I love these "tear down" video's. I'm beginning to realise that virtually all new guitars are shipped with some flaw or another, which kind of fits with my experience. I've bought guitars for over 40 years and even the most expensive ones I own, which I have loved playing from the first minute, have tended to have a slight "niggle" here or there. It's usually in the "playing" i.e. something in the neck / frets / nut. I've never really been able to put my finger on exactly what the issue is (unless it's very significant), many of the times, but I can see from these video's, there is almost a fret issue from new. And as an example that I recently experienced and really shocked me, I recently took my 30 year old Strat to a luthier for some fret work.. I though there were a few minor worn frets. it was still very playable, but I wanted to see if it could be improved. The Luthier did a level, crown and polish and OMG!! The guitar is transformed!! It plays better than it ever has, and better than every other guitar I have. By a mile! I now need to save up for fretwork to be done on all my other guitars!
Unless it is a custom guitar, every guitar needs to be setup before use by the owner. which is why I learned to setup my own instruments a long time ago because no one else will know how you like the setup better than you as the player. As simple as filing the nut can make a huge difference or setting action and relief. or even as simple as sanding down the back of the neck with scotch brite :)
@@allstopblue5717 Its extremely easy and not that expensive all you need is a proper levelling beam, a crowning knife, a Sharpie, blue painters tape and fret eraser or polish pad set. I also use a Dremel cloth wheel and Frine for the final polish. The sandpaper and levelling beam will be enough to do all the guitars in a 5 mile radius twice. Fret Guru is what I use for all the above. It aint rocket science but you will run into other things that will force you to buy other tools like nut knives, rubber mallet, maple and rosewood blocks for repairs...its a rabbit hole.
British term for a small fault or inconvenience that you just put up with, rather than solve. Imagine a minor itch between your toes when you are wearing thick socks and walking boots on a muddy track. That is a niggle.
I've seen guitars costing five times as much with worse neck pockets than that one. The thing that I notice now is that due to CNCs the internal machining tends to be much better than even a lot of vintage guitars valued in the thousands. Sixties Strats for example often have diabolical machining internally with no attempt to sand edges before paint or lacquer, but its rare for reviewers to mention this purely because they are considered the holy grail of guitars. Even cheap guitars these days are incredible compared to what we had to put up with back in the fifties and sixties so we should be thankful.
But they didn't have CNC machines in the 60's. You would think they would invest in a Plek machine! The guitars made in the 60's didn't have high frets like all of the guitars on the market now (except Gibson).
I’d like to add an SE Silver Sky to my USA Strat one day just because I love S-style guitars and the SE SS seems like a great buy. My only complaint are the current colour offerings … none of them really speak to me. Hope they release a polar white or daphne blue-like colour.
My goal in life is to create a foundation where EVERY guitar gets a fret level, crown and polishing, a correctly cut nut and a proper set-up…”no guitar left behind”….think I can do it!!!!!!!!
I took the PRS factory tour in Maryland a few years ago. The top floor looks like the warehouse at the end of Indiana Jones. It’s mountains of SE guitars. As far as I know, they QC and set up EVERY guitar in the Maryland HQ before it leaves.
They check Americas SE's in Maryland. European at PRS Europe (UK). I think they mentioned Australia has its own SE QC facility. Makes sense - no point shipping everything from Cort to Maryland then back to Aus etc.
The only guitar I have over £1000 is a Crimson and, of course, it's a beauty. I have to say, though, my other guitars range in price from £77 (Harley Benton strat kit) to a PRS custom 24 anniversary (£500) and others like a Chinese Epi LP (£350) and a Cort/Manson Matt Bellamy (£399) and they are all really well finished with no quality issues. The Manson MB1 is now selling for £299 in silver and it's such a good guitar. These days you can get some serious bang for your buck
PT Cort generally makes a good guitar. I had one of these to repair from a friend. He just wanted a setup. I found two high frets. But let me tell you, the fretwork was IMMACULATE on the sides of the board! I fixed the two frets, added new strings and checked the neck angle...everything was perfect! But not every one that leaves the factory will be perfect.
A really cool note on this guitar is that PRS basically took the budget level electronics and spec’d them to be as close as they could get to the core model setup which are based on John’s 64 Strat. Now in the marketing John says the electronics “are the same” and that’s definitely not true but to be able to get some mayery pickups at this price point is a really great thing. That’s a lot of the battle in tone chasing Mr. Mayer. Great video!
@@whynottalklikeapirat sure. But there's no magic in it. No secret mojo. It's a few thousand turns of enameled copper wire around some alnico rod magnets. That's it. If they're made properly.. as in the way fender does, they're as replicatable as a light bulb.
Dylan Talks Tone has reviewed those pickups specifically. Those are just steel slugs between the pole pieces. They are to sweeten the tone a bit by changing the magnetic field just enough.
