NGD SE NF3 with slight mods

[Broseph]

These are PRS branded locking. But John mann’s are about the same. Benefit of PRS are brass posts if you believe that’s superior

 

[Broseph]

The answer for an easy tuner swap is John Mann SE tuners.

Agreed. A modern 2 posts with modern saddles would have been forward thinking. But I get it. It’s cheap and easy not to have design something new

 

[Broseph]

I’ve been playing a lot the past weeks with partcaster builds. I’ll tell you what tho. This SE is up there. Very convincing single coil sounds. No hum. And plays better despite hours of me working on frets on the other guitars. This guitar is very under appreciated for what it is. It’s incredible work and tech

Following this up. Compared it to area pickups 58 and 67 by dimarzio on a partcaster. These are far better single coil sounding. It’s crazy to me how good these are for a fraction a price of average Mexican fenders with the SE sale.

 

[Mark Ray]

Saw Eric Gales last week, and his rhythm player had the same color combo as yours. Played it all night, and it sounded fantastic!

 

[Broseph]

Finally got around to it. I found the bridge alone to leave me wanting more. Position 2 was simply too dark for me. I Decided a humbucker would do the trick. In comes a 57/08 I had previously pulled from an older PRS core studio and a new pickguard. I messaged a seller (silver sky mod shop) on reverb about the pickguard. He was great to work with and a perfect cut and fit.

Much more to my liking. I was lucky that it appears in phase with the middle, especially since this older version of the 57/08 only has the hot, ground braided shield, and the coil tap wire. I would have been forced to use another pickup if that was the case.
I’ll give this plenty of time. The possibilities are very exciting with this guitar.
Position 2 is the humbucker and middle pickup combined. I chose not to use the coil split wire and ended up taping it off.

 

[Russ73]

Finally got around to it. I found the bridge alone to leave me wanting more. Position 2 was simply too dark for me. I Decided a humbucker would do the trick. In comes a 57/08 I had previously pulled from an older PRS core studio and a new pickguard. I messaged a seller (silver sky mod shop) on reverb about the pickguard. He was great to work with and a perfect cut and fit.

Much more to my liking. I was lucky that it appears in phase with the middle, especially since this older version of the 57/08 only has the hot, ground braided shield, and the coil tap wire. I would have been forced to use another pickup if that was the case.
I’ll give this plenty of time. The possibilities are very exciting with this guitar.
Position 2 is the humbucker and middle pickup combined. I chose not to use the coil split wire and ended up taping it off.

I recently got a pickguard for one...was curious if you had to do any routing to make the HB fit or did it drop right in?? Thx!! Btw looks amazing!!

 

[Broseph]

Also it’s not lost on me that I pulled an older studio bridge that was PRS version of a hum free HSS…and created a hum free studio SE version that is HSS with that same pickup. To be fair I felt those older studios matched better with a 59/09. I ended up selling the guitar like that but kept the 57/08. I like the 57/08 I have in a CE.

 

[Broseph]

I recently got a pickguard for one...was curious if you had to do any routing to make the HB fit or did it drop right in?? Thx!! Btw looks amazing!!

Drops right in. No routing

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Nice work

 

[Moondog Wily]

Finally got around to it. I found the bridge alone to leave me wanting more. Position 2 was simply too dark for me. I Decided a humbucker would do the trick. In comes a 57/08 I had previously pulled from an older PRS core studio and a new pickguard. I messaged a seller (silver sky mod shop) on reverb about the pickguard. He was great to work with and a perfect cut and fit.

Much more to my liking. I was lucky that it appears in phase with the middle, especially since this older version of the 57/08 only has the hot, ground braided shield, and the coil tap wire. I would have been forced to use another pickup if that was the case.
I’ll give this plenty of time. The possibilities are very exciting with this guitar.
Position 2 is the humbucker and middle pickup combined. I chose not to use the coil split wire and ended up taping it off.

That new pick guard looks perfect! Congrats on that and the new tone!!

 

[Daryl Jones]

@Broseph did you have that Fender trem arm or did you pick it up somewhere? I'm having the same issue with that knob being in the way

 

[bodia]

That looks awesome

 

[Prina]

That color scheme looks great! Another win with a 57/08!

