# PRS Mike Mushok SE Bartone Reviews Please



## ESPImperium (Dec 30, 2009)

Right, im looking for a baritone, and out of the 3 out there on the new market that i can get my hands on easily, the PRS Mushok SE is the standout one above the ESP LTD MHB-400/401 and the Schecter Blackjack C-1 Bari.

Basically im wanting play-test reviews and any mods that have been done to the Mushok SE??? Im planning on putting in some new pickups, Di Marzio Air Zone/Air Norton is what i currently have lying arround, would that make it growl and kill???

Thanks in advance.


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## zimbloth (Dec 30, 2009)

I hear nothing but good things about the PRS Mushok SE. Personally though that scale length is quite long, so if it were for me I'd probably go with the ESP. I don't care for Schecters much.

The Air Zone/Air Norton are very good pickups, but I don't know if those are ideal for a mahogany baritone. I find those pickups sound better in brighter guitars. I would go with something a little tighter and more aggressive, perhaps a Super Distortion, Crunch Lab, Evo2, or D-Activator in the bride if we're talking DiMarzios.


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## xtrustisyoursx (Dec 30, 2009)

I played a Mushok SE with a JB//59 combo and it sounded KILLER. It was a very nice and well-built guitar, and if you get along with the scale length, i'd highly recommend it.


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## vampiregenocide (Dec 30, 2009)

I found the scale lengthw ay too long, and the stock strings were pretty thick. It was so hard to play there was no give in the strings whatsoever. The pickups sounded muddy as hell too. Its the only PRS I've not liked. Maybe setup with better strings/gauges and better pickups it could be good, but off the bat I didn't like it.

I'd go for one of the other two.


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## Pewtershmit (Dec 30, 2009)

it was a great built guitar when I played one, can't really comment on "how" it played as I don't like baritone guitars, but it was nice nonetheless. For the money I its well worth it.


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## sol niger 333 (Dec 30, 2009)

My favourite of all my baritones is my Fender Baritone special. My second favourite is my PRS MUSHOK which back on topic is pretty awesome. Very detailed top end (almost too much) with the MAPLE neck yes thats right its maple neck and the ebony fretboard. These coupled with the mahogany body make for a guitar almost slightly scooped in nature really bright and sparkly top end and big warm low end but not much mid action so it sounds a little hollow. The ibanez mmm1 has more mids than the PRS but is slightly darker and less detailed, the PRS is clearer acousticly and the bottom end is still warm and fat. I speak only of their tones acousticly as I make my pickup decisions on the guitars acoustic tone. The PRS is also the lightest of all my baritones. I bought a Rebel Yell for the PRS and it was a mistake. Too much top end in all the wrong places and the bottom isn't tight enough. The mids of the RYell fixed the shortfall of the PRS but the bottom and top aren't working for me. Tough guitar to choose a pickup for as its so bright yet so warm at the same time and is missing some mids.. I'm thinking a Painkiller wound to Cold Sweat output might be the answer. Also lose the retarded bass strings they use on it straight away.


As another option if you can find a Mushok Ibanez MMM1 you should try it out. They are a really solid guitar. BIG sounding guitar I mean when you play one acousticly next to your average RG it sounds twice as loud and rings out twice as long. Wonderful sustain and the string tension is just perfect at drop b flat with 13-56 strings. The mahogany differs from each mmm1 to the next as I have owned two. One was much darker and fuller than the other which was much brighter and middy. Both nice. In my opinion you shouldn't put ANY other pickup in it except a painkiller because the big bottom end of all that mahogany needs to be reigned in if you want it to punch hard and hold together. A bassy style of pickup is generally a BAD idea for these guitars. Either way they are solid as and quite handsome too. They run circles around my ltd viper baritone but I've yet to try the all maple ltd baritone which coupled with a holy diver BKP would probably be AMAZING. Here is a clip I did with the brighter sounding of the two mmm1s with the painkiller. Also some photos from another thread. They take a re stain quite well 

SoundClick artist: New Way Home - page with MP3 music downloads



http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ex...90545-refinished-mmm1-baritone-with-bkps.html


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## xtrustisyoursx (Dec 30, 2009)

To go along with my comment and someone else's, the SE Mushok comes with HUGE strings. They would be huge on a standard scale length, let alone a baritone length. Definitely go with smaller strings, as they will sound tighter and be easier to manage.


