They Say PRS Guitars Lack Mojo
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
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Honestly, at the end of the day. I found out that the biggest haters usually can't afford the product that they are hating on. I used to be one of them and I admit it
I've helped out in a music store and played my fair share of different instruments straight from the factory and after setting them up. The quality and construction tolerances of some brands fluctuate significantly more than those of others: Occasionally you get a Squier or Fender Player model where everything is just right and the stars aligned. For each Fender I truly bonded with I had to play a couple of dozens that did nothing for me. It could be that because of those wide tolerances (and therefore wide spectrum of instruments) you are able to find an instrument which quirks are aligning with your preferences as a player and you find _your_ instrument. I way prefer the PRS approach of being in full control of every minor detail in your production and being able to (re-)produce one perfect guitar after another. When I do not bond with a PRS, it is usually because the model was not spec'ed to my liking and not due to production tolerances. Instead of listening to the Rhetts out there and repeating what they preach about Mojo, people should play the guitars and see for themselves.
I remember Rhett just seeing a guitar that was all beat up looking but brand new and proclaiming that it had so much mojo. That's when I stopped watching anything he put out.
Did BB or Albert King not have mojo or know what it is? Their guitars were always new looking and nobody scoffed at them.
We all hace preferences. The shame is that this new wave of YT players are proclaiming that, if it's not broken everywhere, it has no "mo-jo".
And...everybody is buying a lot of relic'ed guitars.
I mean....I don't care about that. I've never seen my guitar heroes with broken or "relic'ed" guitars. I've seen them with very very good guitars treated with care.
And remember......"Mo-Jo" doesn't exists. 😂😂😂. We create it in our heads to identify what we like and we can't describe in words. So....it's a personal feeling.
However....if you like it, good for you. Enjoy and let the people create his own opinion. PRS, for me, it's the "nowadays" guitar. Improved quality, improved materials, good design, polyvalent and great pickups.....what else do you want?😂
Listening to Rhetts in general never pays off.
Very good point! PRS makes many, many models of guitars. Try them out!
As Steve Rodby once said to me, ”The main contributing factor to what is YOUR SOUND is the notes you play and the way you play them.” As a guy who started out as a bass player, I find it really interesting that bass players don’t talk about tone nearly as much as guitar players do. Guitar players seem to live in a different headspace that is much more obsessive about the topic.
I also happen to be a psychologist.
I wouldn’t necessarily call it OCD, but I think there is a lot of what I refer to as “mental construction”going on when guitar players embark down the gear rabbit hole.
If you are racing around a cul-de-sac, it feels like you’re moving forward, but you’re really just spinning in circles.
Being able to create real music is a very elusive thing, in my opinion.
I’m not sure the brand of the instrument is really all that important. Good players sound fabulous on any instrument.
It’s undeniable that John sounds like John on any instrument he plays.
In the world of photography, there is a famous quote,
“Amateurs talk about their gear, professionals talk about light.”
I have downloaded and wood shedded a bunch of John’s exercises and teachings.
They are fantastic! Really helpful and interesting.
Personally, John, I think your insights on music are more profound than your insights on gear. Just my opinion.
But, either way, I’m going to keep watching your channel because I think it’s great.
Some guitarists are truly an odd bunch. Discussions get esoteric really quick, and many discussions devlove into pseudo-science gobbledygook. I grew up around classic musicians, and I thought they were picky and esoteric about instrument tone until I picked up the electric guitar and fell into this crowd. Not even classical, bluegrass, or fingerstyle acoustic players go into the rabbit hole this much. Endemic to the electric guitar crowd.
Really good comment. We guitarists usually fool ourselves towards autodestruction, avoiding the the raw truth, that is we don't play with a guitar but with our head.
👉😶
It's a perpetual feedback system encouraged by gear dealers profiting off the envy circle of customers. The recent pedal craze being the latest incarnation. There's also the lack of understanding of how different aspects of the signal chain affect the sound. Again, dealers and many pickup winders encourage pseudo-science and mythology to keep customers wanting more.
Most of my bass player friends are just as if not more obsessed with their tone
Really interesting comment here! Particularly the part about how bass players don't seem to obsess over gear nearly as much as guitar players. I can say that I've definitely fallen on both sides in the past. I played a strat for probably 2/3 of my now 15 years of playing. For the longest time, I was content with that, then I started to get the itch for other tones and guitars. I have both done the mental gymnastics to justify buying a new guitar and have stopped myself in my tracks prior to getting sucked back into the rabbit hole by reminding myself of this one simple truth: It is us who creates the music, not the tool. While I think there are valid reasons to hunt for gear sometimes, like if you gig frequently and are after a truly reliable workhorse guitar, but more often than not, the general thought process is a distraction from the true pursuit of music and practice. Like most things, it's all about balance... anyway, I should have a new guitar arriving in the mail today lol. Cheers!
My Silver Sky and Starla have plenty of mojo, but it’s up to me to pull it out. I find both inspiring, and I always want to pick them up. In fact, I still miss my Soapbar II.
The silver sky is a strat with fake improvements. For a start, the 3 a side machine heads arent as functional as having the tuners on the top of the headstock, the cutaway is a waste of time, and the John Mayer association makes them insufferably boring
😮
He likes his guitars. Go cope@@jupitermoongauge4055
One of my buddies I used to gig with had a Starla (this was around 2009 or so - don't remember what year it was manufactured - it was a bad ass rose color). That thing sounded AMAZING. The dynamic reaction to touch was amazing. The neck was too fat for me. So I didn't like playing it. But I was always jealous of his tone.
A couple years ago, I got a helluva deal on a 2017 Vela semi hollow, which has the same humbucker as PRS used in the Starla guitars. The neck on there is not the pattern wide/thin that I like on my Mira. But it's not as beefy as his Starla was. So I feel like it's close. lol.
