As you know, I picked up a CE24 from the guys at Total Entertainment in Daytona Beach FL. I traded in my MC58 as it was a guitar I felt had limitations when it came to certain styles of music I enjoy playing. That guitar was awesome. It just wasn't for me in the end. I'm going to give you an honest mature review of the CE. There is the good, but there is ugly as well and I'm going to give you in depth explanations of all.
Construction & Quality of materials: The body is a carved flamed maple top on 1 piece quartersawn mahogany back. The mahogany back is clear finished and is one of the best looking pieces of non figured mahogany I have ever seen. The trampas green stained flame maple top has a pleasant even broad figuring. PRS has upped their game on the maple grade for these bodies as compared to the previous generation of CE's. This cannot be understated as maple stops from the prior generation of CE's stunk. The total body thickness is 1 5/8". 1 3/16" for the back and 7/16" for the top. The top retains a typical PRS double cut carve but is shallower and the perimeter lip is almost non-existent. The body binding is natural and very clean per usual PRS quality. The neck is 3 piece flat sawn maple in pattern thin carve. This is a departure from the 1 piece quartersawn maple necks of the prior generation. The fretboard is a high grade Indian rosewood with plastic birds. Phase 2 locking tuners. 85/15 pickups with core electronics and McCarty switching. SE tremolo. The tremolo is where I have to knock the grade of this guitar down a bit. It literally sticks out like a sore thumb. You have a guitar loaded with high quality components and then there is this thing which has unplated rough cast zinc saddles and a very dainty and petite tremolo bar. For any person that uses the tremolo regularly, the bar alone makes the unit near useless. I have trouble gripping it with a dry hand in a controlled environment. Nevermind a sweaty hand outside. As a performance tool, the SE tremolo unit does not belong on this guitar. This is especially evident when Music Man guitars in this price range come with a precision machined Schaller made tremolo unit with all high quality plated parts. Some with a brass block too. Fender Elites come with a high quality unit as well. Shame on PRS for this.
Fit and Finish: Typical PRS quality in every regard. Unlike the S2 series, the CE gets a typical super tough PRS dipped in glass finish. The natural body binding is well defined with no rough edges. Frets are perfectly finished. Even though the neck is a 3 piece, PRS does a great job not making this obvious, especially at the scarf joint. I had to really look for it. Typical core quality fit and finish all the way around.
Sound: I do like the 85/15 pickups. They are balanced, have some bite, are defined in the low end, and sing in the high end. The bridge pickup reminds me of a more subdued Duncan Custom 5.. It appears PRS learned from the shortcomings of the 57/08's and 59/09 to deliver pickups that are not overly bassy like a 57/08 and not raspy like the 59/09's could get. They handle gain fairly well, unlike prior generations of the vintage voiced pickups. If I have a complaint, its the bridge pickup could be a bit hotter. That is my personal taste though. I really like my bridge pickup to push the amp. I have no complaints about the neck pickup. It's perfect.
Factory Setup: I have to rant a bit on this. The setup was not good. I suspect the nut is binding, which you never ever see on a factory fresh PRS guitar. The birth date of the guitar is roughly 2 weeks before I purchased so it's not the fault of the store. If you pull the tremolo sharp a half tone, it will not return to equilibrium without help. It will return a 1/4 tone sharp. So, that tends to scream nut slots to me. The tremolo saddle heights were not correct with the bass side being overly high. The lower frets buzz which requires a truss adjustment I have yet to make. The truss adjustment is normal but I've never had to adjust one out of the factory, even on PRS guitars shipped across country. I can let this go, but I cannot let inability to hold tune go. Whether it's the nut, the tremolo, or both, PRS should not let a guitar go out of the factory that cannot retain tuning.
Accessories: Gig bag. This is mildly disappointing. You get a hard case with most of the guitars in this price range. You get a case with a $1300 Fender. PRS couldn't come up with a cheap molded plastic case for these? It's not a $800 Schecter. Case, please.
Overall: Judging the stock instrument and the way I received it, I have to give the new CE a B- for a grade. Once I get the setup issues figured out and install a proper tremolo unit, the guitar will no doubt register a grade of A with me and I'll have it forever. PRS just cut 1 too many corners to achieve the targeted price point, in my opinion. It's a shame because the CE could have been an absolute home run. If I may make a suggestion to PRS, release another tier of CE or give it an artist pack option. This way people can pay to get a CE with a full thickness top, a 1 piece neck, and a proper PRS tremolo.
