NGD - My first PRS

[culturejam]

Forgot to mention I put this on the scale last night: 7 lb 6 oz.   So it won't hurt my back and shoulder for the hours on stage at all those gigs I'm not playing. 

[pickdropper]

Forgot to mention I put this on the scale last night: 7 lb 6 oz.   So it won't hurt my back and shoulder for the hours on stage at all those gigs I'm not playing. 

If you ever decide you want to recreate that 70's Les Paul experience, you could always buy another one of the CU24s and glue them together.

[culturejam]

Forgot to mention I put this on the scale last night: 7 lb 6 oz.   So it won't hurt my back and shoulder for the hours on stage at all those gigs I'm not playing. 

If you ever decide you want to recreate that 70's Les Paul experience, you could always buy another one of the CU24s and glue them together.

I could do that and sell them as Norlinized Customs. What could go wrong?

[pickdropper]

Forgot to mention I put this on the scale last night: 7 lb 6 oz.   So it won't hurt my back and shoulder for the hours on stage at all those gigs I'm not playing. 

If you ever decide you want to recreate that 70's Les Paul experience, you could always buy another one of the CU24s and glue them together.

I could do that and sell them as Norlinized Customs. What could go wrong?

"The long-awaited return of the pancake body."

[mrclean77]

^ 

Happy NGD! I've played a couple Custom SE guitars and agree w your description of being surprised at the quality - I think the combo of the price and my expectations before I handled em left me like, 'whoah - ok --- these are legit'

[culturejam]

Okay, some more interesting data points, some good some sort of neutral.

I noticed the Tone pot seemed a little wiggly, so I did some investigating in the control cavity. Turns out the shaft, when pulled for coil cut, is wobbly/loose. This is not uncommon on cheaper push/pull pots, but I'll have to swap that out. The wobble drives me nuts.

The 3-position switch is also a little wobbly, but that's because it's one of those dead-cheap Chinese jobbies. It's 100% functional, just feels insubstantial and not up to the quality of the rest of the guitar.

I did discover, however, that there is already a 180pf treble bleed cap on the Volume pot. It's ceramic, so I'll be replacing it with polystyrene or silver mica. Probably won't hear a difference, but so what? It's mojo.

Also, the Tone cap is a very nice flat/tubular axial film cap (400V). Wasn't expecting that. 33n value, by the way. I see no compelling reason to replace this.

[peAk]

Cool guitar man

Did you end up selling/trading your 201?

[culturejam]

Did you end up selling/trading your 201?

Yes! Listed it on Reverb and got full asking price (no haggling). 

[peAk]

Did you end up selling/trading your 201?

Yes! Listed it on Reverb and got full asking price (no haggling). 

Sweet!!

[BrianS]

Okay, some more interesting data points, some good some sort of neutral.

I noticed the Tone pot seemed a little wiggly, so I did some investigating in the control cavity. Turns out the shaft, when pulled for coil cut, is wobbly/loose. This is not uncommon on cheaper push/pull pots, but I'll have to swap that out. The wobble drives me nuts.

The 3-position switch is also a little wobbly, but that's because it's one of those dead-cheap Chinese jobbies. It's 100% functional, just feels insubstantial and not up to the quality of the rest of the guitar.

I did discover, however, that there is already a 180pf treble bleed cap on the Volume pot. It's ceramic, so I'll be replacing it with polystyrene or silver mica. Probably won't hear a difference, but so what? It's mojo.

Also, the Tone cap is a very nice flat/tubular axial film cap (400V). Wasn't expecting that. 33n value, by the way. I see no compelling reason to replace this.

You have done much more investigating with yours than I have with mine.  That is all good information though and I guess I should see if I have the same issues.  I have looked at buying new nuts for the both but still undecided.  I figured there would be some less than quality parts on them. Wish they would just put better pots/switches in them.  I would pay a little more for that.

[culturejam]

I have looked at buying new nuts for the both but still undecided.  I figured there would be some less than quality parts on them. Wish they would just put better pots/switches in them.  I would pay a little more for that.

I think the nut is okay as is, just needs to have the G-string groove widened slightly. Otherwise, I think it's fine.

And like the pickup switch, the tuning keys are totally functional, just not "nice". I'll surely end up replacing both at some point, but there's certainly no pressing need to do it. It's an extremely well playing guitar as is.

Oh yeah, and probably the pickups will have to go. They are okay, but I want covers and I might as well put something fun in there.

[Timko]

That's a beauty. 

[madbean]

So I opened up my S2/22 and it looks like it's got the same guts as your SE Custom 24: 180pF ceramic, 33n flat film, etc. Luckily the switch on my pot is not loose like yours (I may even have an extra one of those if you want me to look). But, I think yours has the Korean 85/15 pups which mine don't. I expect those a pretty nice pups you have in there. Just sayin'!

Almost one year on I seriously love the neck on mine. It just feels right on: scale length and carve are so comfortable. Still have a little fret buzz on the low E even with proper relief and saddle height. Pretty much the deal with every single guitar I own! I also finally broke out the trem bar and the thing stays in tune fairly well (I'm not a big tremolo guy).

[flanagan0718]

So I opened up my S2/22 and it looks like it's got the same guts as your SE Custom 24: 180pF ceramic, 33n flat film, etc. Luckily the switch on my pot is not loose like yours (I may even have an extra one of those if you want me to look). But, I think yours has the Korean 85/15 pups which mine don't. I expect those a pretty nice pups you have in there. Just sayin'!

My Custom 24 S2 that i got a few months ago has the same guts. It also has the 85/15 Korean Pickups. THEY SCREAM!!!

[culturejam]

After playing it a bit more, I think maybe I'll just ditch the coil-cut option altogether. It sounds pretty good, but I have guitars with single coils (Strat and ASAT) that do that sound a lot better. And they are never more than, like, 20 feet away.    If I played out a lot, I'd probably want to keep it more.

Also, I want to do a PCB to fit the nicer solder-lug 24mm pots. I want to have multiple tone cap options with a DIP to select. Like, having 3-4 ~10n caps in parallel so the value can be adjusted. Or it could be done with multiple caps of the same value but different dielectric materials for a real mojo comparison.