Still have my Soapbar II, great lightweight guitar. Also have a 2001 McCarty and a modified 1992 EG 3. Mojo? Not really a concern for me, my main gigging guitar is a JTV 69 Variax, because my gigs require being able to quickly switch electric to acoustic, and the Korean guitar plays just fine, aside from the frets being worn.
I was one of those “they have no soul” guys. Then I took a flyer on a CE24 that was $500 off at Sweetwater. It’s just plain black I was attracted to that. And man it’s become my workhorse. Plays amazing. Craftsmanship is probably the best I’ve personally had in a guitar. Single coil tones are actually good and useful. And I don’t know what it is, but the trem stays in tune better than some Floyd Rose trems I’ve used. I got rid of my other Strat guitars because the CE24 is the only one I ended up playing.
100% I have a new USA 2023 CE 24.. best guitar I have ever owned
Same I have a 2021 CE24-08 ( not a typo) and I love it. One of my all time fav guitars !
I've never owned a PRS before, but I had heard both hype surrounding their build quality, and skepticism that they lacked tone and mojo. I just scored a 2004 CE22 that should hopefully be arriving today. Hoping for it to become my reliable, buttery playing, super versatile workhorse for gigging as well!
@CargoShorts7 congrats! Hope you get on well with it. I know the pickups have changed some over the years, but it should be a great guitar. I can't speak to the older pickups, but mine certainly has its own character and tone. Compared to a strat or LP it's different. The frequency range on the guitar is very level , where as with a LP or strat you see the dips of peaks in the frequencies you'd expect. Mine has a very clear percussion to the pick response an almost flute like ring to the notes above the 12th. Below the 12th is has more of a twangy snappy vibe. When playing in split coil mode it certainly has some of the strat like string noise and snap, but you don't get the same tone as the frequency response of the pickups is still fairly flat. Some people would say it lacks soul and I guess I can see that, but to me it's sound is its own, it's super versatile and will do clean blues and jazz all the way to metal. It's not perfect , but it can fill those roles good enough as a stand alone guitar. Especially with a bit of tone knob roll off for the higher gain stuff.
I have an LP, and now a SE silversky. They each have their own sound and have a time and place they may be preferred. That said my CE24 is the guitar I pick up the most. It plays so effortlessly, has a tone I've come to love, and can cover a lot of ground for a single guitar.
If your are the type of person that loves the sound of an LP, well you may not like it, if your the person that loves the sound of a strat and doesn't like anything else... well you probably won't like it. If you can get away from comparing it to the two big extremes and staple guitar and let it live on its own space... I don't see how anyone could say they lack soul or tone. It's not a LP, it's not a strat. It's a versatile guitar that plays great and sounds like it's own thing.
Hope that makes sense to anyone reading this comment in the future.
same here - nay sayer at first, now I have a CU24, Santana and Silver Sky, and the latest one: a SE CU22 semi hollow and it will sooon become my go-to guitar!
People will find all sorts of creative excuses for why they suck.
Nailed it !! 👌🏼
My 2004 McCarty with a rosewood neck is one of my favorite guitar ever. It does not lack any kind of mojo. Sounds, great, plays great, and that rosewood neck is a joy to play. The point about the neck joint is fair here, it does get in a way a bit, but i'm not a huge lead player, so not a huge issue foe me.
I have a rosewood neck McCarty from 2003 that has p90's love the feel/sound of it.
I can safely say that this is the best sounding guitar that I've ever played. By that i mean that this guitar has the most amount of shades of tones that can be coaxed out by changing the volume/tone controls and the way you play. It will pick out nuances that aren't apparent on other guitars. That's not to say that other guitars haven't sounded just as good - or better in particular circumstances, but this guitar just has more in the way it responds back. More colours of sounds as it were.
Mojo is just a term for an sonic point of reference that people have after years of conditioning. It is subjective and in my opinion just a nonsensical hill for people to die on. The most discerning strings players cant discern a Stradivarius from another well made violin in a blind test. Neither can guitar players between guitars with "mojo" and not. They cant pass blind tests in tone woods, they cant pass them in scale length, they cant pass them with guitar finish. Context is everything. Get the guitar with the features and comfort that matches you and enjoy.
Beautiful tones! For me a guitar that has mojo is when you play it and you connect with in such a way that inspires you to play in a way that fills you with joy an excitement, whether is the tone, the way it feels, and you just don't want to it down anymore. I had a Gibson Les Paul tribute that i didn't connect at all so I sold it. I went to a shop to try a revstar standard with p90's, but they didn't have any in stock so I tried a bunch of guitars and the one I liked the most was a PRS se standard which I didn't buy... Ended up buying the revstar which I love, but I know I will buy a PRS eventually (it will be a SE).
As a professional piano tuner/technician, listening to the different tones of pianos is what I do as part of my work. Given that there isn't a clear definition of the word 'MoJo' I fail to see how to tell if a guitar has it or not. *I prefer to use terms such as 'magic' or 'sparkle' or 'inspiring.'* I talk mainly of the sound/tone any given guitar (or piano) has, along with the playability.
Where the tone of an acoustic piano can be enhanced by putting good quailty hammers on, and voicing them properly, and sometimes re-stringing as well, with guitars the strings used and the pickups, pots and amps used are the critical factors. That and matching the pickups to a given amp.
But with guitars - as with pianos - the intrinsic tone has to be there in the first place. If it's not, then whatever you do - changing the pickups, the pots, the strings and even getting a top-line amp - could be all to no avail.
A friend of mine had an Ibanez Pat Metheny Signatue guitar. It wasn't cheep - probably around £2,750 to buy. But the tone was dull and lifeless. He tried swapping out the pickups, and changing the strings - but all to no avail. Unusually for Ibanez hollow body guitars, this one was a real 'pup.'
