Thoughts on the Studio Stoptail?

[jonnychrisman]

I recently picked up a Myles Kennedy sig and I've really taken to the Narrowfield pickups, specifically the neck. Naturally this led me down the rabbit hole and I'm intrigued by the 2011-era Studio model with the stoptail bridge (not a trem guy). It seems fairly rare, there's only a few kicking around on Reverb.
My question for anyone with experience is really how decently can it quack in the 2 & 4 positions (and how is the volume balance between positions)? I gig in a function/wedding band and on paper this guitar seems perfect for what I do and like - full bridge HB plus beefier singlecoil-ish tones AND the PRS stoptail. Appreciate any opinions!

 

[JasonE]

I bought a Studio last month. It doesn't quack like a strat. It is different. It has some quack but I find that it disappears as you add gain. The more gain, the less quack. I play an HSS guitar a lot and it quacks better and maintains that sound with gain. I like the Studio but for quack I have guitars that to it better. You really almost need to play a Studio through your rig or something similar to get the sense of what it does. I watched videos before I bought mine and I found it to still be something I needed to spend time with to really find out it's strengths and weaknesses.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

It’s really a three humbucker guitar.

I remember being initially disappointed when Hans’/Justin’s NF3 came to my house for an extended layover.

Unfortunately I didn’t “get it” (ie Narrowfields) until after it was gone.

 

[JasonE]

It’s really a three humbucker guitar.

I remember being initially disappointed when Hans’/Justin’s NF3 came to my house for an extended layover.

Unfortunately I didn’t “get it” (ie Narrowfields) until after it was gone.

I had to spend quite a while with mine to get it. I was initially not at all impressed with the narrowfield pickups. I was sort of regretting buying it and felt that I was right to of stayed away from these pickups all these years. I decided I was going to have to have it beyond the return window so I finished the setup on it to my liking. Once it played better I played it more. It still took me a while to start finding things I liked about them. It took me about a week. I am still not a fan of how the narrowfields take gain. I really like what they do clean and real light gain though. I am not sure I have ever bought a guitar that I had to spend this much time with to find the sweet spots of it.

 

[jak3af3r]

I've found to get the quack with multiple NFs you need to get the guitar volume down low so the treble bleed is prominent and boost the signal up going back into the amp.

 

[watelessness]

i LOVE my studio. it is gritty and nasty, just like me!

i had a McNarrowfield when they first came out and i was disappointed with the lack of versatility. Then i had a swamp ash narrowfield when they first came out and i found it too articulate for my sloppy playing. but the studio nails it. the humbucker adds what was missing to the others. i was stoked to find my used stoptail.

 

[jonnychrisman]

I bought a Studio last month. It doesn't quack like a strat. It is different. It has some quack but I find that it disappears as you add gain. The more gain, the less quack. I play an HSS guitar a lot and it quacks better and maintains that sound with gain. I like the Studio but for quack I have guitars that to it better. You really almost need to play a Studio through your rig or something similar to get the sense of what it does. I watched videos before I bought mine and I found it to still be something I needed to spend time with to really find out it's strengths and weaknesses.

Thank you, this is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for! I'm not totally dissuaded though since I generally only go for those tones on the pop tunes (Bruno Mars, Whitney Houston etc) staying crystal clean. Watching videos (mostly of the most recent Studio) I heard a pretty big discrepancy in quackiness, which tracks with your experience.

 

[jonnychrisman]

i LOVE my studio. it is gritty and nasty, just like me!

i had a McNarrowfield when they first came out and i was disappointed with the lack of versatility. Then i had a swamp ash narrowfield when they first came out and i found it too articulate for my sloppy playing. but the studio nails it. the humbucker adds what was missing to the others. i was stoked to find my used stoptail.

The full bridge 'bucker is what's really pushing me towards it after playing the MK for a few gigs. I like the NF with the tone rolled down but AB-ing it with my McCarty made me miss that big honkin' rock tone from the full 57/08 bridge pup

 

[JasonE]

I've found to get the quack with multiple NFs you need to get the guitar volume down low so the treble bleed is prominent and boost the signal up going back into the amp.

