New PRS SE Custom 22 Semi-Hollow. One of the nicest guitars I've ever played, honestly, including some very nice USA guitars. This one is from the South Korean production facility (World Musical Instrument CO.) that PRS has been using for quite some time.
Neck is awesome, fretwork beautifully done and very polished/smooth, body looks flawless and finish is the same. Superb low action, right out of the box. Neck and frets feel exceptionally well-done!
And, most importantly... tone: with the single-coil selector set to single-coil, the 85/15 “S” pickups give magnificent tones! I'm not much of a fan of the wooly humbucker tones, they just aren't as clear and detailed and sparkly as I like. But with the coils-spilt - WOW, this guitar totally changes character and sounds fantastic.
Also, I thought that the zebra-colored humbucker bobbins looked a bit psychotic and the cream colored trim rings looked a little weak.
If I could easily change all the bobbins to be all black, or to all creme, I would not have covered the pickups. But black and creme mixed just doesn't look right to me.
So... I put some covers on the pickups and switched to black rings. Here's how she looks now:
Humbucker trim ring screw mounting spacing is USA/Gibson standard (not metric, which has wider spacing). And... I guess I need a black switch tip! (Got one in the parts bin.)
Rosewood fretboard is so dark, it almost looks like ebony! (No Pau Ferro for PRS yet, I guess.)
If I were to do any more mods to this guitar it would be to install some TV Jones TV-HT Hilo'tron pickups, which have an amazing detailed, sparkly, clarity. But honestly, with the coils split on these PRS pickups... the tones are really quite pleasing to me (as a single-coil tone lover.)
It's quite astounding how nice these PRS SE guitars can be. For a very reasonable price ($704 at Sweetwater with a 15% discount)
Neck is awesome, fretwork beautifully done and very polished/smooth, body looks flawless and finish is the same. Superb low action, right out of the box. Neck and frets feel exceptionally well-done!
And, most importantly... tone: with the single-coil selector set to single-coil, the 85/15 “S” pickups give magnificent tones! I'm not much of a fan of the wooly humbucker tones, they just aren't as clear and detailed and sparkly as I like. But with the coils-spilt - WOW, this guitar totally changes character and sounds fantastic.
Also, I thought that the zebra-colored humbucker bobbins looked a bit psychotic and the cream colored trim rings looked a little weak.
If I could easily change all the bobbins to be all black, or to all creme, I would not have covered the pickups. But black and creme mixed just doesn't look right to me.
So... I put some covers on the pickups and switched to black rings. Here's how she looks now:
Humbucker trim ring screw mounting spacing is USA/Gibson standard (not metric, which has wider spacing). And... I guess I need a black switch tip! (Got one in the parts bin.)
Rosewood fretboard is so dark, it almost looks like ebony! (No Pau Ferro for PRS yet, I guess.)
If I were to do any more mods to this guitar it would be to install some TV Jones TV-HT Hilo'tron pickups, which have an amazing detailed, sparkly, clarity. But honestly, with the coils split on these PRS pickups... the tones are really quite pleasing to me (as a single-coil tone lover.)
It's quite astounding how nice these PRS SE guitars can be. For a very reasonable price ($704 at Sweetwater with a 15% discount)
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I had a wine red LP Studio that had zebras and I kind of liked them! Just not so much on this vintage violin colored SE Custom.