Whereas I once had an old Korean built hollow-body jazz guitar - nothing expensive - but the tone rang like a bell. It was GORGEOUS.
The same goes for pianos. If the soundboard is good, then a new set of hammers will bring out the inherent richness of the tone. But if the soundboard isn't good, forget it.
Damm, forgot i put that piece of paper in there. Wrote that out when you borrowed the guitar 3 years ago and forgot to take it out!
Can you explain, "removed treble bleed cap and changed tone cap, and a coil tap on the tone pot" Are these mods you had done? Sounds really good.
@@ReVeRbx-fe5wr coil tap/split is what pretty much all PRS have as standard. The treble bleed (actually a treble bypass) cap is a small capacitor on the volume pot which bypass some treble directly to output when you turn the volume down and therefore makes the signal brighter to combat the natural darkening of tone as the volume is reduced. This is also fitted as standard on most PRS guitars but I personally don't like the effect it has on the tone. It also affects the taper of the volume pot making the volume jump up quickly when you turn up from 0. So I just unsolder one of the legs of the capacitor to remove it from the circuit.
The tone capacitor change was just a swap from the fitted 0.33uf to a slightly less aggressive 0.22uf
To me Mojo is when a guitar springs to life in your hands. It feels like it wants to be played and you can't put it down. I have played new and old guitars that have mojo. It is just when the right combination of things comes together and works.
Mojo in a guitar is whatever quality in a particular instrument that inspires the player. Not defined by brand or type or age or anything else, just a connection between the instrument and the player.
true but a company decided what ingredients you get
Carlos Santana, John Mayer, David Grissom, Tim Pierce, Robben Ford, Alex Lifeson, Mark Lettieri, Mark Tremonti, and a host of other top-teir artists, session players and touring professionals all think PRS guitars work pretty well, so everybody just stop.
And none of these folks on YT who moan about mojo would say this to any of them.
It's a tired trope that's regurgitated by people who have a bias against PRS... usually for no good reason. Rhett Shull seemingly describes "mojo" as that "special something" that 1 in a 100 Les Pauls or Strats might have... as a direct result of historically inconsistent QC and the wildly different tolerances between different manufacturing years, months, or even production runs. It might be one the most nonsensical takes in the history of YT guitar influencer takes... which is fairly impressive. Suggesting PRS having excellent QC and consistency means they don't have mojo is asinine. I shouldn't have to play dozens of guitars, of the same model and make, to find a good or great one. The fact that David Grissom insist on pulling a guitar off the wall to play, when he does an appearance at a PRS dealer, demonstrates how well they're made, every day of the week, across production runs, years, and different pricing levels. I've played great guitars from all the major brands. I've never played a bad PRS and I cant say the same for Fender and Gibson, even at the 3K and up models.
Absolutely. It's like saying a Ford Pinto had mojo since it had an engineering flaw. I notice none of these folks will say how "terrible" they are to any of the PRS artists.
That nonsensical take is shared by nearly every single one of the best session cats in Nashville (and by extension, the world). You gonna tell them they're wrong? Just because something can't be fully described and quantified, doesn't mean the naked ear can't hear it. No one is going to hear or feel it via a recording being played through a home/car speaker anyway, it's an in-the-room effect.
@@deadtothewxrld That's objectively false. Those of us that personally know multiple session players, specifically in Nashville, know many of them play PRS guitars. There are guitars that feel, play, and sound different than others. I'm not suggesting otherwise. Claiming that PRS doesn't make good good guitars, because they have excellent quality control and consistency is utter nonsense.
Well said
I can’t stand Rhett. Little Jew fro
Naw , there awesome and they are designed to sit right in a mix . That’s what people are perceiving as “no soul !derp” … guitar players are dumb af, tbh
PRS fanboy here to say thats not the case at all. Most people think PRSs are for dentists and doctors with big budgets. They are full of mojo and people know it....
I dig my 3 SE's; a Double Cut McCarty, a Silver Sky, & a Custom 24 Quilt Top. They all have tons of Mojo. 😊
Enjoying your channel, your playing is hypnotic good....
Who is “they”…and have they recovered from “their” head injury??
Whoever “they” are, they are listening with their eyes…not their ears.
Someone call It mojo, i call It "lack of proper quality control that leads to some instruments over or under performing compared to the line they belong in".
Hi John, can you tell me on a scale of 1-10 how comfortable your tracksuit bottoms are? They look very comfortable!
@RyanMcQuenIn the absence of an official reply, I would take the answer of the fact bot to its word on this one.
I think PRS guitar have a certain kind of focus to their sound, that I don't hear in other brands. Plenty of great guitarist have been able to get amazing mojo from their PRS. I enjoy my 305.
305 is really great
Always fancied a 305
I certainly can't say that about my McCarty 594. One of my favorites!
Studio S2 is also great!
I have a PRS SE DGT gold top with moons. The neck carve on that guitar is as close to ideal as I have felt. The arthritis in my hands actually eases when I play the DGT SE. Not only does it have great playability, but its neck pickup gets thick without being muddy and the bridge pickup is strong and cuts without being an ice pick. It really is one of my favorites of all time. I've heard the core DGT's have smaller neck carves than the SE. If that's true, I have no interest in them.
This one has a wide fat neck, and borrowing John's SE DGT the feel of the neck is fairly similar
@@tonystartup3817 That's great. I would have thought that the wide/fat carve would be similar to the DGT SE as they supposedly based it closely on the core model DGTs. A few years ago I played a single cut PRS SE Bernie Marsden signature that had a big neck carve and loved it. However, when the guitar shipped to me it arrived with a broken neck at the headstock and heel. Never saw another.
If they make core guitars with neck carve like my DGT SE, then a single cut may be in my future.