According to Dylan Talks Tone, the ‘slugs’ on the pickups are also magnetised Alnico. He’s compared the US pickups with these, and they have quite similar construction, although these are higher resistance - around 7k whereas the US ones are around 5k. However, they sound similar, and if quite low output. He’s puzzled, but really rates both guitars with a couple of minor personal misgivings about this Indonesian model. His reviews were done back when this guitar was ‘released’. Very interesting.
Reverse Headstock design is awesome, and gives that guitar a new look. This guitar feels easy and uncomplicated like a good acoustic. Modern and without all that balast of a fender. Its nice, i like it. Ps. The plastic tuners are nice
I’m a bit confused as to why Sofia didn’t take the volume/tone knobs off to properly remove the pickguard plastic after painstakingly polishing the frets by hand… seems a bit ironic, especially since those knobs are installed horribly.
I think it's a real good idea to closely check out some of the mid-range priced guitars just under $1000. a lot of people are talking about the new Epiphones so I would like to see your take on those as well. I own an '05 Epi LP Classic which has been great..I'll probably order a Custom from them eventually just to see what people are talking about, it's cheap enough to gamble on.
Under a thousand? The worst guitars I've ever received, from a fretting standpoint, were from the Fender Custom Shop and cost was >$3000. Money can't buy me love.
People complain about Gibson and PRS being “overpriced.” They’ve clearly never played a fender CS (some of them anyway). Say what you want about the two former, you’re getting a FUNCTIONAL instrument when you go CS/Private stock.
woah thats crazy, so i bought a se silver sky used from a fella, he said he got in used from a shop. When i pulled the string off, they were tied on exactly the same. the guitar looks like its been in a bag and never opened. maybe it had factory strings on it. plastic was still on it too.
I must be lucky. I have 8 different PRS SE models. Every one was perfectly set up right out of the box. Ive had to do very few upgrades and the Siver Sky i have is by far my favorite.
Knowing little about guitars found it fascinating to watch a Luthier. Wonder if one is better off buying a guitar at this price point and paying g a Luthier to fettle it than spending 1000's more on a custom shop.
That powder is not sawdust; it's residue from the polishing process. Shielding the cavity without applying a shield to the back of the pickguard is incomplete shielding. Those strips of copper tape do nothing, really. This--from a huge PRS fanboy. I work at the factory in Stevensville, MD.
On the off chance that someone from PRS makes their way to this comments section, I'll say that I've had to do fret leveling of all 3 of my SE's. An '05 Soapbar II, '16 Custom 24 and a '21 Zach Myers. The fret ends were good, but the leveling ranged from mediocre to terrible in a few places. Nice to see a video that finally talks about this.
@@xF1revolution My main point was that most RU-vid reviewers portray them as perfect. My guess is either inexperience or paid shills. Again, it's refreshing to see an unbiased review.
@@knowwhey7559 To be fair, most channels don't go at the guitar with a fret rocker so unless it causes buzzing or choking out, reviewers would have no way to tell. Also, if it doesn't hurt playability, it's not really an issue. This is the reason PRS moved to the 8.5" radius. There's no way to make a 7.25" consistently at this price point.
@@xF1revolution I think if you're paying double what a Squier CV Strat costs, you're entitled to expect level frets. What else are you getting for your extra $400?
Theres no excuse for a $1000 guitar to not come out of the box at least close to setup, if not setup. I think weve gotten use to big companies not setting up there guitars well and its become the norm to have to have your guitar setup after you buy it, but that doesnt mean that it cant be done. I find PRS SE guitars that ive seen and picked up are setup very very well right out of the box. Good stuff. Hopefully in the future more brands will discover that setting up their guitars better will sell more. But if we people are just use to and expect this step wont happen then itll continue to be the norm. But there are companies that sell setup guitars for under $1000. Just gotta poke around ;-)
Great info. I found it hard to believe all the other reviews that said the frets were ‘perfect’. I’m no luthier, but that neck pocket play/routing looked kinda crappy. My old 80’s fender Japan fujigen Strat has a neck/body pock interface that feels like CNC machined machine parts. I’m a bit amazed PRs couldn’t replicate that. Only extra info I’d have liked would have been neck measurements and weight. Still, very useful. Thanks.
I truly wish people would start gluing the nut to the end of the fretboard only, especially when using CA glue. It’s incredible how much swearing is needed, when the headstock splits open, because someone glued the nut to the bottom of the slot …
I enjoyed this. The SE SIlver Sky is a guitar I am thinking about buying. Interestingly I have an SE 245 custom and being a tech did has you did and checked the frets etc. I only found one that needed adjusting. The rest were perfect. Mind you, all workshops depend on the person doing the job on the day, I guess. Anyway, the neck pocket would be an issue that I might return a guitar for maybe. A great video thank you. I owe a lot to your videos. You should perhaps tear down a Fender Player plus Nashville Tele if you would like to see the world worst set up and finishing. Great concept but really shoddy in the important set up details. I'd happily lend you mine.
