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Member |
My Les Pauls have always had tuning issues after sitting unplayed for a while. But once I have them in regular rotation again and, especially after I have had one in my hands for 15 min or so and it's warmed up, they usually stay in tune pretty well for me. I have rubbed pencil lead in the nut grooves with good effects too. | |||
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| Imagination and focus become reality |
I am not familiar with the 245. I thought all PRS guitars had a scale length of 25" but I haven't looked at any new models for, oh, at least 15 years. | |||
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Facts are stubborn things |
Side note on the PRS. The ones made in Maryland are absolutely amazing but it takes over $4k to get one new. Believe me, it is on my list of wants. For about half that money, The 60s Les Paul will make you very happy. All that said, if money was not a concern, the PRS Custom 24 would be in my arsenal. I travel a lot and MD is one of the places, I have been to the factory near Annapolis and it is impressive to see. That guitar is something otherworldly. Do, Or do not. There is no try. | |||
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W07VH5 |
I believe some of the S2 guitars are/were made at the Stevensville factory. The only reason that I don't own a PRS is that I don't want a vibrato bridge and I don't trust a fixed bridge without intonation adjustments. I'm also not going to buy a guitar I can't play first. | |||
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| I made it so far, now I'll go for more  |
Mark, all of the S2s are made in Maryland with offshore parts. They start around 1400 bucks. You can bump up a notch and get a CE, all American for around 2300. The SE line is all offshore and are fine guitars. The S2s are a cut above and you can really tell the difference. The bottom line is that they are all fine instruments, you can just pick your own poison :-) Bob I am no expert, but think I am sometimes. | |||
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Frangas non Flectes |
You know you can turn pretty much any tremolo bridge into a fixed bridge, right? Wood blocks cut perfectly to fit between the body cavity and sustain block prevent it from moving. It's the low-tech version of what Parker did with the Fly. Somewhere, I have a set of rosewood blocks for my Ibanez. I use them both to temporarily convert it to a hardtail, and also to set up the guitar to float when I change string gauges or tunings. You install the blocks, set up the guitar as normal, and then pull the blocks once you've got everything locked down. The bridge will go sharp or flat, and then you adjust the spring counter-tension until it's in tune. Another neat trick that's completely unrelated, but still cool as hell that most players don't know about is that with a double locking trem, you can have the whole thing perfectly in tune and locked down, and pop the springs out of the sustain block. You can then pull the trem free of the guitar and set it aside or even remove the neck (if it's a bolt-on) to service various things like changing out pickups or installing inlays, etc. When finished, you re-attach the neck (paying careful attention to shims, if present) and the bridge, re-install your trem springs and... the guitar will be in tune.
You mean like on an acoustic?  You can fine adjust the intonation with the set screws that push the bridge away from the posts. I don't know how exact you can get with these, not having messed around with PRS' offering, but they're pretty finicky about things, so I don't think they'd be using them on something like half of their guitars if they didn't intonate pretty exactly. It's the same concept as compensated saddles on acoustic guitars. ______________________________________________ “There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.” | |||
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Go Vols! |
What's next after the LP? I resisted a Strat for decades. I finally got one and it is the most comfortable couch guitar ever. Easy to plugin the little headphone modules. Guitars can get to be quite an expensive hobby just collecting. | |||
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Political Cynic |
I have had a Strat for more than 10 years. I’ve always wanted a LP and just took delivery of a 1968 reissue from the custom shop last month. It is so different - not just the weight issue but the neck radius and length. Strings are a bit further apart. Frets are slightly further apart. But is an awesome guitar. I have played several PRS guitars - there was a dealer in Merrimack not far from my old house. But a LP is not like anything else. | |||
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| Left-Handed, NOT Left-Winged! |
My Hamer USA guitars are like Gibsons. Slab body Special with P90's, Doublecut Archtop Custom Flametop with humbuckers, a Korina semi-hollow with 3 P90's, and a Newport hollow with Phat Cats (humbucker sized P90's). I starting buying them because I could not find a Gibson with good quality - rough frets, poorly done binding, lousy finishes. There was one - a used lefty Les Paul Standard from about 1988 that I tried at Elderly Instruments in Lansing MI in the mid 90's. It was "the one" I should have bought on the spot but I was there to pick up a lefty PRS EG... | |||
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| Savor the limelight |
The scale length is shorter on the Les Paul than the Stratocaster so the frets should be closer together on the Les Paul. I wonder if it the strings being further apart make it feel as if the frets are further apart as well? | |||
