Went guitar shopping

Gtrbldr

Gtrbldr

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For an additional PRS for my stable in one of Europes finest stores. They have quite a nice collection lf high end guitars - including PRSi - in stock. However we had a strange afternoon. Positive and kind of a bummer

To start with the good news. After inspection of all the core and wood library guitars on the wall, I can confidently say that my summer aquisition (57/08 limited) is king. There was not one of the core, 10 top or WLs in stock that I thought was nicer than my own guitar. Did not need confirmation, but it is nice to get it without asking. Happy camper here.

Now for the disappointment. I was shopping with my wife for her first PRS. She is in the singer-songwriter camp, but is not comfortable playing a regular guitar. Stuff is in the way etc. Enter the the very much lauded PRS SE hollowbody II piezo. She held it, played it and was sold (cool). Definately ia cool guitar, nice weight, resonance, sounds: all there, but this specimen was not to come home with us. It had some major flaws QC should have picked up on and that surprised me. To start off small: the masking on the binding was very sloppy applied. Stain was blotchy in several areas. And the inlays: sloppy. Edges were routed out way too far and they had to fill over 1 mm on all sides. Since it js CNC I was surprised. If you put that kind of bling on a guitar, it should be executed well. Otherwise it works against the guitar. Like a polyester tailored suit. Meh. The biggest issue however was not with the cosmetics, but structural. The neck and bridge were poorly aligned. The first string was far from the edge of the fretboard, while the bass side was really close to the edge of the fret board. Salesman was also surprised: thanked me for noticing and said it was going back to PRS. A guitar costing €1500 should not have such flaws. China made or not.

However, the silver lining: a hollowbody SE is coming our way, but we are waiting untill they have a few guitars to choose from.
 
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Gtrbldr said:
The biggest issue however was not with the cosmetics, but structural. The neck and bridge were poorly aligned. The first string was far from the edge of the fretboard, while the bass side was really close to the edge of the fret board. Salesman was also surprised: thanked me for noticing and said it was going back to PRS. A guitar costing €1500 should not have such flaws. China made or not.
Click to expand...
That issue is one of my biggest pet peeves with any guitar and one of the first things I look at when evaluating. The strings should be perfectly centered on the fretboard, equidistant from the edge on both sides, and the pickup pole-pieces should be perfectly aligned as well. Such issues are far more common on some other brands but PRS are usually perfect, although I've even seen it on a few core models.

I guess it's inevitable that some will slip through that way, but I'd just move on to another like you did.
 
Last edited:
Gtrbldr said:
For an additional PRS for my stable in one of Europes finest stores. They have quite a nice collection lf high end guitars - including PRSi - in stock. However we had a strange afternoon. Positive and kind of a bummer

To start with the good news. After inspection of all the core and wood library guitars on the wall, I can confidently say that my summer aquisition (57/08 limited) is king. There was not one of the core, 10 top or WLs in stock that I thought was nicer than my own guitar. Did not need confirmation, but it is nice to get it without asking. Happy camper here.

Now for the disappointment. I was shopping with my wife for her first PRS. She is in the singer-songwriter camp, but is not comfortable playing a regular guitar. Stuff is in the way etc. Enter the the very much lauded PRS SE hollowbody II piezo. She held it, played it and was sold (cool). Definately ia cool guitar, nice weight, resonance, sounds: all there, but this specimen was not to come home with us. It had some major flaws QC should have picked up on and that surprised me. To start off small: the masking on the binding was very sloppy applied. Stain was blotchy in several areas. And the inlays: sloppy. Edges were routed out way too far and they had to fill over 1 mm on all sides. Since it js CNC I was surprised. If you put that kind of bling on a guitar, it should be executed well. Otherwise it works against the guitar. Like a polyester tailored suit. Meh. The biggest issue however was not with the cosmetics, but structural. The neck and bridge were poorly aligned. The first string was far from the edge of the fretboard, while the bass side was really close to the edge of the fret board. Salesman was also surprised: thanked me for noticing and said it was going back to PRS. A guitar costing €1500 should not have such flaws. China made or not.

However, the silver lining: a hollowbody SE is coming our way, but we are waiting untill they have a few guitars to choose from.
Click to expand...
Great to hear that your wife is sold on the HB! Although mine is not piezo equipped, it is the guitar that is in my hands 95% of the time I am playing. It has it all IMO!!
 
Alnus Rubra said:
Yeah my wife isn’t equipped with a piezo either, but acoustically she’s still loud.
Click to expand...

You're treading on dangerous ground if this takes off...

I mean, I would never do such a thing, but someone could use this as an excuse to post something that someone might find distasteful.

I would not, because we're friends and I respect you, and I suspect Mrs. AR would likely pummel me if it ever came to that, but someone else might do it. I, obviously would not, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that someone else might post something like:

I have to take her into the shop for some work. My cable keeps falling out of the jack. It must have stretched out or something.

And then what would happen? Feelings would be hurt, tensions might rise, we could have ourselves a brouhaha, which could quickly escalate into a kerfuffle, and ultimately become a genuine donnybrook. Especially if someone said something like:

I'm loaning her to my friend for the weekend. It's only fair - he loaned me his when mine was out of commission.

That sort of thing. Luckily, I would not do that.
 
alantig said:
You're treading on dangerous ground if this takes off...

I mean, I would never do such a thing, but someone could use this as an excuse to post something that someone might find distasteful.

I would not, because we're friends and I respect you, and I suspect Mrs. AR would likely pummel me if it ever came to that, but someone else might do it. I, obviously would not, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that someone else might post something like:

I have to take her into the shop for some work. My cable keeps falling out of the jack. It must have stretched out or something.

And then what would happen? Feelings would be hurt, tensions might rise, we could have ourselves a brouhaha, which could quickly escalate into a kerfuffle, and ultimately become a genuine donnybrook. Especially if someone said something like:

I'm loaning her to my friend for the weekend. It's only fair - he loaned me his when mine was out of commission.

That sort of thing. Luckily, I would not do that.
Click to expand...

I’m not mentioning anything about faulty valves!
 
Moondog Wily said:
You are a true gentleman! Your lofty demeanor knows no restrictions!!
Click to expand...

I've found that people don't always appreciate when you're showing restraint, and while you can assume they appreciate it, they'll rarely tell you that they respect you not saying something. So, periodically, I find it helpful to point out things I could say but don't.
 
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