PRS dealer day. Another forum member here and I traded the guitar back and forth for an hour. We could get it to fret out with two step bends above the 12th fret. No fret buzz that I noticed. I don’t like shredder low action on any of my guitars, so it seemed perfect to me. My take is take it to a good, local luthier and get it setup to your liking. $75 to 100 is worth it to make a killer guitar a keeper, imho.

And it still plays just as good today. Maybe a hair of fret buzz, but that's partially my playing as well. I was getting buzz on an acoustic and I had someone check it out, and when he played it, no buzz. I wondered if maybe it shifted a little during the travel. He handed it to me and said, "You play it." I played for maybe 15 seconds, and there was the buzz. He played it again and said, "It's something w/the way you're hitting the strings." Since then, I've noticed if I change my picking when I hear buzzing, it goes away a lot of times.

Thanks. Any concerns if the pickups are at their stock spec heights?

Mine have not been touched since I got it - I assume it's at stock. No issues I can attribute to the pickups.
 
Here are some specifics:

Relief at 8th fret bass side: 0.010
Relief at 8th fret treble side: 0.005

Not sure why relief is basically half on the high E of what it is on the low E or if that matters. Neck doesn't seem twisted but numbers are as stated.

Action at 12th on Low E: a hair above 2mm or over 5/64th if you prefer.

Action at 12th on high E: a hair lower than 1.75mm or a bit higher than 4/64th.

Pick-up heights bang on PRS specs.

Buzzes quite audibly through amp mostly on the A string, but also a bit on low E. Other strings also a bit, though not noticeably through amp.
 
I'd still try lowering the neck pickup bass side a small amount to see what happens. Did you share photos of the guitar?
 
For the sake of thoroughness and experimentation, I lowered the neck pickup as far down as it would go. No change.

I'm quite stumped. There's nothing obviously wrong. Nut is fine. No obvious high fret. Standard medium+ action, factory spec relief (though different on bass and treble sides).

Loosened and retightened the neck bolts. Changed the strings.

Still buzzes through the amp mainly in the A and then also some on the D, G and low E strings, though to a lesser degree.

I'm ok with some minor buzz as long as I don't hear it through the amp. And I'd want my action a tad lower if I could without choking or heinous buzzing.

Options include sending guitar away to a tech with a Plek machine to see what it can see that I can't... Hassle and cost of sending both ways plus a good $300 in tech fees.
 
The only other things I can think of

- saddles: maybe one of the height screws is backed out slightly, this can cause the saddle to buzz. Double check the weight is spread evenly across both saddle screws on a given saddle?

- tuners: are they mounting screws tight? Is the string lock tight?

Sometimes strats just buzz. I returned a Patrick Eggle strat because the G string was really buzzy.
 
The only other things I can think of

- saddles: maybe one of the height screws is backed out slightly, this can cause the saddle to buzz. Double check the weight is spread evenly across both saddle screws on a given saddle?

- tuners: are they mounting screws tight? Is the string lock tight?

Sometimes strats just buzz. I returned a Patrick Eggle strat because the G string was really buzzy.

I can clearly hear the strings just catching up he last fret. That seems to be where it buzzes, even though it doesn't seem higher. It's not the tuners or the saddles. It's the strings hitting the last fret.
 
The last fret? As in it only buzzes right up at the top of the neck, around 21/22 (I can't recall how many frets the SS has). If so, maybe you have too much relief, bowing the end of the neck towards the strings?

Maybe take a bit of relief out which will drop the action at the same time, then raise the action a bit to compensate.
 
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