@@jwright8838 shame on the Bernie Marsden, they've always been a popular model with the prs enthusiasts
I play a PRS Quatro equipped with the same 53/10 pickups that you played in this clip. Just love the sound and the playability of this guitar, such dreamy tones. And that's why it still gets played a lot, always inspires me. Just a fantastic guitar. With tons of "mojo".
Wouldn't mind a try out on a modern eagle quattro
Intro is sounding amazing!
My personal experience with owning Gibson and PRS guitars has been quite a contrast. I bought a “Classic Premium Plus” Les Paul in the early 2000’s. It had a cherry sunburst finish and beautiful flamed top. I really wanted to like that guitar. I couldn’t get it to play in tune. A local luthier friend looked at it and said It needed a fret job badly. I ended up selling the guitar. I also have a 1976 Les Paul that my dad bought for me when I was a teenager. I played the hell out of that guitar and gigged with it. It’s been a good guitar. However, it weighs 11 lbs! I’ve got several PRS core guitars and an SE. One of the core DGT guitars has a stunning orange tiger burst finish. All of my PRS guitars play better than the Gibson’s I’ve owned and didn’t require a fret job right after buying them. I appreciate the history behind Gibson. I doubt I’ll ever sell my Les Paul. But I prefer my PRS guitars and I trust their quality control much more than I do for Gibson.
To quote someone who was my luthier many years ago (when PRS offered only a few core models), “PRS guitars are neither fish nor fowl”. The basic carved top, double cutaway 2-pickup design essentially splits the difference between a Les Paul Standard and a strat. The original scale length (25”) is between Gibson (24.75”) and Fender (25.5”). The fretboard radius on all models except Silver Sky is 10”, which is between Fender (7.25” or 9.5” on most models) and Gibson (12”). And the sound is in-between as well; PRS guitars (except SS) have neither the bright, spanky attack of Fenders nor the big, warm low end of Gibsons. Their tone tends to be more midrange-focused with a very even, somewhat compressed response. PRS guitars can sound very refined and controlled, but may not be so great for achieving the types of raw vintage tones you might get from a vintage strat or a Les Paul Special or Jr.
I don't think any of that really holds these days. They've got models/pickups to cover most any genre/style
Agreed. Their range of models covers a lot more bases nowadays. But I find it intersecting, for example, that if you compare the.specs, you’d think a PRS singlecut 594 should sound exactly like a Les Paul Standard. But it doesn’t. It still has a characteristic PRS sound. It is not as thick sounding and has more high end detail.
This is a good summary. And I think a lot of people tend to find a very balanced midrange tone a little boring. You see this in headphones and speakers too. The audiophiles say "neutral" is the best. But the public, the unwashed masses, generally like a bit more of a V shape. More bass. More treble. More fun.
I reluctantly fell in love with a Custom 24, core. Bought it to flip for a "real guitar"... Ya know with mojo. Ultimately, I couldnt sell it and it became #1.
If my PRS Guitars had any more "Mojo" they'd ditch me for another owner, as I simply don't have a whole ton of the stuff...
The mis-conception with PRS is that they are so well made and consistent, that every one of them is the same. Not true. Fenders or Gibsons are so inconsistent, that you never know if you’re getting a dud or a gem. PRS doesn’t seem to make any duds, but there are definitely some that feel more sterile, and others that just have the juice. Every PRS I have picked up is very different. You have to pick up and play a ton of them to feel the difference. I have bought and sold probably ten of them. The ones I have ended up keeping are the Modern Eagle V and the Special semi-hollow. But even those have some versions that are better than others.
People see a PRS and they think "that's a beautiful guitar, it's never going to be gigged" and they see a Tele and they say "that's a workhorse guitar, it's never going on the wall". However unfair that prejudice is, it runs pretty deep.
A while back I was deciding between a Gibson LP Tribute, and PRS S2. The Gibson's I played had tons of QC issues, whereas the S2s were almost flawless
I had an S2 Standard that was amazing. It was the one in satin finish. The neck was so nice, it sounded great and it stayed in tune. I traded it in towards a Les Paul Studio because “I had to have a Gibson Les Paul.” The Gibson sounds like a Les Paul should but I don’t play it live because it goes out of tune easily; especially that G string. The S2 played so much better. I’m not saying Gibson is awful. I have a 61 SG reissue that is incredible. But I shouldn’t have traded that S2. I have since gotten a CE24 which has become my total workhorse.
@@MrSpeed-lt8grThat's funny. I traded a Les Paul Studio for my PRS S2. I absolutely couldn't stand the LP Studio. Unplayable for me. I still have that "gotta have a gibson" feeling. But It will have to wait till I'm having a mid life crisis.
The “Guitars Sole”…comes from the Players Fingers….I’ve never subscribed to a guitar lacking sole or mojo….If you have “only” 1 guitar to play…you will get out of it….what you put into it……when you have multiple guitars…then you will naturally prefer some…over others…due to sound / spec / “how you look” holding it…
The thing I like about PRS is that they generally charge for cosmetics rather than sound.
So if you want a 2408, you can choose to have a fancy top, or pay less for a plain one. And it goes all the way through the ranges.
Yeah, I have a Vela semi hollow, with the Tobacco burst and dots. I also have a Core McCarty with birds and a fancy top. Both are awesome.
Mojo - a technical term used by guitarists to justify their overpriced, overweight, inconsistent quality, hard to play guitar. I'll get my coat.....
The quality of some of the entry-level SE stuff is very hit and miss. I have tried a few myself in different UK retailers and I have never been fully onboard with them. For £499/599 you can get a lot of good stuff. The DGT and Paul's Guitar, though, were on a different level.
Apart from the quality, I don't get the mojo thing. I have had guitars that had no mojo, I got better and now they have mojo. Mojo is in the fingers? Either you like the guitar or you don't. But the mojo thing seems to me a bit of a silly comment.
