PRS SE Holcomb Players... what do you think?

[Gnarmageddon]

I happened across a very lightly used one for a decent price. I have never owned an SE but it seems like the general consensus is they're great for the price, and even better if you drop a few bucks more on upgraded tuners, nut, etc.

Very tempting - the 25.5 scale and pickups are arguably a better fit for my playing style. Going to try it out in more depth, but I'm interested in anyone's hot take on it.

 

[show_a_little_faith]

I'm very happy with mine, and haven't even felt the need to upgrade anything on it (although mine was new, depending on how yours was treated by it's previous owner...)
I play a fair amount of songs tuned down a whole step, and the longer scale works great (along with heavier gauge strings) for that. I also like the really flat radius - a definite change from the usual 10" on the rest of my PRS's. And the pickups are great too - again, pretty different from my other guitars, but if they all sounded the same then what would be the point of having multiple guitars? They're clear, loud, and the split option is pretty useful too. Throw some high gain on, and they really rip.
I'd say go for it - I have a couple of Cores, and several SE's and I really like all of them. Bottom line, if you enjoy playing it, I think you won't regret buying it

 

[alantig]

Yeah, you're not going to get me to talk you out of it. When I bought mine new, the pickups were worth almost half the cost of the guitar. I haven't upgraded anything on mine - haven't felt the need. I've left it downtuned in drop C in a futile effort to force myself to get comfortable with (essentially) drop D. The splits are very usable, and the range of tones are wider than you might expect from a 'metal' signature guitar.

On the other hand, it's never sounded quite as good as the night I bought it when this guy Brian and PRSh know demoed it...

 

[Gnarmageddon]

So the fretboard is really just FLAT? That's crazy. I'm gonna have to really sit and get deep with it. Beautiful looking instrument and you're right, why have more than 2 of the same guitar? I love my CE24, but an extra .5" of scale length would definitely help on the low b string in my setup.

 

[Ovibos]

So the fretboard is really just FLAT?

Not only that, the frets are on the tall side.

I loved the look, sound, feel of the satin neck and comfy bridge - but no matter how hard I tried to, I could not vibe with the fretboard and I sold mine.

I kept pushing notes sharp, and looking down at it the fretboard almost looked concave to me.

 

[bodia]

I had to get rid of mine. The only PRS neck profile that made my hand/forearm sore.

 

[show_a_little_faith]

So the fretboard is really just FLAT? That's crazy. I'm gonna have to really sit and get deep with it. Beautiful looking instrument and you're right, why have more than 2 of the same guitar? I love my CE24, but an extra .5" of scale length would definitely help on the low b string in my setup.

It's a 20" radius. For comparison, most Ibanez are 15.75", PRS standard is 10" (excluding Silver Sky, and I think some others), Gibson is usually 12". Lower number = more round, higher numbers = flatter.
So while it's technically not perfectly flat, but yeah, definitely pretty...flat, especially if you don't usually play anything like it. But personally, I don't mind it, I think it's very "fast", if that makes sense. Again, not necessarily a jack-of-all-trades guitar, but for certain styles of playing it's awesome, I think.