S2 Mccarty SC vs Thinline- A hill of beans difference?

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Here it is.It's a stunning piece of work.
For being a thicker body with a fat neck, it felt light to me.
The fat neck is perfect!!! Very comfortable in my smallish hand.

Sad to say but I'm returning it.
How in the hell does a brand new high quality American-made guitar purchased from an authorized PRS seller end up with a faulty pickup selector switch???

The bridge position volume and tone work as expected.
Initially middle and neck positions seemed to work.
Then I tested tone pull switch on the bridge. It worked.
Next, the neck position with the tone switch pulled for sc. Whats's this??? No sound. Back to the bridge, yep, there was sound. Middle position? Using the volume controls I confirmed that only the bridge pickup was active, the neck pickup was silent.

Turned everything off, took a break, only to experience the same result.
Too bad!!!

To be sure, I will purchase this again only from my usual seller when they have stock.
 
Crappy wiring sounds right.

The seller wanted to pay to have a local tech fix it. I suppose that's a reasonable option but I did not accept it.

At least, I now have hands-on experience and direct visual inspection to fully understand the otherwise high build quality.

To be continued...
 
Lot of people complain about the cheap selectors and wiring used. It’s a simple fix and quick replacement…but getting unreasonable for a now $1.7k guitar that this is an issue. I wish they would upgrade the switch selector and wiring to that of core. Keep the cheaper wood top and pickups to keep the cost down.
 
Lot of people complain about the cheap selectors and wiring used. It’s a simple fix and quick replacement…but getting unreasonable for a now $1.7k guitar that this is an issue. I wish they would upgrade the switch selector and wiring to that of core. Keep the cheaper wood top and pickups to keep the cost down.

This^^^ 110%

OP did you hit the switch with a shot of contact cleaner?
 
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Who did you buy this from ?

I would think that the root of your problem ... Is probably "Electronics Crud" !

My highly technical term for corrosion on the switch gear.

The spray cleaner stuff "DeOx-it" would probably straighten all that out

AND it is something you should have on hand anyway. Environmental conditions in your own home may foster it.

A Squier I purchased this summer when it was hot & muggy, recently had a switch issue, now that it is icy cold. I simply popped the control plate, pulled out the switch, sprayed the be-jabbers out of it .

And Voila ... Cool Operation. And I am not techie guy by any means

I did see evidence of corrosion in the cavity I pulled the switch out of (this is an Indonesian import) exposed to heavens knows what in transit

But having your dealers tech guy pull the pots and switches and spray 'em down, might save you time and anxiety waiting on another instrument (which shortly after purchase, might do the same thing !) ;) Even "higher quality" switches can get cruddy ...

SinSir I believe has the right idea ...
 
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I purchased this from CME.

DeOxit is my shelf and I do mess around with and modify older guitars, make nuts with StewMac tools and such.

But I refuse to mess around with a brand new and in terms of the size of my pockets, expensive guitar.

There was none of the scratchy sounds from dirty selector switch contacts that I'm familiar with.

It's going to UPS in the minute or so.
 
Oh ... I have been there . Its a fancy shop .

Seriously, I'd have them do the DeOx-It thing as that is probably all that is wrong with it .
Its under warranty, and they could do this while you wait (May make you wear an environmental suit, as Cook County has new crazy Covid rules)

Electronics Crud does not always manifest as "scratchy sounds". Sometimes , stuff just stops working, because there is no contact due to crud. Like on my Squier.

My first experience was with a Fender American Standard Strat Plus, (quality Switchcraft switches) where the bridge P/U just went silent . Hit it with contact cleaner and 20 years later ... still good.

You are probably looking at a long wait for a replacement, and all CME is going to do , is De Ox It and put it back on one of their many walls filled with beautiful guitars ...

BTW ... I think those puppies are up to $1,900 now, so I won't be "experimenting" with one . Another Thinline for me ...
 
If this were a local purchase, absolutely I'd be happy to have the store tech fix so that I can take it home.

I'm on a wait list at the online seller I usually deal with so I'm ok with that.
 
Chicago Music Exchange, (CME) is probably one of the nicest guitar joints I've ever been in. Really fancy. Has little auditioning rooms on the sales floor to best insulate customers auditing stuff . But I don't look to them for " The Cool Price" , for all that glorious overhead ! :)
 
What I've seen of CME on line - videos and images, it is indeed an impressive looking place. And customer service did respect my request without any push back.

When I do order another PRS, I'll ask my seller to checkout the PU selector switch before shipping. In the meantime, I'm leaning toward DC rather than SC. But the pattern vintage is without question the neck for me.
 
Well,

Ya know Sweetwater claims they do that as a matter of course. They have their 55 Point Inspection Check they claim they do ,

And after 5 successful purchases of guitar alone ... no problems to date. Everything has arrived pristine ...

Then there's the little goodie bag ... ;)
 
Sweetwater is my preferred online seller for new guitars, with three purchases to date. All were playable right out of the box, no hiccups!

At the moment they have a S2 dark cherry DC 594 which looks great. But there's nothing like a Mccarty burst in my current lineup. They're on back order at SW...
 
I had a similar issue with my S2 594 when I first got it. It would be really inconsistent when switching between pickups. A little electronics contact cleaner took care of it no problem. I will admid, however, I had to do the same thing after I got the guitar back from having the 58/15 LT pickups swapped in.
 
I had to do the same thing after I got the guitar back from having the 58/15 LT pickups swapped in.

OK !

What model 594 did you make the change on ?

AND ... the difference ??? ;)

Now I know , there is a tendency to find "night & day differences" , especially when we spent bunches of $$$ to do it, but as objectively as you can,

What are you hearing as a result of the change ?
 
I had a similar issue with my S2 594 when I first got it. It would be really inconsistent when switching between pickups. A little electronics contact cleaner took care of it no problem.

Now that I know that this is a thing, no problem, DeOxit is on the shelf just in case.
 
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My new order should be here in a few days. I specifically asked the SW team to check the pickup selector switch before shipping. Of course images will be posted.
 
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