Longing for a SE CE 24; Any positive developments about the QC of the SE line?

[alwinvrm]

I bought my SE CE24, sight unseen, sound unheard from a reputable dealer. There were no QC related issues that should have been addressed before leaving the seller. Smaller boutique sellers do that for you, where as most big box sellers will not.

Thanx for the feedback, glad that your purchase was a happy one and exactly what my view of a PRS is. I had very bad experiences with another brand in a what you would maybe call a boutique store.

They have their own fully locally built brand and carry various other brands. The more than 1000 euros guitar had fretwork worse than the worst and cheapest Harley Benton or Squier I have ever seen, a ski jump, a truss rod that could not straighten the neck and a few other things. The answer was, we can't take it back because we are not an official dealer. They offered that the 14 year old that sweeps the floor would do the fretboard for free, no, thank you. I guess the lesson was to do due diligence and check if a shop is an official dealer and has a good reputation. I may do that with my next PRS purchase.

Europe is different than the US in that returning or exchanging products bought in shops is not self evident. It is more like dealing with an insurance company. A good shop may be helpful, but they might still try to say that an action of 2.5 mm / .10 is normal to low and fine and that you can't expect a 1000 euro guitar to ever have an action of 1.6mm/ .06 - .07 . So to avoid that kind of discussion I resorted to the big online shops, that make no problem of returns. There is even a shop in The Netherlands that sent me an email, before I ordered online, that they don't do any returns because 'people play the guitar for gigs in the weekend, spill beer over it and then return it'. Unfortunately pimples, beer, and gigs in a shed are long gone in my case, but I still felt insulted by the attitude; just as an illustration.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I was gifted an SE 245 and it played perfectly out of the gig bag.

I think it’s safe to say that we all have different experiences/expectations. However bearing in mind the number of new SE guitars that sell annually and the small number of complaints that appear here, it’s a small percentage as @dogrocketp said.

 

[Wakester]

Thanx for the feedback, glad that your purchase was a happy one and exactly what my view of a PRS is. I had very bad experiences with another brand in a what you would maybe call a boutique store.

They have their own fully locally built brand and carry various other brands. The more than 1000 euros guitar had fretwork worse than the worst and cheapest Harley Benton or Squier I have ever seen, a ski jump, a truss rod that could not straighten the neck and a few other things. The answer was, we can't take it back because we are not an official dealer. They offered that the 14 year old that sweeps the floor would do the fretboard for free, no, thank you. I guess the lesson was to do due diligence and check if a shop is an official dealer and has a good reputation. I may do that with my next PRS purchase.

Europe is different than the US in that returning or exchanging products bought in shops is not self evident. It is more like dealing with an insurance company. A good shop may be helpful, but they might still try to say that an action of 2.5 mm / .10 is normal to low and fine and that you can't expect a 1000 euro guitar to ever have an action of 1.6mm/ .06 - .07 . So to avoid that kind of discussion I resorted to the big online shops, that make no problem of returns. There is even a shop in The Netherlands that sent me an email, before I ordered online, that they don't do any returns because 'people play the guitar for gigs in the weekend, spill beer over it and then return it'. Unfortunately pimples, beer, and gigs in a shed are long gone in my case, but I still felt insulted by the attitude; just as an illustration.

Wow! That is like the complete opposite of the shops here in the US. The little guy will take care of you because they know if they earn your trust, you will return later for another purchase. Where as the big stores just don't care about the consumer and don't seem to take care of the instruments they sell. There are exceptions of coarse, too.

 

[dogrocketp]

I'm a Marylander, and know some of the people at the factory. They have increased the number of people that work there. None of the work is "contracted out". They're not throwing people on the inspection floor. They're doing their best to train them well before they're allowed to inspect. I stand by my higher numbers view. It's ironic that about 2 years ago there was a shortage, and now there's a glut for most manufacturers. By the way, Mike, The discounts were given before the guitars had arrived in the US. Your stacks of guitars lying around is far from reality. All in all, I thlnk PRS is doing a good job, but of course there's room for improvement

 

[RC Mike]

I'm a Marylander, and know some of the people at the factory. They have increased the number of people that work there. None of the work is "contracted out". They're not throwing people on the inspection floor. They're doing their best to train them well before they're allowed to inspect. I stand by my higher numbers view. It's ironic that about 2 years ago there was a shortage, and now there's a glut for most manufacturers. By the way, Mike, The discounts were given before the guitars had arrived in the US. Your stacks of guitars lying around is far from reality. All in all, I thlnk PRS is doing a good job, but of course there's room for improvement

Are you saying that they did a months-long sale for a reason other than excess inventory? Why?

