NGsWE - part 1 - CE

jay

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Italy
This is not at all what I was waiting for and, when I saw this for sale, my initial thought was that this choice doesn't make all that sense, as:
  • HFS/VB should be quite hot and rock-oriented pu and I don’t play much overdriven sounds
  • I've always played 22-frets guitars and mostly on the neck pickup, fearing 24-frets could be not sweet/warm enough (thinking again, it makes actually some sense to try a 24 having owned only 22)
  • I don't use trem bridge as I don't know what to do with it (my brain is already overloaded having to move 10 fingers and to breathe at the same time, that sometimes I forget to breathe)
  • I declared and fully agreed with myself that my next guitar would have been some kind of strat-like and would have been chosen wisely, testing many of them in some cool store, ecc ecc
  • I am still missing a decent/good acoustic and a some kind of hollowbody that would give me a "classic" jazz sound, despite the only two recent live exhibitions have been one acoustic duo and one jazz duo
Fast forward to last Monday -> for the reasons listed above, and having in the meantime bought this (link), I was quite annoyed when I left home to go check this out, thinking it could have been a waste of time (“Be responsible! You are 34 and you have a kid! Despite you almost never use them in front of people, you bought your last guitar 48 hours ago and you didn’t even need that one. Be happy, your wife said nothing about that. She is also a bit sick today, are you leaving her alone? Shouldn’t you just stop and act like the serious father, just for this evening? And you will not love this guitar so much that you will buy it, so why waste your time?”)

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I loved this since the first note. It’s a 1991 CE. Maple cap. Vintage Sunburst. Vintage Bass + HFS (the actual sticker on the treble pick-up says something like "Standard Treble" and it has "HFS" hand-written on it).

I don't even remember if it's Wide Fat or Wide Thin. I've opened the pickup cavity before buying it but I was too distracted to appreciate that the "WF" or "WL" was referring to the neck shape and I forgot which one was. I will open again next time I change strings. I don't care anyway, I like the neck. Based on other necks that I have, I could guess this is WT but I might be wrong.
The top is a bit curly and also the neck, which I was not expecting. The bridge is one piece, as it should be.
It has very few and very small dings, the color is perfect and there are no cracks on the neck joint.

The pickups are giving me wonderful clean sound. When I go more crunch, they become difficult for me to manage, because I am not used to them, I think, and they are powerful, so I find it a bit hard to dial in the right sound and then to control it. It’s a bit weird because this is happening today but I did not have the same feeling the first time I played it. Maybe it’s just because I am fooling around and I am overflown by the infinite sound possibilities, so I don’t really set on one sound and insist to find the right setting. Anyway, I am finding it easier maybe with the volume knob at around 5-7.

Standard rotary switch has been previously replaced by a 6-way toggle (the original one is in the case and can be mounted back): neck HB, both HBs, bridge HB, inner SCs in parallel, inner SCs in series, outer SCs in parallel. The parallel SCs gives amazing Tele-ish sounds.

Here is the spec sheet:
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Looking at this http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/schematics/schem08/85_94wayrotary.pdf, it's possible that I am missing the "Power out-of-phase" now, but I for the moment I don’t think I will touch it. I love it as it is.

Here are a couple of clips of all the combinations, full volume and tone, in this order: neck HB, both HBs, bridge HB, inner SCs in parallel, inner SCs in series, outer SCs in parallel
on clean sound: https://soundcloud.com/jacopoj/ce-clean
and crunch sound (I link this though I feel ashamed of it, as much for the playing as for the sound that I dialed in. As I said, I find it a bit hard to control, sometimes it’s harsh, sometimes it’s muddy, plus, having so much differences between different pickup combinations, I feel like I should change amp settings between them, instead I left always the same to be more consistent): https://soundcloud.com/jacopoj/ce-crunch
At the end of the second clip I have compared neck HB with half tone, bridge HB full tone and external single coils in parallel, full tone, alwayz with the same amp setting.

The lead sounds seems great but I will not record anything there, it could become hilarious.

Now a few the questions for you.

What is the coating made of?

Previous owner added a couple of springs to the trem bridge because he does not use the trem arm but he places the right hand on the bridge and did not want it to move. I would leave them for the moment. I don't use tremolo arm as well. Should I be scared of the possibility that this ruins the body in any way, being pressed to it all the time?

I think it has Schaller strap buttons. I haven’t ever used strap locks, maybe I will give them a try.
I haven’t got the original buttons though. Were they identical to the ones that are being used presently? I’d be happy to buy them, just in case, to have it all-original, but if they are identical to the present ones, I would not even look for 1991-made ones (which I have no idea if can be found) and just buy what are produced today.

Final question: this is the case it came with. It’s slightly different from the ones they use today, but similar … but it’s in such a good condition that it’s hard to believe this has been kept taking dust, for 25 years.

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Were they made like this? The seller told me it’s the original one but he was not so convinced. Not so important.

Thanks for all the information and the help.
 
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You`re going to hate this guitar, so you should sell it to me. No actually, congratulations. CE`s will do an amazing amount of sounds. Half the fun is learning the guitar. Enjoy it to no end, and be sure to do something special for your wife.
 
Nice score!
In my book the old CE's are some of the best guitar for the money ever.
 
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That's the same case that came with my 97 CE, so I'd say it's legit.
 
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Sweet sounding clips, and beautiful guitar! The case is indeed original, and the strap buttons have not changed if you want to revert to the PRS ones.
 
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Nice score! Great looking guitar, and if it plays sweetly for you, that is what really counts!
 
Great score! I have a '93 CE-24 and absolutely love it. Like you, I really wasn't sure how much I would like the 24 fret W-T neck, but have found that I really prefer it to the 22 fret W-F that I had on a late 90s CE-22 I owned years ago. And I was very surprised at how versatile the VB/HFS pickups are with the 5-way rotary. I can get very "Strat-like" sounds in the middle positions, and still have the great humbucker sounds. My CE-24 has become my go-to for any live work. It's just awesome. I've had many PRS guitars (including a Mira and a DGT) and the CE-24 is my all-time favorite. Fantastic guitars. You will be glad you found yours.
 
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