Hi, my 47th birthday is in a few days and i'm in the middle of a heavy GAS attack. As my wife seems to be supporting the idea of me buying another guitar for my birthday (surprisingly after I just expent some cash in an AXE FM3), it's the perfect chance to do it
I can't justify myself to buy another $2000k+ core PRS so after reading a lot and listening to hundreds of videos and reviews and trying to decide between 3 SE models for different reasons. I'd appreciate if you can give me your thoughts about it to help me decide. Here you have some background info and the options I'm considering.
I currently own a 2005 PRS McCarty 20th Anniversary with \m/ bridge pickup as my main guitar. I also own an ESP Viper with EMG81/85 pickups that honestly doesn't get a lot of playing time, I keep it mainly for nostalgia of my younger metal years as a huge fan of Hetfield but I grew tired of the EMGs over time.
I enjoy listening and playing any style as long as it uses overdriven guitars, from blues to rock to punk to clasic metal up to metalcore/djent. I also play in a band for over 25 years, with an style that could be named post grunge/alt metal or heavy rock if you like tags. Think on bands like Tool, Tremonti, Three Days Grace, Shinedown, Five Finger Death Punch etc. We had some success like 20 years ago in our country but now it's just some fun at reharsal twice per week and some local gigs. In my band with another guitarrist I play mainly rithm guitar with heavy rifting but not much solos as the other guitarrist takes care of these. He uses mainly a Gibson SG and for some songs a Fender HSS with SD JB in the bridge.
Here are the three options:
1) PRS SE Zach Myers in Blue.
As my McCarty with the hot \m/ is my heavier style guitar currently (besides the ESP), the ZM could be my option for cleans and blues or softer rock with the lower output pickups, shorter scale and being semi hollow. LP classic sound with some bite when needed but with less weight and more ergonomic that a Gibson. I owned a LP Standard many years ago and sold it when I purchased the McMcarty, felt it really unconfortable for long shows. For what I read, I'll like the ZM neck thickness and finish as well. My worry here is if it will be too similar to my McCarty and will end just playing always one of them that would make the other redundant over time. A minor concern is the shorter scale, I use heavy strings (10-52) in my current guitar with 25 scale and the shorter scale might feel too soft and require heavier ones.
2) PRS SE Custom 24-08 in Eriza Green.
As with the Zach Myers, not fully sure if it would be different enough to my McCarty. The thinner body and specially the thinner maple neck probably would make it better suited for metal, so I could swap my \m/ pickup to this guitar and put back the McMcarty trebble pickup that still own to set the McCarty again as my more vintage guitar and use the Custom 24 as my heavier one. Both would be probably used a lot both at home and even in my band for different songs. On the negative side, I prefer fixed bridges to tremolos as I downtune to drop C# with my band and tremolos are harder to properly switch tunes. I remember owning Ibanez with Floyd Roses when I was younger and it was the main reason to sell them all as to change tunning or specially when you broke a string playing live it was a mess.
3) PRS SE Silver Sky:
It would be my first strat ever. It would be a great complement to my McCarty to own both the PRS version of the Strato and LP guitars but not sure how much use I would give to it as I'm too used to humbuckers. I like the single coils in neck and middle position for cleans, blues and light rock, but not as big fan of the treble ones. As the body in the SS is not routed for HSS configuration, I could swap the bridge single coil with a SD JB Junior or a Hot Rails to have that HSS setup but... might be too hot vs the midle and neck ones and not properly compensated. Anyway this would be the most risky option and probably not ever used with my band.
Thanks for reading this long thread and for the opinions!
