Hi All,
Wonder if the aficionados' out there can help me understand the different types of hollow bodies?
I've seen HB2's, double tops, McCartys, 594 McCartys, library versions, etc. etc. etc. My head is swimming and on the PRS site the have two sections listed with the same HB name, ?????
I can't seem to decipher any genealogy for the PRS guitars.
THX
B
Well. under the heading "A little Bit of Knowledge is Dangerous" I can speak more to the newly introduced SE line of Hollowbodies.
I am actively "market researching" them, as my next PRS target is gonna be one of those guys. They are not cheap (pricing from $1K to 1.55K ) ... but they represent great values for what they are in the guitar world.
The "Standard" (which is beautiful) is a all mahogany, no-frills , player get down model that apparently will allow even us novice guys to sound like Pat Metheny or BB King (please excuse the skills hyperbole) . But it does killer jazz and rock tones even for us nubes ...
SE Hollowbody II ...is essentially the same guitar , but with maple top and back, to allow for extra pretty flamey stuff (when PRS decides to do it) . Some will tell you maple sounds " brighter"... But I think that is largely old wives tale stuff, and if it does sound "brighter", I'm thinking the tone knob will "standardize " if for ya.
The The Piezo, same as the HB2, but with a cool piezo-electric pickup added, so that "acoustic guitar " tones can be attempted ... all in the same guitar. It also up's the pretty quotient with the cooler binding & fretboard birds.
All these guys are 25" scale, and "laminate" construction. From what I understand, laminate are really thin sheets of wood smushed together to form a single sheet.
Laminate is said to be not as cool as "solid" (one piece) of wood, but some of the coolest guitar tones we wanna hear , come from laminate construction guitars (Gibson ES 335)
The Core, is a crazy beast. I have only seen some videos of the PRS factory, where they show what I think is a hollowbody under construction.
Starts out a solid chunk (plank) of killa-dilla wood (mahogany) for the bottom... that is routed out (!) to leave only the sides and I'm confused on this as to where the mounting block comes from for the bridge and neck pocket. Maybe from the routed out bottom ???
Anyways, the manufacturing approach on the core is waay more expensive as there are no economies " like laminating" , as the top & bottom are also routed to create the hollow cavity (Geezopizza !)
Think of it as a Porsche 911, milled from a single ingot of galvanized steel !!!!
Then it gets worse, because if like I suspect , the guitar in the video, is probably not "off the rack" but ""10 Top", Wood Library of even Private Stock ) ... all of which turbocharges the pretty.
Priced like if defense contractors Boeing or General Dynamics were to make you a toaster !
The difference here being, the finished CrazyCore guitar, would be worth the trouble and money , and work right outta the box!