PRS SE Custom 24 bridge WAY off center - what to do other than refunds?

[goodbyeboy]

Hey, so I bought this limited edition blue matteo PRS SE Custom 24 from Japan and I got it today. Beautiful guitar, but unfortunately tremolo screw holes seemed to be WAY off center; I actually have the same model and when I compared them two you can tell there's def something wrong with the guitar.

It is severely affecting the playability as well; strings don't seem to be aligned at center as well. Am I blind or is this legit faulty guitar? Here are couple of photos including a comparison photo.

Thing is I really like this guitar and it'd be pain in the ass to ship it back to Japan, so I am wondering what I can do to fix this? is it even possible to fix?

 

[László]

Not a good look, to be sure.

I'd return it.

 

[JasonE]

Not much you can do with that. The guitar is probably never going to be right. You can see if the bridge will intonate. I am surprised that made it through QC.

 

[jak3af3r]

Check the screws that mount it to the body. If they're not all at the same height, they won't allow the trem to rest in the groove which will make it ride on the larger diameter part of the screw. If you have one side in the groove and one side out, it may push the bridge out of whack but maybe not that much.

 

[goodbyeboy]

Not much you can do with that. The guitar is probably never going to be right. You can see if the bridge will intonate. I am surprised that made it through QC.

Yeah I've never seen anything like this before. OK, probably the cheap fake Chinese guitars but not something I'd expect from PRS. Isn't this supposed to be done by CNC? this puzzles me.

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

In theory it could be fixed by plugging the screw holes with dowels and re-drilling. Get it sent back though.

I guess if the guitar moved slightly in it’s jig when it was having the holes drilled, then you could wind up with the screw holes askew.

But again, this issue must have been noticed by a number of people and still it was allowed to pass QC and be sold. I don’t believe for a second the purchaser was the first to notice.

Get it sent back and hopefully the replacement will be better.

 

[JasonE]

In theory it could be fixed by plugging the screw holes with dowels and re-drilling. Get it sent back though.

I guess if the guitar moved slightly in it’s jig when it was having the holes drilled, then you could wind up with the screw holes askew.

But again, this issue must have been noticed by a number of people and still it was allowed to pass QC and be sold. I don’t believe for a second the purchaser was the first to notice.

Get it sent back and hopefully the replacement will be better.

My bet is the hole that the trem block goes through is also not aligned to where it should be. It is probably not salvageable.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Whoa!

 

[d^rren]

Not much you can do with that. The guitar is probably never going to be right. You can see if the bridge will intonate. I am surprised that made it through QC.

It will probably intonate just fine. But that tremolo will probably never return to pitch accurately.

You can deck the bridge and use it as a hardtail, or return it. I doubt it's worth fixing. The bridge holes would have to be filled and re-drilled, and you'd probably want to refinish it after that, because the plugs (or a solid plug block) would be visible.

 

[Gtrbldr]

My bet is the hole that the trem block goes through is also not aligned to where it should be. It is probably not salvageable.

Agreed. Major screwup, send it back.

I have no idea how many flawed SEs leave the factory, but I had to go pickk from 4 differend SE HBII Piezos and all but one had a slightly misaligned neck. That is quite a big percentage of non-acceptable flaws for a 1400+ euro guitar. I do not want to "just pile on", but it kind of hurts to see the import line suffer from this unnecessary shortcomings.

 

[garrettb]

Check the screws that mount it to the body. If they're not all at the same height, they won't allow the trem to rest in the groove which will make it ride on the larger diameter part of the screw. If you have one side in the groove and one side out, it may push the bridge out of whack but maybe not that much.

^^Check this first. Not impossible, but I doubt the bridge mounting holes are wrong. Poor installation or a faulty bridge plate seem more likely to me.

Either way, not cool man! Hope you can get it sorted one way or another.

 

[MarcWink]

Stuff like this slipping through the cracks lately is the exact reason why I refuse to buy another SE guitar.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Check the screws that mount it to the body. If they're not all at the same height, they won't allow the trem to rest in the groove which will make it ride on the larger diameter part of the screw. If you have one side in the groove and one side out, it may push the bridge out of whack but maybe not that much.

^^Check this first. Not impossible, but I doubt the bridge mounting holes are wrong. Poor installation or a faulty bridge plate seem more likely to me.

Either way, not cool man! Hope you can get it sorted one way or another.

Goinging back to look at your first pic, it may be a trick of the light, but it looks like the bass trem screws are sitting slightly higher on the trem plate, than those on the treble side. Indicating it was sitting on the grooves on the bass side (closer to bridge pickup) and not on the treble side.

 

[d^rren]

I noticed that, too. And in the last pic, the bridge doesn't look as crooked as it does in the first. So not really "off centre" but "misaligned."

 

[mossman]

Same issue here. I bought the guitar about two years ago because I love the looks and understood that PRS was a reputable brand. I didn't realize at the time that I was buying the Indonesian version. It was however a $900+ guitar. I don't play it much but have noticed it is impossible to keep it in tune. I had locking tuners installed and they make no difference. After closer inspection I realized the bridge is way off center and is rubbing/binding against the guitar body. Is it possible to fix this?

 

[Faded]

Yikes

 

[mossman]

The PRS website says there's a 5 year warranty so maybe it will be covered. Just sent them a message.

 

[bluemoon]

The PRS website says there's a 5 year warranty so maybe it will be covered. Just sent them a message.

maybe? for sure it is covered.

 

[mossman]

I say "maybe" because I wasn't sure when I purchased it. Just tracked it down and I bought it in September of 2020 so I should be good.

 

[bluemoon]

I say "maybe" because I wasn't sure when I purchased it. Just tracked it down and I bought it in September of 2020 so I should be good.

Sorry. I thought you were the OP. Got confused.