Poor Produced 2019 SE's ?

Has it occured to anyone else that upside down, the owl on the 24th fret looks like a penguin?

Turtle!;)

I keep my penguin on the telly.

latest

I prefer hedgehogs

 
No, but there are options. John Mann can convert the stock SE tuners to locking, or for a little more he has SE compatible locking tuners. I just got a set converted. His site is guitarvaultusa.com

I like the conversion better, it’s cheaper and the back of the stock tuners have the PRS stamped in them, whereas the new set costs more and no PRS stamp.

Hey I live like 15 minutes from Mann's. Haven't had any issues with the tuners on the SE Custom. Anyways, I looked at those pictures and it honestly doesn't look that bad. The minor issues on this thread are completely blown up in my opinion, especially as the guitar as it gets use over the years will probably see more wear and minor damage than any of these small defects if you can call them that.

-k
 
No, but there are options. John Mann can convert the stock SE tuners to locking, or for a little more he has SE compatible locking tuners. I just got a set converted. His site is guitarvaultusa.com

I like the conversion better, it’s cheaper and the back of the stock tuners have the PRS stamped in them, whereas the new set costs more and no PRS stamp.
I live in Germany. The ones he offers got different finishes.
theres chrome or black nickel and the tuner on the SE are just nickel if I‘m not wrong
 
I believe the pictures imply that he works on all different tuners. You have to supply your own tuners and then the conversion is done upon them. You pull them from the guitar and ship them if you don't live local.

-k
 

Seriously, can you see the penguin? The branch becomes the penguins beak and right flipper, and the owl's ears become the penguin's feet.

Next we can work on the cat on the 21st fret. ;)
 
I'm just curious to know why they opened another factory in Indo, instead of opening a second factory or expand the current one or even perhaps moving the existing operations into a larger facility.


I wouldn't know but, it seems like it would be a huge PITA to open a business in another country, and ought to be cheaper and easier to expand operations within another country where you're already doing business



Anybody care to provide general insight and a basic over view?
 
I'm just curious to know why they opened another factory in Indo, instead of opening a second factory or expand the current one or even perhaps moving the existing operations into a larger facility
I agree. There appears to be more issues with the Cor-Tek guitars than the SE Standards that were made by PT Wildwood (the original Indonesian manufacturer of SEs)

I'd rather pay a little more for a perfect PT Wildwood than a less-than-perfect Cor-Tek.
 
I'm just curious to know why they opened another factory in Indo, instead of opening a second factory or expand the current one or even perhaps moving the existing operations into a larger facility.


I wouldn't know but, it seems like it would be a huge PITA to open a business in another country, and ought to be cheaper and easier to expand operations within another country where you're already doing business



Anybody care to provide general insight and a basic over view?
I assume you mean as opposed to another factory in Korea? I'm sure the answer lies in the accounting department.
 
I assume you mean as opposed to another factory in Korea? I'm sure the answer lies in the accounting department.
Exactly. And it's not like it was PRS' factory. It's World Music and they also produce for LTD, Chapman, etc. If PRS wanted more from that builder then they'd have to ask/fight for capacity.
 
As I have said before, both CorTek and WMI make guitars for numerous other brands like Chapman, Schecter, Ibanez etc. Some brands use both Cortek and WMI for different models, tiers etc.

That being said, we do NOT have any figures on 'costs', on quality issues etc. For all we know, the number of guitars that WMI can make, within the cost and within the margin of tolerance could be quite different to what CorTek are able to offer. We don't know if the change to CorTek is for the Customers benefit, to keep the 'SE' Range under $1k whilst still offering the same standard of materials and hardware. We don't know if the number of guitars that 'fail' the final QC is significantly different between WMI and CorTek. For all we know, the number of guitars that have to go back (or whatever PRS do with 'duds') are significantly lower with CorTek - even if the 'average' quality of the guitars that scrape through are lower. We don't have the figures or the information to be critical.

We also don't have the sales figures either and for all we know, the numbers being sold are much higher. Statistically, if that is the case, then there may appear to be a higher number of issues and those with issues are more likely to seek a forum for answers. If 1 in every 1000 on average were slipping through QC, if the sales are 5000, that means 5 people could be here complaining. However if the QC means 1 in every 1100 now fail but the sales have increased to 7700, that would see an increase to 7 people coming here complaining and thus make it seem that the overall Quality has dropped when its more a factor of the popularity has increased.