Curious observation: the initial 4 launch colours for SE Sky are the teletubbies! JM wanted to flip the headstock to give his fingers more room. Can't say I know what he's doing with his fingers to need it, but also can't deny his fingers work a bit better than mine. The extra metal in the pups is just that. In the launch livestream Jack Higginbotham was talking about some special sauce the team discovered that got them so close to the USA pup sound, but Paul said something like "it won't be a secret for long, everyone will see it the moment they take the pickguard off!". Given nothing else sticks out visually, I can only think it's those extra metal slugs.
@@markseymour8365 i think ur referring to their trademarks, like the double cream humbuckers? Their patents are legitimately original ideas that they came up with afaik
@@hchoe741 Yes, the double cream humbuckers. I hardly think that should qualify as a 'legitimately original idea'. It's like patenting red motorbikes. Quite ridiculous IMO. Having said that, I did just buy a Super Distortion to go in my 'back to my youth project', as it was the first replacement pickup I ever bought and installed.
Great video! The attention to detail is so pleasing, at the same time you leave the viewer judge the value for money (eg fingerprint on trussrod area below the cover…who cares, well maybe some do). I think it would be interesting to try and get in contact with some of the factory workers in Indonesia. I think we assume they just mass produce, but maybe some of them really care and try hard …and watch a channel like this one
Great video. I enjoy watching some of your videos. I was blessed my local music store have two in stock for more than a month due to how fast they sell. I compared it to a Fender Player series Plus, Fender Player series, and two other guitars with single coils and kept going back to the PRS Silver Sky SE. My second choice was a Yamaha Pacifica 112V I think but it needed some TLC and fret ends smoothed but the Fenders did not impress me but was a disappointment. The Fenders didn’t stand out with setup and sound. Each had there quirks and spots that needed addressed the Silver Sky SE edged them all out in sound, feel and setup. I ended up buying the Silver Sky SE and love it. The Yamaha felt better and sounded better to my ears vs Fender but was obviously not the cleanest set up but I still preferred it over the Fenders. Also $1200 (USA sells Fender Mexican made for too much) for a Fender made in Mexico and it not be wow was a turn off. I still thought about buying the Yamaha Pacific for $350 for alternate tuning and future mods.
Hey there, I'm planning on buying a Strat type guitar and I narrowed it more or less down to Fender Player/Player Plus and the PRS. I'd like to ask you, what's your experience with the Player Plus? Some people really dislike the noisless pickups (but from what I've seen I actually like the more warmer or fuller sound). I haven't had the chance to try any of the guitars thou, so I'll be grateful for any insights.
PRS modified the headstock of the Silver Sky because John Mayer frets the low E on bar chords with his thumb. Being that Mayer is such a large dude with large hands, he found that he couldn't effectively make an F chord with the normal PRS headstock. I saw him mention this in an interview when the first USA guitars were released.
I think if they could combine the sound and vibe of a USA vintage strat with the quality and detail of a PRS SE you’d have something. For me these PRS don’t have the woody sound of a Fender Strat, but their playability is absolutely superior. I am not a fan of the PRS stubby headstock, but it is better than some, and I hate that neck pocket from an aesthetic, woodworker point of view. Pretty impressive with the shielding, you’d never see that on other imports. Love the color, would prefer nickel neck plate and tuner knobs.
So in the UK and Euope, all PRS guitars, whether from the US or the far East, go through a QC and setup at the PRS warehouse in Cambridgeshire. So the shop probably didn't setup the guitar, but the guys are PRS did.
Bought an SE Hollowbody, and as with my American S2 PRS, the build quality is pretty much perfect, the "cheap" overseas parts/pickups they make are actually *very* good IMO. I own guitars with bare-knuckles, dimarzios, SDs etc. and SE pickups are pretty much on a level with any of those. The only slight issue with the SE was that the neck was set with very little relief, but a truss rod tool was included so that took 5 minutes to fix. All the hardware on the S2 is far eastern as well and it has the best trem I have ever used, tuners that are as good or better than anything else I've had, the volume pots, knobs, pickups, strap buttons are all pretty damn close to perfect, and have stood up well for nearly 9 years now.
Fretwork is iffy no matter the value of the guitar. My 2 squier classic vibe telecasters had the best fretwork of any new guitar I have bought. All level and lovely rounded fret ends. My 2 fenders fret ends were sharp and scratchy, and needed work.
I have one of the first runs of the full fat Silver Sky, and it's easily one of the best guitar options out there. It's incredible. But I was so let down by the SE version, It felt like they had to be cranked out so some QC was missed. I never expected a guitar with PRS on the head to have a bumpy neck or fret sprout out of the box
@@joeking433 I have a stew mac fret rocker...there is barely any movement on one or two frets the buzz is not there on mine and no fretting out. My US Strat came with horrible fret job from factory.
