sustain tips for PRS SE

[Duffy]

Hi there. Thanks for the tip and sharing! To clarify: do you mean lightly sticking a piece of tape around (like a changing the tape at the grip of a tennis racket for lack of a better analogy) on each spring?

The issue now is not so much spring vibration (though I still hear this lots - maybe i got used to it) but the sustain on some of the notes ... though I think def worth trying the tape thing even if it does not help the sustain)

cheers!

Some dudes say that those springs vibrating add to the tone and sustain with your type trem. Taping them would mute any supposed tone or sustain originating from them.

Maybe try light strings like 0.09's. You will be able to make them vibrate optimally easier than those heavy strings.

I think your Custom 24 should be able to sustain close to your Gibson. Mine do and I have some nice Gibson's and amps.

A good overdrive pedal like a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 will also help your sustain. Not expensive and one of the best in my opinion.

You should be able to adjust that SE Custom 24 into a truly great guitar. It is a great guitar. You just need to keep working with it.

Congratulations on the great guitar and good luck.

 

[sumpe]

to answer your question. in a way i am comparing clean with clean.
there are many little things i did. the ones that seem to have made most difference are: pick up swap, tremolo swap, and yesterday i also decided to make my bridge dive only. i did this just as a test but it made a big difference to the sustain. now, i think this is not to say the guitar was not already 'better' before the dive only trem mod. i did it because i started getting fuzzy with string intonation with bending and wanting to drop tune in a way that was at least acceptable on the fly - a final mod would be to use something like the trem stopper and properly stop the bridge from diving, but i kind of dig my cheap, rushed plastic card bending solution. it works fairly well - but note i had to tighten the spring craw significantly to keep the trem parallel to the guitar top on the 'rest position'

 

[sumpe]

hey Duffy. to answer your post. i am inclined to go for 10s to 52s. i am now on 11s to 52s. i thought about this yesterday. as for the taping of the springs, the rattleling was what was a annoying me. but i guess with the trem dive only, it was not so bad. but there was this one note, the G string at the 12th fret (G) that was just killing me. i noticed by relieving the neck tension i could get rid of it slightly, but i did not want to do that as all my action would also shift.

i suppose this is a guitar, with its temporary flaws that come and go. part of me thinks: get over it not being a gibson or my gretsch. it is its own thing, which is why i also like it, but getting used to a floating trem has not been easy. somehow, i had a variax 600, which also had a trem, but that was less hassle - now mind you that i did not put that guitar through the paces i put the PRS. i barely played the variax, which i sold, wheres the PRS is to be one of my main axes, in equal use to the gibson.
as for the amp. i agree. i use tube amp now and the sound is bigger (moore woonf and sustain) with the amp for every one of my guitars.

 

[Duffy]

hey Duffy. to answer your post. i am inclined to go for 10s to 52s. i am now on 11s to 52s. i thought about this yesterday. as for the taping of the springs, the rattleling was what was a annoying me. but i guess with the trem dive only, it was not so bad. but there was this one note, the G string at the 12th fret (G) that was just killing me. i noticed by relieving the neck tension i could get rid of it slightly, but i did not want to do that as all my action would also shift.

i suppose this is a guitar, with its temporary flaws that come and go. part of me thinks: get over it not being a gibson or my gretsch. it is its own thing, which is why i also like it, but getting used to a floating trem has not been easy. somehow, i had a variax 600, which also had a trem, but that was less hassle - now mind you that i did not put that guitar through the paces i put the PRS. i barely played the variax, which i sold, wheres the PRS is to be one of my main axes, in equal use to the gibson.
as for the amp. i agree. i use tube amp now and the sound is bigger (moore woonf and sustain) with the amp for every one of my guitars.

Great to hear the progress.

I have 2 SE Custom 24's; they both sound different. I don't know why. They are complex things I guess.

Try a good, quiet overdrive/distortion pedal like the highly adjustable one that I mentioned. You will get incredible tone.

Good luck.

 

[sumpe]

cheers. i got some nice distortion out of the tube amp too.
thanks for all the input.
PS: i got the trem to float again just to check. pretty good still!

