Special Semi-Hollow PU switching issues

[iborarb]

Hi,
I bought a brand new PRS Special Edition Semi-Hollow online, got it last friday, set it up plugged it in, and was quite disappointed about the sound. Every single position on the 5 way blade switch sounded pretty much the same.

Going further, I noticed that the middle NF-Pickup was always on, regardless of the switch position.

Pos 1: Bridge + Middle
Pos 2: Bridge + Middle
Pos 3: Bridge + Middle + Neck
Pos 4: Middle + Neck
Pos 5: Middle + Neck

The blade switch looks OK, but I have no idea if there's a problem with the wiring or soldering I could perhaps sort out myself without having to send the guitar back for a checkup.

Does anybody have a wiring diagram of the special semi-hollow so I could at least check if everything's OK?

 

[bodia]

Take a pic of the control cavity and send it to Customer Service. They’ll be able to let you know. I had a new 509;that had a mini toggle go bad in a couple of days, and a wire had come loose in shipping. They took care of me, quick.

[email protected]

 

[toothace]

Yep. Customer Service or your dealer should be your first step.

 

[iborarb]

OK! Thanks!
The dealer is a big online dealer and I don't know if they can figure it out.
I contacted them last week but until now, they seem rather clueless.
I mailed the pics to the Customer service.
Can't paste them here ... I think, it's becauce I'm new.

 

[bodia]

OK! Thanks!
The dealer is a big online dealer and I don't know if they can figure it out.
I contacted them last week but until now, they seem rather clueless.
I mailed the pics to the Customer service.
Can't paste them here ... I think, it's becauce I'm new.

Good. They should be able to help you out.

As for pics, you need a couple more posts. Then you can link them to the forum from a 3rd party photo hosting site like Imgur or Flikr, etc

Hope you get things sorted out. The SSH is a fantastic guitar. I can't see ever getting rid of mine!

 

[iborarb]

Yes! Customer Service is amazing!
They sent me the original wiring diagram, and guess what?
The hot output of the NF-Pickup has been soldered to the output pins on the left going to the volume knob/output instead to position 3 (from the left).
I'll check with the dealer if I'm allowed to do the repair job.
Should take me 2 minutes.

 

[bodia]

Yes! Customer Service is amazing!
They sent me the original wiring diagram, and guess what?
The hot output of the NF-Pickup has been soldered to the output pins on the left going to the volume knob/output instead to position 3 (from the left).
I'll check with the dealer if I'm allowed to do the repair job.
Should take me 2 minutes.

Awesome! Shawn and his team are top notch! Oh, BTW, welcome to the forum, and congrats on your SSH!

 

[iborarb]

Thank you, bodia!
Big thanks again for the help I got here and from a very responsive customer service.
Everythings working fine now.
The SSH is an absolutely amazing and versatile guitar indeed!
It will be my No. 1

 

[Mozzi]

Thank you, bodia!
Big thanks again for the help I got here and from a very responsive customer service.
Everythings working fine now.
The SSH is an absolutely amazing and versatile guitar indeed!
It will be my No. 1

I don't have a #1 guitar because all mine are different and as such, have a big role in my collection. As versatile as the SSH is, it doesn't always deliver the sound I want and therefore one of my other guitars is the #1 for that situation - its like saying a Gibson LP is your #1 but then not being the best guitar to use to get a Stratty Gilmore tone.

That being said, it is such an amazing instrument and aptly named 'Special'. It, like all my other PRS guitars in fairness, is great to play and the tonal palette it offers is stunning. Mine is my current avatar and it gets a lot of compliments - not just on its jaw-dropping top (and its not a 10-top either). Now all we need is to see some pictures of yours...

If you don't know how to post pictures, you need to upload to an image hosting site - I recommend Imgur as it doesn't watermark pictures like Photobucket does. Click on the picture you uploaded and it will give you various options to copy the address - copy the Direct Link address and then click on the 'add picture' icon (an icon of a mountain and sun between the emoji and film/video icons) and paste in the address. Click insert to add the picture - I have followed this process to add my picture of my Special below...

Anyway, glad you have managed to sort this out and hope you have many years of enjoyment from your Special. Welcome to the 'Special' club

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Glad it all worked out for you.