Mojo is BS. Bedroom players (like myself btw) talk non-sense on the internet like "PRS has no mojo, only valves are good enough", etc...) If you'd ask these people to play 3 chords , they would not be able to. But they would have an opinion about which gear is best....
PRS guitars lack Mojo since they were not around in the 1960's and played by a legend through a Plexi or black face. They are fantastic guitars but PRS players need to create their own PRS Mojo... and that is OK.
Sorry, PRS is second to none. It's the gold standard for production guitars, it has boutique quality, boutique looks, incredible pickups no matter what you play, and a company that will stand behind what they make. Finding a flaw in a new one is like finding a needle in a haystack.
You can give lip service to Fenders and Gibsons, but you have a much better chance finding half a dozen bad ones to find a good one (if you're lucky) and much smaller chance you'll ever find a so so PRS.
This "mojo" myth is perpetuated by people that are used to trying 7 Gibsons or 5 Strats of the same model but that all have differences (or inconsistencies) before they find one they like and then claim that one has mojo and spoke to them.
PRS are consistently good so theres none of this lucky dip mentality. And so... "no mojo, they are all the same". Yes they are mostly all consistently good.
I think that once or twice per month, PRS should have the factory staff have a huge party on a Thursday and Friday guitars can be whatever and so you add some crap guitars to your supply and then people can go through the hole mojo thing with them as well.
Must be so weird to be a company making amazing products and then somehow a rumour like that starts (that, a-hem, some other guitar youtubers reinforce). It's like here in Sweden, there's a beer brand that EVERY guy knows tastes like shit (we all get to learn that from our peers when we're teens), then in our adult lives most of us realize it tastes like.. any other beer. It's just a thing that got started and stuck.
I think those opening notes refute the entire premise that PRS guitars lack mojo. I’m a total PRS fanboy though so I’m already opposed to the premise that they lack mojo. I think what bugs me is it’s people attempting to make an objective statement about something that is subjective. They’re really just saying they don’t like them, which is fine, not everyone is going to like the same thing or agree on the same thing, but to try to convert a subjective thing like taste into an objective conclusion just annoys me. I think mojo tends to to refer to instruments that do not have a balanced tone, eg like the midrange honk of a Les Paul or Tele or the sparkly tones of a Strat or something like a Gretsch, which are all guitars from the 50’s as you’ve observed. PRS has a more balanced tone plus they are much more consistently manufactured so you don’t have as much variation between models like you do with a Les Paul or a Strat. PRS seems to be doing something right though considering how many guitars they sell.
Wonderful playing!
If a guitar's actually been played and there are marks etc. that's one thing. Manufactured marks to fool people into thinking it's a 40 year old guitar or that you do nothing but play is ridiculous. Imagine someone saying their rusty car with dents has "mojo". Just a marketing ploy to take more money from people.
Bottom line like with anything, if you like it, use it.
only people I've heard say that are the blues lawyers who never got past pentatonics
Your honor that guitar lacks mojo 🧐
I love blues lawyers. They basically subsidize the market and keep it going. And they own plenty of PRS's
I'm not a lawyer, but "Blues Lawyer" is what I want to be when I grow up. Seriously
Really? They are usually the ones with $12,000 10-top, wood library core models. Several.
@@BillySoundFarm good point. I think there's probably two or three different kinds of blues lawyers
The Tom Murphy, only if it's 59, gotta have horse glue Gibbons fans.. basically give them anything not 50s inspired and they'll say no MOJO
Then the 10 Top, never leaves the case but looks pretty PRS fans
Once you finish paying off the guitar that’s when the Mojo kicks in. I had a ce 24 core in the past and it was so reliable I giged with it for 3 years straight and never had an issue with that guitar.
PRS makes the finest guitars on earth. Anyone who says they lack anything knows as much about guitar as I know about kabuki theater.
I mean... Those were some of the best tones I've heard recently. I think they are their own thing. I haven't always loved the pickups.
Their pickups improved (to my taste at least) with the introduction of the 57/08 in 2008. I think that is when they started getting serious about the electronics side rather than just the wood. And they also fully embraced the more vintage leaning side of the market
Love my custom 24 Floyd. Plays well with Kemper and great for worship!
>"Floyd"
>"worship"
nice 👍.
I have a Mark Holcomb 7-string that I've played at church a couple of times. That extended low range for low-mid gain sounds is underrated.
Man I can cover from chicken pickin to hardcore on it. so versatile... bless you bro
Music instruments can inspire, but they don't play themselves. The player adds the mojo. Imo
My opinions are exactly the same about people that say some guitars have no mojo and those that say the earth is flat. Plain BS 😅
Sweet tune for your intro! Sounds nice. Develop some of these ideas and put a CD out so we can all buy it! 😃
I think it's mostly just the McCarty line that has that big heel at the neck joint - supposed to bring something more to the "Les Paul" sound.
God Bless!
I could swear I heard Go the Distance from Hercules in there somewhere.
@samz9121 I'm going to need to listen. Thanks.
God Bless!
I bought my first PRS in 2020. A 2019 Custom 24-08. Then I got my second, a 2022 McCarty 594, in 2022. PRS seems to be phasing out the “+” variation of the 58/15 LT pickups that were standard in the Singlecut version of the McCarty 594. So, when my local guitar shop got a brand new 2023 McCarty 594 Singlecut in McCarty Sunburst with the 58/15 LT+ pickups I jumped on it. All three are amazing guitars and I’ll never part with any of them!
