PRS 408 -- Any owners and/or opinions?

T

Tommy Tequila

Experienced
I keep being tempted by these -- I've been looking for more flexibility so I don't have to lug as many guitars around to cop various tones.

I figure one of these and my Strat would work to cover the basics for most situations.

Thoughts?

TT
 
I came very, and I mean very close, to grabbing one a couple of years ago. It was a toss up between the 408 and a DGT. They both sounded amazing. In the end, I bought neither but used the money to buy my AFX2, so I guess it wasn't a total waste. One day I'll get one of them....lots of this deals to be had in the used market for either one.
 
Tommy Tequila said:
I keep being tempted by these -- I've been looking for more flexibility so I don't have to lug as many guitars around to cop various tones.

I figure one of these and my Strat would work to cover the basics for most situations.

Thoughts?

TT
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Owned one, kept it for about 6 months and then ended up selling it.
The design concept appealed to me as the perfect combination of sound possibilities.
It played and looked wonderful, but I just couldn't warm up to the pickups.
I like my strats better for strat neck position sounds.
I like my les pauls better for humbucker bridge position sounds.
I like my tele better for twangy sounds.
Don't get me wrong, none of the sounds were bad, just nothing special for me.
So I said, "bye bye" and sold her.

Here's a pic:

IMG_1238.jpg

P.S.
Go to guitar ended up being a HSS Strat.
 
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I echo what Jimnov said. Had a 408 for a few months but couldn't live with the pick-ups, found them slightly harsh. Also there was very little tonal variation with the mini switches. I prefer the 513 or DGT.
 
That's disappointing to hear. I've been GAS:ing for one of these as well. Sounds like a case a neither or instead of both then :(
 
Interesting -- thanks for the info. It's hard to track one down to try myself.

The other drawback could be that it would rather preclude swapping the pickups since they are both non-standard sizes.

TT
 
It's a bummer that, so far, nobody is making replacement pickups for that narrow neck pickup.

Guess I better work on that.

Tommy Tequila said:
Interesting -- thanks for the info. It's hard to track one down to try myself.

The other drawback could be that it would rather preclude swapping the pickups since they are both non-standard sizes.

TT
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I met Paul several months ago at a local clinic and asked why they did that. That's exactly the reason they did it, is what he told me.
SO far as I can tell, a regular pickup should fit in the bridge position though.
 
Here are some disconnected comments I'd make on this guitar's pickups

I think a narrower neck pickup is good idea - it's very slightly more "single coil" in character even with both coils on. I'm surprised more people don't combine a mini-humbucker at the neck with a regular humbucker at the bridge. Probably the appearance looks puts people off.

So there's your first option - find a guitar you really like to play, and experiment with different replacement mini-neck humbuckers and regular bridge humbuckers to build your own dream guitar.

IIRC, this guitar boasted no level change when switching between single coil and humbucker tones. Again, a good idea IMHO provided neither tone is compromised by the pickup design changes needed to make this happen.

The online videos demonstrate tones that sound somewhat brittle to me. Just my opinion.

The claim in one of their online videos that it has "the ability to get every single tone there is" .... well if you believe that, I have a bridge you may be interested in buying (it has the ability to look like every bridge there is).

For example, those chimey strat "in-between" tones can only be genuinely achieved with a middle single coil pickup, mixed with neck and/or bridge pickups.
 
GM Arts said:
IIRC, this guitar boasted no level change when switching between single coil and humbucker tones. Again, a good idea IMHO provided neither tone is compromised by the pickup design changes needed to make this happen.


.
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I believe that's done with an in-line resistor in the pickup. I've never had the chance to tear into one, so I can't be 100% sure, but I think the resistor is put into the circuit when the coils are split.
 
SarasotaSwing said:
PRS has an annoying habit of doing this. I love my 513, but the pickups can't be changed because of their non-standard size.
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If the pickups were a standard size, and you replaced them with aftermarket humbuckers, you'd have to toss out most of the electronics. The magnet configuration, windings, coil taps, etc. are all engineered to create the 3 different pickup configurations that make the guitar unique. For example, each humbucker has one coil with a Strat style magnet configuration and one coil with a humbucker style configuration. That's why the neck pickup is still Strat-like even when the guitar is in humbucking mode ("clear humbucking mode").

Terry.
 
Womac911 said:
I believe that's done with an in-line resistor in the pickup. I've never had the chance to tear into one, so I can't be 100% sure, but I think the resistor is put into the circuit when the coils are split.
Click to expand...

What Paul says is that switching to single coil mode splits the humbucker AND adds windings. That's why the level doesn't change.

Terry.
 
I don't know why, but I'd discounted the 408 in favour of "Paul's Guitar". The online demos I'd seen, it seemed to be based on the 408, but refined and Improved. Now it's available with a trem, the only thing that stops me is funds, and that I've got a Custom 24 and a 513 already.
 
I've modded a few of my guitars replacing the neck humbucker with a single coil in the neck (looks kind of strange, but it does fit.) One of my favorite combinations, I don't know why more makers don't do that. Using splittable pickups gave them even more versatility.

I have an old mini-hum sitting around, I'll have to see if I can jury rig it into a neck position.

TT
 
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