Zeroing in on PS

I'd say it's not so much a matter of good or bad, but more a matter of "is this more of what you want, or less of what you want?"

I know. You probably meant your comment in that way anyway.

But you know me. I love clarifying things.

Law School replaced my original brain with a very strange one.

I know...and my own personal experiences with Law School graduates was probably responsible for the quotation marks around the words "good" and "bad"...well that and Dr Evil is a personal role model.
 
Now you got me reading back through the comments, and got me thinking, which some would say is not necessarily a good thing. But here goes. As CatStrangler stated, about 30% of the mass goes with the neck wood and the sound is colored by neck construction and energy dissipation within the neck. What struck me is the physical conformation of a neck versus a guitar body. The neck is a long thin piece of wood and the body is wider and has more mass. It seems reasonable then that the neck would be more sympathetic to sound vibrations and resonate more. Another thought that I've not seen mentioned anywhere is the truss rod. Does the metal of the truss rod have an effect and to what degree? Would it be better to have a thinner or thicker truss rod? Which would transmit or absorb more energy?

Man, this can lead to sympathetic headaches...

I think what I was trying to say was regarding fretboards....they can make up about 30% of the mass of the wood in the neck. Additionally the varying densities and stiffness of the neck-fretboard laminates have a very significant impact on attack-sustain characteristics and tonal output-my ears say thats a fact. Also, regardless if I can tell in a recording if the guitar has an ebony or rosewood fretboard, I sure can tell the difference when the two different material are on different guitars in my hands, by the way the instrument responds and feels. The player knows and to me that's all that counts when making decisions on woods.
 
I'd say it's not so much a matter of good or bad, but more a matter of "is this more of what you want, or less of what you want?"

I know. You probably meant your comment in that way anyway.

But you know me. I love clarifying things.

Law School replaced my original brain with a very strange one.
Yes. It really did. (Kidding of course Les!)

Seriously..I believe I am with Les here in that I feel a PS is no place to be experimenting with differnt woods unless you have LOTS of money to burn. You are most likely buying a PS because you already love the way PRSs sound. Go with woods that you KNOW work for you. I remember people raving about Pernumbuco necks as sounding so great years ago. I bought one and thank goodness there was a return policy!!! Uggh! I cant imagine if I had bought a PS with one. Imo, stick with the wood types of the core model PRS you like most. You can find things like semi hollow, trem, RW necks, ebony boards etc to try fairly easy. Going with a wood you are not familiar with is way to big a risk i think. Once the newness/excitement wears off, you will be left with a strange sounding guitar you will not want to play. Yikes!
 
I know...and my own personal experiences with Law School graduates was probably responsible for the quotation marks around the words "good" and "bad"...well that and Dr Evil is a personal role model.

I love Dr. Evil and hated law school. I wanted to quit and join a band after the first semester, even though I'd aced all the courses.

When I announced that decision to my parents, they were so obviously freaked out and unhappy that I relented and finished school so that I could become a lawyer and make myself freaked out and unhappy instead.

There's nothing like having a goal and accomplishing it. ;)
 
I can tell you there are differences to the sound of my two Angelii that are greater than I would expect from the minor variance in their construction...same dimensions, frets/bridge/saddle/nut, tuners top and neck...different back/sides and FB (With Truss-BRW/Ebony, Without-Cocobolo/RW). I expected a little difference in the frequency response between the two...but the non adjustable rod guitar is much "woodier" sounding, considerably louder and sustains easily twice as long...longer than any other acoustic, HB or SB electric I have compared it to...except one...my PS Santana which also has a graphite reinforced neck..

You know, this is a really interesting post, and moreover, I have found the same to be true with graphite rods.

Both of my PRS acoustics have had them, and I've played others that didn't. I much preferred the graphite-equipped acoustics. I also think that people love prewar Martins for their woody tone, and they don't have adjustable truss rods - actually, if memory serves, they don't have truss rods at all, though I think my early 70s models had a T-brace of some kind in the neck. Hard to remember - they certainly weren't adjustable.

This is also going to sound a little weird given my love for the tone of wood, but the best sounding bass I ever owned was a Modulus Graphite Quantum IV with a carbon fiber 35" scale neck. Even the fingerboard was a bakelite kind of material. That bass had tone, and I mean, very good tone. Though the body was maple/alder.

I got it because it sounded great, but it was also pretty cool that I could travel to overseas gigs with it on airplanes, or go to a different climate with it here in the US at any time of year, and it never needed adjustment.

The same is true of the Tonares with the carbon rods. The necks do not move. There's never an adjustment needed, they are always set up perfectly, and they always play exactly the same.

