New PRS

M

Manos

New Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2021
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Hello everyone, nice to meet you all!

I'm writing because I'm in the process of buying a new guitar, and I soon understood that you can't buy a greater value than a PRS guitar.

So, some facts that might be useful to know.

1) Haven't played the guitar for approximately 8-10 years
2) Music genre that I will be playing is mostly 80s metal and rock (iron maiden, judas priest, deep purple, black sabbath, etc)
3) The previous guitar was a Peavey T60, which is nice, but too uncomfortable since it's extremely heavy.
4) Main attribute that I want my guitar to have is to be comfortable.
5) My budget is 600-650€ (approximately 700-750$).



I'm thinking of buying a PRS SE 245/Singlecut, but I can't make my mind on which one to buy.
1) PRS SE 245 (which is somehow a bit more expensive)
2) PRS SE Singlecut
3) PRS SE 245 Standard

I noticed that there are some older PRS SE 245 & the Singlecut that are made in Korea. Does this make a huge difference in terms of build quality?
I also noticed that there's a difference in the price of the SE 245 and the SE 245 standard. Is this something to consider before buying? I already found out that the SE 245 has some maple parts if I can recall correctly, but I don't know if this affects me somehow.

PS. I won't be able to try one of the guitars, but I also don't think that I could tell the difference since I haven't played for a really long time
 
They are are all quite similar in your list, Korean / Indonesian made guitars by Cort I think.. Always well reviewed and plenty of owners on here. The 245 models are Gibson scale, the regular SE will be the PRS 25" scale. For Iron Maiden and 80s rock I'd be tempted with a Charvel So Cal model. If you want the PRS logo, I'm sure you can't go wrong with anything in the SE line.
 
Any of those will do you just fine. There are also a ton of used SEs out there.

Generally, "Standard" SEs have a mahogany body and no maple top. "Custom" SEs have a maple cap with a maple veneer laminated on for the classic PRS look. (USA-made PRSi have a figured maple cap that does not need a veneer). In theory the maple cap should make a difference in the tone but I've never heard anyone remark on that difference between SEs. Both my SEs have had some minor quality problems (switches mainly) but nothing that affects their playability. They both feel and play like much more expensive guitars.

If you want the "most PRS" example of this type of guitar, get a 25" maple-top Singlecut. If you just wanna plug in and rock, get whichever one is cheapest/easiest to get - they are all terrific.
 
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zerolight said:
They are are all quite similar in your list, Korean / Indonesian made guitars by Cort I think.. Always well reviewed and plenty of owners on here. The 245 models are Gibson scale, the regular SE will be the PRS 25" scale. For Iron Maiden and 80s rock I'd be tempted with a Charvel So Cal model. If you want the PRS logo, I'm sure you can't go wrong with anything in the SE line.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response! To be honest I made a lot of research to end up in PRS, so I will have to do a ton of research to search the Charvel model, and I would like to avoid that since everyone says to buy a PRS (both friends and internet).
Some more thoughts:
In terms of looks, I prefer the new PRS SE 245 & 245 standard.
I believe though that the older ones will be more comfortable because they are slightly lighter? Not quite sure about that
 
With those answers I'm leaning towards the 245 standard (the 245 is slightly over my budget, but I would pay more if it was much better than the standard).

When I started my quest to find a guitar I wanted to buy a Gibson SG standard, but it was much more expensive, and since I haven't played for a long time I ended up in the PRS.
Plus, the reviews I read weren't the best for the SGs
 
Hello everyone, I just realized that here in Greece, where I live, the SE 245 standard and the SE 245 come at the same price (around 700 euros).
I don't know why, since there's a noticeable price difference on reverb.
Now, I think that I made up my mind on buying the SE 245, and not the standard, despite I prefer the tobacco sunburst color.
Now it's a matter of personal preference about the color.
1) Charcoal burst
2) Vintage sunburst
3) Cherry sunburst (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this was on the 2017-2021 model)
I will let you know when I have a decision :p
 
Hello guys, unfortunately, I found out that the guitar stores in Greece don't have the PRS, and they expect to update their stock by April.
So, I started checking reverb.com and I found this one:
https://reverb.com/item/43890471-paul-reed-smith-se-245-2011-2017

Well, I asked the seller if this is the "standard" model and he/she told me that it isn't, but I couldn't find any information regarding the past models to confirm this.
Can someone confirm that it's the maple top model and not the standard one?
Do you also think that it's a good bargain?

PS. One more thing. In the description, it says that it was made in Korea, but it was made in Indonesia, and he/she confirmed that it was a mistake from the autofill.
Did the 2011-2017 models also manufacture in Indonesia?
 
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It's definitely a maple topped model. 2017 was the change over year for the maple capped SE models. Europe and the UK got models that were still made in Korea whereas the rest of the world -especially America got the start of the Indonesia productions. The price is what I paid earlier this for a used Bernie, so I'd said it about right for a good one.
 
Manos said:
Hello everyone, nice to meet you all!



I'm thinking of buying a PRS SE 245/Singlecut, but I can't make my mind on which one to buy.
1) PRS SE 245 (which is somehow a bit more expensive)
2) PRS SE Singlecut
3) PRS SE 245 Standard
Click to expand...

All three of these are the kind of guitar you would be looking at if you were a Les Paul guitar player and liked the sound and playability of one. Of these mentioned, I really like how comfortable the shorter scale length of the 245's but the 25 inch scale length of the Singlecut may help the string tension not feel too squishy and will help if you ever want to do some Heavy Metal downtuning.
 
littlebadboy said:
Consider a used PRS S2.

Click to expand...

I would consider it but it has 3 times the price of an SE 245. And to be honest, I'm not sure if my level can support a guitar of that price range. I mean that I would practically won't be able to tell the difference between the S2 and the SE.

HANGAR18 said:
All three of these are the kind of guitar you would be looking at if you were a Les Paul guitar player and liked the sound and playability of one. Of these mentioned, I really like how comfortable the shorter scale length of the 245's but the 25 inch scale length of the Singlecut may help the string tension not feel too squishy and will help if you ever want to do some Heavy Metal downtuning.
Click to expand...
ok! I don't think that there will be any downtuning, but I get your point.

11top said:
Zach Myers
Click to expand...
I don't like that much the semi-hollow :p
 
Hello Manos and welcome to the forum. I'm also from Greece. When I was looking for a new guitar after not playing for almost 20 years I did my research and also came to the conclusion of going PRS.I play mostly 80s hard rock/heavy metal. Which shops have you checked here in Greece ? Have you checked Bon Studio for SE245s ? They're the official PRS distributor here. That's where I got my SE 35th Anniversary from. I just looked at they're eshop and they have 2 SE245 atm

https://eshop.bonstudio.gr/el/prs-guitars-ηλεκτρικη-κιθαρα-se-245-charcoal-burst-50595

https://eshop.bonstudio.gr/el/prs-guitars-ηλεκτρικη-κιθαρα-se-245-std-tobacco-sunburst-52963

Let me know if you have any questions.
 
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