SE Mods

Made a slight mod to my Mushok.



I bought some black knobs for my "new" Peavey (childhood guitar with some sentimental value), but they didn't fit. Since I got sick of looking at them on my table, and I was fixing the horrible setup on it, I decided to see how they looked on the Mishok.... And now I really wish I had a black bridge to go with it, lol.


This did get me thinking about pickups though. Do any MM owners have the PRS \m/ pickups in their guitar? I think I want something just a little hotter with a little more clarity on this one. I'm open to all suggestions if anyone has any for me
 
Charlie, which Schaller locking tuners did us use, and did they match the existing holes? I love the Standard!

Sorry, I didn't see this question until now. I used the Schaller M6 locking tuners and yes, they match the existing holes.
 
One question, how do Gotoh Locking 510-MGT tuners like these (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231516805122?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) match up to the holes for the screws?

Im thinking about a upgrade on my tuners for my Mushok to locking ones and these ones look like the best out there at the moment.

And I'm wondering if they will drop in on my SE Custom 24 30th Anniversary, because they also come in black: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Delta-S...MGT-Tuners-3-3-Black-3-Per-Side-/271509551801.
 
I quite agree, you have to be tone deaf if you can't notice the difference a more resonant nut will give, the same goes for the bridge at the other end. At the moment, Im trying to decide which nut I should use to replace the original on my 2003 Soapbar; does anyone have suggestions? Does it have to be made for a 10" fretboard radius?

I don't mean to single anyone-out but...you guys are still "hearing" a difference in nuts? Do you all only play open strings? You do realize that as soon as you fret a note the nut is out of the equation right?

If it binds, FILE it.
:)
 
I don't mean to single anyone-out but...you guys are still "hearing" a difference in nuts? Do you all only play open strings? You do realize that as soon as you fret a note the nut is out of the equation right?

If it binds, FILE it.
:)

I wholeheartedly disagree.

:)
 
Random shots of my this evenings date. PRS SE Åkesson with 'a few' mods. Never been much of a EMG fan but the 57/66 set is awesome!

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Random shots of my this evenings date. PRS SE Åkesson with 'a few' mods. Never been much of a EMG fan but the 57/66 set is awesome!

17974840992_35f88ac86d_b.jpg

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Nice!
Love the Zentera! I had one (head & 4x12 cab), just an awesome amp that was way ahead if it's time.
 
Cheers! Yup it's great amp and still keeps up with the latest modeling amps IMO.
 
Excellent thread. I'm new to both the forum and PRS after receiving an SE Custom 24 30th Anniversary model for my 40th birthday. First impressions are that it's a very very good guitar and with very little effort and cash it's going to be a GREAT guitar. So I've taken some advice from here and ordered up a Tusq nut and a set of Grover 406c tuners.

The tuners will be a breeze to install, however the nut may be a different story. I have no intension on putting a heavier string gauge in as 9's are my prefered gauge so I'm hoping it sould just drop in with only a bit of sanding on the bottom to drop the height, so please tell me I can leave the slots well alone. Also, any recomendations on the type of glue needed would be appreciated.

Pickups and pots will come at a later stage although I must say I'm loving the bridge pickup.
 
I`ll stronly recommend that you have a really good tech install the nut. If it`s a little off, it may make you crazy. My luthier (former PRS) believes that 95% of tuning problems are a bad nut on the SE`s.
 
I have a 2008 Allender and a 2014 Se custom 24. They are the first and only electric guitars I've ever owned. Both have 10s for strings and when I removed the strings, to replace them with new strings, I noticed that most of the strings were tight to very tight fits in the nut slots on both guitars. I believe that is bad for tuning and intonation. I've owned a 79 Guild d35, and a 67 Gibson heritage for over twenty years, and bought a new Santa Cruz OM in 2004. I made MOP nuts for two and a fossil ivory nut for the Guild. I feel all three were improved. Based on that experience, and the string tightness in the Korean nuts, I've made MOP nuts for the PRSs. I also replaced the Korean trems with Mannmade 2000NOS trems on both and, to me, that made them better sounding instruments. My next planned change will be to replace the capacitors with better quality caps and the wiring with FEP coated OFC wire. The one change I'm doing, purely for looks, is replacing the Chrome tuner knobs on the SE custom with MOP looking knobs to match the MOP nut.
 
Excellent thread. I'm new to both the forum and PRS after receiving an SE Custom 24 30th Anniversary model for my 40th birthday. First impressions are that it's a very very good guitar and with very little effort and cash it's going to be a GREAT guitar. So I've taken some advice from here and ordered up a Tusq nut and a set of Grover 406c tuners.

The tuners will be a breeze to install, however the nut may be a different story. I have no intension on putting a heavier string gauge in as 9's are my prefered gauge so I'm hoping it sould just drop in with only a bit of sanding on the bottom to drop the height, so please tell me I can leave the slots well alone. Also, any recomendations on the type of glue needed would be appreciated.

Pickups and pots will come at a later stage although I must say I'm loving the bridge pickup.


