PRS 513 Questions

[rlintz]

Anyone out there own one? I'm intrigued by all of the switching and was wondering how good the single coil sounds really are compared to a trusty strat? Also, how's the trem in terms of feel? Does the trem float or is it fixed against the body? How's the range?

I've seen some really beautiful examples - what can I say, I'm a sucker for flame and quilt...

[David McCarroll]

I don't own one, but I did have the opportunity to pplay a very nice 513 Rosewood for a few hours at my friend's shop - the single coil mode is very nice indeed - strattish (much more so than say positions 2 and 4 on a JEM) but a bit fuller and more complex in sound - likewise both hummbucking modes are absolutely great - possibly the closest I have come to a one guitar does it all instrument. This one was the original Brazilian Rosewood neck model, and if you can spring the extra bucks, every Brazilian Rosewood neck PRS I have ever played has rung like a giant bell - very, very special!

PRS trems are great as a non-locking trem - they obviously feel more like a traditional Strat trem than a Floyd as they sit on six screws, rather than a knife edge, but provided you don't mess with it (which PRS insist you DON'T!!!), they feel rather smooth and slinky - the arm doesn't have the annoying slop that most Strats develop, and because PRS set the six screws up very precisely, the trem just seems to be smoother to use than a Fender.

Having said that, I've got two trem equipped PRS guitars, and I don't really use trem, so I have often contemplated blocking them, but they just don't ever go out of tune, so I simply haven't ever needed to.

If I had the sheckles floating around, I'd definitely be out there rustling up a 513 Rosewood before they become a genuine collectors item.

Cheers

David

[jono]

I'm another one who doesn't own but has tried the brazilian necked 513.

Oh.

My.

God.

The necks on these are not actually made of brazilian rosewood. I think they're made out of brass covered in kitten fur. Like David said the open string sound on these rings out for as long you can be bothered to wait.

The strat sounds are extremely good, but still to my ears not as crisp as some strat sounds I've heard. Better than anything else out there with a mahogany body, maple top and solid set rosewood neck, which in all truth might not be the best timber in the world to sound like an alder bodied bolt on maple necked guitar

If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

They're so choice.

(but I still think that the pickups are ugly as hell )