PRS NF 53 (left) & Myles Kennedy Signature (right) guitars
Myles Kennedy Signature
Introducing Myles Kennedy’s first signature model. Known for his work in Alter Bridge, Slash and the Conspirators, and his own solo recordings, Kennedy is an accomplished guitarist who brings blues and jazz style to rock guitar playing. This new signature model mirrors Kennedy’s rock sensibilities with a nod to historic designs. While the aesthetic may have players hearing chicken pickin’ in their heads – and this guitar can certainly reach twang territory – it is made to play like a rock machine.
“This guitar captures the spirit of my favorite older instruments. With that said, since we developed this guitar, most of my vintage instruments rarely see the light of day,” said Kennedy.
The PRS Myles Kennedy signature guitar features a swamp ash body, a 22-fret, 25.5” scale length maple neck with maple fretboard, and two PRS Narrowfield MK pickups. The PRS Narrowfield MK pickups were carefully voiced to capture the courage of humbuckers and the spank of single coils. PRS Narrowfields provided the perfect starting point for this design, with their ability to deliver thick single-coil sounds without the hum. These pickups are paired with a 5-way blade switch and a push/pull tone control that acts as a preset tone roll- off, bringing down the higher frequencies on the treble pickup so you can dig in to the fullest.
“I watched Myles throughout his career alternate between humbucking and single coil sounds without giving anything up on either side. These pickups took us months to dial in, and I think they capture that balance that Myles mastered beautifully,” said Paul Reed Smith.
Other features include a PRS plate-style steel bridge, vintage-style locking tuners, bone nut, and Kennedy’s “Geometric Owl” logo from his “Ides of March” solo release, representing wisdom and adaptability.
“I feel like we managed to touch on the elusive quality that makes you want to play with this guitar. It beckons you to take it off the wall or out of the case and make music.”
– Myles Kennedy
Myles Kennedy Signature Specifications
- Body Construction: Solidbody
- Body Wood: Swamp Ash
- Top Carve: Flat Top
- Number of Frets: 22
- Scale Length: 25.5”
- Neck Wood: Maple
- Neck Construction: Scarfed
- Truss Rod: PRS Double-Acting
- Neck Shape: Myles Kennedy
- Neck Depth at 1⁄2 Fret: 57/64” [22.62 mm]
- Neck Depth at 12 1⁄2 Fret: 31/32” [24.58 mm]
- Width of Fretboard at the Nut: 1 41/64” [41.67mm]
- Width of Fretboard at the Body: 2 15/64” [56.75 mm]
- Fretboard Wood: Maple
- Fretboard Radius: 10”
- Fretboard Inlay: Birds
- Headstock Logo: Signature, Decal
- Neck-Body Assembly Type: Bolt-On
- Bridge: PRS Plate Style, Steel
- Tuners: Vintage Style, Locking
- Hardware Type: Nickel
- Nut: Bone
- Truss Rod Cover: Myles Kennedy “Geometric Owl” Logo
- Treble Pickup: Narrowfield MK
- Bass Pickup: Narrowfield MK
- Controls: Volume and Push/Pull Tone Control with 5-Way Blade Pickup Switch
- P1 (Switch Down): Treble Humbucker
- P2: Treble Humbucker & Bass Coil Split
- P3: Treble & Bass Humbuckers
- P4: Treble & Bass Coil Split
- P5 (Switch Up): Bass Humbucker
The Myles Kennedy Signature Model | PRS Guitars
NF 53
The PRS NF 53 is a powerful guitar that combines classic tones with modern design. Inspired by one of Paul Reed Smith’s vintage guitars from 1953, the PRS NF 53 combines
a swamp ash body and 22-fret, 25.5” scale length bolt-on maple neck with maple fretboard with a special set of PRS Narrowfield pickups. The PRS Narrowfield DD (Deep Dish) pickups are made with taller bobbins to fit more winds and extra metal pieces in between the magnets for a more focused, powerful tone.
“I am so pleased with the feedback from the artists who have played this guitar – everyone is telling us that we have something special here,” said Paul Reed Smith. “If you are a fan of this style and tone, the NF 53 will take you where you want to go. To me to have this kind of beautiful high end without the hum is game changing.”
Paired with a volume and tone control and 3-way blade pickup switch, the NF 53 allows players to easily dial in their sound. The steel plate-style bridge, PRS vintage style tuners, and nickel hardware all work together to provide precise and reliable tuning stability while promoting sustain and powerful tone.
The PRS NF 53 is available in four stunning finishes: White Doghair, Black Doghair, Blue Matteo, and McCarty Tobacco Sunburst. Whether you are a seasoned player or just starting out, the PRS NF 53 is an addictive guitar you won’t want to put down.