I tried this guitar in the local shop a couple days ago and I wasn't inpressed at all. The moment I picked it up it felt like a 150 euro starterskit guitar from wish. It's probably the type of wood used for the body which makes it extremely light but it didn't felt like a guitar. Also, the plastic tuners are a big no no for me. Especially for a guitar in this price range
I agree, it's not cool to be a PRS hater, but someone has to keep things real.... these guitars have some bad points... and mainly an awful tone when played up against other guitars.... like a high pitched crow !
Guitars are always imperfect, after all they are complicated pieces of kit, all linked together to form the whole, the imperfections represent character, we play around these niggles and adapt.
I don't think "serious issues" is the best choice of words when discussing guitars under £1,000 - "compromises" might have been better, especially when the guitar is close to 4 figures, as opposed to, say, a £150 Squier. This isn't a defence of PRS by the way, I've never played one I liked.
I love my SE, not sure why all the hate in the comments, for what it is its a great guitar. My only gripe is the volume/tone knobs, they are pretty shitty, but I don't want to pay 3x more for better plastic knobs. The PUPs in the SE are highly underrated.
on the setup, i seem to recall reading that when prs's come into the country, whatever depot they arrive at gives them a setup before they get to stores
I just got my PRS SE Standard 24 earlier in the year and did a similar teardown video. You came to the same conclusions as I did with the setup. I was impressed. It really shows that PRS has sent QC staff to the Indonesian factory. Sure, of course, it isn't going to be the usual PRS quality, but man, the SE series is by far some of the best out-of-the-factory-relatively-affordable guitars I've seen. Though, seems the Silver Sky has a fair few more tiny things "wrong" with it (looking at you dirty finger print).
They’re also checked for setup etc at PRS’ Maryland plant in the US, and at PRS Europe before being sent to dealers. This looks much better in terms of setup than the Indonesian SE 22 Standard I bought a few years back. I had to do quite a bit to that, so good to know they’ve continued to improve - even if I’ll not be buying one.
I hope Paul watches this. The knobs were embarrassing by any standard, and the neck pocket was definitely nothing like as good as my £130 Harley Benton - albeit that too had excess sawdust reducing the connection between neck & body. Devil is in the detail etc.
these are currently £599 in the UK, definitely worth the money, I have a SE 24 standard and the fit and finish is spot on, my volume tone knobs are straight as a die though. Might sell my Pacifica and get one of these just for the bang for buck.
I checked out one at Sweetwater you could see the gaps in the side of the neck pocket the plastic felt like something you would make a dollar wastebasket out of fret ends were Sharp and the action was high and that was on a showroom floor. I have seen better quality in Squier strats. Tuners were definitely of the budget variety
Every other review says the opposite but I felt the same way when I played it at my local music store. Played a player series too that felt like gold. Deciding between the two but I’ve heard terrible things about the player series. Not entirely certain what I should be looking for in regards to electronics, frets and possible issues down the road. I just know the feel and sound is gorgeous, but at this price point I want to make sure it’s the right decision. Any advice would be appreciated!
I heard Paul say in an Interview that they “added extra bits of Metal in the SE pickups” so they didn’t sounds exactly like the U.S. made pickups. makes me wonder if u removed those extra metal slugs if it would sound like its more expensive big brother 🤔. i would luv to See somebody try this to hear what it sounds like.
I also love everything about these guitars except for the headstock and the tuners. For some reason the plastic reminds me at a toy or something that isn’t a guitar.
That pickup screws actually are not guaranteed to ground anything and thus the grounding-tape to the pickups is probably useless. The Screws are resting agianst the plstic pickgaurd which has holes, the chances that the scrow touches the side of the hole and actually touches against the copper tape are super small as thru-holes are usally drilled a lot larger that the screws. Also most of the time nowdays pickup backsides are made out of some kind of plastic - but even if it it metal as i said the chances for the screws to actually connect with the copper tape are minimal. Its kinda strange...
It’s the pickups more than anything for me. I bought one because I want the sound that comes out of those pickups. I’m not proficient enough of a player to take advantage of a well made custom guitar compared to a middle of the road student-priced guitar
Lol the frets and neck pocket doesn’t meet the standards that crimson has which are much higher then PRS factory standards. PRS guitars are well setup like Ben said and you wouldn’t notice those issues while playing if you weren’t told about them. This is the difference between a £1000 guitar and a £4000 guitar. It’s all good but diminishing returns.
@crimsonguitars I really enjoyed the video. I don’t get the plastic tuners, they look cheap and tacky to me and if they break as you said you need to change the tuner. Do you offer this service to everyone and how much would this setup, fret dress etc cost? Thanks for a great video