 

[dogrocketp]

No, that was PROJECTED excess inventory. They nipped it in the bud. Smart move, eh?

 

[RC Mike]

No, that was PROJECTED excess inventory. They nipped it in the bud. Smart move, eh?

There's no real difference between the two--you're claiming that inventory that hasn't landed on the dock somehow isn't inventory. When a company needs to do a 20% off sale that lasts for months, something went wrong. It's not necessary to try to characterize a big mistake as a smart move.

 

[SinSir]

There was a ton of inventory in stock at stores here, definitely a surplus. Multiple on multiple of each model and finish. Then whole new waves dropped as those were selling. I think it was clear around here, both, back logged stock and make room for even more on the way.

Drastic shift of where many stores were not that long ago, nothing of anything. Makes sense, ramp up production for guitars in a peak demand like the industry has never seen. Then a sharp decline in demand that it didn't expect to drop as fast and hard as it did just as they caught up. This isn't just for PRS, it's across the board.

It makes perfect sense QC was going to suffer. It usually does playing catch up. Add new manpower with a training curve in there too. It's gonna happen, but it doesn't mean it's bashing or going to stay like that. Things will steadily improve as we normalize more and more. This is PRS after all..

 

[aphantomvaper]

My latest SE CE is stellar!

 

[dogrocketp]

There's no real difference between the two--you're claiming that inventory that hasn't landed on the dock somehow isn't inventory. When a company needs to do a 20% off sale that lasts for months, something went wrong. It's not necessary to try to characterize a big mistake as a smart move.

I believe my stance would negate your complete failure statement. They saw a problem, and fixed it. It certainly beats Fenders massive layoffs and dealer undercutting. The true measure of business (to me) isn’t whether or not you make mistakes, it’s how and when you fix them. Everyone makes mistakes. A mistake isn’t a failure, depending on how you handle it.

 

[MarcWink]

My experience with my sample size of 2 PRS SE Silver Sky Maples, recent QC has slid a little bit. Back in January, I decided I wanted to get an S type guitar, and me being a PRS fan boy, and based on all the rave reviews of the Silver Sky, I elected to spring for the SE Silver Sky Maple. Ordered from Sweetwater, guitar showed up two days later, and it was chock full of little issues. It had razor sharp fret ends, not a huge deal as a few passes with a fret file takes care of it, the frets were rough in general, the nut was not finished flush to the ends of the neck and stood about 1/64" proud of the treble side, and it had a dead spot at the 14th fret of the third string and 13th fret of the fourth string. Guitar went back to Sweetwater for exchange. A couple days later, the replacement shows up, I check all the way up the neck on all strings and no dead spots, frets are still a little rough and the fret ends are again razor sharp, but admittedly not as bad as the first example. Setup wise other than these issues, the guitar is good. Neck relief is good, intonation is good, the nut is cut and finished well, just rough and sharp frets. For an $850 guitar, it's a little discouraging, but nothing that wasn't easily rectified when I set the guitar up for my preferred 10-52 strings. For what it's worth, both the SE Silver Sky I kept and the one that I had to send back have December 2023 inspection dates.

 

[GuitarJammin]

I'm a more demanding player than most and for me the modern SEs I've bought and wanted to like have been lack luster. I've tried a quite a few in shops as well. I'm just one guy who has purchased and been disappointed by 2 SEs this past year, results vary amongst the masses. However, I sold them to other guitarists who LOVE them....I mean I set them all up and they are as perfect as they are gunna get.

I've kind of turned into a unofficial guitar tech these past two years doing over 100 setups for lots of different clients. Still the two SEs I bought did not float my boat but the flipside they really put my other buddies over the moon. Actual QC issues.....none though.

PRS SE is no QC infected Harley Benton. I haven't met a PRS SE I couldn't course correct and set up nicely. Though my Zack Meyers I almost suspect the bridge was drilled wrong due to amount of adjustment I had to do to get it intonated. However I was still able to get it intonated.