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## Ironberry (Dec 30, 2009)

xtrustisyoursx said:


> To go along with my comment and someone else's, the SE Mushok comes with HUGE strings. They would be huge on a standard scale length, let alone a baritone length. Definitely go with smaller strings, as they will sound tighter and be easier to manage.



Yea, I've heard he has his set up with 14-75 gauge strings. The guitar was nice when I played it, although I doubt the guitar had 14-75s on it. I'm lucky if I find anything in my local guitar center that doesn't have 9s on it.


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## Bobulot (Dec 31, 2009)

I bought one of these last month and I couldn't be happier. The setup was great when I picked it up, it only needed minor truss rod tweak for the action to be comfortable. It does come with huge strings, maybe not as heavy as 14-75 but definitely in that ballpark (13-70 maybe?), but a lot of Staind's material is tuned as low as G. Mine came tuned to B which made for some ridiculous string tension, I actually put on a lighter 12-60 set and tuned down to A to get to the same tension levels I'm comfortable with on standard scale guitars.
Sol Niger 666 is right about how light this guitar is, I was really surprised when I picked one up for the first time. I like to play standing up as much as possible, and in the beginning I found it to be slightly neck divey. When I swapped out the stock strap buttons with a set of ernie ball strap locks I also started using a 2 inch wide leather strap, and the neck now stays up without support from my fretting hand. It took me a day or so to find a strap length for both of my arms to be at a comfortable angle.
The only modifications I've made so far would be replacing as much as the chrome hardware as possible with black. The strap locks, the knobs, the bridge, all of the screws and the jack plate were replaced by black parts from Guitar Parts Central - Guitar Parts At Low Prices. They sell the exact same zinc no-name bridge that the mushok comes with, so it was a direct swap. I may later replace it with a steel hipshot hardtail, a kahler fixed bridge (for the fine tuners) or a kahler trem. I've got a set of black sperzel locking tuners on order as well, with 1 drilled out to accept up to an .080 gauge.
As for the pickups, I'm swapping out the stockers with a Bareknuckle Warpig set, ceramic bridge and alnico neck. In keeping with the whole blackout thing I've got going with the hardware, I ordered a covered set like this:






I actually started out looking at some of the same options you listed, but when I started playing guitar it was on a guitar with a strat-style hardtail, and I've never been fully comfortable with a tune-o-matic bridge. I almost convinced myself to buy one of the LTD baritones that went on sale in the Marketplace here last year, but now I'm glad I decided to hold off. I have literally not touched any other guitar I own since I bought it, and I even if I move on to 7 or 8 string baritone guitars this will always have its place as a rhythm playing machine.


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## carbons2k (Dec 31, 2009)

Bobulot said:


