PRS hit on a total magical combination in the old artist 3s (Not sure if artist 2s had this option or not) when they added the thicker body, kept the trem, and made them semi hollow as an option. Since I stumbled on one by mistake from Ed Roman (he did not know the guitar was semi hollow as he did not have the spec sheet), but described it to me on the phone as the most resonant PRS he had ever played) he gave me a 24 hr approval, so I took him up on it, and after 3-4 notes, my jaw was on the floor. this guitar was NOT going back to Ed. He was right. Not only was it the most resonant PRS I had ever played, it was the most resonant electric guitar in general I had ever played! I was stunned, and could not understand how this guitar (which i thought to be a solid Artist 3 with trem) could vibrate that much, and be so alive. I thought it was just one of those "stars in alignment" guitars. I had to find out what, if anything, made the guitar so special, so I called PRS and gave them the serial # to get the exact build of that guitar. That is when I found out it was semi hollow, one of not that many made with a trem. I went on an all out mission to find another, and I ended up buying another exactly the same way, which was every bit as good, another lightweight one but a solid body with trem, and another semi hollow but with a stop tail. I had them all side by side for many months, and it was easy to both hear and feel how superior the simi hollow/trem, thicker body was. Amazingly, the semi hollow with stop tail did not have near the magic of the trem models. i believe its the additional routing as well as the tail piece itself, and I NEVER use a trem! Its just that for some reason or another, the combination is magical. Since that time, an Artist III semi hollow/trem has been my #1 electric guitar. I also have a teles and a Strat and 2 jazz guitars for those specific things, but the PRS has ben my #1 and go to guitar. A year or so back, i was made aware of the CU22 semi hollow trem LTD, and had to have one. Sure enough, another magical experience. IMO, these are among, if not the best sounding guitars PRS has made since the old Artist/artist type semi hollow trems. The one difference that makes the older models sound a bit better is the deeper body. The CU22 is the same depth as the solidbodys, while the older Artist bodys were around 1/2 inch thicker, and you can feel and hear it. I now have 2 PSs semi hollow/trem Artist 3s (1 Indian Rosewood and 1 brazilian Rosewood neck) and have an order in for a 3rd with a mahogany neck being buit right now. These guitars are the ONLY electric guitars I know that can do totally convincing big body jazz guitar tones on the neck pup clean, to over the top Sabbath heavy tones on the bridge pup with a heavy gain tone. They can also do all points in between with the splitting positions, and do them really well. being the official PRS forum, I figure this would be a good place to post this, and maybe it would filter up to management for consideration. I think making the semi hollow/trem/thicker body option available with the CU 22 artist packs, or releasing a guitar like that would be a great addition to their lineup. I am not aware of any model with that option at this time.
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