Seen the new PRS ad?

ICBM

Philly_Q said:
There was the one they made for Danny Spitz.

Any takers?  No?

No, that's hideous. The irony is that the Mayer one would look fine on that.

Kebabkid

Bucket said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

So where is all the abuse for Anderson, suhr, Nash, bravewood, vintage, feline, and all the other people that have setup a business on reproducing other companies guitars with slightly different headstocks?

Because their headstocks look cohesive with the overall design.

Exactly Bucket and generally, I like PRS guitars. I've owned a few and I think they're some of the best players I've ever come across and there's no spite in not liking the design or the headstock. I also don't like the Brent Mason and ones similar to that for the same reason despite them being very capable and good quality guitars. They just look a bit ugly and wrong.

Anderson were slightly innovative (fine superstrats), as were Suhr, Schecter, Charvel & Jackson, Grosh and yep. They were all derivative and companies/luthiers proabably saw people modding Strats and thought the demand and market were there and decided that perhaps they could offer a finished product with the most popular appointments hat played better than a Fender Strat. To be honest, it took Gibson and ESP a long time to start putting Floyd-type trems on their LP models but Strat mods have been popular since EVH and the late 70s, and still are.

Look at Tyler guitars. They get a lot of abuse for that headstock but quite a few of the world's big name session guys use them and having finally played a few recently, I know why people rate them as they're a fabulous Superstrat. Maybe this model PRS will be the same and the proof will be in the playing and sounds but silly dentist jibes aside, people can dislike it based on aesthetics.

Felines offer some excellent design tweaks on a common theme and top quality components. I picked up an Alex Lifeson Access in a shop costing over £3K and the finishing on the frets was terrible. Something like that would never leave Jonathan's shop!

normula1

It's not the most hideous thing I've seen. The worse thing on it for me is the jack plate. I could live with the rest.. which is a bit of a moot point as I won't be buying one.

Flink_Poyd

A lot of it is that your eyes are so used to seeing 3 single coils and brain thinks "Strat" " then you bump into a pointy 3+3 headstock and your brain goes "ugh, fugly" which is exactly what mine did. 
 People are losing their shit over it a bit too much imo
 

mart

StuartMac290 said:

Two grand and you only get a gig bag?! Come on

No, I think you get a guitar too, although you may not want it judging by this thread.

mart

markblack said:

.... I don't see how PRS could change the head stock. It's their headstock, much like fender gibson etc.
...

But, like Fender and Gibson, they already have used a few different headstock shapes - the familiar pointy one, the 6-a-side monstrosity above, the Santana headstock, and now the version for Mayer’s strat which, as @stickyfiddle pointed out, has been subtly and cleverly adapted to match a traditional strat headstock. So they certainly could put different headstocks on. 

The problem, for me at least, is that PRS seem completely incapable of designing a good-looking headstock. I’d probably own a few PRSs by now if their headstocks didn’t look like a BC Rich reject.

TimmyO

Of course PRS and Mr Mayer can do as they please, and both have lots of fans, and both are good at what they do.

I just find the whole thing a bit disappointing (not that I have any right to expect them to keep me entertained) - if Mayer had fallen out of love with Fender there are any number of AMAZING builders he could have make him something - but I guess he wants free support all around the world, and a few extra bucks to help make ends meet (!)

So for him to ask PRS for a Strat, and for PRS to say yes - it just seems (to me) to undermine them both 

Fishboy7

I think 7.25" feels great on a strat/tele especially with big frets, , ... if it's a nicely finished neck, light body and decent pickups it should be winner, ... 

, ... struggling with the 3+3 headstock though

Strat54

TimmyO said:

Of course PRS and Mr Mayer can do as they please, and both have lots of fans, and both are good at what they do.

I just find the whole thing a bit disappointing (not that I have any right to expect them to keep me entertained) - if Mayer had fallen out of love with Fender there are any number of AMAZING builders he could have make him something - but I guess he wants free support all around the world, and a few extra bucks to help make ends meet (!)

