PRS SE Wide Thin not so thin

[Hearos]

Well I bought a SE Custom 24 online a couple of weeks ago and had a couple of surprises. First was that it was built in Indonesia and not Korea. One of the reasons I decided to buy the SE was all the glowing reports about the factory in Korea. I had no idea they had moved. Second and more important was the size of the neck. It's a lot thicker than what I'd call a Wide Thin. I measured it with a digital caliper and it was .870 at the 1st fret and 1.064 at the 12th fret.
I don't know if it's just poor production or they went to a fatter neck and forgot to change the description on the guitars. Since they don't give spec's on the SE's I looked up the Core spec's and see that even the Pattern Regular was just .840 at the 1st fret and 950 at the 12th. The Core Pattern Thin was .840 at the 1st fret and .880 at the 12th.

On the bright side the finish is nice and it sounds good. Looks like I'll end up sanding down the neck. If the neck size is really the norm they need to stop calling it a wide and thin.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

There seems to be a lot of discrepancies in newer-ish SE necks, my SE Santana was supposed to be W/F and feels like the W/T on my SECU24.

Personally, I’d be psyched for a bigger neck.

 

[justjoshin]

I thought only the standard models were made in Indonesia.... I had no idea the customs were made there now. I have not heard anything bad about the guitars made there yet. Between my son and I, we have 4 from Korea and I have 1 on the way from Indonesia now. Some great affordable guitars so far.

 

[shinksma]

I thought only the standard models were made in Indonesia.... I had no idea the customs were made there now. I have not heard anything bad about the guitars made there yet.

I have heard a non-zero number of folks grumble about minor finish flaws, necks not feeling right, frets not finished to the same quality as the Korean factory.

I take some of this with a grain of salt - people like to complain about "change" - but it does seem to be perhaps a minor drop in quality from the Korean builds. Which is too bad, because they were very well made, IMHO.

If/when I get a chance to play/buy an Indonesian SE, I will of course offer my honest opinions.

Between my son and I, we have 4 from Korea and I have 1 on the way from Indonesia now. Some great affordable guitars so far.

Do let us know your thoughts when you get it, and compare fit/finish and NVH to your Korean models.

 

[HANGAR18]

For a long time I have been under the impression that the SE series does not give you a choice between thin or thick neck carves and that there is just a "one size fits all" approach... sort of a happy medium. It's not until you get to the core line that you get your choice of three different neck carves.

 

[Hearos]

For a long time I have been under the impression that the SE series does not give you a choice between thin or thick neck carves and that there is just a "one size fits all" approach... sort of a happy medium. It's not until you get to the core line that you get your choice of three different neck carves.

Actually it's suppose to be a wide thin not a one size fits all. What I think happened in Indonesia is they also make the Santana model and they just went ahead and used one of those necks which are suppose to be wide and fat necks. It's a left handed guitar and it also had the wrong volume and tone knobs. Right handed knobs on a left handed guitar. Quality control really dropped the ball with this guitar of mine. I really regret buying it now. If I had known it was from Indonesia I never would have bought it.

 

[Johnny Rigs]

I just sold a Korean made SE Custom 24 Floyd over the weekend. It definitely had a Wide Thin neck. Thinner than all my other PRS guitars, SE or Core.

 

[HANGAR18]

Weird.

 

[Antmax]

I have a wide thin and a wide fat SE. The wide thin is more of a D shape as you get closer to the heel where it gradually flattens out at the apex the wide fat is more C shaped the whole length but not particularly fat/chunky.