 

[Duffy]

cheers. i got some nice distortion out of the tube amp too.
thanks for all the input.
PS: i got the trem to float again just to check. pretty good still!

Great to find the amp is improving your satisfaction. Nothing like a good tube amp.

Continued good luck and best wishes.

 

[Gary J]

This is something clearly related. Make sure the floating bridge is set up properly! I had dull sounding problems (compared to other guitars) for a long time including what I thought was off harmonic reverberations from the springs..well I just went online to a floating bridge setup video and followed the instructions and the improvement was night and day! (Note that I had previously taken it in to a local guitar shop for set up so I thought I was good ... but apparently NOT!) I m glad I never gave up on it but many times came close even after 2 pick up upgrades... good luck!

This is the method I followed....

 

[Alnus Rubra]

This is something clearly related. Make sure the floating bridge is set up properly! I had dull sounding problems (compared to other guitars) for a long time including what I thought was off harmonic reverberations from the springs..well I just went online to a floating bridge setup video and followed the instructions and the improvement was night and day! (Note that I had previously taken it in to a local guitar shop for set up so I thought I was good ... but apparently NOT!) I m glad I never gave up on it but many times came close even after 2 pick up upgrades... good luck!

This is the method I followed....

Correct me if I’ve understood this incorrectly. This gent appears to be using the outer two trem screws as a fulcrum.

I believe this trem is designed to use all six screws as a fulcrum, as each screw has a notch cut into them, that the knife edge on the trem sits in.

John Mann has a great trem set up video on you tube.

Just remember that any screws/Allen bolts that are moved under string tension are more prone to damage or breakage. Tread lightly.

If I’m telling you stuff you know. It’s said out of not wanting your next post to be:

“I broke a trem screw, trem Allen bolt, trem claw screw (delete as necessary)”

When the guy was levelling the bridge saddles and increasing tension on the Allen bolts. He will have been doing this very carefully.

Personally, but would have released a little tension from the strings to do this. Yes it takes a few second to drop in and out of pitch, but at least you don’t have a repair on your hands.

Stripping a saddle screw thread causes grief. It might be the Allen bolt that goes, either way it’s a PITA that you don’t need.

 

[Gary J]

Hey thanks for your comments and concerns. I only tuned into the part of the video where he’s leveling the bridge and he did have strings removed at that part. I had seen an earlier video to the one I posted indicating the bridge should be parallel to the body and 1/16th inch above but there was no how to. After your comment I found a prs support reference confirming that statement which was one of the things wrong with my original setup for many years.

For fear I may have done something wrong I started over following the John Mann video (assuming You mean the one where he installs his Mannmade NOS). That left me with the bridge being too high in front when I put springs back on. I then gradually turned down each screw incrementally to re achieve the 1/16 inch clearance (with springs on but no strings). After doing all this and retuning the guitar the sustain was not as good as previous. At a loss, I then backed off screws on strings 2. 3, 4, and 5 slightly just until I could see the screw start to lift from the top plate and that happily restored the sustain. Right or wrong I’m staying with that because that’s the way it should always have sounded. But the moral of the story is I should have taken it to an authorized PRS technician in the first place :-(

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Hey thanks for your comments and concerns. I only tuned into the part of the video where he’s leveling the bridge and he did have strings removed at that part. I had seen an earlier video to the one I posted indicating the bridge should be parallel to the body and 1/16th inch above but there was no how to. After your comment I found a prs support reference confirming that statement which was one of the things wrong with my original setup for many years.

For fear I may have done something wrong I started over following the John Mann video (assuming You mean the one where he installs his Mannmade NOS). That left me with the bridge being too high in front when I put springs back on. I then gradually turned down each screw incrementally to re achieve the 1/16 inch clearance (with springs on but no strings). After doing all this and retuning the guitar the sustain was not as good as previous. At a loss, I then backed off screws on strings 2. 3, 4, and 5 slightly just until I could see the screw start to lift from the top plate and that happily restored the sustain. Right or wrong I’m staying with that because that’s the way it should always have sounded. But the moral of the story is I should have taken it to an authorized PRS technician in the first place :-(

I’m glad you’ve got it sorted.