Having first hand heard your rigs, how do you like the SE compared to your other awesome sounding guitars. It sure is pretty!
That's an interesting question.
Since it is currently the shortest scale guitar I own, I like how it feels bending and the fret spacing but it's not like it's completely foreign to switch between that and a 25.5" or 25" scale guitar.
I like that it isn't extremely heavy or so light the neck dives.
I like the bigger neck shape.
Having actually grown up really only playing PRS the body shape is delightfully familiar.
I like the controls and the layout but don't particularly like the way it looks on that body shape. However, that thought goes away as soon as the gig starts.
I find the pickups sound fine. The volume pots may be replaced since as soon as they go below wide open they get really muddy. Not sure if it's a taper thing or what. I have tried treble bleeds and it didn't make a noticeable difference. I also tried 50's wiring with and without treble bleed. I kept the 50's wiring and went without the treble bleed for the sake of simplicity.
Now for a somewhat disappointing take...
If we were to make a Venn diagram of all my guitars, there's enough overlap that, in general, they're somewhat interchangable without significant enough difference to be noticeable by most.
The reason I make this claim is because I don't think everyone has the same established reference point of what guitar "X" is supposed to sound like. I would argue that's based on limited sample sources and potentially inadequate recording and/or reproduction.
Based on that principle, I would also argue I could get close enough to a particular sound that some people would mistake one guitar for another given their personal reference point of what guitar "X" sounds like.
I also don't think there is a great distinction made between the vocabulary and expression of the player and "tone."
This means I still sound like me if I play that 594, or one of my teles, or my strats, or another PRS of mine, or another person's entire rig.
And we haven't even touched the amp or pedals...