Yesterday I received a custom 24 , 2025 model , and the action was so high that I couldn’t really enjoy playing it . I also paid sweetwater to plek it and set it up for half step down . I’m sending it back and going to wait for them to get a othet one in and start over . The one I received has this ultra wide grain on the fingerboard where their was rolled , and it’s excessive imo . It does give the guitar a whimsical look , but for the amount of money I paid there shouldn’t be huge gaps between the wood grains like I’m seeing on this new 2025 model , I’m bummed out over the entire ordeal honesty. Sweetwater shipped the guitar out on a Friday and I didn’t get it until Monday the next week in the dead of winter, smdh . I let the guitar acclimate for 24 hours in temp/humid controlled room and used a thermal temperature scan gun to check temps of each box before I got to the guitar case which was reading 71 , so opened it up and the guitar itself scanned at 69 it’s acclimated , long story short the guitars action was so high that it was I pain to play, and chords sounded sharp from the high action . The next day which is today the guitar still seems to have a high action . My Suhrs play like butter , I’m wondering if I should tell them to set up this next one up with Suhr specs when they go to plek it .Greetings,
I'm still trying to get my prs se custom 24 to stay in tune when I use the tremolo. I've owned the guitar for about 3 months now from new and have yet to get it to consistently stay in tune.
Upgrades so far have been A TUSQ graphite nut, grover locking tuners and an ESP arming adjuster.
The nut is not binding as far as I can tell. If I press behind the nut then the pitch returns perfectly to tune.
The guitar stays in tune when doing bends now that the ESP trem stabiliser is installed.
If I dive any more than a semi tone with the trem then the low E and G string go sharp by about 4 cents.
No amount of push or pull on the trem bar resets the string once its sharp. Even if I lift the low E string out of the nut slot under tension and put it back it doesn't return to the correct pitch. The only way to correct the pitch is to pull the string up near the bridge which resets the string to the correct pitch.
I watched the John Mann video and set up the bridge screws to 2.5mm using a hex key. The screws look level and the knife edges don't look worn, though I haven't removed it from the body to have a proper look yet.
The tremolo springs are a little noisy and 2 of them are a little dull in color. I've tried combinations of 3 and 4 springs to no avail.
I'm wondering whether the saddles are moving when I press down on the bar and then the action of pulling up on the strings with my fingers then resets the saddles. Or if the string ball ends are catching between the bridge plate and the block during a trem dive and me pulling up on the strings resets the ball ends. I've greased the saddles and the ball ends to no avail.
I'm struggling to see where the problem is on the bridge.
To be honest it's been a real pain and I'm having slight buyers remorse with this guitar. Still, it looks nice hung up on the wall though
So if anyone has any suggestions on how to problem solve this I'd be grateful.
Chris
Tuning issues when using tremolo - PRS SE custom 24
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SinSir
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I wouldn't plek a Maryland PRS. Action high wouldn't be a reason for me to return a guitar and that's on the candy slinger since they set it up. The grain is another thing.. it's an expensive guitar and if you don't like the guitar itself, back it goes.
Better luck with the next one!
The plek literally took a tiny bit off and I’m not sending it back because of high action , I’m sending it back because it has a terrible looking fingerboard . The wood grain looks like it’s about to split in a couple diff spots . I’d post some
Pics but don’t know how to on here .
SinSir
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Totally get returning a guitar of this price if you're not happy with something like the fretboard. Its not like you can swap that. Just sayin all the other issues are on sweetwater and your post reads to me like it's a PRS thing.
You'll find the right one. There's always more guitars.
Well it is a prs thing , the main reason I’m returning it is because the fingerboard was aggressively rolled and it’s basically splitting at the wood grain where it was rolled , if you can direct me in how to post a pic I’d love to show you what I’m talking about , as for the set up I got from sweetwater , It’s not a huge ordeal , it’s hard to have a guitar set up correctly the first time when explaining how I lile
My action over the phone , I guess it didn’t translate well enough , I swear I told my sales rep I wanted it set up with Suhr specs , and it came to me with squier like playability . It seems to me that the trem is set to high and instead of lowering it , they must have either added a bunch of relief to
The neck or something strange to cause it to have similar action to an acoustic guitar or bass. One good thing is that once they do get it right they’ll always have it on file for the next guitar I buy . Today I called and inquired about getting an evertune bridge installed , I’m debating on whether or not I should just do that so I wouldn’t have to deal with the trem messing up over time .
My own personal guitar tech lives about 45 minutes away and he sets them up just right , but it takes him a month or 2 haha , I only go to him if I really need to get something done . Anyway I don’t want to hog the forums , I love this custom 24 but not the way it looks where it was rolled . It looks seriously bad , like I said wood grain beginning to split .
Here are the photos , what does everyone think ? Doesn’t it look horrid ? I know it’s wood , but none of my other prs , suhrs , or martins have that deep of grain , it’s a gorgeous instrument otherwise .