I can agree with this. I find rolling the volume back to also help with the quack factor.

The full bridge 'bucker is what's really pushing me towards it after playing the MK for a few gigs. I like the NF with the tone rolled down but AB-ing it with my McCarty made me miss that big honkin' rock tone from the full 57/08 bridge pup

PRS put everything on the accessories store on sale right after I bought my Studio. I bought a 57/08 pickup with intentions of swapping out the stock pickup in the Studio. I really like 57/08 pickups and was not a fan of the 58/15 LT pickups in my 594. I swapped those out for 57/08s. I planned to do the same thing with this guitar. I decided to spend some time with it first before swapping it out. The longer I have spent with it I have tweaked the height of the humbucker and am to the point that I don't know if I will swap it out now. It works well with the narrowfields in the guitar. I felt the guitar was bright overall when I first received it. I feel it is more balanced now. I had to get it fully setup the way I like a guitar to be and then tweak the pickups over about a week to get where I am now.

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

I've found to get the quack with multiple NFs you need to get the guitar volume down low so the treble bleed is prominent and boost the signal up going back into the amp.

We as a group need to be mindful of how different the new NF pickups are than the old ones. The ones you and I love were called "57/08 Narrowfields" while the newest ones are wound to single coil output levels. We've also seen a couple people say that recent Studio models with NF's were also not wound to the same spec as the old one. With those, it appeared to be a simple "slightly less output" wind, but with the new ones, Paul seems to have stumbled onto something that could drive multiple variants of NF pickups moving forward that are specifically spec'd to almost single coil numbers and can be manipulated for various outputs, tones and even pickup slots.

I'm anxious for someone here who has the originals to get something with the new ones and compare. But I'm also interested to see if Paul takes these latest discoveries and creates some new models to utilize them, or some old ones redone. One idea I had... there are clearly a lot of guys here who like the classic HSS setup. You could do two versions of this (and even S2 and core) with say a "Classic with a standard 57/08 in the bridge and lower output NF middle, NF neck bolt on maple neck, and a rocker version with an \M/ in the bridge and maybe the 57/08 wound NF's in the neck and bridge. This one could even have a Floyd, for the real rockers out there. HAHAHAHAHAH

 

[JasonE]

We as a group need to be mindful of how different the new NF pickups are than the old ones. The ones you and I love were called "57/08 Narrowfields" while the newest ones are wound to single coil output levels. We've also seen a couple people say that recent Studio models with NF's were also not wound to the same spec as the old one. With those, it appeared to be a simple "slightly less output" wind, but with the new ones, Paul seems to have stumbled onto something that could drive multiple variants of NF pickups moving forward that are specifically spec'd to almost single coil numbers and can be manipulated for various outputs, tones and even pickup slots.

I'm anxious for someone here who has the originals to get something with the new ones and compare. But I'm also interested to see if Paul takes these latest discoveries and creates some new models to utilize them, or some old ones redone. One ideal I had... there are clearly a lot of guys here who like the classic HSS setup. You could do two versions of this (and even S2 and core) with say a "Classic with a standard 57/08 in the bridge and lower output NF middle, NF neck bolt on maple neck, and a rocker version with an \M/ in the bridge and maybe the 57/08 wound NF's in the neck and bridge. This one could even have a Floyd, for the real rockers out there. HAHAHAHAHAH

After spending a decent amount of time with my new Studio, I was kind of wondering some of the same things as you. I am wondering if they backed the winds on the narrowfields down to pair better with the 58/15 LT humbucker. I am to the point now that I have everything adjusted to playing well and I think the humbucker fits the guitar pretty well and matches with the narrowfields pretty well. I may swap it at some point to check it out since I like the 57/08s better than the 58/15 LT pickups. PRS PTC said the 57/08 would work great in my guitar.

I would like to have a Studio here that has the full set of 57/08 pickups in it, humbucker and narrowfields, to compare it to the one I have. I don't think there is a way to get my hands on 57/08 narrowfields if I liked them better so it is kind of a mute point.