Well technically, I got these around Thanksgiving but they were under wraps until Christmas.
Hey all, been a long time since I've posted here but I have been lurking now and again. I think my last post was my LAST NGD when I got my Mcarty 594 a couple years ago.
I actually stopped playing guitars for a while and only recently got back into it (with a vengeance I guess!)
I wanted to get myself a new guitar for Christmas this year and the new Gibson SG 61's were catching my eye. That got me looking at cherry finish guitars in general. Then I started watching @bryanewald demo videos and totally got sucked into the vortex....hah! Always such tasty playing and for some odd reason every demo video I watch of him results in me searching Reverb for that particular model, heh.
Somehow the S2 line of guitars totally flew under my radar all these years and I had no idea there have been so many really cool and unique models released. The Vela really caught my eye and I am total sucker for semi hollow guitars and I fell pretty hard. I managed to find one and snagged it. (They were really hard to find in Cherry finish around November for some reason.) The more I listened to videos of the D02 pickups the more intrigued I became and was thinking about also getting an SE Starla. I was very fortunate to find an NOS S2 Starla in CHERRY! Of course I had to have it as well. So wound up with a pair of Cherries for Christmas this year.
All I can say is WOW. I LOVE these 2 guitars. So very unique yet familiar. I love the shape of the Pattern neck profile (my first). I may actually like it better than the Pattern Vintage on my 594.
Of course the fretwork was totally impeccable as was the fit and finish. Super nice mahogany and very resonant bodies. I am so very impressed with the S2 series of guitar, I have a feeling there may be a 594 Thinline in my future as well, hah. For the value extremely hard to beat for a Maryland made PRS. I can't begin to tell you how nice it is to buy an off the shelf guitar that doesn't need some bit of fret dressing or SOMETHING to get it to play the way I like. (But I admit I'm a bit picky so there's that...)
All I needed to do was oil the fingerboard on the Starla and shine up the frets a bit from hanging on the wall a couple of years I guess.
I totally had visions of twangy, Gretschy sounds when I finally got to play my guitars at Christmas but was super surprised to find how extremely well these 2 guitars take gain. I recorded a couple clips and stitched it into a video linked below comparing the 2 S2's and my 594 in a mix context.
Also for Christmas this year I got a Universal Audio Apollo Twin X and this is my first foray into the world of amp modeling. Again, SUPER impressed with the Unison amp models from UAD. All the guitar tones in the video are UAD amp models recorded into LUNA. Signal chain descriptions are in the video.
I'll apologize in advance for the clams (amazing how you can hear every clam when you hit "record" hahah).
I decided the dress up the Vela with Bone tuner buttons, Ivoroid knobs and an cream colored switch tip.
Not to be left out, the Starla got "Tintful Wood" tuner knobs.(Never heard of "tintful" but looks kind of like Madagascar Rosewood). Still deciding whether I want to change the knobs or not.
Hey all, been a long time since I've posted here but I have been lurking now and again. I think my last post was my LAST NGD when I got my Mcarty 594 a couple years ago.
I actually stopped playing guitars for a while and only recently got back into it (with a vengeance I guess!)
I wanted to get myself a new guitar for Christmas this year and the new Gibson SG 61's were catching my eye. That got me looking at cherry finish guitars in general. Then I started watching @bryanewald demo videos and totally got sucked into the vortex....hah! Always such tasty playing and for some odd reason every demo video I watch of him results in me searching Reverb for that particular model, heh.
Somehow the S2 line of guitars totally flew under my radar all these years and I had no idea there have been so many really cool and unique models released. The Vela really caught my eye and I am total sucker for semi hollow guitars and I fell pretty hard. I managed to find one and snagged it. (They were really hard to find in Cherry finish around November for some reason.) The more I listened to videos of the D02 pickups the more intrigued I became and was thinking about also getting an SE Starla. I was very fortunate to find an NOS S2 Starla in CHERRY! Of course I had to have it as well. So wound up with a pair of Cherries for Christmas this year.
All I can say is WOW. I LOVE these 2 guitars. So very unique yet familiar. I love the shape of the Pattern neck profile (my first). I may actually like it better than the Pattern Vintage on my 594.
Of course the fretwork was totally impeccable as was the fit and finish. Super nice mahogany and very resonant bodies. I am so very impressed with the S2 series of guitar, I have a feeling there may be a 594 Thinline in my future as well, hah. For the value extremely hard to beat for a Maryland made PRS. I can't begin to tell you how nice it is to buy an off the shelf guitar that doesn't need some bit of fret dressing or SOMETHING to get it to play the way I like. (But I admit I'm a bit picky so there's that...)
All I needed to do was oil the fingerboard on the Starla and shine up the frets a bit from hanging on the wall a couple of years I guess.
I totally had visions of twangy, Gretschy sounds when I finally got to play my guitars at Christmas but was super surprised to find how extremely well these 2 guitars take gain. I recorded a couple clips and stitched it into a video linked below comparing the 2 S2's and my 594 in a mix context.
Also for Christmas this year I got a Universal Audio Apollo Twin X and this is my first foray into the world of amp modeling. Again, SUPER impressed with the Unison amp models from UAD. All the guitar tones in the video are UAD amp models recorded into LUNA. Signal chain descriptions are in the video.
I'll apologize in advance for the clams (amazing how you can hear every clam when you hit "record" hahah).
I decided the dress up the Vela with Bone tuner buttons, Ivoroid knobs and an cream colored switch tip.
Not to be left out, the Starla got "Tintful Wood" tuner knobs.(Never heard of "tintful" but looks kind of like Madagascar Rosewood). Still deciding whether I want to change the knobs or not.
