bradleyjere Posted October 22, 2007 Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 I am in process of building my first guitar, a PRS Mcarty. I have been trying to find if this info has been posted anywhere else already but I can't find it! I need the specs for the following items: Body thickness = Depth of pick up pockets = Depth of electronics pockets = Model of stop tail bridge that PRS uses = So if anybody could help with these I would greatly appreciate it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Posted October 22, 2007 Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 (edited) Body thickness = 49mm at the thickest part, 34mm in the lowest part. Depth of pick up pockets = it's up to you. Depth of electronics pockets = as deep as it needs to be. Model of stop tail bridge that PRS uses = I don't know if can get the same exact model, but stewmac has some options. these numbers are not exact, but it's pretty close I think, at least I remember this way. Edited October 22, 2007 by Hector Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradleyjere Posted October 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 Body thickness = 49mm at the thickest part, 34mm in the lowest part. Depth of pick up pockets = it's up to you. Depth of electronics pockets = as deep as it needs to be. Model of stop tail bridge that PRS uses = I don't know if can get the same exact model, but stewmac has some options. these numbers are not exact, but it's pretty close I think, at least I remember this way. I pretty much figured that the pickup and electronic pockets were not set in stone but I wanted to be sure. Thanks for the body thickness dimension! I'll go with that unless someone disagrees with your number. I guess I am not all that concerned with going with the exact same model that they use. I suppose the better question is if there is any difference between brands of stop tail bridges for the installation? Or is this an industry standard? Thanks again Hector! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave I Posted October 22, 2007 Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 I am in process of building my first guitar, a PRS Mcarty. I have been trying to find if this info has been posted anywhere else already but I can't find it! I need the specs for the following items: Body thickness = Depth of pick up pockets = Depth of electronics pockets = Model of stop tail bridge that PRS uses = So if anybody could help with these I would greatly appreciate it! Out of curiousity, anybody have the rest of the dimensions for the body? I believe the McCarty is thicker than a standard PRS (the thickness dimension was addressed in the previous post), but how about the: Body Width at widest Body Width at narrowest Body Length How Deep the Neck goes into the body (just curious more than anything) This is mainly just to compare dimensions with my future projects, not to clone them, just for fun. -Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Posted October 22, 2007 Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 Body Width at widest = 331mm Body Width at narrowest = 200mm Body Length = 455mm again, just aproximations. not dead on. How Deep the Neck goes into the body (just curious more than anything) I think I goes to about half of the neck pickup cavity, maybe a little bit more, but I made mine with a long tenon, going all the way to the end of the bridge pup cavity. hey dave, the dimensions listed above are from my custom 22. so the mccarty is a little bit thicker, but I don't know how much. the mahogany part is 29mm thick in my custom. the top is hard to measure, but I think it's something between 20mm and 30 mm at the highest part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 (edited) I think the semi-hollows are the only ones that are any bigger, width/length wise, no clue about depth. Go into a guitar store and measure, I'd say. Frankly, I'm struggling to figure out why you care how far - exactly - the neck tenon goes in (I do mine more or less full length of the neck pickup cavity or deeper). A little more is better than a little less here, IMO. In terms of bridges, there's no real 'industry standard', and lots of them vary slightly depending on the model. Gotoh makes some very nice semi-adjustable stoptails (their Gotoh/Wilkinson ones), as well as fully adjustable stoptails with a non-traditional look (the 510, Warmoth carries it), and you've also got fully adjustable aluminum options from Pigtail and TonePros, even hipshot's baby grand if you want something more 'out there'. PRS makes their own stoptails (very elegant units, I have to admit, sleek, modern, fully adjustable), they're available as replacement parts via their distributors, and the one online place I found that stocks them wants 200 dollars for one. I don't think it's worth that kind of cash, frankly... For a relatively cheaper option, there's the Wilkinson alum stuff that places like GuitarFetish (eBay seller, also guitarfetish.com) carry, not as adjustable, slightly blockier than the gotoh version (and also slightly more similar to the PRS incarnation in terms of shape, though not adjustability). Edited October 23, 2007 by Mattia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 (edited) A few more figures: The top at its thickest (about 10mm behind the bridge) is about 19mm. It tapers down to 13mm at the point where the neck inserts into the body. The exposed maple at the edges (faux binding) is about 6mm from horn to horn. The mahogany back of the McCarty is around 30mm thick, around 3mm thicker than the Custom. The neck extends almost to the end of the neck PU pocket. Even though the top is angled, the Mac also has a shallow (around 2 degrees) neck angle (due to the height of the fixed bridge). And one very interesting thing is that PRS angles the heel of the neck. Visual inspection of the rather longish exposed neck heel reveals this. The pickup pockets are shallower than those in a Les Paul, for instance. And their pickups have shallower "ears" and use shorter height adjustment screws. I believe they do this to make them fit in their slimmer guitars (Standards and CEs) with tremolo cavities on the back. Fitting standard pickups in those can sometimes be problematic. You should probably make the cavities of standard depths to accomodate standard pickups easily, there's plenty of room with the Mac dimensions. The bridge is PRS made. You can buy it from any PRS distributor. I have both models, the adjustable one in a Hollowbody II and the fixed one in the Mac, and I have found that the fixed bridge, when used with normal string sets, intonates just fine. The ABM company in germany makes a very good quality aluminum lookalike, I don't know if they are available in the US: http://www.abm-mueller.com/index2.html BTW: The hollowbody has exactly the same body siluette than the Macs or Customs. The mahogany mid portion of a Hollowbody II is 30mm thick just like the Mac. The addition of a 13mm maple carved back makes it thicker overall. Edited October 23, 2007 by Blackdog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave I Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 Frankly, I'm struggling to figure out why you care how far - exactly - the neck tenon goes in (I do mine more or less full length of the neck pickup cavity or deeper). A little more is better than a little less here, IMO. Two reasons: 1) Newbie curiosity. 