Considering a string saddle change on my PRS SE

[teking66]

Hey All,

First up a bit of history on the guitar, it a PRS SE Standard 24, purchased new from Sweetwater in November of 2015 (birthday present to myself, and just what I wanted too!). Lovely Tobacco Sunburst finish and a really nice player to boot, at least I like it.

My only complaint is that is can be a bit shrill, or maybe a bit to bright really more than shrill. So, I was talking to a guy at the local Guitar Center and he mentioned he had changed the string saddles to the Graphtech string savers. Then another guy there said the pickups in those are crap and to change them (by the way, I'm not really buying this one one, because when split to single coil mode they just sound way to sweet).

OK, so in checking the Graphtech stuff out I was reading on their website about this 2K spike that can be inherent to cast metal string saddles. This makes me wonder if this will indeed sweeten up the tone of this instrument.

So, here's my two part question for all you gear heads;

Have any of you out there made this change to this or a similar guitar?

And, would you recommend changing out the nut as well?
(I'm considering a Ghaphtech Tusq nut as well)

Just looking to pick the brains of a few that may know better/more on the subject.

[Charlie Honkmeister]

Jan 4, 2017 20:32:13 GMT -5 teking66 said:

Hey All,

First up a bit of history on the guitar, it a PRS SE Standard 24, purchased new from Sweetwater in November of 2015 (birthday present to myself, and just what I wanted too!). Lovely Tobacco Sunburst finish and a really nice player to boot, at least I like it.

My only complaint is that is can be a bit shrill, or maybe a bit to bright really more than shrill. So, I was talking to a guy at the local Guitar Center and he mentioned he had changed the string saddles to the Graphtech string savers. Then another guy there said the pickups in those are crap and to change them (by the way, I'm not really buying this one one, because when split to single coil mode they just sound way to sweet).

OK, so in checking the Graphtech stuff out I was reading on their website about this 2K spike that can be inherent to cast metal string saddles. This makes me wonder if this will indeed sweeten up the tone of this instrument.

So, here's my two part question for all you gear heads;

Have any of you out there made this change to this or a similar guitar?

And, would you recommend changing out the nut as well?
(I'm considering a Ghaphtech Tusq nut as well)

Just looking to pick the brains of a few that may know better/more on the subject.

teking66,

I have a PRS SE Standard 24 in red, and it's a great instrument;  congrats on your good taste

I have String Saver saddles on one (formerly two)  other axe,  but it is/was a Tuneomatic,  not the individual saddles.  You have to take the Graph Tech info about the 2K spike with a grain of salt;  it's possible that they measured that on a Tuneomatic and not on individual saddles such as Strat and PRS.

That being said,  the String Savers are really good,  but they do sound a tiny bit different. It might not be the "different" you need for your situation.    

If you want to darken the tone a little bit and can solder,  you might want to try soldering a 750K ohms,  1/8 watt resistor to the outside 2 lugs of your volume pot.  Assuming 500K pots, which is usually safe assumption for humbuckers,  this should bring the resonant peak of the pickups down and very slightly darken the tone.  Coil split mode won't be affected as much as normal humbucker mode.  If this doesn't help you you could consider the Graph Tech parts depending on your willingness to spend some money,  but the resistor is cheap and worth a try.  

-Charlie

[Charlie Honkmeister]

BTW  the 750K was just a finger in the wind estimate.  You may be able to experiment with the value from 500K to 2 Megs,  and find something that works.   A metal film resistor assortment is pretty cheap on Ebay.

I completely agree with you about not changing the pickups for now.  

If the resistor doesn't do the trick,  you might be able to move the resonant peak (assuming that's the issue)  down in frequency with a capacitor, but this might create a tradeoff with the split coil sound.   But it might be worth pursuing and this forum is a good place to get help pursuing it.     

[teking66]

Thanks a bunch for the info Charlie, didn't realize you could do that little trick with the resistor, but I'm just getting my feet wet with the modding of my axes.
That probably has to do with finally reaching the point where I'm actually chasing/searching for my own tone, and also wanting to make a really good and even better one. The PRS is the first guitar I have ever purchased new, and I have noticed that after a year of playing it (nearly daily) that the tone is getting better.

Most of my axes are stock at the moment, barring some fret leveling on my Epi's (a DOT Studio and Les Paul Studio custom shop) and on my old Jap Strat (gave $200 for it at a guitar shop in Mississippi, and it is a bit odd in that it is a short scale Strat as it has a 24.5" scale length). The Epi DOT Studio did get the Volume and Tone pots changed out, on that guitar the factory pots were really crappy and only 250k, I switch those out for really good 500K pots and it really made that guitars voice.

Will have to give the resistor a try, sounds like that might just do the trick for me.