I understand. The CE24 is a $4,000 guitar in my country, so I would be quite annoyed. But as PRS is going to make your guitar 100%, you will be better off. FYI, I’ve changed the tremolo to a US Phase II, and I took out the 85/15 pickups and put in Duncan PAFs with resistive coil splits (they sound better). I will be changing the tuners. If you want a better tremolo, get the MannMade bridge because it’s better than the PRS. I regret doing it cheaply and not spending $400 for the MannMade. My guitar is a CE24 Swamp Ash Special with 2 humbuckers. I’m also restoring a ruined Core Mira from about 2007. I’m fitting it with custom hardware. Seymour Duncan pickups bring PRS guitars alive.
Damn, it's $4000 in the country you're in?! I know pricing can be different from country to country but it's more than I expected the price difference would be! It's about 25% less where i'm at(tedtan was kind enough to remind me the term I'm looking for is exchange rate). I ended up getting a discount when I first bought the guitar, and then another bigger discount for the issues and for the hassle of having to send it back in to SW or PRS to get it fixed up.
But if I hadn't gotten a good price to start then I wouldn't have been open to an additional discount with the repair/possible replacement under warranty option. Especially if it were $4000! lol
I would have demanded pure perfection if I paid that much in full!!
When I first was talking to Sweetwater about the issues and the tuners specifically, they weren't able to get replacement tuners from PRS for a few months. So they offered to replace the tuners with any aftermarket tuners they had in stock that would fit.
I had heard nothing but great things about the locking tuners on the CE24s and had heard they were the phase ii locking tuners that they used to use on core models so I didn't want to go with aftermarket replacements. I didn't really like the look of the tuners they had in stock at the time, and I was worried about aftermarket tuners needing to be retrofitted. But now I'm worried I made a mistake and passed up on possbily a free upgrade for my tuners
I thought about posting about what people thought about aftermarket tuners vs the phase ii locking tuners but, I had already posted a few threads asking for everyones help at that point and I felt like I'd annoy everyone if I posted another thread asking another question lol
Now I kind of wish I did because I thought they were considered better than most other tuners. And now i'm thinking it probably varies quite a bit depending on who you ask and their experience with PRS tuners.
Do you have feeler gauges? If so, you can check the string height, but it sounds okay. Don’t worry about the amount of string above the top if the nut. What matters is how high the bottom of the strings are above the first few frets: The height above the top of the first fret wire is the mist important. You can measure it by using an 12” or 18” steel rule place on its edge across the frets. Measure the gap between the top of the fretwire and the underside of the steel rule’s edge and that gap is your height. You can get a set of feeler gauges (aka Gap Gauges) from a hardware or automotive retailer. They are cheap, so don’t be sucked into buying “Guitar Feeler Guages” because they are the same, but they are expensive.
I have some of the normal feeler gauges and checked the string height with those before sending it into the PTC
I forget what the measurements were but it was determined that after I adjusted the action and relief to a normal range, the string height at the first fret was too low for a few strings, and 2 of the strings were basically laying on the frets when I'd fret at the third fret.
When I got the guitar from Sweetwater I had them do a setup on it before sending it out to me since I didn't want to deal with filing the nut slots for the 11-56 gauge strings. When I got the guitar, the action had been set super high, there was a ton of relief, and the guitar was super uncomfortable to play. And even with the high action, there was already string buzz coming from the first few frets and after the nut no matter where I was fretting on the fretboard.
Once the action and relief were adjusted to medium action, I checked the string height for each string at the first fret. I don't remember exactly what the measurements were, I just remember they were too low for a few strings.
The nut slots were actually cut so low for a few strings that when I'd fret the third fret, a few strings were basically laying on the frets and I couldn't fit any feeler gauges under them. And the string height at the first fret for the rest of the strings were almost too low but had barely enough space to only cause buzz when I'd pick medium-hard.
I think what happened is whatever tech at Sweetwater did the nut slot filing for my guitar, ended up filing a few of the nut slots too low and they probably set up the action and relief significantly higher to get rid of most of the buzz that the badly cut nut was causing, instead of dealing with having to replace the nut since they didn't have any of the PRS replacement nuts at the time.
I didn't know that the nut slots being deep and the strings sitting below level of the nut slot wasn't an issue as long as it isn't binding. I don't mind that much actually haha