I'm glad to see that you now have a great SE Custom 24 anniv. model. I have not put the 406C locking tuners on my SE Custom 24's yet but intend to. I have a set on my Singlecut Tremolo SE and really like them. They made a very noticeable difference in staying in tune, etc.

I like the pickups in my Custom 24's. They both sound a little different but I guess all guitars do. I don't know what pickups I would choose to replace these with because they sound so good to me. I like Seymour Duncans and heard that the Custom Custom would be a good pickup in these. I think Gibson USA pickups are hard to beat and suppose some '57 Classics would sound good, but these PRS pickups are more of a modern sound and the Gibson classics are an old school sound, so I think I would try to find some modern sounding pickups to put in. I'm not sure which ones would sound better than the ones already in there unless I tried some PRS USA pickups or knew which Seymour Duncans to buy, or even possibly Dimarzio's. Dimarzio makes good pickups.

I agree about the nut problems. I sanded all of the tight slots in the nuts of my SE's. Each guitar had two or three, at least, that were so tight that they were pinching and binding the strings. Of course that kind of thing would interfere with the smooth operation of the trem and coming back into tune after trem use. They are all moving freely in the slots now and the stability after moderate trem use is good; before it would be out of tune after very mild trem use. I would agree that most tuning stability problems can be attributed with binding at the nut. Even on non-trem guitars.

It sounds like you are making some good improvements. Keep us posted on what you do and how it turns out. I'd like to know if the new wiring and capacitor makes any noticeable sonic difference. Some really great pickups would probably make the greatest difference, if you know which ones you want to put in there.

I like the way my Custom 24's feel and play. They are two of the best guitars that I have purchased. My SE Santana is another very great guitar though and sounds incredible, stock.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I really started to appreciate PRS SE guitars. I bought a great one and that made all the difference. The ones I have now are all great guitars and very enjoyable to play.

Good luck with your cool new guitar.
 
@ Duffy: I, too, have bought a 30th anniversary SE CU24, but I let Sweetwater do my modding for me, and a side benefit to me was saving money on every part of the deal. First I asked if they could exchange the stock pickups for 59/09's, and they did. At less than the regular cost. I had an earlier model that I sold on Ebay, so I was familiar with the sound. Though I couldn't fault it, I wanted to make a change and I just decided I didn't like the gray/black or the zebra pups, so I took the plunge after I saw the one I ended up getting. The new 59/09's are much better, IMHO. Anyway, I also wanted black rings to match plus a black switch tip. Well, they forgot that, but made up for it by shipping them later and I made that change myself. Later added a black trem arm tip to foster the illusion (had to use shrink tubing to make it fit 'cause it was real loose, but it's snug now). I had them up the string gauge to 10's (which I found I like better and that's what I have on my Paul's), and do the nut work. They are professionals, after all, so why not? I thought it was a great deal because I saved money on the cost of the guitar, the pickups, the shop labor and the time it would have taken me, by having them do it. The only thing I lost was the satisfaction of doing it myself. And the trem comes back in tune perfectly. Aaaaaah, yes!

So, I also bought a CU22 semi-hollow and changed the rings and switch tip to black. It's in another thread, too. But then I decided to change the fixed bridge on it to black as well. And I found one here. I wasn't sure it would even work, but it was just $24.89. Though I had to wait for it since it came from Germany, it turned out to be a perfect fit. I didn't have to pull the studs which was good because I was afraid I might damage the top trying to do that. But it was all good. And after adjusting for intonation, it was perfect.

So that's 2 SE's modded to match up with my Paul's (changed the pup rings to black on it also). The Paul's and the CU22 are both McCarty Tobacco Sunburst, and the 30th CU24 is Vintage Sunburst, so it's now all one small but happy family. The only possible thing left that would be nice would be to change the tuners to black locking tuners also, but I haven't found a set yet that I think would fit. If anybody knows of a drop-in for those, I would be grateful to know it. I'm not going to change the tuners on my Paul's because it already has Phase III's on it and they can stay the way they are. All 3 guitars have amber lampshades on them and that's ok because they fit in with their respective color schemes.

So, if anybody knows of a drop-in for SE black locking tuners... ? Hmmm?

Thanks in advance.

Mark
 
So I've now installed the new Grover 406c tuners and also the Tusq nut and the tuning stability is greatly improved. I took a lot of time and care over the nut to get the height just right and all is good.

I must say though, I did have a couple of string breaks at first on the high E and that was just tuning the guitar up, however I've sussed out that on the high E, allowing for a couple of wraps around the peg solved this. I know you shouldn't have to do this with locking tuners, however I read similar issues on a different thread in this forum and others.

I'm still amazed at the quality of this guitar. My other guitars are a USA Strat and I have a couple of Japanese Ibanez guitars and I honestly can't fault the Korean build on the PRS SE. It's definately on a par with guitars over twice the financial value.

I'm going to leave the pickups for the time being. Now that I'm getting more used to the guitar, the tone is really starting to work on me just the way it is.
 
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