Critique....
Overall the guitar is nice.
It is setup a little better than the first one. The nut hieght is better out of the box.
This is what I see/saw so far...
The guitar was missing the locking screw and pad on low E side when I picked it up. No... turns out they were just underneath the backside of the neck, in the case. Not good. But...as hard as it is to believe, no damage.
Everything is pretty straight. If you look really close, the trem post are still not symmetrical to the route, on either side. Even my S540LTD has some variance. Much Improved. The trem at the bearing pivot point, is correct.
The finish is pretty much on par with the old one. Once again, if you look super close you can see the sanding marks in the top, below the finish. Just like the last one. But ....like I said before, I kinda expect that with this type of top.
The finish, in the recess area of the input, seems a little less then the old one. You can see a, very small, spot inside one of the countersinks for the neck screws, that didn't get stain. You'd need to use Rich's matchstick picture techique to see it.
The body binding has less glue residue.
I can still see some. You have to know what to look for and be looking for it. You can see it when you look at it from an angle, like the old one.
Not as bad.
The fabric around the
bridge pickup was frayed again. Maybe it's from the clear plastic protective adhesive they use for shipping. It's not as bad on this one. I took care of that already.
The neck, frets, binding are good, like the old one. This one doesn't have some of the minor cosmetic bruising around the headstock that the old neck had. It also doesn't have the small dip (imperfection) on the back of the neck.
Hardware finish is on par and good. Everything is straight, including the tuning keys.
The route edges for the trem, 1/4" jack and single
coil pickup are cleaner and better finished.
The single coil pickup is more perpindicular to the top then the previous example. It is also seems to be less noisy and more usable.
Things that are cheesy....
No locking post for trem.
No locking washers for the nut...was that way on the old one. TBD
Metal volume and tone knobs with plastic inserts.
Plastic knobs on Gotoh tuning keys.
Mismatched trem hardware for cosmo and black equipped guitars (all S series)
I still think fit/finish could be a little better.
I can tell the differance between the new prestiges and the other new/newer S series guitars that I've played. The prestiges do play/feel better than the lower models. I appreciate some of It's qualities over the S540LTD.
My newest S, is TOP of the current line. I've seen no S series J.Customs in the current/recent line up.
That's probably because it's not like the, more popular, RG type guitar.
I can understand that.
Anyways........
A great guitar for the money, approx. $1,000.00US street. I paid about $700 for my S540LTD 16 years ago.
I'd pay more if they made a better S.
Blah Blah blah.......