 

[d^rren]

Looks fantastic!

 

[Broseph]

@Broseph did you have that Fender trem arm or did you pick it up somewhere? I'm having the same issue with that knob being in the way

fender arm - specifically from an American professional trem if that matters at all. The trem block is a Mann made steel so it can fit either core or SE trim arms. Both would hit the core knob and selector for reasons I couldn't quite understand as the trem is correctly set up

 

[Broseph]

I will likely go back and swap the pots to 1 meg CTS volume pot and a 500 k push pull tone pot. What the hell. I'm all in now.
I'm thinking installing a push pull tone knob to split the hum bucker. I quite like position 2 now. Why not give myself 2 more sound options with the push pull. I'll also swap the 5 way to a better quality. It was scratchy previously but I haven't noticed it as much now that I installed the 57/08.

 

[andy474x]

Excellent look!!!

 

[Daryl Jones]

fender arm - specifically from an American professional trem if that matters at all. The trem block is a Mann made steel so it can fit either core or SE trim arms. Both would hit the core knob and selector for reasons I couldn't quite understand as the trem is correctly set up

As luck would have it I found an arm in my cupboard that actually fits (for whatever reason I have 5 orphaned arms in there...) Just had to size one up, plopped in and swapped out the white tip on it for the original NF3 black one. Works like a charm.
Something I noticed with this 3 pickup guitar vs my old Yamaha is the amazing tonal variance in the 5 positions compared to what I had on the old RGX. Each of the 5 positions are much more defined and there is no muddiness or lack of definition. Of course that old guitar is no prize and could really benefit from some serious modding and upgrades in just about everything electronic so if I get bored yet adventuresome one day maybe I'll use that as a learning platform for stuff I have little to no experience with.
But I have my NF3 just about the way I want it, and am very happy with how it plays. It looks close to yours (as it should thanks to your advice and info). The pick guard is soooo much better than the plain black it came with.

https://imgur.com/dhmSBvq

 

[henryjurstin13]

Finally got around to it. I found the bridge alone to leave me wanting more. Position 2 was simply too dark for me. I Decided a humbucker would do the trick. In comes a 57/08 I had previously pulled from an older PRS core studio and a new pickguard. I messaged a seller (silver sky mod shop) on reverb about the pickguard. He was great to work with and a perfect cut and fit.

Much more to my liking. I was lucky that it appears in phase with the middle, especially since this older version of the 57/08 only has the hot, ground braided shield, and the coil tap wire. I would have been forced to use another pickup if that was the case.
I’ll give this plenty of time. The possibilities are very exciting with this guitar.
Position 2 is the humbucker and middle pickup combined. I chose not to use the coil split wire and ended up taping it off.

This looks very cool..... I'm not really playing my SE SAS, and I've been looking at this guitar quite a bit. Especially after watching Trogly's youtube video noting how you need NO routing to change to humbuckers (which you found to be true as well). I was thinking about playing the NF3 as is, and parting together a new HSH pickguard, maybe even wire them both up with a quick connect so you could swap 'em in & out fairly quickly.

 

[chuckfan1]

I was hoping someone would post something about these. I've been on the fence for a SS but I'm thinking this is a better choice. Of course, nobody local has one laying around for me to try out yet and I refuse to do an order without trying it out first anymore. My Hollowbody II P turned out great, but that was a case of I wanted it so bad I didn't care. Not really smart when your GAS gets that bad...and the HB was double the money!
I guess I'll just bide my time until there's one available to try.

Been playing for 34 years. Have owned too many guitars to mention. Owned numerous American made Fenders and Gibsons. Never owned custom shop guitars but several high end American made ones. So I’ve probably been thru 70 or 80 guitars. I am a habitual buyer and seller, I get bored. It’s a problem, yes I know it. lol.

To get to the point, the best guitar I ever owned was a core NF3. Hands down unquestionably. Of course I foolishly sold it years ago and now the used core NF3 prices have went up a lot. I now have an SE NF3 and in my opinion, it’s tied for the second best guitar I’ve ever owned, with a really great USA G&L Legacy I had for years which blew away any fender Strat I ever played.

The SE NF3 is a RIDICULOUSLY good guitar, not just “for the money”, but against any class of guitar. They hit a home run with this one.