Questions about Tremonti SE

The strings alone don't help/hinder playing. It's tied into your technique. Are you a heavy picker, light picker, play with fingers? Do you rely on brute force, amp volume, or some combination? No one can answer questions tied to how you play, or what kind of music you like to play unless we see or hear you play. If you're in the DMV, pm me and I'll let you try mine.
 
The strings alone don't help/hinder playing. It's tied into your technique. Are you a heavy picker, light picker, play with fingers? Do you rely on brute force, amp volume, or some combination? No one can answer questions tied to how you play, or what kind of music you like to play unless we see or hear you play. If you're in the DMV, pm me and I'll let you try mine.
I'm a light picker and i do a lot of bends and fast runs, and sustain is quite important to me. So i have no idea if 9's or 10's would be better, or if there would be enough difference to notice it.
 
On a 25” scale length, for me, both 9s and 10s work for Maiden type gallop rhythms in E-standard. Haven’t tried these rhythms in Eb or drop D though.
 
On a 25” scale length, for me, both 9s and 10s work for Maiden type gallop rhythms in E-standard. Haven’t tried these rhythms in Eb or drop D though.
Yeah, one of the issues is that i mostly play on Eb, so i think like 9s would feel too floppy for faster playing and picking, but i cannot confirm that
 
I play some songs in Eb, just not the gallop rhythms which is only due to the selection of songs I play. I can do gallop rhythms on a 24.5” scale length Bernie with 9s which has lower string tension than the Tremonti. A big part of it come down to how aggressive you want to hit the strings.

I would try the guitar with 9s first and if it does not work, you can always change to 10s later. Yes, it will still cost 50 pounds, but at least then you know whether you actually need to pay for this.
 
With respect to your string gauge query, for best results and to save potentially having to cut the nut, replace the SE nut with a USA nut. For £50 I can only hope the shop would replace the nut for you, or at least cut it to accept the higher gauge strings?
Pickups are very subjective, but don't forget you can alter the height for more gain (as mentioned above for less gain). I personally changed the pickups in both my SE Tremontis, Duncan JBs in one for blues and classic rock and real high gain Duncan and DiMarzio in the other, but definitely a subjective topic.

To answer your initial question, with a good setup (which of course it may not need) and the strings of your choice you will have an amazing amount of bang for your buck. Both of my Tremonti SEs are heavily modified and now give my Core CU24s a run for their money - my point being once you own it you can slowly modify it to suit your needs and, if done well, will only improve it from a great guitar to a potentially perfect one (for you).
 
I play some songs in Eb, just not the gallop rhythms which is only due to the selection of songs I play. I can do gallop rhythms on a 24.5” scale length Bernie with 9s which has lower string tension than the Tremonti. A big part of it come down to how aggressive you want to hit the strings.

I would try the guitar with 9s first and if it does not work, you can always change to 10s later. Yes, it will still cost 50 pounds, but at least then you know whether you actually need to pay for this.
Yes, you are right. I'll go with 9s and check how everything goes and decide later.



With respect to your string gauge query, for best results and to save potentially having to cut the nut, replace the SE nut with a USA nut. For £50 I can only hope the shop would replace the nut for you, or at least cut it to accept the higher gauge strings?
Pickups are very subjective, but don't forget you can alter the height for more gain (as mentioned above for less gain). I personally changed the pickups in both my SE Tremontis, Duncan JBs in one for blues and classic rock and real high gain Duncan and DiMarzio in the other, but definitely a subjective topic.

To answer your initial question, with a good setup (which of course it may not need) and the strings of your choice you will have an amazing amount of bang for your buck. Both of my Tremonti SEs are heavily modified and now give my Core CU24s a run for their money - my point being once you own it you can slowly modify it to suit your needs and, if done well, will only improve it from a great guitar to a potentially perfect one (for you).

Thanks for the reply. I thought about it, and the setup for £50 isn't worth it. In fact, i decided to buy from a different shop called Thomann, which have their own limited edition Tremonti SE custom with an ebony fretboard, which costs quite a lot less than the one i originally planned to purchase. It's still a 2017 model, but with an ebony fretboard, so i guess it will be just fine. If i'll decide to change the string gauge, i guess i will have to order a new nut, but the problem would be setting up everything else. I have no experience with tremolo setups and have really bad experiences with my shitty guitar, so i don't really want to mess with any setups.

Are there any modifications needed right from the start? Like tuners, nut, pickups, pots, whatever? Since i will be ordering online, i guess i should order everything i can to avoid shipping costs at later dates
 
Just remember that you do not need a new nut - the nut slots just need to be filed a little larger IF you have binding at the nut. Many of us replace the nut with something else because it is a relatively inexpensive upgrade.
 
Yes, you are right. I'll go with 9s and check how everything goes and decide later.





Thanks for the reply. I thought about it, and the setup for £50 isn't worth it. In fact, i decided to buy from a different shop called Thomann, which have their own limited edition Tremonti SE custom with an ebony fretboard, which costs quite a lot less than the one i originally planned to purchase. It's still a 2017 model, but with an ebony fretboard, so i guess it will be just fine. If i'll decide to change the string gauge, i guess i will have to order a new nut, but the problem would be setting up everything else. I have no experience with tremolo setups and have really bad experiences with my shitty guitar, so i don't really want to mess with any setups.

