A lot of PRS haters but let me share my experience. I bought a floor model Silver Sky (core, not SE) from Guitar Center. GC was garbage, they were missing accessories, didn’t even have the right case. I called PRS, they sent me a case, all the case candy, and even a credit for the PRS store for extra accessories as a way to appease the cost of getting a proper setup, all as a thank you for being a customer. That experience alone has made me a permanent PRS customer. I’ve owned American Fenders and Gibsons, and never had that kind of support when I had issues. Take that for what you will. Also, even with the guitar being a floor model, it’s the most reliable and comfortable guitar I’ve ever owned. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
These teardowns are very very good because we're so used to youtubers endorsing and forgetting about the negatives. I saw Tim Pierce raving about the new PRS DGT SE as being the best guitar for under 1000 bucks. I'd love to see a teardown of that - or the Yamaha revstar standards. AS a non-pro 1000 bucks tops is the range I'd be operating to buy a guitar.
My £4k Gibson Ben was absolutely shockingly setup from the factory and the tooling marks on the fretboard from the plek machine were so prevalent. It took me a full 10 hours so get it to the standard I would expect from me doing a setup for a customer. I emailed Gibson with photos of the fretboard and the marks of the frets and the un uniform fret nibs and Gibson replied with 'the marks identified in your supplied photos are within Gibson USA specs!!!' Shocking man!
@@jamesmarkham7489 I wouldn't put too much faith in unsubstantiated Gibson hate on the internet. I'm not saying he's not telling the truth, but there's a ton of underhanded marketing that goes on on the internet. I'm always amused at how EVERYONE says PRS quality is out of this world, but this guitar just looks like a fairly typical mass produced "lower end" USA made guitar. I'm not really surprised or shocked and neither would I be from Gibson, Fender, etc...
Yep - it would be great to see Paul Reed Smith talk to Ben and address the issues. Hopefully, he'd take the criticisms on the chin and admit the guitar wasn't all it could be when it left the factory.
I don't think you were too hard on PRS at all - I've bought dozens of guitars, mostly on the cheaper side, and I've never had action that high at the nut. It's a 15 minute quality control step that I would absolutely expect on a $1500 guitar.
The S2s I have seen have all had one piece bodies. I like the PRS tuners, if you have the guitar on a bench while you restring you do everything topside and it is very quick. The truss rod nut looks normal to me it's the same on the high end models, I believe it is double acting
bought this very guitar in a different colour and a s2 vela in the sales from peach guitars, both around £900, both arrived setup perfectly, no problems at all.
The PRS specs for nut height, relief and action are available on the PRS website. That being said, they are conservative. I run mine with 20 thousands on the low E and A, 18 thousandths on the D / G and 16 on the B/E strings at first fret. Relief at .008 thousandths of an inch, and action at 4/64th on the low e, just below that and just above 3/64th high e. Never had an issue with PRS frets, always been level for me. With that setup and proper height on pickups, it absolutely rocks. Just my opinion though.
Ben, the PRS American nuts contain either brass or copper dust in the mixture iirc on a video. You can see it if you file the top of the nut. They often have very deep slots. That said I can see the brass filings in my ce 24 but I think the s2 nut is the same as the se as the s2 line is American made but with PRS se bridges and pickups etc
@@JordonBeal they are well cut but I filed the ce nut down and shaped the edges to make it smoother on the hand as I did have tuning issues with the trem. Combined with a goldo back box it’s way better
my S2 standard 24 matte finish is amazing. Perfect set up. However, the humbuckers sounded waaaaay too thin and I did change the saddles to brass and added a brass tremolo block which made a world of difference.
For £1600 or thereabouts it should not need the nut fixed; if it needs adjustment of the truss rod that's fine, but nobody should need to be using a file on a guitar that costs that much.