2) Wondering how far (roughly, I do not care exactly) double-cut set-neck guitars extend the necks into the body as opposed to double cuts. I am not worrying about it; I would presume a lot of this is covered in the Hiscock book, and I am probably getting that for X-mas which will coincide with my daughter turning approximately six-months old and allegedly easier to take care of. Hopefully at that time I will have more time to read and learn about this stuff. So it was just curiosity. That and I have read some guitars have the neck all the way down to the bridge. Not sure what difference that makes to the sound of the guitar, if any, but it was kind of interesting. -Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 (edited) BTW: The hollowbody has exactly the same body siluette than the Macs or Customs. The mahogany mid portion of a Hollowbody II is 30mm thick just like the Mac. The addition of a 13mm maple carved back makes it thicker overall. Are you sure that the hollowbody is the same thickness of the mccarty? archtop if you compare to this one (which is a custom, not a mccarty, but it looks way more than 3mm. custom Edited October 23, 2007 by Hector Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradleyjere Posted October 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 Thanks for the info on the bridges guys, I do appreciate it! I will have to investigate what direction I want to take with that for sure. I agree that $200 isn't worth getting an actual PRS bridge! By the way, if anyone is looking for a specific dimension of the Mcarty, I do have the templates from guitarbuildingtemplates.com. These are useless for body thickness information but great in all other respects! I measured the heel of the neck at it thickets point and it is 1.745" thick. This dimension does not include the fingerboard so I don't know if it's what you were looking for! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 BTW: The hollowbody has exactly the same body siluette than the Macs or Customs. The mahogany mid portion of a Hollowbody II is 30mm thick just like the Mac. The addition of a 13mm maple carved back makes it thicker overall. Are you sure that the hollowbody is the same thickness of the mccarty? archtop if you compare to this one (which is a custom, not a mccarty, but it looks way more than 3mm. custom What I was trying to say is that the Mac is 3mm thicker than the Custom. Using your pic of the Custom as reference, the jackplate top edge would be at the same level of the maple/mahogany transition on the Mac (I'l looking at mine right now). And the Archtop was the thickest of the bunch, now discontinued I believe. I have the Hollowbody II which is a lot thinner than the Archtop. In the HBII the mahogany "middle" is approx the same thickness as the mahogany back of the Mac. The HBII has a maple carved top and a maple carved back. Mine seen here with a Les Paul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 What I was trying to say is that the Mac is 3mm thicker than the Custom. Using your pic of the Custom as reference, the jackplate top edge would be at the same level of the maple/mahogany transition on the Mac (I'l looking at mine right now). And the Archtop was the thickest of the bunch, now discontinued I believe. I have the Hollowbody II which is a lot thinner than the Archtop. In the HBII the mahogany "middle" is approx the same thickness as the mahogany back of the Mac. The HBII has a maple carved top and a maple carved back. Mine seen here with a Les Paul. I see! I tried to find the archtop model in the prs website, but it wasn't there. So I thought that the archtop and the hollowbody were the same models. but in the picture you can obviously see the difference. that's some nice guitars you got there blackdog! congrats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custom22 Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 Mccarties are in fact thicker than the customs. I wish prs still made archtops-those are some sweet instruments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave I Posted October 24, 2007 Report Share Posted October 24, 2007 This is only partially related, but does anybody have a side-by-side comparison of the dimensions of a PRS vs. a Les Paul Standard? I know the cutouts would be different, but something comparing thickness (overall, mahogany, and maple cap), width at its widest, length of body, or any other pertinent dimensions? I would try a search, but I really cannot search for anything with just three letters so a "PRS" search is out of the question. -Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradleyjere Posted October 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2007 PRS makes their own stoptails (very elegant units, I have to admit, sleek, modern, fully adjustable), they're available as replacement parts via their distributors, and the one online place I found that stocks them wants 200 dollars for one. I don't think it's worth that kind of cash, frankly... Do you happen to know what online place carried them? I am curious if they are still that expensive and also to see if I can hunt down another supplier. Otherwise I am leaning towards the Tonepros AVT2 wraparound bridge. Does anybody have experience with the Tonepros bridge that can comment on if it's worth the extra money? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted October 24, 2007 Report Share Posted October 24, 2007 I simply googled a bit, and there's a bit on the PRS website that says you can get them through any authorized PRS dealer as replacement parts. This was a price quote from, well, yesterday. PRS has no reason to make their bridges cheaper or affordable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradleyjere Posted October 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2007 PRS has no reason to make their bridges cheaper or affordable. I completely agree that they have no reason to make these easy or cheap for people to get. This is their own design and they want people to purchase one of their guitars if they like what they do. I didn't realize that you just got a price quote yesterday! Well, I am not spending $200 for one of their bridges! Thanks for the info Mattia! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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