NGD - SE Tremonti Custom in Whale Blue

[Dan-d-1985]

Hey folks,

Thought i'd introduce you to the new addition:





Not seen these guys on web much yet in this colour. Looks wicked with the maple cap too.

Got mods planned:

New nut
New tuning pegs. I was set on Scahller m6 mini's but I've heard Grover 406C's are as good too (anyone with experience with both, feel free to let me know)
New p'ups - Tremonti treble and maybe a #7 neck
Tremol-no
Full re-wire with the p'ups at same time 4 cts 500k's, 2 x 0.022pf PIO caps, new switchcraft short shaft toggle.

The neck is incredible. I think it's thinner than my US made cu24 which I love so that's excellent. As a starting point, the guitar itself is great, I'm just gonna gut the thing and build her up again.

One question maybe someone here can answer that i've never understood:
Of all the things an SE model gets done to it, the nut is more or less always the first thing to change. Why don't PRS just simply put in a US nut? I got them from PRS europe a couple weeks ago for not very much. Surely it wouldn't change the costs drastically and people wouldn't have to go and change a fundamental point of the guitar/string interaction process. Just a thought, but for what it cost me to buy aftermarket, I imagine the cost to PRS themselves is much less so maybe add £10 to the RRP? I'm down with that.

[Mikegarveyblues]

Nice score! I like blue guitars but i've never been fond of Whale Blue, but your's looks very nice indeed!!!

I'm with you on the nut. I've had to swap out both nuts on the Bernie and SE C24. I know they have to keep costs down on the SE's but I wish they wouldn't with the nut. I'd rather pay a few quid extra at the till if I knew I wasn't going to need to swap the nut. In every other area the SE's meet or exceed what you'd expect for the price paid but the nut is a weak point IMHO. Doesn't put me off SE's one bit.. They're great!

[IRG]

Yeah I would pay more for a good nut too. Just got my 245, and it's pretty bad about staying in tune. I haven't yet, but I'll probably get another set of strings, same size, and slide a thin piece of sandpaper through each slot, and add a little nut sauce for lubrication, and then see if I need to replace it. For the $, PRS should definitely upgrade this part.

[Drastion]

I think it is a design choice. There is no way they are not fully aware of the nut issues. It cannot me much to have them simply cut the nut wider. The new clint lowery se comes with 11s stock. So that will obviously require a different nut. Maybe it will be introduced on the rest of the lines.

I understand why they would have it on the wrap around. To prevent people from putting too thick of strings on and have intonation problem. Putting it on their tremlo guitars makes little sense. The string needs to be able to move freely why put a nut on that binds up the string?

[Dan-d-1985]

I hope this doesn't get construed as being a bashing thread. It's not, it's just an observation about one specific quirk of the range.

[Drastion]

I agree if the biggest problem I have is an easy to replace nut I am more than happy. Finally I am at the point where I feel I gave the right guitars for me. No matter what there was just something missing or just not right about my guitars. With my 245 and custom 24 I can stop looking for the guitar that fits me.

Has anyone tried torch cleaning sets as nut files. Im not too comfortable taking a hammer to guitars I got only a few weekd ago. That and there are. no techs around here so its got to be me. Maybe just a utility knife would get it done.

Mainly just so I can put 10s in my guitars. Work around oil all day so my hands soften up and my calluses end up peeling off. Love the necks on these guitars. Just the loss of tension I can't seem to keep a good callus on my fingers.


Sorry to sidetrack your tread. Really nice guitar you have there. Makes it harder to decide what color 7 string that I want to get.