Those PRS SEs are great guitars for the money. The stock pickups aren't bad at all, but the tuners are absolute garbage. The good news is that Schaller locking tuners are a direct drop-in replacement.
The Official Guitar Thread
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Yes you can, fool.
Amazon.com: Korg TM50BK Instrument Tuner and Metronome, Black: Musical Instruments
Seriously, jamming over a backing track is fine, but if you're serious about getting better you'll have woodshed with a metronome. Nobody likes it, but it's a necessary evil if you want to really get better, and get your fingers doing something new instead of falling into the same old patterns (which is pretty much what everyone does with backing tracks).
I don't know anything about locking tuners. What makes a tuner locking? What's the advantage?
Love me some Schaller straplocks though. They're going to go on every guitar I own forever.
Love me some Schaller straplocks though. They're going to go on every guitar I own forever.
I took a few pics of the swap when I had an SE Navarro.
Swapping PRS SE tuners for Schaller locking tuners (Picstory)
Locking tuners, well, lock. They don't require you to run the string around the peg several times - you just tug it to tension, lock the string in there and then you're about 1/2 turn from pitch. It makes string changes a shitload faster and easier, and (like any quality tuner) adds a shitload of tuning stability. Every one of my guitars has them, and there are several different brands you can go with. (Schaller, Gotoh and Sperzel being the most common).
Note the amount of string around the actual tuning peg. (Or lack of it)
They're a must-have on any non-locking bridge guitar IMO, and I have them on my lockers as well (like my Suhr here) because it makes life a shitload easier.
Edit: Better pic, easier to see on the maple.
They're a must-have on any non-locking bridge guitar IMO, and I have them on my lockers as well (like my Suhr here) because it makes life a shitload easier.
Edit: Better pic, easier to see on the maple.
Interesting, I might look into some for my LP. I do okay changing strings but, like most people, should do it more often than I do.
Also, lol at the nut in that series of pictures. Does Dave Navarro use tiny strings or something? I have 10s on the LP now but I might go up to 11s or 12s. I'm going to play it for a little bit more before I decide.
Also, lol at the nut in that series of pictures. Does Dave Navarro use tiny strings or something? I have 10s on the LP now but I might go up to 11s or 12s. I'm going to play it for a little bit more before I decide.
Nah, I bought that guitar (at the time) because I wanted something cheap that I could run in C standard, so I put 13s on it. I ended up just selling it, because (at the risk of sounding like a pretentious cunt) it was sitting in a rack of 2-$3000 guitars, and I never really found myself reaching for it. Not a bad guitar at all though, just nowhere near the mojo of an actual PRS.
If you plan to stay in standard tuning I wouldn't go higher than 11s (I run 10-56 on everything, 10-68 on my sevens). Especially if you're playing a Les Paul, which is probably 24.75" scale.
The only time you'll want to go something like 12s is if you plan to downtune the whole guitar, and you'll need to adjust the bridge/truss rod when you go back and forth in gauges. I have a lot of guitars and do my own setups so I don't mind, but a lot of people don't like it. Bigger gauges = more string tension = more tension on the neck = adjust accordingly.
If you plan to stay in standard tuning I wouldn't go higher than 11s (I run 10-56 on everything, 10-68 on my sevens). Especially if you're playing a Les Paul, which is probably 24.75" scale.
The only time you'll want to go something like 12s is if you plan to downtune the whole guitar, and you'll need to adjust the bridge/truss rod when you go back and forth in gauges. I have a lot of guitars and do my own setups so I don't mind, but a lot of people don't like it. Bigger gauges = more string tension = more tension on the neck = adjust accordingly.
Noodleface
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One time I had the guys over at Rick's Music in Swansea, MA do a setup on my Ibanez RG3120 (my baby
) because the tech was highly referred. I got my guitar back with the shittiest action, buzzing everywhere, and just generally played like shit. The kicker was my locking nuts weren't even tightened down and the back plate was missing screws. I decided then and there, after spending $85 for junk, that I would never allow another human being to setup my guitar. I followed the guide that was on Jemsite so long ago, and I basically internalized the entire guide and use it to setup every guitar I've ever owned. I ended up putting a shim in the neck joint of my RG3120 and somehow turning it into the best guitar I've ever owned. The guy I sold it to said he had never played a guitar with such low action and no buzz, he couldn't believe it... little did he know there was half of a business card placed in the neck joint to shim it.