So for him to ask PRS for a Strat, and for PRS to say yes - it just seems (to me) to undermine them both 

One of the reasons he 'fell out of love' with Fender was because the neck on his John Cruz built black relic Strat warped after a few years, so he sent it back for them to clone the neck.....but they failed miserably. The neck he said was nothing like the old one and he didn't like it, so much so that he refitted the warped one and dealt with its issues. He was pretty damning and public about his unhappiness with them at that time. I guess that's where PRS stepped in to build him the versatile Dead & Co. guitar. Paul's necks are very consistent. Confidence was lost in the FCS and then Mayer asked Paul to build him a Strat. When you are a global touring artist it makes life a whole lot easier if you can have multiples of a guitar that all feel like home. David Grissom said that they achieved that with his DGT model. 

clarkefan

Strat54 said:

One of the reasons he 'fell out of love' with Fender was because the neck on his John Cruz built black relic Strat warped after a few years, so he sent it back for them to clone the neck.....but they failed miserably. The neck he said was nothing like the old one and he didn't like it, so much so that he refitted the warped one and dealt with its issues. He was pretty damning and public about his unhappiness with them at that time.

Ridiculous nonsense, I hope this isn't true.  His music does nothing for me but I had respect for him.

octatonic

Strat54 said:

TimmyO said:

Of course PRS and Mr Mayer can do as they please, and both have lots of fans, and both are good at what they do.

I just find the whole thing a bit disappointing (not that I have any right to expect them to keep me entertained) - if Mayer had fallen out of love with Fender there are any number of AMAZING builders he could have make him something - but I guess he wants free support all around the world, and a few extra bucks to help make ends meet (!)

So for him to ask PRS for a Strat, and for PRS to say yes - it just seems (to me) to undermine them both 

One of the reasons he 'fell out of love' with Fender was because the neck on his John Cruz built black relic Strat warped after a few years, so he sent it back for them to clone the neck.....but they failed miserably. The neck he said was nothing like the old one and he didn't like it, so much so that he refitted the warped one and dealt with its issues. 

I don't know how it is possible to fail miserably when you can measure it precisely and CNC route an exact copy.

Strat54

clarkefan said:

Strat54 said:

One of the reasons he 'fell out of love' with Fender was because the neck on his John Cruz built black relic Strat warped after a few years, so he sent it back for them to clone the neck.....but they failed miserably. The neck he said was nothing like the old one and he didn't like it, so much so that he refitted the warped one and dealt with its issues. He was pretty damning and public about his unhappiness with them at that time.

Ridiculous nonsense, I hope this isn't true.  His music does nothing for me but I had respect for him.

Wouldn't you be a bit pissed if this happened to you? Back then he played that guitar 99% of the time and yes its true.

Philly_Q

Strat54 said:

One of the reasons he 'fell out of love' with Fender was because the neck on his John Cruz built black relic Strat warped after a few years, so he sent it back for them to clone the neck.....but they failed miserably. The neck he said was nothing like the old one and he didn't like it, so much so that he refitted the warped one and dealt with its issues. He was pretty damning and public about his unhappiness with them at that time. 

That just sounds like the standard bitching people do when they get a new endorsement deal. 

Nobody ever says "company B offered me a better deal than company A", there was always something shitty about the previous deal.  A key guy left and everyone else was totally incompetent, or they couldn't get the right paint colour or something.  Never "they didn't give me enough free stuff".

And then they move on to the next one.

dindude

Thought the Fender/Mayer fall out was also not long after the time when Mike Eldridge exited stage left - John and Mike were good friends I believe.

Whitecat

Another rumour goes that JM wanted Fender to start an entire sub-brand of gear under his name, and they weren’t into it, so he walked completely. 