Oh and we’d love to see photos of your new guitar, please

 

[iborarb]

Thanks

Unfortunately, I discovered another issue:
The neck PU toggle switch showed a strange behaviour:
When it was down, the neck PU sounded loud an bright. I thought, this would be the split position.
Up, It sounded like a Humbucker with the tone control rolled back.

On the bridge pickup, it was the opposite: toggle switch down gave me a typical full and rich humbucker/PAF-like sound.
Up, I got the split sound.Very bright, but sweet and balanced.
What surprised me (positively) was, that here in the bridge position, there was almost no difference in the sound volume.

I didn't think, this could be a bug. I took it for a feature

But as I was dialing in my sounds, I noticed that the muffled sound of the neck pickup had a relatively low volume.
When this should be the full humbucker, how could it be that the brighter split sound was way louder??

When I opened the back plate again and compared it to the wiring diagram, I noticed that on the neck toggle switch, the ground was soldered together with the white wire from the neck humbucker. A real bummer!

But fortunately, with the correct diagram and the soldering iron, I was able to solve the problem very quickly.
Don't know who did the soldering job, but, hmm, yeah ...

 

[iborarb]

Now, at least, everything's fine

I'm extremely surprised about the balance in the tones: split or full humbucking sounds all have the same volume.
And the sweetness...
This is an absolutely outstanding guitar!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Yowza! That’s a sweet one!

 

[Mozzi]

Little/no volume drop when split/tapped is a signature of PRS guitars. Down should be full humbucker for each pick-up and up should be tapped. I say tapped because these are 58/15 MT pick-ups where MT stands for multi-tap. You should expect little/no volume drop going from full to tapped.

Anyway, hope you have sorted it out now...

I am also very surprised that the wiring has that many mistakes and wasn't picked up and rectified before shipping to the retailer. Its not just 1 person that would have missed this as the guitars are checked at least once more after assembly to ensure they are working as expected when plugged in...

 

[Black Plaid]

Don't know who did the soldering job, but, hmm, yeah ...

Maybe someone wasn't feeling so hot that day, but came in anyway because they were feeling like people were relying on them. Kids get crazy ideas in their heads about work all the time.

But this should have been caught in QA.

 

[ChristopherM]

It is extraordinarily bad that this guitar got out of the factory in this condition. This is a very expensive, premium instrument from a company that has made excellent quality part of its brand. Not only is it astonishing that these errors were made, but that no QA prevented it or detected it before shipping is disgraceful. Surely someone actually plugs in and plays the guitar before it is packed??? Someone else in this thread was told that a wire had come loose in shipping - is it wrong of me to suspect that it was most likely never soldered correctly in the first place?

 

[bodia]

is it wrong of me to suspect that it was most likely never soldered correctly in the first place?

In a word, yes.

 

[ChristopherM]

@bodia - just to indulge my curiosity, why do you think that it was shipping damage?

 

[iborarb]

So... somebody did a very weird soldering job in some place... there were two soldering issues in two different places when I got the guitar
Also, the guitar came without the usual paper stuff (tags, labels ...) and a tool kit. Hmm...
But... I'm extremely happy with this fabulous instrument

 

[Mozzi]

Did you buy it new? Was the seller reputable??

There is often quite a bit of time from a guitar being checked by PRS for the final time before its cased and shipped. It can be months (if not longer) from the Guitar leaving the Factory and you getting it. You don't know whether the shop or any of the people that may have tried it whilst it's been on display have messed with things. It could even have been a return that the Shop has sold as new - an online purchasers that returned it within 14days (or whatever timeframe the store allows) but may have swapped PU's and not liked it.

Point is, you do not know what may of happened between it leaving PRS and you buying it. All that PRS can really state is that their guitars leave their factory after a final QC check and, if you had the Hangtag, it would be signed and dated giving you an indication of how long its been since PRS set it up and checked it. Many others may have had their hands on it - reps taking it to stores, the stores themselves, numerous people that may have tried it in the store etc.

I am not saying that PRS cannot make a mistake and/or miss something but with numerous QC checks - including plugging it in and playing it to check all the electronics are wired correctly, It would be much less likely than a Store selling a return as new in my opinion...