NF 53 Specifications
- Body Construction: Solidbody
- Body Wood: Swamp Ash
- Top Carve: Flat Top
- Number of Frets: 22
- Scale Length: 25.5”
- Neck Wood: Maple
- Neck Construction: Scarfed
- Truss Rod: PRS Double-Acting
- Neck Shape: Pattern 53
- Neck Depth at 1⁄2 Fret: 7/8” [22.22 mm]
- Neck Depth at 12 1⁄2 Fret: 31/32” [24.58 mm]
- Width of Fretboard at the Nut: 1 41/64” [41.67 mm]
- Width of Fretboard at the Body: 2 7/32” [56.337 mm]
- Fretboard Wood: Maple
- Fretboard Radius: 10”
- Fretboard Inlay: Birds
- Headstock Logo: Signature
- Neck-Body Assembly Type: Bolt-On
- Bridge: PRS Plate Style, Steel
- Tuners: PRS Vintage Style
- Hardware Type: Nickel
- Nut: Bone
- Truss Rod Cover: NF 53
- Treble Pickup: Narrowfield DD
- Bass Pickup: Narrowfield DD
- Controls: Volume and Tone Controlswith 3-Way Blade Pickup Switch
Street Price: $2,899
The NF 53 | Demo | PRS Guitars
“I am so pleased with the feedback from the artists who have played this guitar – everyone is telling us that we have something special here. If you are a fa...
I was surfing on eBay a while ago and checked out some of the auctions that a favorite seller of mine had going on. My seller is a Cozart dealer and specializes in China-made instruments. This month’s guitar caught my eye. It’s kind of a cross between a Tele, a Mustang, and a Les Paul Special. It has a mahogany body and neck, a T-style headstock, and an ashtray bridge with a 3-way adjustment. The bridge is top-loading and has a T-style single-coil pickup, and the controls are mounted on a T-style chrome control plate. The neck pickup is a P-90 (Oh yeah, mama! My favorite flavor!), and the guitar has a Mustang-like body shape. The headstock says “King.” I’ve bought a few King-labeled guitars before, with good luck, so I bookmarked it and kept an eye on it.
After a few days, I started thinking more and more about this guitar. You know how it is. A guitar starts speaking to you in your dreams or something. There was a buy-it-now price of $189.99 with free shipping, but the listing also said, “or best offer,” so, being the bottom feeder I am, I made an offer of $165. The bid was automatically declined, so I inched my way up to $170. Declined again. So, finally, having only one bid left, I said $175. That seemed to be the magic number. The offer at that point was sent to the seller, who accepted it within a few hours, and the deal was made.
Photo 2 — Note the Will Ray signature Helle-Bender, the standard T-style control dial plate, and the ashtray bridge with 3-way adjustment. Despite the latter, fret-filing was required to knock out this guitar’s buzzing upon arrival.
Bottom Feeder Tip #377: Since eBay allows you to make a total of only three offers during the auction cycle of an item, I try not to offend the seller with an offer that is too lowball. Usually 5 to 10 percent lower than asking price is still in the ballpark. What do you have to lose?
Photo 3 — This instrument’s exact origins are a bit unclear, but it’s ostensibly made in China and it’s not the first King in the Bottom Feeder collection.
I received the guitar about four days later. I was excited to unpack it. It had a cool look. I did a quick setup. The King T-Stang played very well, but there were a few high frets that bugged me. I kept adjusting the bridge and truss rod to minimize the problem, but the buzzing still continued to bother me.
Photo 4 — With its bolt-on neck, mahogany body, and poly finish, this instrument appears to have gotten some genuine love on the production floor.
I finally made the decision to email the seller and explain the problem. I made a suggestion: How about a $25 partial refund so I could get the problem addressed by a good guitar tech? To his credit, the seller immediately PayPal’d me the $25 and we were both happy campers. I decided to work on the buzz problem myself by filing down the high frets in a couple of areas, and then I slapped a Hipshot bender on the guitar—a sure sign that an instrument is a keeper. I can’t explain it, but this King is just a fun little guitar to play. Listen to my MP3 online and hear it sing!
Guitarists often overlook this tweak, either after a setup or replacing pickups. Adjusting pickup height sounds simple, but pickups that aren't adjusted properly can cause problems, which I'll describe in detail below. Fortunately, all these problems are correctable.
To show you how to adjust pickups yourself, we'll look at two guitars—a Stratocaster and a Telecaster. Both of these project guitars sport single-coil pickups and both are terribly out of adjustment.
1. This Strat needs the height of its three single-coil pickups adjusted for optimum sound. 2. Our project Tele's two single-coils also need to be adjusted for proper height.
Step 1: Gather your tools and prepare your workspace.
