Question regarding PRS Mix of parts, colors, etc?

[Jedi]

Gents,

Other than the aesthetic reasons <personally I am not a fan> is there a method to Paul's madness? For example, utilizing brass/gold pickup screws with nickel covers? Also, the guitars that have clearance, why not use a higher pickup ring.

Even my DGT has mix and match colored parts, cream pickup surrounds, yet black screws....mostly cream plastic, yet a black tremolo bar tip? I have been a F & G player for many years and the recent DGT is my first PRS purchase.

Just trying to understand the philosophy.

Thanks!

 

[László]

Gents,

Other than the aesthetic reasons <personally I am not a fan> is there a method to Paul's madness? For example, utilizing brass/gold pickup screws with nickel covers? Also, the guitars that have clearance, why not use a higher pickup ring.

Even my DGT has mix and match colored parts, cream pickup surrounds, yet black screws....mostly cream plastic, yet a black tremolo bar tip? I have been a F & G player for many years and the recent DGT is my first PRS purchase.

Just trying to understand the philosophy.

Thanks!

If your guitar has the Mixed Hardware, with both gold and nickel parts (that's what it sounds like), that's purely aesthetics. Think stainless steel Rolex with gold bezel and some trim parts and you get the idea. It's actually an option that I believe started and came with the first Modern Eagle models.

With all-gold hardware you get gold pickup ring and height adjustment screws, and on the mixed hardware, the ring screws are gold and the pickup height adjustment screw is nickel. But even the gold trem bar tip is black.

All the PRS trem arms have black tips, but you can get a variety of interesting trem arm and switch tips (not to mention other custom stuff) from this German company:

http://www.crazyparts.de/sports/tremolo-arm-tips/index.php

As to the black screws, I have no idea, but I'm sure you can find off-the-shelf screws of the same size at a hardware store and swap them out if they're bothersome. My guess is the choice was purely aesthetic there, too. Even the high-end Paul's Guitar has the pickup ring hardware that way. So it simply must be a matter of Paul's preference. He doesn't seem to go all-in for matchy-matchy.

Maybe he didn't get the word that the shoes MUST match the belt...

 

[Rango]

:coffee:

Gents,

Other than the aesthetic reasons <personally I am not a fan> is there a method to Paul's madness? For example, utilizing brass/gold pickup screws with nickel covers? Also, the guitars that have clearance, why not use a higher pickup ring.

Even my DGT has mix and match colored parts, cream pickup surrounds, yet black screws....mostly cream plastic, yet a black tremolo bar tip? I have been a F & G player for many years and the recent DGT is my first PRS purchase.

Just trying to understand the philosophy.

Thanks!

I'm on my first cup of coffee this morning :coffee:
I'm confused You bought a guitar you didn't like? :iamconfused:

 

[Jedi]

No, actually the DGT is the first PRS that I actually purchased. It is a goldtop / dark back / moons, about 7.5lbs. and I like the guitar a lot. I have tried other models over the years but never bonded with any of them until the DGT.

It just appears that all the DGTs w/ cream plastic appear to have black screws and a black trem plastic. I was just wondering if in Paul's mind, gold/brass screws in nickel cover pickups was an aesthetic choice or given the amount of testing that he does maybe he felt it was a tonal thing?

Obviously, a lot of guys here like monster tops and that same guitar will exhibit all this mixing of gold, brass, chrome and nickel, it becomes a bit busy to me. However, in general it does not appear that they ever match stuff, I bet some players would like that from a stock instrument, especially with figured tops. I know I would.

Also, on the single cuts I notice that the bridge humbucker sticks up from the ring alot because the same size ring is used on both pickups. Just an opinion, it would be cool to have a higher ring with the pickup just peeking up over the top, there is certainly enough room and the carve is not an issue. IMHO, would make it more streamlined and not so clunky.

Just some random questions from a newcomer to the PRS world. Sorry if this has been beat to death before.

 

[justmund]

I couldn't even tell you what colour the screws are on my PRSes that I have currently, or have had in the past. Anyway, it's impossible to see them when you have your eyes closed imagining you're a rock god...

I guess different things bother different people, people have different tastes (I'm not even sure if PRSh gets into these small details?), so like Les said, change 'em if it bothers you! You then get the added satisfaction of making it "yours".