I own the exact same. The only PRS I ever liked, so I bought it. No PRS I tried has ever matched up to my LP's. In this case I went into a store to try a Mira SE and was very disappointed (high note fret outs in high register and a bad selector, didn't have "it"). Looked around and picked up the S2... hey this is nice, really nice, yadda yadda. $$. Trem works great, tuning was superior, no qc issues (for twice the price there better not be). Went home, 10 days later finish cracks in the clear by the neck angles on the body. 10 years ok... 10 days, wtf. Messed w/ the pickup height and poles, ok I can live with them (barely). No time flat scratchy vol. pot (which will move if the cat farts). No issue with the nut. I'm happy I bought the guitar. I will never buy another one though. Paid good money for this thing. I also seem to be losing interest in the pickups. (Can you imagine if Gibson put Epiphone pickups in a LP?) When I need to I use a boss ge-7 (noisey thing) to give me what the pickups don't. Incidentally the prs rep said "we'll send it back and make it perfect". I do like the guitar and don't want it effed with. I also understand the tendencies of Lacquer and edge joints. The finish cracks have not gotten worse. I don't plan on it, but the resale value went way down due to these cracks. Thanks for putting this vid up !
PRS state, 0.4 to 0.6 mm for the 1st string over the first fret, 0.5 to 0.7 mm for the 6th string over the first fret. So they’re good factor of two over that.
I am surprised you had a bad experience with S2. I have core PRS and two S2 satins and the fretwork on S2’s is perfect, fretboard edges are quite rounded. S2’s have 1 piece body and 3 piece neck, but not 3 longitudinal pieces. The nut as PRS says it is a propriatery nut with bronze dust impregnated. And the satin S2’s I have are incredibly resonant and acoustically loud. I was expecting that you would like it actually :)..
Potentiometers are custom-spec CTS made specifically for PRS. I love love love how easily and smoothly they move. PRS have also always had deep-cut nut slots.
I bought a PRS Holcomb in 2019. Great guitar, but I had to replace the nut almost immediately, get a professional setup and replace the switch which failed before it left the shop (it was either return under warranty for a who-knows how long wait or put in a quality switch). Aggravating at the time, but now I have a quality guitar that I am extremely happy with.
I thought this may be a little click baity… but you could see that nut height was high AF. Still… I like this guitar… and PRS in general. Cheers for these reviews/inspections
I was watching Philip McKnight and he stated that nuts are consistently high, so that we can bring it down to height we like. It looks to ship with such a high nut though that it comes across more as laziness than the former explanation
Played a satin one of these last weekend. Was really impressed with the neck feel of the satin finish which felt more like oil since it had gone into the wood. Fret edge was also pretty rolled, which felt at home. The nut on the one I tried was cut correctly, but didn't look that tidy. Surface had some tool marks and it wasn't completely flush against the neck.
The difference between the SE and S2 is that you get to say you have a "real" prs, vs an import. Personally, I don't worry about country of origin anymore from production guitar companies. It's all CAD & CNC. the quality at the end is all that matters.
2:25, next thing you know, you're surprised why the notes of the E and A string went flat all of a sudden. Glad you corrected that string winding job nobody is talking about later on.
Hey Ben if you are saying there is a lot of relief my thought is something happened in shipping. What store did you order it from, I feel like it sat around for a while. PRS standard setup is to not have much neck relief, about as close to flat. I know they often have some extra at the nut just to be safe because it is easier to drop it down than build it back up.
Good video. I ordered one and although the nut was cut correctly, the rest of the setup was terrible. Needless to say I was pretty disappointed but after doing a complete setup myself it plays wonderfully. I expected more from a US made PRS....quality control at PRS should take note of your video. Thanks.
I think it's an interesting video concept for a luthier to make videos pulling apart his competitors instruments just to pick faults in them, usually with little to no scrutiny placed on their own workmanship. I'd suggest this video may not be completely impartial but hey I know very little about marketing and youtube. Interesting video none the less.
i think it's better off getting a SE model than a S2 model since the electronics are from the SE anyway and if the workmanship is worse off than the SE, what's the point of paying the premium for?
that said though, I bought mine for $850 new and the price has risen to about $1500 now which is a pretty drastic rise and not sure if i would pay that kind of loot now. probably just get a used ce at that point.
Weird, I looked at the different Custom 24s on Sweetwater, and it sure looks like the SEs have cushions on the strap buttons, and the S2 and Core don't. It makes me wonder if the S2 and Core use different hardware somehow, but that doesn't excuse what appears to be a jankier guitar at twice the price.