The lesson is learning to setup your own guitar is probably one of the single best things you can learn in your guitar career for general guitar care. It's extremely easy as long as you remember the golden rule: 1/4 turn max on the truss rod at a time.
The lesson is learning to setup your own guitar is probably one of the single best things you can learn in your guitar career for general guitar care. It's extremely easy as long as you remember the golden rule: 1/4 turn max on the truss rod at a time.
Yeah, no downtuning for me. I might fiddle around with stuff like open D or such for slide, but that'd be it.
Also, I grabbed that Positive Grid JamUp plug from Amazon to mess around with; Amazon suggested a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter to buy with it. Is that something I actually NEED to use it? I won't be plugging the entire thing into an amp or anything like that, which is what I suspect the adapter would be for.
Also, I grabbed that Positive Grid JamUp plug from Amazon to mess around with; Amazon suggested a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter to buy with it. Is that something I actually NEED to use it? I won't be plugging the entire thing into an amp or anything like that, which is what I suspect the adapter would be for.
Haha, dude my setup story is pretty much the same thing, word for word. Had it setup (in MA as well) at some music shop, setup was awful, followed Rich Harris' guide off Jemsite and have been doing it myself ever since. Shims (like setups) are an art form. I had a low end Ibanez (RG2xx-something) with a crap bridge on it that I kept around basically as a setup mule. I'd crank away on it, change string gauges, re-adjust, etc, etc and eventually started figuring out when I needed a shim, when I needed to adjust the nut and so on.One time I had the guys over at Rick's Music in Swansea, MA do a setup on my Ibanez RG3120 (my baby) because the tech was highly referred. I got my guitar back with the shittiest action, buzzing everywhere, and just generally played like shit. The kicker was my locking nuts weren't even tightened down and the back plate was missing screws. I decided then and there, after spending $85 for junk, that I would never allow another human being to setup my guitar. I followed the guide that was on Jemsite so long ago, and I basically internalized the entire guide and use it to setup every guitar I've ever owned. I ended up putting a shim in the neck joint of my RG3120 and somehow turning it into the best guitar I've ever owned. The guy I sold it to said he had never played a guitar with such low action and no buzz, he couldn't believe it... little did he know there was half of a business card placed in the neck joint to shim it.
The lesson is learning to setup your own guitar is probably one of the single best things you can learn in your guitar career for general guitar care. It's extremely easy as long as you remember the golden rule: 1/4 turn max on the truss rod at a time.
I have a lot of friggin' guitars, and I'd quickly go broke if I had to pay for a pro setup on them all 2-3x a year when the weather changes. It's much less scary once you've done it a few times, and even a shit guitar can be a great player with the right setup on it.
I don't use it, but I assume people use that cable to go out the 1/8" on the jamup plug and into a DAW/amp. So if you're just going to rock out with headphones, then no, you won't need it. If you get the desire to fart around w/Reaper, for a basic setup you can just use a standard 1/8" cable and run it into your computer's microphone in. It won't be ideal, but it'll get you going for like two bucks.
Noodleface
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Yeah at the time I had a shitload of guitars too (lots of seven strings!!) and I was thinking why I should pay people so much to ruin my guitar. It was cool because at the time there was no youtube, so you basically just followed his directions and pictures and hoped for the best. When I did my first setup, the guitar just felt right - I knew that I had given it the best setup it could possibly ever receive and it played wonderfully. I wonder if there are better guides on youtube now, but I guess I don't need them.
The New England weather really messes with my setups though. And my LP has the finish cracking all over - I forget what the word for it was but I guess it's fairly normal, but probably sped up because of New England's seasons.
The #1 most important thing you can buy as a guitarist in New England (or really, any climate that gets really dry) is a quality room humidifier. I have a couple of ebony board guitars, and ebony is notorious for cracking if it's not maintained. I oil the shit out of my fretboards (guitar honey, best shit ever) once a month, but really keeping them moist year round is the key. It makes the season-change-setups a little less aggravating and in general just keeps everything playing much, much better.
Noodleface
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Guitar Honey is bloody awesome man. I use it on everything, it's so much nicer than lemon oil - dries completely oil-free and doesn't end up making your hands smell like lemon oil if you play your guitar an hour later. It's the best FB conditioner out there IMO, and it's like 6 bucks on Amazon.
Do you do that when you do string changes? My LP has an ebony fretboard and I hadn't heard that they're susceptible to cracking.
I do it once a week this time of year. I use Elixirs, and change strings about once every 3 months.
Ebony is susceptible to cracking. Oil that shit.
Noodleface
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