NGD: 2009 PRS SC245

[OrganicZed]

I picked up this lovely 2009 PRS SC245 (used) last week and it arrived on Tuesday. The previous owner lived on the coast and the hardware / frets had some serious tarnishing that needed to be addressed, but the instrument itself is in great condition for it’s age.

Tonally this guitar has a lot of what you’d expect from a short scale singlecut design: fat with a nice bite from the bridge pickup and smooth tones from the neck. It sustains noticeably longer than my other guitars (which are all strat / super strat type guitars).

I’ve been impressed with the build quality. This is my first USA made PRS. The frets are perfectly level and nicely crowned / rounded on the ends. The back appears to be a single slab of mahogany (rather than a two piece body like on many guitars) and the top (maple) is nicely figured without being overly gaudy. It weighs in at exactly 7 pounds which is astonishing. The neck is a wide fat carve which is larger than I’m used to but it is surprisingly comfortable to play.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the purchase

 

[ruso]

Oh man she is gorgeous! I’ve been GAS’ing to pick up single cut. When I do, it’ll be an SC245 for sure.

Edit: 7 pounds? That’s light for a LP-style guitar!

 

[OrganicZed]

Yeah, the weight (or lack of there of) was one of the reasons I chose this one. I was skeptical about the seller's claim that it was 7 lbs but I verified it myself. It is very comfortable on the strap.

I passed on a gold top SC245 that I actually liked a little more from a looks perspective because of the weight. The seller of that one said it was 9.4 pounds. No thanks, I don't need a boat anchor.

 

[darrenw5094]

Great top. Why don't Gibson have tops like that?

 

[la szum]

I picked up this lovely 2009 PRS SC245 (used) last week and it arrived on Tuesday. The previous owner lived on the coast and the hardware / frets had some serious tarnishing that needed to be addressed, but the instrument itself is in great condition for it’s age.

Tonally this guitar has a lot of what you’d expect from a short scale singlecut design: fat with a nice bite from the bridge pickup and smooth tones from the neck. It sustains noticeably longer than my other guitars (which are all strat / super strat type guitars).

I’ve been impressed with the build quality. This is my first USA made PRS. The frets are perfectly level and nicely crowned / rounded on the ends. The body appears to be a single slab of mahogany and the top is nicely figured without being overly gaudy. It weighs in at exactly 7 pounds which is astonishing. The neck is a wide fat carve which is larger than I’m used to but it is surprisingly comfortable to play.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the purchase

Oh, that's purdy! Congrats.

 

[ruso]

Yeah, the weight (or lack of there of) was one of the reasons I chose this one. I was skeptical about the seller's claim that it was 7 lbs but I verified it myself. It is very comfortable on the strap.

I passed on a gold top SC245 that I actually liked a little more from a looks perspective because of the weight. The seller of that one said it was 9.4 pounds. No thanks, I don't need a boat anchor.

Yeah, that’s a huge difference. More than I’ve seen with LP’s. Are they weight-relieved? I wonder what @2112’s SC245 weighs. He seems to throw that thing around pretty well.

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Nice! Top looks a bit like maple to me, due to the ripples....

 

[Jirai]

That's a beauty! Congrats.

 

[la szum]

Nice! Top looks a bit like maple to me, due to the ripples....

Yup. Def a maple cap on it.

 

[OrganicZed]

Nice! Top looks a bit like maple to me, due to the ripples....

Yes, it has a maple top. Reading what I wrote in the OP I can see why it might seem like I was saying that it is a solid mahogany body. That wasn't what I was thinking when I wrote it. I was meaning that the back is a single piece of mahogany (rather than two or three as many guitars have).

I have edited the OP to clarify the language a bit.

 

[OrganicZed]

Yeah, that’s a huge difference. More than I’ve seen with LP’s. Are they weight-relieved? I wonder what @2112’s SC245 weighs. He seems to throw that thing around pretty well.

I was wondering whether it is weight relieved as well. A little searching around the internet gave me some conflicting info, but there are several people claiming that the SC guitars were weight relieved. Relieved or not, I'm a fan. I love the light weight and the tone is good too.

Edit: More reading has lead me to believe that SC245's from this vintage were likely weight relieved. Models made before their injunction from the Gibson lawsuit were not weight relieved and the ones with the split tailpiece / bridge are not weight relieved either. It was during this intermediate period that they weight relieved the SC models if the information I have seen is correct.