I think your fear of an actual QC issue, like a maxxed out truss or other, should be quelled because you could deal with that through PRS customer service. Setup is something to expect to do as others have said.

All in all the PRS SE are better than most if not ALL guitars in their price ranges new for new. I still prefer the older SEs to the new ones and have a SE from 02' that I love. My SE from 02' has a core nut and better electronics...and of course I had to buy the PRS SE locking tuners for string change ease.

 

[alwinvrm]

aphantomvaper​

I am already addicted, no need to push to further

 

[alwinvrm]

My experience with my sample size of 2 PRS SE Silver Sky Maples, recent QC has slid a little bit. Back in January, I decided I wanted to get an S type guitar, and me being a PRS fan boy, and based on all the rave reviews of the Silver Sky, I elected to spring for the SE Silver Sky Maple. Ordered from Sweetwater, guitar showed up two days later, and it was chock full of little issues. It had razor sharp fret ends, not a huge deal as a few passes with a fret file takes care of it, the frets were rough in general, the nut was not finished flush to the ends of the neck and stood about 1/64" proud of the treble side, and it had a dead spot at the 14th fret of the third string and 13th fret of the fourth string. Guitar went back to Sweetwater for exchange. A couple days later, the replacement shows up, I check all the way up the neck on all strings and no dead spots, frets are still a little rough and the fret ends are again razor sharp, but admittedly not as bad as the first example. Setup wise other than these issues, the guitar is good. Neck relief is good, intonation is good, the nut is cut and finished well, just rough and sharp frets. For an $850 guitar, it's a little discouraging, but nothing that wasn't easily rectified when I set the guitar up for my preferred 10-52 strings. For what it's worth, both the SE Silver Sky I kept and the one that I had to send back have December 2023 inspection dates.

Thanx that is useful information. So the issues you describe are relatively recent, just a couple of months ago. The issues are not 'structural', but definitely not like the PRS SE's I bought with dates from like 2 yours ago; these guitars were perfect.

 

[alwinvrm]

I'm a more demanding player than most and for me the modern SEs I've bought and wanted to like have been lack luster. I've tried a quite a few in shops as well. I'm just one guy who has purchased and been disappointed by 2 SEs this past year, results vary amongst the masses. However, I sold them to other guitarists who LOVE them....I mean I set them all up and they are as perfect as they are gunna get.

I've kind of turned into a unofficial guitar tech these past two years doing over 100 setups for lots of different clients. Still the two SEs I bought did not float my boat but the flipside they really put my other buddies over the moon. Actual QC issues.....none though.

PRS SE is no QC infected Harley Benton. I haven't met a PRS SE I couldn't course correct and set up nicely. Though my Zack Meyers I almost suspect the bridge was drilled wrong due to amount of adjustment I had to do to get it intonated. However I was still able to get it intonated.

I think your fear of an actual QC issue, like a maxxed out truss or other, should be quelled because you could deal with that through PRS customer service. Setup is something to expect to do as others have said.

All in all the PRS SE are better than most if not ALL guitars in their price ranges new for new. I still prefer the older SEs to the new ones and have a SE from 02' that I love. My SE from 02' has a core nut and better electronics...and of course I had to buy the PRS SE locking tuners for string change ease.

I recognize a lot in your post. I do my own set ups, fret levelling, crowning, nuts, and I now took of a PRS fretboard, changing a truss rod and reshaping a neck. Unfortunately here in Europe (and maybe everywhere) replacement PRS SE truss rods seem unavailable.

I may be demanding about guitars because I like low setups, but I accept that guitars usually don't get a lower action than 1.4 mm without some work. Bonding/feel is elusive and personal I suppose; I like to feel a certain amount of vibrations in the neck and imagine that these guitars sound better as well.

So an early Korean one seems a feasible option at the moment. I would rather not rely on brand customer service in Europe, because they seem to prefer to enter into discussions than satisfy the customer; maybe PRS is different.

 

[alwinvrm]

I decided to give PRS the benefit of the doubt and today my new Blood Orange SE CE 24 arrived. It had a strange scratchy spot on the back, ironically close to the inspection approved stickers, and worse, the truss rod was maxed out and couldn't get the neck anywhere near straight. Shame because I liked the feel and sound. Hope I don't get a headache with the return, otherwise it is 700 euro thrown .