Wonder if the UK PRS team QC anything? Since they ship from the US, I wonder if that one developed the crack in transit? The SEs get a second QC in the US or should be in the UK when they arrive from Indonesia. My understanding on setup is that they make it so you could take it out of the box and go to work with it. The action is always a bit high for me, but that's what most are doing now. The S2s I have were cut really well out of the box. I think on the website it even says will need to adjust to taste.
I dont think having to adjust the truss rod on a guitar that's shipped around the world and sat around for 15 months is too much to ask . If I bought it new I would ask the shop for a quick setup and adjustment anyway . the nut was bad though
I don't know the QC route for S2's. I'd imagine they're checked in the USA as they come off the line. I do know SE's are checked off the production line by Cortek then re-inspected by PRS regionally (PRS Europe, PRS USA) before they're sent to dealers. It *may* be that SE's are getting two checks and S2's "only" get checked one time in the US. It may be the neck shifted climate from USA to UK. But none of that explains why the nut was cut way too high. Or why the UK(?) retailer didn't adjust the nut or the neck - though reading the smallprint on some major online retailers, if you don't explicitly ask for an inspection they only spot check at random before shipping. Maybe the factory leave fat on the nut for the retailer to hone to customer preferred setup - maybe the retailer is the culprit here. Lots of maybes. Not exactly a shining advert for S2's or their retailers. But fortunate that it's irritating small things that are easily fixable.
I have three PRS guitars, 1 core, and 2 SE's and I have had no such issues with any of them. I do however have to add, I get all my guitars from Sweetwater and their pre-ship inspection is rumored to be excellent.
Same for me. I have two SE, one core and one CE and all of them have been perfection. Like you, I bought from Sweetwater. I tend to ask for deals and use that saved money to have them install a bone nut and do a set up, which is $200. It's worth it to me. As far as built quality (fret work), I haven't had any issue at all. The SE's are both just as nice as the other two, as far as QC. Every guitar company will have a percentage of problems with QC, the difference being that PRS seems to keep that percentage lower than the other bog brands.
My new Standard 22 needed the truss rod tightened quite a bit. It was an end of line blowout so I guess it had been stored in a warehouse for a couple of years. Once adjusted though it has been great
I've had 2 PRS S2 guitars: a Vela Semi Hollow and a McCarty 594. Both beautiful guitars, the 594 was better built and put together in my opinion. The Vela is in the same antique white you have there, however came with defects in the nitro finish. Been waiting for a replacement and it has taken over a year, PRS sent 2 additional Antique White models out (im in Australia) and both of those replacements had the same nitro defect. It has frustrated me quite a bit. Which is a shame because the Vela is such a killer guitar and feels so good to play. Incredibly resonant and light weight.
I’ve had 2 PRS SEs from Korea with TERRIBLE Nuts. Not so much height but they were buried right in the nut & really didn’t need to be. I’ve replaced one & filed down the other to a more respectable depth
I own a SE Hollowbody II with piezo and it is a dream; also Epiphones, Ibanezes, Squires and Electromatics that are a joy at a fraction of the cost of the American made "standards". My Canuck made Seagull is enriching, as is the American made Martin.
They almost always come with a high setup from the factory. Almost every guitar I’ve ever bought came in at 2 mm of height . I prefer it a little lower but I think they do it because if in a pinch you had to pull it off the wall and play it , you can manage a high action but if it’s fretting out from being too low it’s unusable
I just sold my PRS Paul’s guitar SE because it had the exact same problems. I paid 1200 CAD for the guitar I expected it to play like a PRS out of the factory. It was fretting out at the 13 hard, unless I had the action way up. Then to top that, it had a funky toggle switch that was intermittent.
Based in the UK? If so I would expect the shipping could have caused some slight neck/wood movement. I have PRSs from the SE line up to Private Stock. All good. I gig with an S2 and it has become my favorite guitar. It was near perfect out of the box. I do not like the PRS knobs as they are too slippery and too fast. I replaced them with Tele style barrell knobs. My 2 cents.
Do you think that perhaps the neck was set up correctly at the factory but - perhaps due to too short aging of the neck wood- in the two years that this seems to have been in a warehouse it just re-adjusted?