Then, too, in my experience, a well set up guitar is better sounding than a poorly set up guitar, so there's another advantage of a neck that doesn't move with changes in ambient temperature and humidity.

But woodier? Yes. Definitely. Something to think about.
 
An excellent evening with Rob (JustRob) and Peter (veinbuster).

Really nice talks about woods, body styles and pups with the best perk of all - playing PS examples through my amp in my "studio."

Details as the week goes on, but I just wanted to get this post up thanking these great guys for bringing their guitars here and letting me get my paws on them and play them.
 
What? There was a get together in Maryland and nobody is stopping by the batcave?
 
What? There was a get together in Maryland and nobody is stopping by the batcave?
I call a do over! I just didn't want to invite myself to the bat cave. Bill had me thinking about guitars again when my next acquisition really needs to be an amp. I'm just to easily swayed by a pretty guitar...
 
I am glad I have just read all the posts in this thread. I was thinking that I might want a Pernambuco neck but after reading this thread, no way.
I am curious about Peruvian mahogany versus south american and other types of mahogany neck wood that may be available, as well as brazzy for a board, but my biggest fear is that the pieces that may be available will be the leftovers that no one else found sounded good when tapped, or in such limited supply that I would have to just settle for something that was ordinary, which I definitely won't do.

I had that happen to me once on an order and waited a year with no results for the right wood to become available. it was all about the weight, and figure. I was excited until I found out the wood I requested, which was nothing exotic, was not able to be found by the builder. I wasted a year in wait time that I will never get back. That experience has stayed with me and I feel that I missed out by not being able to get what I desired and had paid for up front. Every time after that, when I ordered a guitar, that fear is raised up in my head. I simply cannot stop thinking about it.

Paying the prices asked by PRS for PS builds, which I feel are fine and fair, I would rather not buy one then have to settle, for any reason.
 
An excellent evening with Rob (JustRob) and Peter (veinbuster).

Really nice talks about woods, body styles and pups with the best perk of all - playing PS examples through my amp in my "studio."

Details as the week goes on, but I just wanted to get this post up thanking these great guys for bringing their guitars here and letting me get my paws on them and play them.

I definitely want to hear more about this!

That sounds like an absolutely wonderful time.

I am curious about Peruvian mahogany versus south american and other types of mahogany neck wood that may be available, as well as brazzy for a board, but my biggest fear is that the pieces that may be available will be the leftovers that no one else found sounded good when tapped, or in such limited supply that I would have to just settle for something that was ordinary, which I definitely won't do.

What you're worried about ain't gonna happen. Seriously. PRS isn't some one-man shop with a limited supply of wood.

OTOH, you really owe it to yourself to play a bunch of Core models first, and maybe even live with a PRS or two before you jump into PS. You haven't had the opportunity to do that yet.

You'll get a much better feel for the line and the options, and for how good the Core models are. "Ordinary" isn't the PRS way.
 
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I am curious about Peruvian mahogany versus south american and other types of mahogany neck wood that may be available, as well as brazzy for a board, but my biggest fear is that the pieces that may be available will be the leftovers that no one else found sounded good when tapped, or in such limited supply that I would have to just settle for something that was ordinary, which I definitely won't do.
First off, I have to say that the Dirty 100 neck: Peruvian mahogany with dalergia board is one of the nicest necks I've ever played. I was fixed on a braz neck until getting the Dirty 100 which really opened my eyes regarding the alternatives for a really good neck. I liked it enough that I later got a private stock with this neck - this was one of the guitars I took for Rugerpc to try out - the other was a cocobolo neck/board.

As far as what is available, new wood is cycled into the vault all of the time so there is never a shortage of good necks. There may not be many of some of the exotics, but what is there will tap good and if you go and you don't find one that you like, just don't do the build on that day (somewhat location dependent). But not finding a neck is unlikely. Any time I've been to the vault there have been tons of choices in staples like maple and mahogany and dozens of exotics that vary from time to time.
 
Technical question: PRS offers 2 different fret board radius choices as far as I know: 10 inch and 11 1/2 inch fret board radius.
Are the bridges for the bridge-stop tail guitars and the wrap tail bridges correctly radiused specifically for each radius offered, or are they strickly 10 inch radius types?
 
Technical question: PRS offers 2 different fret board radius choices as far as I know: 10 inch and 11 1/2 inch fret board radius.
Are the bridges for the bridge-stop tail guitars and the wrap tail bridges correctly radiused specifically for each radius offered,

When I asked this question through my dealer, they absolutely are.
 
See post #3 for my report on Peter's and Rob's recent visit...

Any members close enough to Maryland to visit who have PRS with a ziricote neck?
 
I stumbled upon this...

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