 

[CrunchyBob]

My 2008 SC245 weighs less than my Cu24... pretty sure it's weight relieved. There were some pics floating around TGP I believe that had some x-rays with the Swiss-cheese looking relief holes in the mahogany.

I replaced the volume pots as the originals were reading about 425K. It came with 50's style wiring and did not have the resisters across the volume lugs that would lower the pot's resistance further.

I really dig it but have to 'warm up' to the fatter neck and string height above the body. The strings really sing on this neck - nearly perfect setup off the rack.

I love your top and the natural back, neck and peghead. Congrats and enjoy!

 

[Budda]

Congrats! Love natural finishes on PRS, and natural back (natback). Wish they did them more!

 

[Hellbat]

A natural beauty. I was expecting the dot inlays to be the moon ones. What pickups are in it?

 

[OrganicZed]

A natural beauty. I was expecting the dot inlays to be the moon ones. What pickups are in it?

The pickups are PRS #7 treble / bass. These are the pickups they were using on the original SC guitars before the court order to stop production. I know for sure that they were not the stock pickups on this guitar because the hang tag says it came with 59/09 pickups and there is some obvious evidence of post-factory wiring. The pickup switch was wired backwards (bridge with switch up, neck with switch down) and the volume / tone arrangement is not how PRS or Gibson wire theirs. I left the volume / tone controls as is but did rewire the pickup switch because that bothered me quite a bit.

 

[Budda]

I expected to yank the #7's out of my S2. 4 ish years later and it hasnt happened..

 

[PBGas]

A new PRS guitar day is a great day! Congrats and enjoy!

 

[HerrSquid]

The pickups are PRS #7 treble / bass. These are the pickups they were using on the original SC guitars before the court order to stop production. I know for sure that they were not the stock pickups on this guitar because the hang tag says it came with 59/09 pickups and there is some obvious evidence of post-factory wiring. The pickup switch was wired backwards (bridge with switch up, neck with switch down) and the volume / tone arrangement is not how PRS or Gibson wire theirs. I left the volume / tone controls as is but did rewire the pickup switch because that bothered me quite a bit.

That must have been some kind of special order, if 59/09s were indeed the original stock pickups. The standard pickup in that model was the very creatively named SC245 pickup. The color is one that I think they called Old Natural, which is also pretty unusual and may again point to a special order.

I didn't remember those guitars being weight-relieved, but I prowled around some last night and even found a photo of one of these guitars with the top removed. Sure enough, there were channels cut into the mahogany running parallel to the neck. https://forums.prsguitars.com/threa...s-for-your-viewing-pleasure.7842/#post-123994

Whatever the story, that's a special guitar. I love me some PRS Singlecuts.

 

[scottp]

Beautiful top, beautiful guitar!!

 

[OrganicZed]

That must have been some kind of special order, if 59/09s were indeed the original stock pickups. The standard pickup in that model was the very creatively named SC245 pickup. The color is one that I think they called Old Natural, which is also pretty unusual and may again point to a special order.

I didn't remember those guitars being weight-relieved, but I prowled around some last night and even found a photo of one of these guitars with the top removed. Sure enough, there were channels cut into the mahogany running parallel to the neck. https://forums.prsguitars.com/threa...s-for-your-viewing-pleasure.7842/#post-123994

Whatever the story, that's a special guitar. I love me some PRS Singlecuts.

It is a bit of mystery what the stock pickups were. The hang tag says 59/09 but the MODCAT data says the pickups were SC245 bass / treble which would be what you'd expect for a 2009 SC245. The pickups have obviously been changed at least once and are now the #7's. I'd have to contact PRS to get the definitive answer.

The finish is called vintage natural. It appears to be natural in the center with amber sprayed on the edges in the classic teardrop burst pattern. I don't think they did any contrast staining / sanding on the maple so you can't see the flame from some angles but it has a lot of chatoyance and you can see a good bit of grain running orthogonal to the flame. It looks better in person than I was expecting from the listing photos.

Thanks for sharing the photo of the routing. I was wondering what it looked like. I could absolutely believe that this guitar was weight relieved because it is so light even though it has a fat neck and thick body. It must have been a fairly light bit of mahogany to begin with to end up at 7 pounds. It is actually my lightest guitar.