I guess it depends on how far off the nut is as far as if you are being too rough on PRS. I've always been under the impression that with mass produced instruments that they do leave the nut "a little" high. If they tried to set it up "perfectly and went too far the nut would be ruined. And I don't think you can in clear conscience sell a guitar that has had it's nut replaced as a 1st quality guitar. Maybe I'm wrong? Although as you pointed out the strings should not be so low in the nut. It needs to be trimmed down to avoid tuning issues. Especially with the trem. And is it a lacquer finish on this guitar? I didn't know PRS used Lacquer on their cheaper instruments.
AFAIK the S2 do use one piece bodies like the cores. And they use brass powder in the nuts. Paul likes to use brass at contact points for the strings. Says it improves the tone. And my last two SE’s have came set up similar to this one. And both came from a big store in the US that supposedly looks them over before shipping them out. So it seems they’re more interested in quantity over quality right now. Hopefully they get it sorted. Because my cores are perfect and came perfectly set up.
PRS can't keep up with demand right now. Took the factory tour a couple months back and the guy said they have like 500 people working there and run 3 shifts. So, unfortunately, a few not quite right ones I think make it out. Not excusing it by any means. I've stopped sending Sweetwater any money. Owned by Private Equity and run by marketers, their customer service will just be going down further over time. I suspect they'll be sold off again in about 5 years when this PE has enough money out of it.
Dare I say that this exactly replicates the days when Japan made Fenders,, and they were better than American made. IMO being made in the US is no guarantee of good build quality. The SE range is phenomenal value still
I have an S2. I agree mine came from the factory with a garbage setup. I love it but there's one thing i hate that makes me want to get rid of it... String rolloff on both E strings on multiple frets. I have never had this problem on another guitar and i could never gig with this guitar because of the rolloff problem
The differences between the guitars from Korea and USA is who did the work and what manager took what decisions. That goes both ways as for quality. A great factory setup is a choice. A bad factory setup is also a choice. Well done.
I thing thath action was hight, beacause they set up S2 and SE for 9 gague strings, not 10. I have the same isue with my SE when i put 10s on it. Action was hight and I needed to do proper set up. My opinion.
i have a new core custom 24, factory set up was horrible, action was too high and so was the string tension, i watched this vid and decided to copy what you did and lowered the action on each saddle by one full 360 turn, this has given me unwanted fret buzz on the 5th and 6 th strings though so i had to raise those 2 strings a 180 degree turn, fret buzz is still presant but minimal, would a truss rod adjustment help? i dont really want to touch it i am a bit scared of truss rods
Well that setup isn't going to buzz, lol. First step of owning any guitar, set it up to fit your preferences. But the stock setup should be better than what you got. I think PRS aims for a 2 mm at the 12th setup.
I bought a £2k Fender mail order that was and still is shocking, yet I also have a PRS SE Tremonti that was spot on. All manufacturers have good and bad days but far east guitars are pretty damn good. If you want to tear down my Fender let me know.
Bought 2 prs guitars and after playing them and then playing my fender and my gibson I packes them up and sent them back. Love the style and looks of them but they just were not any better and not up to the quality I was expecting
Honestly, when I see a scarf joint, I think that it's a higher quality. At least in terms of durability. I've never considered making a neck one piece with an angled headstock.
I have no idea what the specs from PRS are for action, but what you measured was wayyyy too high. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a guitar that costs a thousand and a half or more to be set up well with smooth frets, a perfect nut, and have a basically flawless finish (I guess Gibson should also take note). However, if it was made in 2021 and you filmed in January 2023, it's possible that some sort of settling or whatever happened? Dunno. I definitely don't think you were too hard on them, and I'm a huge PRS fan. I only own four guitars, and all four are PRS, including two USA CE24 Semi-hollows. But your criticisms are fair.
