NGD SE NF3 with slight mods

[Daryl Jones]

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.

It took me a bit to really bond with the NF3. It was so different from my other PRS guitars, but it has an untenable quality that I really can't quite describe in words. It's just different, but in a very good way the more I play it. I'm finding certain riffs and solos are giving me some (for my limited skills anyway) personal creative freedom that my McCarty and Customs really haven't up until now. Not than I'm some undiscovered Clapton-ish player or anything, but it's is helping me find more of "me" in my playing instead of being just a clone wannabe. Not sure if that is the way to explain it but that's how I feel with it.

 

[Shreddy]

I decided this beauty needed its own thread. I’ve been a fan of gunmetal blues and grays since Fender released them decades ago. I never got the pleasure of owning one tho. I typically like the rosewood + blacked out pick guard look for those fenders. But I felt the itch for a new maple fret guitar and the darker pearloid birds looked incredible with this metallic gray.

I’m very impressed with this guitar for being an SE. I spent time working on the frets to perfect them to my liking. That included some minor sharp ends and some high frets. Relatively minor work but certainly makes a difference feel wise.
Upgrades: functional for the MannMade steel tremolo upgrade kit. This single handedly increased the sustain acoustically. Before I felt it sounded a little dead acoustically which I always believe effects plugged in sounds. Now it’s glorious! I like the sustain, steel bite, and higher end sparkle that I felt this guitar needed over a typical brass block. I installed PRS locking tuners for my convenience. The truss rod cover was cosmetic to match the darker pearloid birds. As was the choice to swap pickguards for pearloid that matched the birds.

This is a beast of a guitar. I feel like I can cover so much ground with this guitar and my McCarty. It’s not quite fender single coil. So that traditional strat neck pickup sound is not there. It’s very much its own thing. But much closer to single coils than a full humbucker. I find it has more useful positions than a traditional 5 way strat where I never used the bridge alone or the middle alone.

I strongly recommend trying it . Some scoff at the notion of a PRS designed import. I say that this guitar can approach USA grade level with some TLC. With time I’m sure the fret board edges will roll.

That is beautiful... Congrats...
I've been looking at these for a while and yest am,.......... the GAS got me and I fell hard. I was really looking for the orange w/maple neck but the deal was good enough: As new pristine NF3 with a br. new PRS D2 case for $640 (!) I couldn't resist so,... I ended up w/the same Gunmetal / Maple. Had to get a set of locking tuners as well...now I'm looking at what mods others have done successfully on these new guitars....

I can't leave anything "stock"

Diggin' the pearl pickguard here, i'm partial to pearl PGs on solid color guitars, that looks sweet, instead of straight up copying you I may just look into chopped carbon fiber.

Great looking axe !

JONESING HARD ALREADY, esp. after Fedex crushed my happy with the latest update it will now arrive on Sat. instead of tomorrow...Curses!.

 

[Shreddy]

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.

OOOOHHH lala... Poppa LIKE!
Looks Fantastic and im sure plays the same. Now you got me thinking about all kinds of things I shouldnt be yet.... Like a quick swap Loaded and dialed PG with hell any pickup combo you could want...

Question, do you think the routing will accommodate a P90 .... ;-)

..Perchance To Dream...

 

[Broseph]

OOOOHHH lala... Poppa LIKE!
Looks Fantastic and im sure plays the same. Now you got me thinking about all kinds of things I shouldnt be yet.... Like a quick swap Loaded and dialed PG with hell any pickup combo you could want...

Question, do you think the routing will accommodate a P90 .... ;-)

..Perchance To Dream...

I am not too sure about the length to fit a p90. It would fit width and depth wise. Of course there are humbucker sized p90s that would drop in but I don’t find they sound the same as a true p90.

Mini humhuckers and firebirds would fit fine.

 

[Broseph]

So I got around to installing a push pull on the tone pot. I can now split the 57/08 humbucker in the bridge. It’s a quick way to clean up the bridge on the fly, but honestly I didn’t find it terrible useful. I do like the single coil combined with the narrowfield in position 2. I guess now I can get 7 sounds much like a PRS studio. I also changed the tone cap to 0.033 pf. Can’t say I noticed a huge change from 0.022.

Overall I’d say the biggest impact mods (and I’ve done a lot!)
-installing the 57/08. Personal choice. But it made the bridge and position 2 much more useful. I think 59/09 would overpower the SE narrow fields and sound too compressed. 58/15 LT would also work here. 85/15 could as well. But I already have guitars with those and wanted something different.
- adding a treble bleed on the volume pot. This an absolute must in my mind to expand the use of the volume pot.

So far my volume pot and 5 way selector have been great. I have no need to swap them out. One day when I get bored I’ll try to gut all the electronics to USA grade, but that’s for another day and I’m in no absolute rush.