It could be that the general quality has dropped but without all the information, its not possible to draw a conclusive result. The purpose of the post was to show that more issues could be a result in an increase in sales so statistically, there could be a rise in complaints rather than drop in standards.
 
Good points Mozzi.

As usual, people love to jump to conclusions. :rolleyes:
 
It could be that the general quality has dropped but without all the information, its not possible to draw a conclusive result. The purpose of the post was to show that more issues could be a result in an increase in sales so statistically, there could be a rise in complaints rather than drop in standards.

You're right that we can't figure this stuff out. I think we can say that there's been some loss of confidence though. That's what needs to be addressed somehow.
 
...I think we can say that there's been some loss of confidence though...

Hardly. Another example of leaping to conclusions. I have not lost one bit of confidence over some half-a-dozen unhappy campers. I have 3 Indonesian made PRS, and all are just fine. As has been pointed out, some of the complaints are trifling, and some people seem to want to blow things out of proportion. In fact, I am just as anxious now, to get my new SE Paul's guitar, as I was when I ordered it. ;)
 
Loss of confidence is something that will be individual to each and every person. As @shimmilou states, he has lost no confidence whilst @Victek may of lost some. The loss of confidence could be related to the websites they frequent - as in if they see a few negative posts here, some confidence may be lost but if they watch Phil McKnight or Premier Guitar on youtube, confidence may be high because both of these released video's comparing the SE with the Core version.

In fact, those two video's may well of seen a 'surge' in purchases and potentially distorted peoples opinion here. If sales double, then 'statistically', there could be 'double' the complaints that may get shared here. If it only goes up by 10% despite a 100% increase in sales, it would look as if the quality has dropped but the reality is that a greater proportion of people are happy with their purchase and not jumping into this Forum looking for help, to complain about something.

I have stated elsewhere that we have no idea on tolerances PRS utilise to determine whether a guitar makes it to retail. The majority of the complaints I have seen are purely cosmetic, minor inaccuracies that have absolutely no impact in the playability, the function or the tone. The birds not being perfectly centred or a recessed back-plate not aligning perfectly with the routed hole - even if the 'gap' isn't large enough to see into the actual cavity. These instruments, whilst not 'perfect' cosmetically may well be 'perfect' (compared to other like models and price range) in the way they play, feel and sound. The 'tiny' imperfections may not be worth the costs to 'fix' and, as they play, sound and feel perfect' made it out to market.

The people who bought these may well have felt that the tiny visual 'imperfections' affected their enjoyment of the guitar, enough to come here and post about it and thus making it appear that the quality had dropped. We don't know if the Guitars from Korea had more significant flaws, like finish peeling on the neck, twisted necks etc so a higher proportion were having to be scrapped or 'repaired' to make it to market. In other words, the amount of guitars coming into PRS that can go out to market without requiring the US staff to correct or scrap could have significantly increased and, because PRS themselves were having to do more work to fix the 'Korean' builds, why they may of seemed a higher quality. That higher quality was down to the US staff doing 'something' before they made it to retail.

There are too many variables without the actual figures that could contribute to people's confidence in the SE range, particularly the Indonesian built models. Anything from what websites they frequent, what you tube video's they may have watched, what instruments they tried in shops, what their friends may have seen/read, what expectations they may have had etc
 
2 PT Wildwood, 1 Cor Tek. The SE Custom 24 is Cor Tek, and I believe that the SE Paul’s guitar that I have ordered is also Cor Tek. The SE Cu 24 is the best one, as far as features, but all are great, the other 2 being a SE Standard 22, and SE 245 Standard. I could be persnickety and point out all the very minor cosmetic flaws, but they are really not noticeable, have no affect on playability, and are quite acceptable on the lower-end models.
 
Just pure speculation on my part; maybe they threw Cor-Tek a bone with some of the SEs. Aren't the MT-15 and the new SE acoustics made in China? Maybe by Cor-Tek? Perhaps part of the deal?
 
In 2017, Korea passed a minimum wage law that immediately raised the 2018 Minimum wage 16.4 percent. That’s part of it. As Korean guitars go up in quality, Korean prices do also. PRS needs certain margins to stay in business. There will always be a teething process as production gets shifted to new factories. Keep in mind, these Indonesian factories may not understand exactly what quality level Paul expects until they’ve run a few thousand guitars.
 
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