I'm a little late to this video, but I can chime in on this one. I was a critic of PRS guitars 10 or so years ago. And I couldn't figure out why they didn't grab me. And I think I figured it out... Hear me out... I began to analyze what was good about every PRS guitar that I played, and I came up with that they did a great job of making pickups that articulate the individual strings really well and you can hear each string . So far so good, right? Well, it turns out they were so good that I felt like they were too polished. That mojo that people talk about are the inconsistencies and the quirkiness of guitars built in the '50s and '60s. PRS guitars are so well put together and quality controlled, that makes them seem quote" generic. I remember seeing The Hobbit from The Lord of the rings series in outstanding ultra high definition, I thought it was going to be amazing. It was awful! Instead of being wowed by how clear everything was, it was so jarring because it was too clean. The super high definition totally killed the vibe of the effects and costumes! Like I was watching a play on Masterpiece Theater. Better isn't always better. So, going back to the guitars, that's how it felt when I played PRS. They were too perfect in a sense. However, in the last 5 years the SE lines have had outstanding pickups that have voicings that are different. And they still have the clarity of the ones I played 10 years ago. Now I own more PRS guitars than I do Gibson or Fenders. My favorite being the 594 McCarty SE. So Now I get "it".
This is a totally fair assessment. I just really like the "Wide/Thin" pattern necks. I have smaller hands and they've just always been really comfortable to me. And as a guy who gigged for 30+ years at a level where I was my own guitar tech... I've just simply never owned another brand of guitar that maintains consistency across the board. Staying in tune. Neck adjustments. Jack. Electronics. Knobs. All of it.
For 18 years my main (and really my only guitar) was a 1994 CE-24. The only other guitar I took with me to gigs was cheap Washburn Nuno N-whatever (don't remember). But I simply didn't care. Because I NEVER played it. The CE 24 was a workhorse that never failed me in any way. I've owed Charvel, Kramer, Jackson, Ibanez, Gibson, Epiphone, Fender, Hamer guitars. Some really nice ones in there. But when I got that CE 24 in 1994, I just knew it was the guitar that was going to be THE guitar for me.
I bought a 2008 PRS Mira in 2009 & loved the weight. It's basically PRS's version of an SG. Once I got used to that weight, I stopped playing the CE24 live. Then ended up selling it to buy another Mira. Which I eventually moved on from and have since bought a 2017 PRS Vela semi-hollow. And in the past 2 months purchased 1 each of the SE CE24 & the SE Swamp Ash Special. I also have 3 custom built guitars from a local guy. Love all 3 of them as well. Not sure I'll ever get anything else than PRS stuff. I just trust them.
Now, that being said, when I bought that 1994 PRS, I was in my early 20's and it was my first REALLY nice guitar. Didn't own anything that was worth over $1000 up to that point. So it made an impression. Had I found and bought "THE" Les Paul of my dreams? I'd probably be an all or nothing Gibson guy.
The bottom line is you are the only one who can decide what is good for YOU. If a guitar moves you to play or be creative? Then it's right for you.
I love PRS McCartys. Every one I have played has been great. They are expensive (the core line) but they are better than an equivalent Gibson Les Paul.
I love Prs guitars! I have a custom 22 10 top that is my #1 and a Fiore which IMO they have plenty of mojo!
I’ve had two core models and four SE’s and I love my PRS guitars. They have all had their own personalities and none are bland. The reason I now only have SE’s is the Rolex thing. And I am not worried so much about using them like I was with the really expensive ones 🎸🍻
Must confess I always thought they were a bit soulless until I tried a DGT SE (after much praise from you among others) and bought it straight away, love it.
I did go for the moons rather than the birds as I remember the words of a friend who said the birds made them look like porn-star guitars.
Got my dgt se as my first more expensive guitar, I absolutely love it!
I sold my custom shop Les Paul R9 after I bought a singlecut PRS Modern Eagle 1. It’s perfect in every way.
That's not a cheap guitar. I bet it's gorgeous. I play a PRS 24-08 and she sings :)
@@CBGypsy03 no but I did get it before prices we too crazy like they are now. I actually bought another one off Reverb about 2 years ago and sold some gear to get it. Both are on my channel if you want to check them out.
In a collection comprised of Gibson Les Paul Customs & Standards, American Standard Strats and the majority of James Hetfield's ESP Signatures, my PRS Custom 22 stands apart. I've often described it to people as a guitar that plays itself. It's impeccable at every point of measure.
I said the exact same thing the first time I played a Custom 24!
Of course, Jon, you can make any guitar sound good!
My younger friends all play Jazzmasters and Slimline Teles, and Gretsch w/Bigsby for Worship Service...
There is a Red Gretsch G2655T -335 style with block inlays on reverb right now, for 345$...
Right now, in this economy, thats the most I would pay for a guitar...
will there be a crash in guitar prices after Christmas? maybe...
Hi John, Mojo can be a lot of things: finish, weight, feel, pickups, wood, neck carve and what have you. I haven't been able to bond with the PRS I've played. Great craftsmanship, but... lack of Mojo indeed. 2 of my guitars I can describe with a lot of Mojo: one is a '59 LesPaul R9 with VOS finish, customBuckers and a solid mahogany body, a jaw-dropping flamed top, total weight 8,26 Lbs . Lots of resonance and good vibes, starting unplugged... The other one is a Tele I have assembled with parts from MJT (relic'ed alder body '60s custom) a '59 roundback quartersawn flamed maple neck by Warmoth, fitted with handwound CS Fender pickups by Celine Garcia and vintage caps. Both guitars dont' have bells and whistles like treble bleed, coil tap etc. but are so manageable through their pots, you can obtain whatever tone is in your head and to me, THAT'S Mojo !! Cheers John
Nice tone for Christmas songs. Those Fingers are wonderful. I think he kinda likes it?? "Mojo" implies something special, rare, different from the others of a the same model, character, mysterious, and inspiring, Sounds like JNC to ME. the player not the guitar.