My overall impressions of my guitar: incredible now. I don’t feel like I’m playing an SE. I love the ability to go from incredible single coil sounds to full humbucker with a flick of the finger. And all for crazy cheap. I hope to see this model succeed. It’s built to be a mod platform! I’ve tried many PRS cores and SEs similar to this. I’d pick this modded SE every time.

 

[Shreddy]

So I got around to installing a push pull on the tone pot. I can now split the 57/08 humbucker in the bridge. It’s a quick way to clean up the bridge on the fly, but honestly I didn’t find it terrible useful. I do like the single coil combined with the narrowfield in position 2. I guess now I can get 7 sounds much like a PRS studio. I also changed the tone cap to 0.033 pf. Can’t say I noticed a huge change from 0.022.

Overall I’d say the biggest impact mods (and I’ve done a lot!)
-installing the 57/08. Personal choice. But it made the bridge and position 2 much more useful. I think 59/09 would overpower the SE narrow fields and sound too compressed. 58/15 LT would also work here. 85/15 could as well. But I already have guitars with those and wanted something different.
- adding a treble bleed on the volume pot. This an absolute must in my mind to expand the use of the volume pot.

So far my volume pot and 5 way selector have been great. I have no need to swap them out. One day when I get bored I’ll try to gut all the electronics to USA grade, but that’s for another day and I’m in no absolute rush.

My overall impressions of my guitar: incredible now. I don’t feel like I’m playing an SE. I love the ability to go from incredible single coil sounds to full humbucker with a flick of the finger. And all for crazy cheap. I hope to see this model succeed. It’s built to be a mod platform! I’ve tried many PRS cores and SEs similar to this. I’d pick this modded SE every time.

Love it.

Mine arrived tuesday.



I had to do the same immediately. Address notable fret sprout (!) and a handful of high frets, so it got a full fret job 1st thing, I stepped outside common practice (for me) and went with a set of black Gotoh locking tuners with Ivory buttons vs the usual S2 lockers.



Now I'm half considering a cream/antique white PG to key off the buttons....or..... stick with the OG plan to make one out of a 3mm chopped Carbon fiber panel...

Question: On mine, the Vol. pot does nothing the 1st 23% of its range then it ramps up to the last 15% of its range, then JUMPS hugely within that last 15% to max....

I'm not happy with that but it is not clear to me if a treble bleed would resolve this....? or would I be better off swapping the pot for say something like an RS superpot.. or...I am also considering swapping in a Bourns PP tone pot to allow for the neck/bridge combo..

 

[Broseph]

1Meg volume pot may severely limit your options here. I'd play with a treble bleed first before trying new volume pots. I think adding a neck bridge combo makes a lot of sense. I'd probably do the same on mine rather than have it as push pull for the coil tapping the hum bucker. Please share your wiring if you're able to do this

 

[Shreddy]

1Meg volume pot may severely limit your options here. I'd play with a treble bleed first before trying new volume pots. I think adding a neck bridge combo makes a lot of sense. I'd probably do the same on mine rather than have it as push pull for the coil tapping the hum bucker. Please share your wiring if you're able to do this

Thank you, i just ordered a cpl of CTS 1 meg pots, & I just found a cpl of treble bleeds in my random box of fun. 1 I had noted was for "SSS" the other is an orange drop, I'm pretty sure I got 2 of, & put one in a humbucker guitar..

I have limited experience with TB's,.. i've installed a few to good effect, and understand what they do but I've no comprehension as to how or why but, as these P'ups are basically humbuckers designed to emulate single coils as well.. and if you had 2 diff TB's, 1 'for SSS' and 1 'for HB',... which one would be best ?

Im sure the values of these caps and resistors can vary widely and i would assume there is a "target value" of their specs you would use for the best effect with different types of pickups..?
I've never seen anyone here post the values of any TB they've used in these with success, so how does one determine the values properly......?

..or.....are all TB's pretty much the same...?

 

[Broseph]

I installed a PRS standard 180pf treble bleed cap. I was pleased with the result. PRS treble bleeds are pretty basic. Some would say conservative. Others like to do the whole cap and resistor TBs.

 

[Broseph]

Ok I think this was my final mod:
I removed the 57/08 coil tap from the push pull. It was an ok sound but hardly needed for a bridge pickup.
I added 2 wires instead to engage the bass narrowfield when the tone pot is pulled out.
So essentially a 7 way strat configuration. I found these sounds very useful
I would compare the 57/08 bridge combined with the narrowfield bass (position one with the tone pot pulled) as similar to a 2024-forward vela middle position.
All 3 pickups engaged is nice sound!
The versatility of this guitar is incredible. A true Swiss army

I have a feeling when new colors pop up down the road: I’ll likely add a rosewood version and keep those pickup stocks. But I would 100% put a treble bleed and add the push pull mod to engage the neck pickup.