What SE should I buy?

Falko83

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Hi guys,

I know this question has been asked a lot, but as everyone is different and you are the PRS experts, please bear with me.

I have played a lot from 15-20yo. I used to play metal, and had an Ibanez.

Well, I'm back into playing (31yo), and I need to buy a new guitar. I already own a Stratocaster type (brazilian made, with Seymour Duncans), and I believe that the best suit for me would be a PRS SE. I just can't afford the american made ones, and the SEs seems pretty solid from everything I read. BTW, an SE here will go for something around U$1400 to U$1700, so it won't be cheap.

What I usually play: some metal (Metallica, Maiden, a little bit of Pantera, Helloween, Ozzy, Megadeth), hard rock (Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Guns n Roses, Mr Big, Extreme, etc) and also rock/blues (basically a John Mayer fan). Also: I have small hands.

From what I saw (without playing it, as I don't have easy access to PRS guitars here, so would probably have to buy online), my current favorites are the SE Tremonti Custom, the SE Zach Myers and the SE C24.

Am I on the right path? What would you advise regarding SEs and given my playing preferences?

Thanks!

p.s.: sorry for any english mistakes, as it is not my first language.
 
PRS SE Fredrik Akesson. Same as the other SE's but you get a thicker body, an adjustable Tonepros bridge and an ebony fretboard. I have small hands and used to have a thin necked "shredder" Ibanez S670 (I never really liked the neck on that). I was basically after a nice solid PRS with no trem (just another thing to put you out of tune). The SE line seemed the ideal price point and the difference between the Ibanez and PRS is like night and day. The SE is so much more playable and the thick neck feels much better in my hands rather than the skinny flat Ibanez. I couldn't be happier.
 
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Ooh, tough one. If you have small hands, you may like the wide/thin neck of the Tremonti or the Custom 24. The Custom would feel a bit closer to the Strat and the Tremonti would give you a different feel and probably a slightly thicker tone.
 
The SE Tremonti is listed as having a wide/fat neck although the SE Tremonti Custom has a wide/thin and the Tremonto Signature has a pattern/thin...
 
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Hi guys, from what I saw my current favorites are the SE Tremonti Custom, the SE Zach Myers and the SE C24.

Am I on the right path? What would you advise regarding SEs and given my playing preferences?

Thanks!

p.s.: sorry for any english mistakes, as it is not my first language.



Dude . . . your English is great if it's not your native language. Great. No worries there.

I have both of these guitars and dig them both immensely. I purchased both of them in the last couple months. I got the SE Tremonti Custom in black/grey flame first and it is an awesome guitar. It sounds, feels, and plays more than great thru my Marshall DSL40C combo or my Marshall DSL100H head and new Avatar cabinet I ordered in the "Vintage" style in all black, including black "Avatar" lettering and the "bluesbreaker" style cabinet with gold piping outlining the valance above the black speaker grill. It's loaded with two Eminence "Swamp Thang" speakers and is obviously a two twelve. This rig rocks, to say the least, but I mostly play the combo because it's right next to my bed and I mainly recline and play, quite leisurely.

The Tremonti Custom is a real nice guitar and has a very strong sound and a very comfortable feel. I play it approximately every other day.

The SE Custom 24 was my next buy and it is vintage yellow, which is totally stunning. This one is totally stock except that I installed raw nickel/silver pickup covers on the pickups and they look great and give the guitar a completely different and improved vibe. This guitar sounds quite different from the Tremonti Custom, maybe brighter, but they both sound great.

My personal view of the situation is that you could approach this dilemma by applying some historical perspective. Since the SE Custom 24 is a model based on the first successfully produced and marketed PRS, it would be a good starting point, and the guitar has a lot of the classic elements that started PRS out as a success, including the body style and twin humbuckers. It would be wise to figure that the modern SE version has a lot of modern improvisations and design changes, possibly even refinements compared to those early successful models. It certainly is a remarkable guitar with the great sounding stock HFS and Treble pickups and the coil tapping and three way blade switch. The tremolo system on both guitars is very nice.

I like the SE Custom 24 so much that I jumped on the Sweetwater black Friday sale and got a beautiful flamed maple top tobacco sunburst version of this same guitar for less than four bills and I already put my extra set of raw nickel silver pickup covers on it. It is probably my favorite guitar of all my guitars - American Gibsons and Fenders included (also very great guitars).

The Custom 24 has a feel that is just fabulous, in my hand, and a sound that is more than very satisfying thru a good amp. It would be more than a wonderful starting point for anyone interested in getting into PRS guitars.

Either way you decide, you are going to make out well. Taking the historical trajectory could be a very interesting approach.

If you get the Custom 24 my personal advice would be to get the black/grey flame top. It is a deep black with a greenish grey underlying tone, but very black. It's a super cool looking singlecut. A new one straight out of the box from one of the big internet places would be sure to have not been raped by a multitude of adolescent guitar center passers by, incidentally.

Both are cool and the Custom 24 has the classic body lines of a very classy superstrat. It is available in some awesome colors like the vintage orange and vintage sunburst, etc.

Good luck with your decision.

Don't forget to get a real decent tube amp if you don't have one. Something like a Fender Blues Junior or Super Champ XD/X2 would be great items to start with. The Marshall DSL40C combo like mine, I can verify would be a super nice amp to have.
 
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Thank you very much for your input guys.

Yesterday I came across a GREAT youtube video, a roundup between 10 PRS (5 american, 5 SEs, including the custom 24, the Zach Myers and the Tremonti). Amp with the same settings for every guitar, similar riffs with every guitar.

From all of them, I really liked the sound of the Zach Myers. It sounded a little more "alive" than the Tremonti (however that is not the Custom Tremonti) and the Custom 24. Tough call. But what really made my jaw drop was that there wasn't THAT big of a difference sounding wise from the SEs to the american models (at least to my ears or my headphones - well, it is a youtube video, but hey...). That blew my mind.

Here is the video, if you have not seen it yet - and also for future reference for prospective SE buyers.


As for the amps, I'll buy one. I'm looking into a small 5W tube (also there are some 15W options, but I would prefer a 5W as I would only be using it in my home to practice and perhaps recording). Marshall DSL5C, Blackstar HT5R, Orange Tiny Terror, VOX AC15C1, Egnater Tweaker 15W are all in the mix. Haven't decided yet. And one little monster (non tube) that has really caught my attention was the Yamaha THR10X - the recorded sound is just pure awesomeness. Not sure about the "real" sound though.
 
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For metal, I would suggest an SE custom 24 with or without floyd... Zack Myers sounds brighter due to its semi hollow body.
 
A couple of interesting videos here.

 
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My last guitar before moving to the PRS Fredrik Akesson was a Ibanez with wizard neck and a floyd rose trem. No regrets from having made the swap, the PRS is the best guitar I've owned. The scale length suits me perfectly as does the neck shape, I have fairly small fingers and so far this is the most comfortable guitar I've played.
 
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