It used to be that Mojo was what one brought to the instrument. Even Austin Powers said it quite right “MY MOJO” not, my cars mojo, my suit mojo 🤣🤣🤣
Have had a number of Les Paul’s over the years. Paid the most for a Standard. It REFUSED to stay in tune. Eventually sold it and got the PRS CE. Zero tuning issues. Better and more versatile pickups. PRS quality right out of the box is exceptional. Also bought a used SE 24 to leave out of the case next to my desk. Even with changes in weather; tuning issues are minimal. Mojo? Who knows? I don’t care. These are my alternatives to my Jeff Beck signature Strat and ‘52 Tele Reissue. All I need. Love the channel. Thanks.
the treble bleed removal seems to give it a really nice jazzy tone when volume rolled back. i probably wouldn't remove it, as the tone rolled back would do the same thing i feel. beautiful sounding guitar.
I have three PRS guitars all of which I love and they have mojo in my opinion. I think many just spread the rumor of no mojo without much experience. All of the PRS guitars I have and that I have tried play phenomenally and are setup well, which goes a long way.
Got a lot to do with the player I’d say 🫡
Ive owned a couple prs custom 24s that I loved the way they looked, but never got into their voicing. I now have a Paul's guitar that I love. It's paired with a mesa lonestar and sounds incredible.
Best guitar sound you’ve had in a long time at the end of this video 🤩
The experience of PRS out of the factory is absolutely flawless. No company is as consistently good as PRS.
Great playing, would have been way viber on a strat. I like PRS stuff as it plays excellent. I really like the fiore
I like the look, but hate the Strat knob configuration.
I have 9 , no lack of mojo in any .
I wouldn't dare compare my Modern 2011 Camaro to an older one. No contest. The older ones look cool though.
Feel the same way. I love my PRS guitars. At this point, it's all I play.
I bought the SE 24-08 a few months ago. I find it to be a great all-around guitar for the price. I got mine for 645 in the states.
Nice groove! 👏
I've owned many PRS guitars. Many. Maybe 20? I don't know why I kept going for them. I think I viewed them as "technically superior" from some theoretical standpoint.
However, it always just came down to Tele, strat, and Les paul. That's what I would pick up. Fine examples of each are what I would never sell.
The PRS guitars passed through my hands like water. I could only appreciate them on some theoretical technical level but I never bonded with a single on as a player.
I don't know WHY. But it's true - for me - PRS has no mojo. I went through a couple of dozen, maybe, trying to find a single one that would speak to me. God, I tried. But: 404: mojo not found.
I think the thing with tele, strat, and LP is they all have a very unique sound and feel. So they make you think and play in a certain way. With PRS you can make it play any way you want. But it doesn't play you. If that makes sense.
I have a couple of strats and teles , that’s all I need
Beautiful guitar
Used McCartys have been going for a steal compared to the 594
I have a non 594 McCarty and it's awesome.
I’ve got an S2 594 and it is a fantastic instrument as well.
Don’t understand the “no mojo” thing.
I've heard, often the complaint with the lack of mojo was that all of the instruments of a particular model played exactly the same. That you couldn't go in to guitar center, and play 10 different versions of the same guitar, and find the one that had that special something. To me that translates to their quality control is stellar, and all the instruments are identical. Who would have thought that top tier quality control would be a detriment to a guitar manufacturer?
I agree. You hear this sort of thing from Rhet Shull, who thinks that a guitar can't have "character" unless he picked it out from 10 others. If there is only one good one out of 10, I would say that the maker's quality control is rubbish. With PRS they will all be good.
Plastic covered junk guitars. I have four PRS guitars. One from 1985 and one from 1987 and they stay in tune for years. But the clear coat peels off in inch wide or larger strips, the necks are so thin it hurts your hand to play them, so they never get played. I have a 1994 Custom 22 blood orange and it looks nice but the pickups it came with sucked badly. I have a 2009 SC 250 and it is a good guitar, sad thing is not one of these PRS guitars comes close to my 2012 Custom Shop Jackson soloist.
Interesting topic . . . I checked out Oxford / Cambridge and a few other dictionary definitions for 'mojo' and, in essence, it's a purely subjective evaluation of one's 'charm, magic, appeal' and so on. So - it's out there in the ether but as guitarists we, of course, 'get it' right? Probably not but that's not not gonna stop us rabbiting on about it. 🤣 I think PRS are at a bit of a disadvantage simply because they missed the 'formative years' - if Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Peter Green and all our other heroes had PRS guitars in their arsenals maybe things would be different . . . but they didn't, and I for one, grew up with a Les Paul Custom and a nice Strat before I ever heard of the brand. That said, I noticed PRS guitars and when John McLaughlin 'switched' I paid attention and finally tried a couple of 'starter' editions; a Cherry LP shape SE (245?) which felt great but the bridge pick-up wasn't working (gotta watch the electronics coming out of Indonesia, I'm afraid) and a Custom 24-08 SE which I bought and really like. Everything about it suits me just fine - neck, shape, 'feel', the split coil thing is a great 'Swiss Army Knife' item if you don't want to be carting PAF & Single Coil guitars out to a gig and the trem system is a joy . . . I prefer it to my Fender Strats (which are pretty good) and my Bigsby & Duesenberg trems which are just too clunky, frankly. I don't feel a need to explore the upper echelons of the PRS line, I'm well covered with a few very special guitars I have picked up in the 70s, 80s and early 90s but I reckon this relatively inexpensive SE has plenty of 'mojo' - it's distinctive and I want to play it! So . . . each to his own.
PRS has its own sound and Mojo. They have been through many great artists throughout the years to claim that. To compare to a Gibson or Fender is stupid in my opinion. It’s another brand of axe to have in your arsenal. For some reason, I don’t know why the only PRS I have gotten along with was my 10 head PRS that I had to sell years ago for personal reasons. I’m kicking myself since because I never played another one as good. I want to love another PRS I just haven’t found the right one. Maybe I’m spoiled because my first one was perfect. But to say no Mojo is stupid. Tell that to Santana, McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and many other guitarists that use them all the time.
Here’s a little secret, the Mojo is you.
