Pickups: Vintage Bass and HFS treble

Fretboard: Brazilian Rosewood

Neck: 1 Piece Mahogany

Body: 1 Piece Mahogany

Top: Bookmatched Maple

Nut Material: PRS secret sauce nut

Bridge: Stock PRS Trem

Colour: Scarlet Red

Country of Origin: USA

Weight: 3.83 kg / 8.44 lbs

 

 

I love this old lady. It has absolutely zero set up or tuning issues and will perform as well as any new guitar, which is not bad for a guitar that is over 20 years old. The only really minor issue is that there is a rattling sometimes, and I think it is the truss rod cover which only has 1 screw to attach itself to the headstock (I'm not sure why this was designed that way). This is not an issue when amplified, as the rattling becomes inaudible then. Also, one of the pots either needs to be cleaned, or replaced. 

 

Workmanship on this guitar is top notch, in my opinion. I guess the inlays are the most notable and visible thing, especially for someone who doesn't play guitars - but the quality of the inlay work does amaze me. There are virtually no gaps that are filled in with epoxy as you see in the Epiphones and some Gibsons. The fretwork, the carve on the top and the finish work is great. 

 

I'm not sure if the design brief for PRS at that time was to do everything a Les Paul and a Fender can in one guitar. But that's how I tend to think of it - if you could only use one guitar and had to emulate both the Fender and Gibson sound I would choose this one. The scale length is between a LP and Strat, so it's not going to be as twangy as a Strat or tele. And with this model there is no in-between Strat positions (positions 2 and 4 on a Strat). But its coil tapped positions will do a half decent Strat impression. And the full humbuckers sound great, but no it does not nail a Les Paul sound. So, it doesn't quite sound like a Les Paul and it doesn't quite sound like a Strat. And that's okay..

 

It may be easier to talk about the things I don't like about this guitar:

 

5 position switch - I appreciate the different sounds that are available. But I do believe that the push pull or push push pots are a better system for coil taps. The 5 way switch for that purpose is rarely used these days and I cannot even imagine how difficult it would be changing pickup selections when playing live.

 

Locking tuners - This model comes with the Winged Locking tuners. They're not bad, and certainly don't give any tuning issues but i've seen better in terms of ease of use. PRS have since gotten rid of this type of tuners.

 

Jobs/Upgrades to be done:

Setup

 

Upgrades done:

Cosmetic Changes - Tuner buttons, Truss rod cover, pickup rings

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