PART 5
At that point I decided to take it to a local guitar tech (not Guitar Center) with experience on PRS Guitars to request a professional setup, as I didn't want to mess up anything myself. Before taking it to him I took it back to the initial neck relief that it had when I received it (0.017 in). The guitar tech told me that he was going to do the same progressive adjustments to the truss rod first, and then he would work on the action and intonation, but he said that he would do it throughout the course of the day to give the wood time, so I could come back at the end of the day. So I did, and unfortunately he told me that unfortunately the truss rod on this unit was not working properly, as he could only get it to 0.012 in and at that point it reached the max on the truss rod rotation. He told me that I should send it back, as he also noticed that the pickups on this one were showing "microphonics" (pickup would grab way to much environment sound) when playing the guitar with a loud amp, so the tone would turn very muddy. I didn't notice this at home since I don't play very loud (wife and kids).
Again... no issues with the great guys at Sweetwater, so a new return label was received and the guitar is back on it's way to them.
Comparing both Indonesian and Korean I could say that manufacturing-wise they look pretty much the same. I only noticed slight differences like how the accessories are packed (tremolo bar, cable, truss rod key, etc), but on the guitar's finish, feel and tone both look pretty much the same to me. Again... I'm not a PRS expert.
I'm going for a new replacement, but since this time I don't have the Indonesian Vs. Korean concern anymore, I opted to select another unit of my original pick the Zebrawood model, as I like that one much better. This time though, I'm opting to pay Sweetwater for their professional setup, asking to set it up according to PRS Specs, but making sure there's no fret buzz, I also asked them to set it up with a new set of Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings (9 to 42), as those are my preferred strings. I'm crossing my fingers that since they'll do the full setup they'll make sure that there's no other issues on the unit I selected.
Hope that helps... I'll update this post when I get my new unit within a few days.