"Made in the USA" means precious little over here in Europe. I've seen (and played ánd owned) Gibsons that were just B choice / factory seconds at best, and heard rumours from someone importing them that thát is actually what we get over here: factory rejects. If you order from the US, paying their preferred way shipping already costing multiple hundreds of euros, then add import tax (VAT), and if you then find something to be wrong with the instrument, you're not likely going to ship it back at your expense (and their preferred service, all too often FedEx....), so you'll just grin and bear it. I've seen this lack of quality, in spite of the hefty pricetag, too often over the years to think it coincidence. But I'm just a private buyer, not a well known (and influential!) luthier - you'd think they'd get you a properly made and set-up guitar at least 🤣👍😉
Ive had £2200 Jacksons that needed a full fret level, £1200 Fenders with huge fret sprout and horrible playability. Funy that my Gibson arrived flawless. Everything is so hit or miss these days.
All that you can say is that it left the factory over a year before you purchased. That guitar may of been out on the retailers shop floor for 'people' to come in and try it so it could of been messed with by some customers and the shop messes with it before sending it out. When its been over a year since it left the factory, its a bit hard to hold that factory to task for the product - especially if it wasn't still in a sealed from factory box - which is unlikely as most retailers take out expensive guitars to photo them for their website. Its not 'new' anymore, its new Old stock. These don't tend to come 'direct' from factory to retailer, they go to PRS Europe and retailers order from their PRS rep and then distributes these from their European stock to the retailer. All the Hang Tag does is say that on that date, back in 2021, they assessed it to be 'good enough' to sell but if you get it 18mnths later, you don't know who may of messed with it between it being 'passed' by PRS and you receiving it...
That might explain the truss rod needing some adjustment but nut heights wear down over decades they do not grow higher. The poor nut is a factory issue.
Here's my honest if controversial opinion.... Think of wage bills of workers in USA vs Indonesia. Hence why I believe the set up on usa guitars is often poor, it simply costs a lot if they're a USA worker. I'd love to know what the time constraints are on a USA production guitar set up? PS I have a prs ce22 which is excellently setup and possibly the most stable guitar in my arsenal so my personal experience with (admittedly a 20 year old guitar ) prs is very good.
Since the inception of the S2 range the SE has always, always, been the better instrument. The first S2's I saw in a store had chips of paint missing from the neck heels on all of them, not to mention the cheap looking bevel and the plain white plastic inlays. I took an SE home that day with zero regrets.
A friend of mine works for PRS and has for twenty years. His response to the question S2 or upgraded SE was upgraded SE. S2’s are not worth the money according to a veteran employee.
S2's are just fast made American bodies with SE hardware on them. To me wood is wood and I'd just go for an SE over an S2 any day of the week. You could get a second hand CE for the price of an S2 and the quality on those is far superior.
I’ve owned multiple S2s and they were all excellent guitars. I’ve also spoken with employees who believe S2s are the best bang for the buck of all their lines. I believe almost every issue mentioned here is being unfairly attributed to the factory, but it’s been hanging on a wall in a store for a year & half.
Maryland only inspect SE's destined for Americas. PRS Europe (in the UK) do SE checks for European stock. There's an old vid on the PRS Europe channel. I heard mention there's a different check route for Australasia/Japan too. It doesn't make logistical sense to ship every SE half way round the world from Indonesia to Maryland then a quarter of the way back again to Europe/Australasia retailers.
Given this price, I have to compare these issues to my experience with Gibson's budget-USA lines of studios and tributes. On only one Gibson/Epiphone of 12 I have, my Epiphone Prophesy is the only one that needed work on the nut. The Tributes and studios share a similar bare-bones inexpensive finish and can feel a little unfinished. There have been many attempts by other companies to pull off a USA budget line, but most are unsuccessful, like the original Music Man Sub series trying to pair simplified bodies and finishes with Music Man reputation which ultimately turns into an Asian line. PRS could easily have done a mid-tier guitar at premium import prices in line with ESP/LTD except they'd undermine their overpriced USA made tiers. That would have at least assured appropriate QC. A specific example of Gibson lower tier success can be found by watching Dylan Talks Tone when he's talking in detail about his Gibson SG Jr. While the Gibson Tribute/Studio guitars pull this off reasonably well, the only $1500 range USA made guitars worth buying in my experience are made by G&L. The money is saved by keeping marketing costs low and retaining the original Leo Fender assembly line model, but you will not find a fit/finish/setup issue with a Fullerton Deluxe G&L. I did drop the action on one, but it didn't even need intonation adjustment, let alone nut slot issues.
