PRS SE Zach Myers - Trampas Green Subpar finishing

For those who are getting a blank TRC, can you ask your dealers why they are coming three different ways?
 
ThanksTedder. I agree with you also. You need to have your guitar situation corrected to your satisfaction IMHO. I'll be following this thread with many others. Please keep us up to date, OK?

I certainly will. I'm sure they will make it right and I have more hope now that you have an example that doesn't have these other issues. :)
 
Hi Fellas. I received my ZMSE yesterday after work. I am relieved to say there were no issues with it whatsoever. A relief for me but causes me to feel even worse for those who got something less than what was expected. Mine did come with a blank trc. I would have preferred a PRS one. Guess I'll be ordering one of those. No pics with this post. Everyone knows what they look like by now. LOL Mine is definitely on the green side. Nice top. Not anywhere near sergioleblanc's but I am happy with it. After work today I'll plug 'er in and wail away on it and discover what she fully sounds like. Best wishes to all.

Should we really be on the hook to purchase a new truss rod cover when photos depict a non-blank cover? I'm going to contact PRS and see if they have a solution or explanation. I got mine from Sweetwater but the Musician's Friend description explicitly states "Truss Rod Cover: "ZM"". I have a feeling that they just ran out or were in a rush to get these delivered.
 
Glad to hear yours was free of any issues.

After giving mine a good look I found that I do have some of the issues you guys mention, but they seem to be less harsh than the pictures I've seen on here. The top is fine though, and I'm extremely happy with how well it plays. We swapped pickups in it and even though the stock ones are really quite good, these new pickups are great. Here are a picture of the top, as well as the finish issues that everyone else is experiencing.

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Slight difference in color about halfway through the mahogany.


There's some really light brush stroke type of spots that are lighter in the mahogany, which was way more difficult to photograph than I thought based on how it looks in person. It's still pretty minimal compared to some of the other guitars in this thread.

I don't know why this piece of wood appears to be unstained, but I've just kind of credited it as being unique. I kinda dig it.


That's not a shadow, it's just a huge difference in color between the two pieces of mahogany. There is also a glue spot shaped very roughly like California in the middle of the seam that again, didn't photograph very well.


As far as I can tell this is just a line of glue that didn't get cleaned out where the neck joins the body by the cutout. This is the worst spot on the guitar in my opinion, but it's somewhere where I don't have to look at it all the time, so it's not an issue as far as I'm concerned.

Besides, you guys all return yours and get pretty ones and I'll have "that rare blem'd ZMSE that PRS let slip by quality", haha.

Seriously though, it sucks to end up getting something you've been waiting for and have it be messed up, so I can certainly understand the frustration. I feel like overall I got out pretty lucky, blank trc and all.
 
For those who are getting a blank TRC, can you ask your dealers why they are coming three different ways?

I got this from Fret12 last month after I inquired about the PRS TRC instead of the ZM TRC.

" I will do my best to work with you on this. I can’t give you our personal contact at PRS but I did talk with him again after your email.,He let me know that the truss rod cover is an error on their part. They are phasing out all wording on the truss rod covers this year and they already switched from ZM to PRS on the Zach Myers guitar. In the next few months they are going to be plain black covers. He said that he will do his best to try and find another ZM cover to send me though."
 
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The truss rod cover thing is not uncommon. My SE Angelus acoustic has the PRS block logo on the TRC, but lately all the ones I've seen have a script "SE" on them. The image on the website as well as in early demos shows a blank TRC. Just a change that got made at some point.
 
We take the issues with the discoloration very seriously and the issue is being addressed with our partner in Korea, World Musical.

All SE models starting in 2014 will receive a blank truss rod cover.
 
All SE models starting in 2014 will receive a blank truss rod cover.

I think that's kinda cool personally, I aways flipped mine over so you wouldn't see the screened PRS logo... I think they looked slightly cheesy.
 
We take the issues with the discoloration very seriously and the issue is being addressed with our partner in Korea, World Musical.

Shawn, any explanations how these were all missed, or were the guitars up to what would be a normal standard for most manufacturers?
 
I have luckily not experienced any discoloration (but I will look a little closer tonight). Mine is an N serial number. Mine did however come with an off-white powder on the fretboard, almost like a real fine sawdust, giving the fretboard a kind of faded look. It came right off with lemon oil and now it looks great, but I didn't plan on removing the strings that soon. Anyone else run into this issue?
 
I have luckily not experienced any discoloration (but I will look a little closer tonight). Mine is an N serial number. Mine did however come with an off-white powder on the fretboard, almost like a real fine sawdust, giving the fretboard a kind of faded look. It came right off with lemon oil and now it looks great, but I didn't plan on removing the strings that soon. Anyone else run into this issue?

This is a long shot, but did you buy yours off eBay from CoralMusic? They had one that seemed to have the same type of deal with the powdery white stuff.
 
This is a long shot, but did you buy yours off eBay from CoralMusic? They had one that seemed to have the same type of deal with the powdery white stuff.

Nope, actually ordered it from Guitarcenter.com. They had the shortest published wait times at that point.
 
I have luckily not experienced any discoloration (but I will look a little closer tonight). Mine is an N serial number. Mine did however come with an off-white powder on the fretboard, almost like a real fine sawdust, giving the fretboard a kind of faded look. It came right off with lemon oil and now it looks great, but I didn't plan on removing the strings that soon. Anyone else run into this issue?

It's just dried rubbing compound from the buffing stage.
 
Thanks Sergio. Seems like they were just in a hurry to get these out the door. I can't say enough about how great of a guitar this is.
 
Thanks Sergio. Seems like they were just in a hurry to get these out the door. I can't say enough about how great of a guitar this is.

Fer sure! People are DYING to get their hands on these, I'm sure that has something to do with it. Glad you like it.
 
It appears to me that the solid body was made from several pieces of wood laminated together.
That's good and bad. The good is it makes a very strong unit. The bad is you paid for a solid body expecting the body to be one piece.
Maybe pieces of mahogany that big are getting expensive, and this uses smaller "scraps".

I'd send it back. It would bug me forever.
But consider this. A US made guitar has a maple top made from two pieces and it's beautiful if the grain is matched. You can see a seam right down the middle.
Maybe that blank was intended for a guitar that was to be painted black.
The stain, if rubbed in, just absorbed into the grain.
Again, if the body was a nice shiney black, you'd be raving about the quality.
 
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