Are there any modifications needed right from the start? Like tuners, nut, pickups, pots, whatever? Since i will be ordering online, i guess i should order everything i can to avoid shipping costs at later dates

There were some epic deals out there on 2017 Tremontis a few days ago, certainly shop around; Andertons had them for £549 I think...a LOT of guitar for that money.

My humble opinion would be to just buy the guitar and see how you get on with it. There is nothing 'wrong' with the pickups and nut, tuners etc, but they can be improved in time (I appreciate improvement is subjective and personal).

A good set-up can really make a difference to any guitar (I might need to stand corrected here) - but european SEs don't go through the USA factory for set up, like USA sold SEs do (am I right?), and further to that Thomann are more of a factory outlet so the guitar won't have any further set-up post Korea (again, I'm happy to stand corrected) so the guitar may need some minor tweaks as it is shipping from Korea to Germany to UK.
 
There were some epic deals out there on 2017 Tremontis a few days ago, certainly shop around; Andertons had them for £549 I think...a LOT of guitar for that money.

My humble opinion would be to just buy the guitar and see how you get on with it. There is nothing 'wrong' with the pickups and nut, tuners etc, but they can be improved in time (I appreciate improvement is subjective and personal).

A good set-up can really make a difference to any guitar (I might need to stand corrected here) - but european SEs don't go through the USA factory for set up, like USA sold SEs do (am I right?), and further to that Thomann are more of a factory outlet so the guitar won't have any further set-up post Korea (again, I'm happy to stand corrected) so the guitar may need some minor tweaks as it is shipping from Korea to Germany to UK.
Yeah, the epic deals were for a few days and they sold out in a few days. The current guitar i'm looking at (with ebony fingerboard) is £685, so still quite good i think.

As far as i'm aware, there is an European SE setup done somewhere, at least i've seen youtube videos about that, but do not know if that is still the case
 
Yeah, the epic deals were for a few days and they sold out in a few days. The current guitar i'm looking at (with ebony fingerboard) is £685, so still quite good i think.

As far as i'm aware, there is an European SE setup done somewhere, at least i've seen youtube videos about that, but do not know if that is still the case

That's it then - get it ordered and show us some pics when it arrives :)
Enjoy.
 
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Here you go. Can't really make better pictures at the moment. In the second picture you can see that there is a tiny hole near the inlay. Also there's like this barely noticeable dimple on the neck near the first fret (on the neck, not fretboard) that's driving me nuts. The other thing i don't like is that the backplate of trem is sticking out. The guitar for some reason feels cheaper made than my old one, also quite a lot lighter, but overall i like it. It's super comfortable to play, i love that the frets and strings are spaced out more. It rings very nicely even when unplugged, although the springs of trem are making quite a lot of noise. It will take some time to get used to, it slowed down my playing quite a lot, especially because of the floppy 9s, but it still plays like butter. Bends galore. Also the fretboard should be ebony, but by the looks of it i'm starting to think it's rosewood. They might have sent me the wrong model, but i'm not complaining since it is more expensive one than the one with ebony.
 
That is a beautiful guitar, congrats!

And how are they? Not too light for heavy rock/metal?

I believe that Glen Tipton (Judas Priest), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), and many others use 8s (or lower) and seem to get some great sounds. My Tremonti sounds great with the stock strings, both clean and high gain. 9s are going to be a little easier on the fretting hand than 10s, for bends, etc.
 
I like 8s, but they can flop around too much when playing Maiden type rhythm gallops. However, there are 8-46 hybrid sets by both Fender and Pyramid.
 
That’s ironic, as I belive that Dave Murray (Iron Maiden), actually uses 9s and a heavy pick.
 
Being the proud owner of two Tremonti SEs (original SE and 2017 Custom), I've modded out only the tuners to Schaller locking tuners and replaced the plastic volume/tone knobs to threaded metal ones. The stock tuners and knobs are fine for what they are but the changes are just for my personal preference. As for the Tremonti "S" pickups, they really are quite the little a$$ kickers in their own right and have found no need to swap them out. Since my original SE was acquired with the owner replacing them with Seymour Duncan Invader (bridge) and Alnico Pro II (neck) pickups and never trying a Core Tremonti (or any guitar with Tremonti USA pickups), I really can't draw a suitable comparison to them but I will go so far to say that these "S" pickups are some of the hottest pickups I've ever played and they can really clean up well if needed so I have not had the need nor want to replace them. The strings I use are the D'addario NYXL 10-52 set (I play in Drop C tuning) and they really get the job done for me.
 
Hey Temorin. I own the same 2017 Tremonti se model, and in overall very happy with it. Plays better and sounds better than a bunch of more expensive guitars I've tried out. A real instrument for me finally . Something to grow with .
Its my first PRS and I am more than convinced and tend to agree with all the PRS fans out there saying it's simply the best value for money.
I did have the same issue with noise coming from the tremolo springs. Also causing tuning instability. On closer inspection if turned out that a tiny piece of isolation paint was sticking out from the backside cavity, causing friction with one ("upper " ) spring. I kind of made a minimal swipe on the wall of the backside cavity where the spring was touching, with a fine sandpaper, to smooth it out. Noise disappeared, tunIng great. The tremolo shouldn't make noise.
U have to decide whether to carry out this on your own or a pro, but it's common sense really.
 
......and about the tremolo; yes I firmly believe you should block it when changing tuning/gauge. Check some youtube videos on this topic.
I changed from 9's to 10''s without any problems with tuning /nut or trem. But it took some studying of how-to first , me being new to tremolo's as well....
But it just takes some getting used to the principle, it's not really difficult .
 
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