I have two core PRS, a Semi-Hollow Singlecut 594 and a John Mayer Silver Sky.
I’ve owned tons of guitars, currently I also have a Gibson Les Paul, two Martins and four Fenders.
The PRS guitars are something really special. They are in their “golden era” right now. I’ve owned older ones going back 25 years, and the PRS from the last few years are the best.
I will be selling off my other guitars over the next few years to buy more PRS core guitars.
SE models aren’t made by PRS, the are made under license by Cortek in Indonesia.
I want to get a Modern Eagle V and a Hollowbody II with Piezo. I think that will equate to a well rounded PRS family.
I’ve got an SE Hollowbody II and it’s a really good guitar with its own mojo. I don’t see PRS as expensive given the prices of Fender and Gibson custom shop (a ‘lightweight’ LP of 8-9lb doesn’t seem to cost less than £7-8k!). The proper old mojo’d vintage 60s instruments are crazy money now.
You don’t see many well played worn PRS’s out there - maybe that’s because people don’t sell them?
I've always had it like that, until i played on this Silversky, i compared it with 3 SE Models, and the SE modelse are quite different IMHO. I'm not saying it's the guitar for everyone, but it definitely is one of the MOJOist guitars I've ever played.
Here's its through a helix using the Emsley AMP, recorded in the room with mic from my mac book
ruclips.net/video/MDEn9YyO2Is/видео.html
MOJO is nonsensical gibberish. It doesn't exist. It is a placebo effect. The instant I hear the word I dismiss the persons opinion entirely because you are basing your opinion on some sort of supernatural magic? lol. It is more like you watched your favorite bands as a kid, and those memories influenced what is "cool" and now you relate cool with certain brands and call it MOJO. Guitarist are a certain level of crazy jibber jabber.
I guess, Mojo for me is more about inspiration, which can be fleeting, and reliability/playability when I’m making music with others. There has to be initial attraction and compatibility? Different sounds, ergonomics, familiarity, aesthetics?
I fall in and out of love guitars that I own. GASing for new ones. Deciding that I need to pare down the collection to get the right one, then realizing, I already own one that’s great!
Overtime, I realize that certain models rarely do it for me, long run. SG’s, want to love them. Great to look at, sound amazing…not my jam? I have an SG Junior that doesn’t get enough love, but sounds too good to move on.
One life, time is short…make music!
That's one sweet sounding PRS @9:31 ! Damn, got me subscribing. PRS owner here myself and yes, I believe music is too subjective to really define what a mojo is. If a mojo is a real thing, then my PRS has it IMHO.
My thought is many people are so afraid of dinging their beautiful PRS guitar, that they are afraid to gig with it. One of my favorite guitars is my 88 Custom. I bought it used and it had a few bruises and bumps when I got it. Because of this, I feel 100% comfortable playing it in any situation. I lent it to a friend of mine, who was in his first band. (He did a solo gig for years, but this was his first band, so I thought he could use the guitar.) When I got it back, months later, I didn't even look to see if it had been dinged. By the way, I'm not sure what mojo is, but if there is such a thing, this PRS has it in droves.
Good video and lovely playing from this mojo machine. I love PRS guitars, but I also love other guitars too. And I don’t understand all the hate they get. Life is too short…For me, either a guitar speaks to you or it doesn’t. I have to try a guitar whilst ignoring bias for or against it and see if I bond. For example, when I tried a Silver Sky whilst looking for a Strat, I was unaware of the details of the noise surrounding those guitars. I knew there was noise. And as it happens, I fell in love with it.
Seems to be selective memory, Santana, the fount of mojo, has played prs since the 80s, supernatural is prs. Bring your own mojo, he did.
what is mojo anyway? guitars to me are tools, i am a gigging guitarist, and there are specifics i need in a guitar, ergonomic body shape with good upper fret access, a trem, humbucker and single coil sounds, my 2 main guitars are an ibanez az and a prs custom 24 08, for gigging i prefer the ibanez because its satin finished and the trem response is nicer, but the custom 24 feels more luxurious and is certainly more beautiful, both cover all my bases tone wise, mojo doesnt really come into it, the mojo is in the player
I think it's probably fair to say that mojo comes from the player, not the guitar..... players who can't find the mojo in a guitar should maybe have a look at themselves in the mirror before blaming what Steve Vai described as "just wood and wire".
i hate to say it but yeah imo I never fell in love with one and they were cool but ifk i just didnt feel connected i know it sound weird. Im older i worked in nyc 48 st music store row back in 79 83 so i think i favored broken in used guitars that were really great back then.I had geat guitars back then but like a freaking big ahole idiot I sold themwhen i got depressed with playing.Yes im a big ahole idiot.Ihad a les paul custom a fender strat a gibson 335 all from late 70's early 80's.also a music man stingray bass, ughh where are you doc I need your delorean.
I will say this every PRS USA guitar I’ve ever played has never sucked! SE I had a Hollowbody II which was fantastic but I got a the Parlor acoustic guitar and was sorely disappointed.
Mojo is one of those amiguous terms that is just cute. I would love to have had the opportunity to get a decent PRS but they are on record as saying they don't care about LH players so it is what it is. In my meager collection, my Eastman SB59-GD has (what I'd assume to be) mojo for days in that it inspires me to play differently than most of my other guitars, along with my 78 Strat. But this is a lovely PRS to be sure. Stunning..
Personally when I say that I think PRS dont have mojo its that there's just something missing in the tone to my ear. They sound a little too neutral or generic. Its hard to describe, and of course its just my opinion. I do think that the DGT is the exception to that rule, as it does sound great to me.... and also apparently this one. This sounds very good, even if it does still have the mid frequency presence that is unique to PRS. But the fact that its a super limited run model kinda helps make the point that 99% of their guitars dont sound like this. And yeah, the prices dont justify what they are to me.