NGD: PRS SE Soapbar

Dillon · Post by **Dillon** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 11:38 pm

Rob is going to love this one

I know the majority of shortscale will be like bleh but these are absolutely fantastic guitars.

I don't have any other guitars with P90s, don't have any projects going right now, got a killer deal on it, and happen to already have upgrades for it, so why not? Frets are bigger than vintage Fender but smaller than, say, a Squier VM. I like the 24.5" scale and 10" radius. Something about those three things is a really right combination.

It's actually much prettier in person. I'm planning to switch to black pickup covers / switch tip, and ditch the amber speed knobs for something nicer. I might upgrade the bridge...though it doesn't need it, the chrome is cheap looking. Maybe Brass-O would take the plating off and reveal something more interesting?

I also might put GFS mini buckers in it as I've had a pair laying around for years and nothing to do with them.

chemistforhire · Post by **chemistforhire** » Fri Dec 16, 2016 12:32 am

How do you intonate it? I can't tell how that bridge/stop tail works from the pictures.

Dillon · Post by **Dillon** » Fri Dec 16, 2016 12:41 am

You can't, it's fixed. Most factory wraparound bridges are that way, including Gibson. You can get aftermarket ones that have adjustable saddles like this or even just this, but it doesn't seem necessary. It's perfectly intonated as is and that's fine by me. I do however want to put heavier strings on it, so I'll see if that makes a difference.

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Fri Dec 16, 2016 1:25 am

I love it! P90's! I would totally rock that shit!

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Fri Dec 16, 2016 7:34 am

Thought I replied to this last night......

I like it, except for the inlays. Does a 10" radius on an LP style guitar not feel a bit weird, though?

Dillon · Post by **Dillon** » Fri Dec 16, 2016 10:52 pm

Yeah, I'm not crazy about the bird inlays. It looks cheap. I prefer the moons on PRS.

I'm not too picky about radius anymore but 10" is one of my favorite, regardless of what guitar it's on. Doesn't feel weird at all to me.

I wasn't crazy about the P90s so I went and ruined a big part of why I bought it

Actually I quite like these mini hums. Somewhere in between a PAF and a P90. But I might switch back to P90s at some point. The ones that came in it just did not sound like P90s to me.

GFS is nice enough to provide a large wiring diagram and foam to go under the pickups.

However, the foam wasn't deep enough for the neck pocket...

So I had to pull the foam off the stock P90s. Which happened to be missing from the other, older P90s I had that were pulled from a similar SE model. Here you can also see that they're slightly different with the older (black) one having writing on it, which is the resistance. The black one is hotter at around 9.8K, with the cream (stock) one being only 9.35K.

Kinda hard to tell but the back and neck are nicely figured...and these guitars use Alpha electronics, same as the higher end Squiers.

After swapping pickups I really was not a fan of those deep amber knobs, so I found some black ones in my parts bin. End result:

I normally find stand-out flame maple tops like that to be incredibly gaudy, but with the subtle burst on this one, I like it. It's actually not as flashy as that last picture in most lighting.