Ordered an SE, disappointed

PRSnewb said:
This was my hypothesis as well. Around 2017 when they started all the cosmetic (and pickup) upgrades to the se standard 24 I thought, holy crap! That’s an amazing deal!

But after spending time with it, I would trade all that cosmetic stuff for a guitar that feels of higher quality. Now, this standard is the only SE PRS I’ve spent time with. If I played a few more models I might come to the conclusion that this particular guitar, or even model, is not like the others.

As for Korean prs, I’ve heard FAR too many good things over the years. I have to believe the quality is great on those.
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I kinda feel the sweet spot (for me) is anything from about 2004-2012.
 
Seriously, Mike...It's been a while...Welcome back, King of all things Bernie!!
My 2 cents (probably worth just that!!!)...I have 3 SE's, all Korean, and they rock. (Mushok Bari, Soap II, and One) (Action, sound, looks, etc...) I've altered all 3 a little. :D:eek:
I've played a few of the more recent Indo-made , and for me, I can tell a slight difference in quality. (Blindfolded, maybe not, possibly in my head??)
BUT...They always say you get what you pay for...so I kinda expect a little less. (This topic has been re-puked many times on here, sorry for the redundancy)

And side note: I've attempted MANY times to post photos, and yes, I still have issues with it. :confused::confused:
My son and his girlfriend have offered a weekend to assist me sometime soon.
So, until then, my Hello Kitty collection will remain just that...;):D
 
Mikegarveyblues said:
Now you’re talking!

Not had a chance to play any of the SE’s of the last few years but my Bernie is one hell of a guitar! No frills, just a straight up rock machine.
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Hey bud, great to hear from you. Hope you, and yours, are doing well.
 
I’ve only had 2 SE’s 1. a WM Santana, which was a great guitar. I swapped the bridge, pups, electronics, nut, and tuners...it sounds and plays as good as a core. 2. A WM SE One, which I put a Paul’s pup in it, core electronics, nut and locking tuners. It too, plays and sounds as good as a core. I had played a ton of SE’s before I bought them, and it was years between each purchase. My advice is always, play it before you buy it... I’ve bought and returned so many guitars to online retailers, that I hate dealing with them. I have a “home store” that I do most of my buying and selling through, so unless something really catches my eye, I stick with them.
Sorry for the long winded diatribe, but my point is this: the two SE’s that I bought, (and still own, btw ) had “great bones”!) I had to play about 10-15 SE’s to find “the one”. Truth be told, I’ve had to go through that same process with several American made guitars as well, but never had to play more than 3, or so to find a good one. So my advice is, play a bunch of guitars and learn how to identify the good ones from the not so good ones. You’d be surprised how quickly you’ll learn to spot the losers. With PRS core, you can’t go wrong..same with several other manufacturers core and custom shop lines. The old adage is true: experience is the best teacher...and, you get what you pay for.
 
Geo408 said:
I’ve only had 2 SE’s 1. a WM Santana, which was a great guitar. I swapped the bridge, pups, electronics, nut, and tuners...it sounds and plays as good as a core. 2. A WM SE One, which I put a Paul’s pup in it, core electronics, nut and locking tuners. It too, plays and sounds as good as a core. I had played a ton of SE’s before I bought them, and it was years between each purchase. My advice is always, play it before you buy it... I’ve bought and returned so many guitars to online retailers, that I hate dealing with them. I have a “home store” that I do most of my buying and selling through, so unless something really catches my eye, I stick with them.
Sorry for the long winded diatribe, but my point is this: the two SE’s that I bought, (and still own, btw ) had “great bones”!) I had to play about 10-15 SE’s to find “the one”. Truth be told, I’ve had to go through that same process with several American made guitars as well, but never had to play more than 3, or so to find a good one. So my advice is, play a bunch of guitars and learn how to identify the good ones from the not so good ones. You’d be surprised how quickly you’ll learn to spot the losers. With PRS core, you can’t go wrong..same with several other manufacturers core and custom shop lines. The old adage is true: experience is the best teacher...and, you get what you pay for.
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But I guess the thing with PRS guitars, including SE's, is that you didn't have to play a bunch of them to find 'The One', but that the quality control and manufacturing consistency meant you could trust that any PRS guitar you played was going to be great. I feel like that reputation has slipped lately. (And yes, I own 4 SE guitars, both Korean and Indonesian).
 