Strat54

Philly_Q said:

Strat54 said:

One of the reasons he 'fell out of love' with Fender was because the neck on his John Cruz built black relic Strat warped after a few years, so he sent it back for them to clone the neck.....but they failed miserably. The neck he said was nothing like the old one and he didn't like it, so much so that he refitted the warped one and dealt with its issues. He was pretty damning and public about his unhappiness with them at that time. 

That just sounds like the standard bitching people do when they get a new endorsement deal. 

Nobody ever says "company B offered me a better deal than company A", there was always something shitty about the previous deal.  A key guy left and everyone else was totally incompetent, or they couldn't get the right paint colour or something.  Never "they didn't give me enough free stuff".

And then they move on to the next one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/oSn3Q1OETE/?taken-by=johnmayer

Philly_Q

Strat54 said:

Philly_Q said:

Strat54 said:

One of the reasons he 'fell out of love' with Fender was because the neck on his John Cruz built black relic Strat warped after a few years, so he sent it back for them to clone the neck.....but they failed miserably. The neck he said was nothing like the old one and he didn't like it, so much so that he refitted the warped one and dealt with its issues. He was pretty damning and public about his unhappiness with them at that time. 

That just sounds like the standard bitching people do when they get a new endorsement deal. 

Nobody ever says "company B offered me a better deal than company A", there was always something shitty about the previous deal.  A key guy left and everyone else was totally incompetent, or they couldn't get the right paint colour or something.  Never "they didn't give me enough free stuff".

And then they move on to the next one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/oSn3Q1OETE/?taken-by=johnmayer

I'm not disputing the fact that his neck warped.  It was a well-used piece of maple with no finish on the back.  It happens.

I just don't believe Fender were incapable of making him a new one.  They could unquestionably replicate the profile, the radius, the frets and as he says himself they "even" went so far as keeping the original tuners and string tree.  

Of course that doesn't mean they'd get it 100% "right" first time - it's a thing made of wood.  But if he wanted, they could make him a dozen necks - a hundred necks - and he could try them all until he found the right one.  It's not, dare I say, rocket science.  If Fender apparently couldn't do it then I can't see how anyone else could either.

Freebird

I don't even like the CBS headstock, so I'm out.

http://d2vhprqki2fot3.cloudfront.net/experience/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/headstocks1.jpg

Strat54

Philly_Q said:

Strat54 said:

Philly_Q said:

Strat54 said:

One of the reasons he 'fell out of love' with Fender was because the neck on his John Cruz built black relic Strat warped after a few years, so he sent it back for them to clone the neck.....but they failed miserably. The neck he said was nothing like the old one and he didn't like it, so much so that he refitted the warped one and dealt with its issues. He was pretty damning and public about his unhappiness with them at that time. 

That just sounds like the standard bitching people do when they get a new endorsement deal. 

Nobody ever says "company B offered me a better deal than company A", there was always something shitty about the previous deal.  A key guy left and everyone else was totally incompetent, or they couldn't get the right paint colour or something.  Never "they didn't give me enough free stuff".

And then they move on to the next one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/oSn3Q1OETE/?taken-by=johnmayer

I'm not disputing the fact that his neck warped.  It was a well-used piece of maple with no finish on the back.  It happens.

I just don't believe Fender were incapable of making him a new one.  They could unquestionably replicate the profile, the radius, the frets and as he says himself they "even" went so far as keeping the original tuners and string tree.  

Of course that doesn't mean they'd get it 100% "right" first time - it's a thing made of wood.  But if he wanted, they could make him a dozen necks - a hundred necks - and he could try them all until he found the right one.  It's not, dare I say, rocket science.  If Fender apparently couldn't do it then I can't see how anyone else could either.

Yeah yeah, you just like disputing in general...I get it the picture. Just humour me and watch this Instagram 'live' video where he discusses refitting the original neck and why (its the second guitar he shows)....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHHLM4kdWvA

...and report back

thegummy

The CBS headstocks are horrible.

Not sure if they've ever made a Strat but IMO the headstock on my Schecter bass is an even better version of the Fender one