Construction & Quality of materials: The body is a carved flamed maple top on 1 piece quartersawn mahogany back. The mahogany back is clear finished and is one of the best looking pieces of non figured mahogany I have ever seen. The trampas green stained flame maple top has a pleasant even broad figuring. PRS has upped their game on the maple grade for these bodies as compared to the previous generation of CE's. This cannot be understated as maple stops from the prior generation of CE's stunk. The total body thickness is 1 5/8". 1 3/16" for the back and 7/16" for the top. The top retains a typical PRS double cut carve but is shallower and the perimeter lip is almost non-existent. The body binding is natural and very clean per usual PRS quality. The neck is 3 piece flat sawn maple in pattern thin carve. This is a departure from the 1 piece quartersawn maple necks of the prior generation. The fretboard is a high grade Indian rosewood with plastic birds. Phase 2 locking tuners. 85/15 pickups with core electronics and McCarty switching. SE tremolo. The tremolo is where I have to knock the grade of this guitar down a bit. It literally sticks out like a sore thumb. You have a guitar loaded with high quality components and then there is this thing which has unplated rough cast zinc saddles and a very dainty and petite tremolo bar. For any person that uses the tremolo regularly, the bar alone makes the unit near useless. I have trouble gripping it with a dry hand in a controlled environment. Nevermind a sweaty hand outside. As a performance tool, the SE tremolo unit does not belong on this guitar. This is especially evident when Music Man guitars in this price range come with a precision machined Schaller made tremolo unit with all high quality plated parts. Some with a brass block too. Fender Elites come with a high quality unit as well. Shame on PRS for this.
Fit and Finish: Typical PRS quality in every regard. Unlike the S2 series, the CE gets a typical super tough PRS dipped in glass finish. The natural body binding is well defined with no rough edges. Frets are perfectly finished. Even though the neck is a 3 piece, PRS does a great job not making this obvious, especially at the scarf joint. I had to really look for it. Typical core quality fit and finish all the way around.
Sound: I do like the 85/15 pickups. They are balanced, have some bite, are defined in the low end, and sing in the high end. The bridge pickup reminds me of a more subdued Duncan Custom 5.. It appears PRS learned from the shortcomings of the 57/08's and 59/09 to deliver pickups that are not overly bassy like a 57/08 and not raspy like the 59/09's could get. They handle gain fairly well, unlike prior generations of the vintage voiced pickups. If I have a complaint, its the bridge pickup could be a bit hotter. That is my personal taste though. I really like my bridge pickup to push the amp. I have no complaints about the neck pickup. It's perfect.
Factory Setup: I have to rant a bit on this. The setup was not good. I suspect the nut is binding, which you never ever see on a factory fresh PRS guitar. The birth date of the guitar is roughly 2 weeks before I purchased so it's not the fault of the store. If you pull the tremolo sharp a half tone, it will not return to equilibrium without help. It will return a 1/4 tone sharp. So, that tends to scream nut slots to me. The tremolo saddle heights were not correct with the bass side being overly high. The lower frets buzz which requires a truss adjustment I have yet to make. The truss adjustment is normal but I've never had to adjust one out of the factory, even on PRS guitars shipped across country. I can let this go, but I cannot let inability to hold tune go. Whether it's the nut, the tremolo, or both, PRS should not let a guitar go out of the factory that cannot retain tuning.
Accessories: Gig bag. This is mildly disappointing. You get a hard case with most of the guitars in this price range. You get a case with a $1300 Fender. PRS couldn't come up with a cheap molded plastic case for these? It's not a $800 Schecter. Case, please.
Overall: Judging the stock instrument and the way I received it, I have to give the new CE a B- for a grade. Once I get the setup issues figured out and install a proper tremolo unit, the guitar will no doubt register a grade of A with me and I'll have it forever. PRS just cut 1 too many corners to achieve the targeted price point, in my opinion. It's a shame because the CE could have been an absolute home run. If I may make a suggestion to PRS, release another tier of CE or give it an artist pack option. This way people can pay to get a CE with a full thickness top, a 1 piece neck, and a proper PRS tremolo.
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. So while I can't completely agree with your assessment that all the old tops "stunk", I can say I haven't seen a new CE thats top hasn't looked really nice.