Geo408 said:
I had to play about 10-15 SE’s to find “the one”.
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Hmmm. That hasn’t been my experience. SEs, S2s, Cores — they all seem consistent to me. PRS is the one brand I feel safe buying without playing first.

To be fair, haven’t tried any Indonesian Cor-Tek SEs, so I really can’t speak about them from experience.
 
PRSnewb said:
I’m glad you like it, I just watched a few videos on this guitar. Most liked it. One guy wasn’t a fan lol Had some choice words, kind of hard to understand everything with his thick accent. Oh well. Can’t please everyone.

I 100% am going to buy a core PRS. I think it would be foolish on my part to use my experience with a $500 Indonesian guitar as the basis to judge a $3700 American guitar. I wanted this se Standard 24 because 1) it looked cool as ****, tobacco burst with birds, binding, zebras, etc but mostly 2) to get a basic feel of PRS scale length and 24 frets.

I would hope people wouldn’t steer away from fender American because they had a bad experience with squire. I think people thought I was here to bash PRS. I was actually trying to give a blunt, honest assessment of the se guitar I received. I don’t blame PRS for that anymore than I blame Music Man if I had problems with a Sterling. It’s their budget line, I get that. It’s their cheapest model, I get that.

But I was convinced it was going to be much better than other things I have that are quite less expensive.
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It's cool that you expressed your opinion in your first post. There are just people on here that get butt hurt easily when complaining about PRS :D
I thought your first post was fine. Enjoy the Core when you receive it!
You actually are making me think twice about buying the new SE Custom 24 35th Anniversary Limited Edition Faded Blue Burst that's coming out.
 
I'll email PRS today and ask them where the SE Anniversary models are being made.
 
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Looking at pictures of one on Reverb, the back of the headstock says Cor-Tek, Indonesia.
 
I looked them up. The SE 30th Anniversary are made in Indonesia. The SE sandblasted Swamp Ash are made in Korea. I believe all the roasted maple were/are made in Korea. There was a special run of roasted maple custom 22’s done by Washington Music Center, also done in Korea.
 
Welcome to the forum, PRSnewb, and so sorry about the damage to your SE. In my experience, that's definitely not the norm for anything PRS but, hey, stuff does happen, right?

I own three Korean SEs, and they are absolutely fine guitars, pretty much right up there with just about anything else I own, with no apologies whenever I play them: a great ZM with Duncan Antiquities, a magical older Santana, and a nicely fat and snarling CU22 Semi I'd purposely bought in order to swap the pickups with some Duncans I own. (Nope. Not gonna happen!) Anyway, the *only* issue I've ever had with any of them is (as noted earlier upstream) that the 3-way PU toggles will occasionally crap out, intermittently enough that I did eventually decide to have one consistent repeat offender replaced on the Santana, although they'd each still usually be mostly workable. (If I were currently gigging any of them, I would definitely have all those 3-ways replaced, though.)

I also own two S2s, a Reclaimed Vela Semi and a Studio 22 model (the HSS with a 5-way blade switch); the Reclaimed Vela uses (unless I'm mistaken) the same 3-way (SE) toggle that my MIK SEs utilize, and it's also been not quite 100% reliable. IME, the Korean 3-way toggles simply aren't up to the usual PRS reputation for quality... and THAT is my only negative criticism of the MIK SEs. IME and IMO, of course.

Honestly, I haven't gotten around to trying any Indonesian PRSes, but I do own three Indonesian Yamahas—a Revstar 502 and two upper-end 600-level Pacificas. Zero issues, great guitars all, save for cheaper-feeling push-pulls on the two more recent ones—but they still function flawlessly and they all play and sound fantastic. There's also my Indonesian Ibanez AZ242 Premium that is super high-quality all around, too. Anyway, going by my experience here, I'd generally assume that Indonesian quality can and should be assumed as being very good-to-excellent, although yeah, stuff does obviously happen. Again, all IME and IMO.

My (ahem) several Core PRSes have *zero* issues, and I would simply recommend to the OP to just get a Core and skip the try-and-see-up-the-ladder approach. You won't be sorry. My 2¢. :)
 
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