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deathworlder
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I wouldn't call those splits; it's just the open cells of that particular piece of rosewood.
I'd return it too.
I'd return it too.
hopefully this next one I get doesn’t exhibit the same deep grain on the fingerboard . The Trem was extremely high if the body of the guitar also compared to my ce-24 which is almost touching the body . Hopefully this isn’t going to be a problem with getting that 1.2-1.5mm action , there isn’t any room for the saddle screws to go down much more since the high E saddle is just about bottomed out . All my other guitars have the same action up
And down the neck , I like my neck straight with minuscule relief , and very little buzz . I’m guessing they’re gonna have to lower the trem screws enough to get it in spec , that’s my guess , but I’m not a tech I’m a musician , and I know enough to fix when something don’t seem right and I take precaution with all my instruments since they cost a fortune , I bought them to record this album , and I can do a lot with just one guitar , but having diff textures helps being able to match diff instruments to diff compositions. Any way have a great weekend !
show_a_little_faith
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I'd encourage you to dig into doing your own set-ups. It's not really complicated, a couple of tools, relatively small investment. And then you're able to get things *exactly* how you want them, no waiting for someone else to (hopefully) do it for you.
Stew Mac has tons of great how-to videos, you can see for yourself set-ups are not some big mystery, just some adjustments
Stew Mac has tons of great how-to videos, you can see for yourself set-ups are not some big mystery, just some adjustments
That’s honestly great advice , I need to find a video that shows how to do it all on one vid . I understand enough I suppose it wouldn’t hurt . Maybe a little neck cramp would be worth it.
SinSir
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I wouldnt say split either more wood being wood.. but if not happy back it goes. Sucks it was plek'd. I wonder how SW handles that? Disclaimers and deep discounts? I personally wouldn’t want my core plek'd, especially by them. I think I remember reading that voids the warranty too?
It doesn’t void the warranty and they are sending me another one they also just got in today . I also ordered an action gauge so I can jot down the action of my ce-24 which plays like a dream , it was hand plekd by my tech , but he lives 45 min away and takes forever . I’m going to give sweetwater another shot before going for a full refund and just grabbing another Suhr , like a modern classic possibly . Either way sweetwater is great at making sure the customer is happy and they are def going the extra mile to help me ultimately buy a guitar and have it set up the way I like it . Feel matters , not everyone has bulging biceps , and super human torsos with alien like long fingers haha , I’m a small
Dude and have a slim build with super short fingers , so I play light , but like to articulate while I’m playing and when the action is super high I feel like the tension is to great for me to comfortably capture the nuances that you hear in every day top music , playing becomes a drag
show_a_little_faith
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Actually, that video I posted is a pretty thorough take on all the major steps, in just about 30 minutes
Georgedepinedo
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Same problem here....Greetings,
I'm still trying to get my prs se custom 24 to stay in tune when I use the tremolo. I've owned the guitar for about 3 months now from new and have yet to get it to consistently stay in tune.
Upgrades so far have been A TUSQ graphite nut, grover locking tuners and an ESP arming adjuster.
The nut is not binding as far as I can tell. If I press behind the nut then the pitch returns perfectly to tune.
The guitar stays in tune when doing bends now that the ESP trem stabiliser is installed.
If I dive any more than a semi tone with the trem then the low E and G string go sharp by about 4 cents.
No amount of push or pull on the trem bar resets the string once its sharp. Even if I lift the low E string out of the nut slot under tension and put it back it doesn't return to the correct pitch. The only way to correct the pitch is to pull the string up near the bridge which resets the string to the correct pitch.
I watched the John Mann video and set up the bridge screws to 2.5mm using a hex key. The screws look level and the knife edges don't look worn, though I haven't removed it from the body to have a proper look yet.
The tremolo springs are a little noisy and 2 of them are a little dull in color. I've tried combinations of 3 and 4 springs to no avail.
I'm wondering whether the saddles are moving when I press down on the bar and then the action of pulling up on the strings with my fingers then resets the saddles. Or if the string ball ends are catching between the bridge plate and the block during a trem dive and me pulling up on the strings resets the ball ends. I've greased the saddles and the ball ends to no avail.
I'm struggling to see where the problem is on the bridge.
To be honest it's been a real pain and I'm having slight buyers remorse with this guitar. Still, it looks nice hung up on the wall though
So if anyone has any suggestions on how to problem solve this I'd be grateful.
Chris
Funny thing happened to me when I upgraded a tremolo on my se and ce’s. I noticed stability was way off when using the tremolo. The culprit: wrong brand of springs. Sounds crazy but it makes a difference. I do not advise using fenders or vintage raw with the PRS system. They are not the same as PRS or MannMade in terms of tension. Even when the tremolo was properly set up otherwise with the spring claw tighten to make the bridge plate parallel to the body and floating the correct space. As soon as I used the tremolo they all went out of tune 4-8 cents and did not return to pitch correctly. The tuning stability of tremolo system was significantly improved once I swapped the springs back to the stock
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