Phew Im HERE!! CONGRATS on the sexy beast!! Now the rant lol...sorry...
Awe man...I went and hit copy and paste somewhere and this post is all upside down. Oh well...
I'm THAT GUY who has never tried (or even SEEN in real life) an S2. I don't have anything bad to say about them other than the fact that I get a bad taste in my mouth when PRS or people call them made in the USA when the ONLY North American piece on them (if they have one) is the maple top and that is probably from Canada.?
That's all...I just keep saying they SHOULD make an intermediate line that is, like the Gibby Studios and Standard American Fenders, MADE IN THE USA. And yes, I realize that the hog and rw on a LP and the rw on a Strat aint from NA either. Sorry...this is not a "what an S2 SHOULD be" post.
I have never and would never say they are bad guitars. I am not a USA snob...unless I'm buying something supposedly made in one place when it isn't.
I own USA PRSs. Just about a year ago to the DAY I got my first SE.. It is now my #1 stage axe most of the time. I play an SE and have USA PRSs on stands behind me. They (USA) are spares and altered tuning guitars now. I have NOTHING against the Korean hardware and electronics. Well...I am an idiot and I swap pups on pretty much EVERY PRS I own. I do NOT instantly assume anything MADE in the USA is better than others and I don't assume (even when it SAYS Made in USA) that an American made product is MADE in America. That would be silly.
Now for my legitimate question. I am not playing devil's advocate or trolling...I am genuinely curious ...because if I didn't know the awesome figuring on an SE was just veneer, I would not see the "step up in quality" that the American ones present over the SEs. There is NOTHING on my SE that makes me go..oh yeah well the USA ones are way better at (your item here). The ONLY gripe I have with my SE is the noisy switch. Mine is noisy at times. But my old CE24's vol pot is sketchy too. NO electronics do well around my sweaty self :-(
You (OP) have an SE and an S2. I don't own an S2 to compare..only full blown actual USA PRSs (several). I actually got a second SE just this week in a trade deal and it too qualitywise, I wouldn't know which is the better or more expensive guitar even after playing them (USA vs SE I mean). Until I looked at the nice deep violin carve of the USA tops of course. I guess that would be an indicator? But I swear, I am NOT seeing or feeling any real difference in quality or even workmanship between my USA and SE PRS models.
Other than the woods (the whole cap is figured on the S2s and the SEs are made using fewer pieces of wood) and where they are assembled, is there a difference between the S2 and SE models quality-wise? Again, this is a genuine question not tongue in cheek. What is the difference? Is there something wrong with your SE? Does it have blems or sharp fret ends or something falling off of it (ok THAT was an attempt at humor)?
I really want to know.
I live in a one horse s-hole without a single music store let alone one that carries the S2s. There are some PRSs in stores in the city about 2 hours away and one day I will absolutely try some out. Like I said though, I HONESTLY do NOT see a major (any?) leap in quality between my SEs and core PRSs. They are as beautiful (sans violin carve), feel every bit as good..actually better for me cause I LOVE WT carves and the SEs HAVE em, they play every bit as well as any guitar on the planet including a core PRS, and just like the core models, once you put your favorite pup in them...well I don't notice really ANY leap in quality. Seriously.
Sure most core models come with locking tuners but not all. McCarty models don't. And on an aside, I put lockers on my SE and noticed NO improvement in whammy bar tuning stability. Of course string changes are much much faster but...
And I didn't even "upgrade" the nuts on my SEs. Wanna use fatter strings? widen the slots. NO need to swap the nuts on an SE. I assume the S2s use the same Korean nuts as the S2s? LEAVE IT!!!! Or widen the slots but you don't automatically NEED to swap the nut on every SE...or S2 (yes I can say that without even having ever held one :wink)
OK..thats my ranty question. In a nutshell...please explain the details of how your S2 is a step up in workmanship/quality over your SE. MAYBE the S2s are really THAT that good and ARE way more well made than the SEs...which in my books, would put them well above the core models too because, again again, MY SEs are right up there with the core models as far as build quality, playability and even tone :-O.
And I have to repeat, I have NOTHING against Korean PRSs. In fact I LOVE them and they have honestly forced me to sell-off some USA models I owned...so far. I SWEAR that I wouldn't be shocked if by this time next year I owned ZERO USA PRSs and if I played and owned ONLY PRS SE models. I even know which three would do it all for me. The Tremonti SE Custom I have now, an SE CU24FLOYD and a ZM. I don't even really WANT a ZM and I don't like the WF carves but it's just such an awesome guitar. And I'd still probably have $10K in change left after selling my core models and going with SEs so that would mean a couple of CRAZY amps! I aint even ever TRIED a PRS amp. A testdrive on an SE amp is at the TOP of my hitlist.
CONGRATS again on the NGD Brother. I hope my rant isn't taken the wrong way. I am HONESTLY NOT trying to slam or diss the S2s and I am NOT trying to say owners of them are not highly intelligent or extremely well-endowed. I'm just genuinely curious about the S2's step up in quality over the SE line. AFAIK the only differences are locking tuners, the S2s are built using smaller bits of glued-together wood and the country in which they are assembled? Well and the wood again...the S2 of course uses a slightly figured cap without a cosmetic veneer on it? And, the wood is carved on Japanese CNC machines located in the USA instead of Japanese CNC machines located in Korea? QC and final inspection is all American on all models I believe? To put it another way I suppose it could be said that the ONLY things the SE and S2 have in common is the hardware and electronics.
I just HONESTLY cant even really see/feel/hear much difference in quality between an SE and a Core PRS. Maybe ignorance is bliss and I'm an idiot? Well no maybe about the idiot part but I definitely AM a cheap date.
Congrats.