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| W07VH5 |
I'm just saying I'm not spending $3k on a guitar that I have to modify. A $400 used mexiStrat, sure. I'll block that sucker but that much jing and I want it right. I want it in tune in the case when I first open it. | |||
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| Political Cynic |
you might be right - I haven't actually measured it but I do know that Barre chords are a bit more difficult reaching the low E. I have a good machinist scale - I will dig it out and do a couple quick measurements but that would make sense. just checked - nut to bridge on the Strat is 26", nut to bridge on the LP is 25" | |||
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| W07VH5 |
officially Fender is 25.5" and Gibson is 24.75" with minor adjustments for each string's intonation. | |||
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| Left-Handed, NOT Left-Winged! |
Scale length on a Fender is nominally 25.5", while on a Gibson it is 24.75". That makes a difference in feel of about one string gauge - like changing between a 0.009" High E set and a .010" High E set. The original PRS Custom 24 was intended to be a hybrid so they use a 25" scale. Also, Fenders usually have a 1 5/8" wide nut while Gibsons have 1 11/16". Keep in mind that all of these guitars were designed to use 0.012 or 0.013 gauge with a wound D string, similar to acoustic strings except nickel wound instead of bronze. They do stay in tune better with all that extra tension. As for not modifying a 3K guitar - I mod almost everything because most stock pickups or lower tier name brands suck, and unless you are going full custom you can't select everything you want. My guitars have Harmonic Design Vintage Plus P90's, Fralin or Kinman strat pickups, Dimarzio Humbuckers for rock/metal, and Duncan Humbuckers but usually something different like a Custom 5 instead of a JB. Pickups are so personal and interact with the guitar wood that results vary even on the same model guitar and same pickups. | |||
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| Frangas non Flectes |
That's fair. I go the other way, I don't think I've ever owned a guitar that I left stock, and that's going all the way back to my first. Mind you, I've never dropped three grand on a guitar, and if I did, I'd want it to be right also. But little things I can easily change wouldn't necessarily bother me.
Yeah, when measuring scale length, make sure you're only measuring the part of the string that vibrates, so from the inside edge of the nut to where the string breaks over the top of the saddle at the bridge. ______________________________________________ “There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.” | |||
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Member |
The first thing I did on a ~$4k used Anderson I bought a few years ago was swap the pickups and drill out a hole in the top to swap the push/pull volume pot (used for coil splitting) for a normal one.
Even then, you won't really be measuring the nominal scale length that defines the fret spacings. When you fret a note, the added string tension makes the note a bit higher than just the change in string length would suggest, so the strings need to be a bit longer than the nominal scale length. The high E string is usually the closest to the nominal scale length, but still not right on it. The harder you fret notes and the bigger the actual frets on the guitar, the larger the effect and the more extra length needs to be added to the strings. Mechanical properties of the string matter, too (mostly elasticity of the metal and the diameter of the string). That's why intonation is adjustable - you're likely to need to change intonation if you change to a different type of strings, but even on the same guitar with the same strings, two people who play differently might benefit from different intonation. The short version is, for example on a 25.5" scale Strat, the frets are spaced based on a 25.5" scale length, but every actual physical string will usually be longer than that. | |||
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| W07VH5 |
Well, I'm not talking about simple electronics changes. I'm talking about not spending a ton of loot on a guitar that doesn't meet my very simple requirements of being intonatable to heavier strings and a fixed bridge. Of course if I'm spending $3k it will also come with pickups of higher quality that will not need swapped. Something like a Novo or Potvin, I suppose. On a sub $1k guitar, I expect to replace the pickups. I really would love to try a Tom Anderson one day. And a Suhr. | |||
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| Member |
This one has seen the world with a good friend. 76 model standard with added Bigsby  In use https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6zXj1qGkN3I ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Live today as if it may be your last and learn today as if you will live forever | |||
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Assault Accountant |
Well that LP sounds like it stays in tune just fine.  Very nice, snwghst.__________________ Member NRA Member NYSRPA | |||
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| Frangas non Flectes |
That’s a beautiful Les Paul you got there, snwghst. Transparent wine red is my favorite.  ______________________________________________ “There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.” | |||
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