I have been busting on PRS for close to 15 years when
they came out with the original Heel From Hell, This time they
really screwed the pooch. I have been the target of much
bashing because I have called attention to their original blunder.
When I first exposed the original Heel From Hell I received 500 or
more hate mails from PRS dealers, Investors & owners whose multiple
guitar investments were in danger of losing their value because of
my articles.
PRS built great guitars back in the 80's & early 90's probably the
best guitars that were available then.
In 1993 they hired Ted McCarty from Gibson and then they proceeded to ruin all
the original great designs. True they gained a lot of sales because McCarty
legitimatized the line in the eyes of the name brand seeking uninformed Gibson
type consumer.
By 1995 they were in full mass production competing with Fender & Gibson, They
ignored their original boutique custom guitar roots and went after the big box
stores like Guitar Center, Sam Ash etc etc.
I never did understand why they went from Paul's original superior designs to
McCarty's old fuddy dud Gibson designs. They went for a 22 fret model with
pickups physically placed in the wrong place. The quality of the guitar has
always been good but the new designs have gotten deplorable.
This heinous abortion on the orange guitar above literally
makes me want to vomit. They actually made it so you could not fix it.
Well, Yes, maybe you can fix it, but it will now be more costly to do so.
This will discourage people from repairing it. Could this have been the plan??
Is this why they destroyed their in body superior design. This is incredulous
and I still cannot believe they actually did this !!!!!
Below on the blue guitar is their original blunder, We could fix those for less
than $100.00 !!!! We probably fixed more than 2000 of them in the
last 16 years.
I hate to think this, but it seems to me that they must have sat down around a
meeting table and planned this on purpose. They went back 30 years in design so
that people could not modify their guitar to make it play better.
As long as I am pointing at this, I must call your attention to the other
problem here. The neck does not go through the guitar. It is simply glued in the
mortise in front of the neck pickup. The glue stops most of the high end from
reaching the pickups. Glue is a dampener and the worst place on the guitar to
use it would be between the neck and the body.
On the old Heel from Hell They were GLUED IN necks
On the new Heel from Hell They are GLUED ON necks
For More Information On Neck Joint Design Click
Here
I guess now I should be expecting a fresh dose of Hate Mail !!!!
In days of old when someone delivered bad news they killed him !!!!
Please Don't Kill The Messenger !!
Ed Roman August 2009