You only need two tools for this project, but it's important to use the correct ones. Here's what I use when adjusting pickups:
- 6" precision machinist ruler
- Phillips head screwdriver
Step 2: Measure current pickup height.
First tune the guitar to pitch and then start taking its current measurements. These baseline measurements are very important because you need to know where the pickups are now in relation to where they should be.
Here's how to measure a pickup's height:
- Press the 1st string onto the last fret and hold it down.
- Using the 6" machinist ruler, measure the distance from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the 1st string. Write down the measurement.
- Repeat this process with the 6th string, again holding it against the last fret and writing down the measurement.
- Now repeat the process with the remaining pickup(s).
- At this point you'll have measurements for both the treble and bass sides of each pickup.
How did our project guitars measure up?
The Strat's bridge pickup was 6/64" on the treble side and 8/64" on the bass side. The middle pickup measured 8/64" on both treble and bass sides, and the neck pickup measured 2/64" and 4/64", respectively, for the treble and bass sides. As we'll see in a moment, these distances are way off. The project Tele was also out of whack, with its bridge pickup measuring 4/64" and 2/64" (treble and bass) and neck measuring 2/64" and 4/64".
Not only were the heights of these pickups all over the map, the Tele's neck pickup was loose and wobbly. That's a tell-tale sign that the rubber compression tubing (which acts like a spring) over the pickup screws had either shrunk or was too short to begin with. To correct it, I had to remove the strings and pickguard, and then separate the pickup from the guard. After installing new tubing, I was able to adjust the pickup without it bobbing inside the guitar.
When you finish recording the baseline measurements on both the treble and bass side of each pickup, you're ready to adjust them to their ideal specs.
3. Using a machinist ruler to measure the distance between the top of the pole piece and the bottom of the 6th string on our project Stratocaster's bridge pickup. This pickup is too low. 4. The bridge pickup is set too high on our project Telecaster. 5. Adjusting a Telecaster bridge pickup. In addition to setting its overall height, the three adjustment screws let you control the pickup's fore and aft tilt. For maximum sustain and power, make sure the top of the bridge pickup's pole pieces sit parallel to the strings.
Step 3: Correct the pickup height.
There's a lot of debate about what constitutes "correct" pickup height, but conceptually the goal is simple: Set the pickup height to give your guitar optimum volume, clarity, sustain, and treble-to-bass balance.
Setting the pickups too high doesn't further this cause. In fact, when Fender-style single-coil pickups are too close to the strings, the pole pieces—which are cylindrical magnets—will pull the strings out of tune, causing intonation problems and reducing sustain. If the pole pieces are high enough, they can actually collide with the strings, especially when you play open chords. When a pickup is too close to the strings, its output signal can be too hot and overload the preamp stage in your amplifier.
Yet when the pickups are set too far away from the strings, the result is a weak signal. This will cause the guitar to sound thinner and brighter than normal.
Furthermore, when the pickups aren't balanced correctly from the 1st to the 6th string, the result is uneven volume as you move from the treble to the bass strings. Fortunately, we can prevent all these problems. The tables in Fig. 1 show the measurements I use for each pickup on a Strat and Tele.
Using a Phillips head screwdriver, raise or lower the pickup by turning the adjustment screws located on either side of the pickup. (Some single-coils use slot-head screws, in which case you'll need a straight screwdriver.) Make small adjustments and go slowly. After each adjustment, again hold down the 1st and 6th strings at the last fret and take new measurements. Repeat this process for each pickup until it matches the corresponding specs in the tables.
Tip: Running out of screw length before you're done adjusting the pickups is one of the "little surprises" that can occur when altering pickup height. If this happens, remove the pickguard and replace the screws with longer ones.
Step 4: Testing—1, 2.
After you adjust the pickups to spec, it's time for the final test, which is to plug into your amp and play. So you can hear the full range of your pickups, don't stand too close to your amp. Instead, move back a good 10 feet or more.
Be sure to test the pickups with the guitar's volume wide open. Listen carefully to the balance between bass and treble strings, and switch between all the positions on your pickup selector. The goal is to hear equal volume from each pickup, even though the tone will change dramatically from pickup to pickup.
These measurements are a base point to start from, though I wouldn't recommend adjusting the pickups any higher. If the pickups sound unbalanced after you've set them to these specs, lower the louder pickup to reduce its output instead of raising the quieter one. A quarter turn can make an audible difference, so listen carefully, and be patient.
Wrap.
By following this relatively simple procedure, you'll probably discover that the dynamics, sustain, clarity, and stringto- string balance will have improved on your Strat or Tele. Next month, we'll tackle another DIY project, so stay tuned.
[Updated 8/27/21]