I had issues with Gibsons I paid like $2500 for. I'm convinced they really don't care because people will buy them because they think they'll be worth more later.
Always lusted after a prs. Than a guy with tattoo replacement hair.. inspired me to make my own baby's of wood and magnets n wire. Thanks sir. And yeah. That's alota money to have bad funk.
All manufacturers have bad days, but that is what quality control is for. This should have never left PRS in this condition. That other companies also let rubbish leave the factory, is not an excuse. We expect more from PRS, and made in usa in general, as we pay more for those products.
Advice, please. Have a Fender 5string Jazz deluxe, and the forward bow seems to have increased. So tried a gentle adjustment to the truss rod (a single action Fender style, I presume) and it loosens fine, but then rotating back again, it just gets to a point where it requires too much effort to safely turn it. So basically am unable to flatten the action enough, to where it used to be. Is this some kind of stuck truss rod? If so, what can i do about it? Thanks!
Something is binding for sure. It's either you are out of travel on the truss rod threads, or the threads are marred at the point where the nut jams up. Try completely loosening the rod and removing the adjustment portion completely. Then get a flashlight and see if you can scope out the threads. Has it always behaved this way?
@@peachmelba1000 Thanks fro the reply. No, i don't know exactly when this started, but it was sitting in a cold room for a while, and it was when i started using it with a new band, that i noticed the bow in the neck had increased. That's when i found out i wasn't able to adjust the forward bow out, to lower the action to where it used to be. Will try out your suggestions, and see what happens. Just feels like the rod has stuck, almost. But it definitely doesn't want to turn much more, so i am very wary of over tightening it and stripping the threads, or even breaking the rod entirely!
@@timbeaton5045 You might have a case wherein the threads on the rod end have some light corrosion. If it was stored cold, and then warmed quickly, it's possible that some condensation could have formed on the threads, which may have then caused some rust. The rod is just mild steel, and the thread series is fine enough that a small bit of schmutz would be enough to bind it up.
@@peachmelba1000 Indeed. Nice to know that the community here is helpful as ever! Will do some careful removals of the neck, and rod end nut, and see what's going on.
the truss rod should always be 2-way in a modern fender, and stiff is expected. turn it 1/4 turn at a time once you have that resistance. And some fenders just have crap necks which will never produce good action past the 9th fret. I suggest you take the strings off and try to use the truss rod to level the board to perfectly flat. Now check your frets for also being perfectly flat using a fret rocker. If you have that, restring the guitar. It might naturally take the appropriate slight bow between the 1st and 4th frets, or you might need to make 1/4 turn micro adjustments. I really recommend the Music Nomad Precision Setup Gauge set to help you make all the truss rod and bridge adjustments you can. Worth always having around. I think Amazon is cheaper than their website price.
So a guitar built during lockdown periods and then sat in storage and transhipped a few times over 18 months had a bit too much relief; pass High nut; ok gives room for heavy strings and a set up for owners preference but will feel awful especially to a beginner; fail - if these are the strings then nut should be right for these strings, especially slot depth, but PRS nut should be easy to source and replace cheaply for those who want heavy strings or high action, Paul rates his nut Poor paint job, shouldn't have passed QC but again covid era, QC guy in paint shop might have been ill that day; borderline fail The new SE's seem great, makes the S2 line redundant, but I bet Paul will be focusing on S2 line hard this year
My daughter's £70 new acoustic came with a perfectly cut nut , nice and low which must of took some time to acheive without going too low. My £145 Jet Strat was also perfectly cut. I guess in PRS's eyes it's relatively a budget guitar, and QC Inspectors dont 'add value' in the bean counters eyes.
If the guitar plays in tune at the first fret, the nut height is correct and will exhibit that tiny space between the string and the first fret wire. That was clearly way too high, I wonder how out of tune it was.
My S2 is absolutely perfect. Level frets and nothing to complain about. Now every single Fender I've owned and there's been a lot, they all needed a fret level and recrowning. I'm talking about over 20 guitars from Fender.
Apparently they often add powdered bronze. It is a low friction material, readily obtainable and probably cheaper than powdered Teflon. It is also easier on files if you do need to file it.