> I bought one of these last month and I couldn't be happier. The setup was great when I picked it up, it only needed minor truss rod tweak for the action to be comfortable. It does come with huge strings, maybe not as heavy as 14-75 but definitely in that ballpark (13-70 maybe?), but a lot of Staind's material is tuned as low as G. Mine came tuned to B which made for some ridiculous string tension, I actually put on a lighter 12-60 set and tuned down to A to get to the same tension levels I'm comfortable with on standard scale guitars.
> Sol Niger 666 is right about how light this guitar is, I was really surprised when I picked one up for the first time. I like to play standing up as much as possible, and in the beginning I found it to be slightly neck divey. When I swapped out the stock strap buttons with a set of ernie ball strap locks I also started using a 2 inch wide leather strap, and the neck now stays up without support from my fretting hand. It took me a day or so to find a strap length for both of my arms to be at a comfortable angle.
> The only modifications I've made so far would be replacing as much as the chrome hardware as possible with black. The strap locks, the knobs, the bridge, all of the screws and the jack plate were replaced by black parts from Guitar Parts Central - Guitar Parts At Low Prices. They sell the exact same zinc no-name bridge that the mushok comes with, so it was a direct swap. I may later replace it with a steel hipshot hardtail, a kahler fixed bridge (for the fine tuners) or a kahler trem. I've got a set of black sperzel locking tuners on order as well, with 1 drilled out to accept up to an .080 gauge.
> As for the pickups, I'm swapping out the stockers with a Bareknuckle Warpig set, ceramic bridge and alnico neck. In keeping with the whole blackout thing I've got going with the hardware, I ordered a covered set like this:
> ...



got any pix of the guitar so far? I have one on order and I want to black it out but dunno how itll look.


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## Riffer (Dec 31, 2009)

The SE Mike Mushok is strung up this way. 14-18-26-44-56-68 and tuned to B. How do I know this? I am one of SE setup guys at PRS.


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## Bobulot (Dec 31, 2009)

Riffer said:


> The SE Mike Mushok is strung up this way. 14-18-26-44-56-68 and tuned to B. How do I know this? I am one of SE setup guys at PRS.


 
Thanks for the info, and also for the great factory setup lol. I have a low 68 I'm going to put on for A standard/drop G tuning, and I know it'll feel great now because the stock strings felt pretty good there.



carbons2k said:


> got any pix of the guitar so far? I have one on order and I want to black it out but dunno how itll look.


 
No pictures yet, I don't have a camera at the moment. I got the idea from an ESP forums member that did the same thing, you can see pictures in this thread here gonna spamatazoa: MX250, PRS Mushok SE, Schec Baritone, more - ESP Guitars Message Board. I do plan on borrowing a camera once the Warpigs are in though, I'll probably make a NGD thread on it then. One cool thing about blacking it out was how cheap it was, I got all the hardware I needed for under $40 shipped to Canada.


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## ESPImperium (Dec 31, 2009)

I think im gonna be going and getting the PRS Mushok SE Bari now.

Im convinced this guitar will be the tone machine for me, with the right mods ill be on a winner!!!


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## AK DRAGON (Dec 31, 2009)

I tested one of the PRS Mushok's a while back. I loved the feel of it, though the pups were muddy. It didn't take me too long to get used to the longer scale (I am used to 25.5"). I would love to get one though I am not a big fan of the paint job and I don't buy signature models anymore.


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## Duke318 (Dec 31, 2009)

I have the blackjack baritone. Got it for $380 out the door at guitar center recently. I put a bareknuckle painkiller in the bridge and a dimarzio liquifire in the neck, sounds great. My only complaint is that the coil tap feature has a shitload of buzz, but that could probably be fixed easily.


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## lowb5str (Mar 7, 2010)

ESPImperium said:


> I think im gonna be going and getting the PRS Mushok SE Bari now.
> ...


I pulled the trigger a couple weeks ago and am still in the honeymoon.

Working on the blackout cosmetics a little at a time.

Having a devil of a time finding locking tuners to accept the .068" E and am wondering if the drill-out is the only recourse? And what was the bridge the other poster found?


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## Triple-J (Mar 8, 2010)

I think Sol Niger has pretty much covered all the bases with his post but if there's anything else I can add it's that you don't have to use heavy strings with baritones, for example I use a set of 12-54 tuned to D on both my baritones and can go as low as drop B with no problems.

As for the choice of guitar I'd say the PRS 1st then ESP then Schecter but one thing to bear in mind is both ESP's baritone models (Viper + MH) are now out of production so any stock you see will be the last few batches so if you look around you may be able to find a cheap closeout/end of line deal on either of them.


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