PRS SE General Observations

[uglyvw]

In the interest of rebuilding some information on this site, I would like everyone to chime in with there impressions of the PRS SE line in general.

I have a couple of these and I've been very impressed with both. Mine are an older model singlecut, and newer Zach Myers model. Both of mine are the Korean made models and I rank them at the top of any of the imports. I picked up both of mine used, but they were both in new condition, so I can't really speak for out of the box setups.

Fit and finish were pretty much flawless on each. The ZM model has a really nice factory satin finished neck that is silky smooth and very fast feeling. The singlecut had a flawless gloss finish, but got the old scothbrite treatment simply because the gloss felt a little sticky to me. Both of mine have beautiful tops, but I was able to pick them out. I have seen a lot that were less than great as far as the matching of flamed tops. Both of mine have flawless fretwork and rolled edge fretboards, with zero filler in the inlays.

Both are specd out like top shelf instruments. Solid mahogany body with full maple cap and flamed veneer, exposed maple binding, one piece mahogany neck, rosewood board. They do both have the beveled top instead of the full carve on the core models if that is an issue. The singlecut has a thinner body, while the ZM has a full thickness chambered body.

Hardware is very nice on both. Tuners are top notch prs branded and I had no need to change them. The nuts on both appear to be graphite and were cut perfectly. I left it alone on the singlecut, but cut my own bone nut for the ZM just for preference. I had no tuning issues with either though. The singlecut has the one piece wrap around bridge that is cast I'm sure, but very nicely finished and intonates properly. It did have a little play on the posts which I fixed with locking posts. The ZM has a very nice wrap around bridge with brass saddles. No issues here, but I added locking posts just because I like them so well.

Electronics are good and perfectly usable. The wiring on both is very neatly done, full sized pots, and a nice solid jack. The switch is not one of the closed box units and works fine, but is a little loose and wiggly feeling. It's the same on both. The pickups in both are G&B labeled 4 wire alnico 5 I believe. I singlecut pickups sound like most other G&B pickups, good but not amazing. The zebra pickups in the ZM model are a step above though, they are actually pretty nice and articulate sounding. I changed them in that guitar but put them in an Agile LP.

Overall, I think they are absolutely top tier Korean guitars and both of mine are keepers. The only real issue is that they are priced at the top end of the import range. The used market is where these things really shine, that's when you feel like you truly stole a high end instrument.

Sorry for the long post, I've just been playing a lot more over the last few months and the more I play these two, the more they become my go to guitars. The wide fat neck profile was odd at first, but I've really come to feel at home with it.

[aullucci]

This is a great review. I wish I had more to add, but I've never owned one. I will say, a buddy of mine has one of the Mark Tremonti SE models from maybe 4 or 5 years ago and that's a great guitar. I've only played it a few times but it feels great and looks like the business. And my buddy uses it mostly for jazz, which probably shouldn't make sense, but sounds great.

[MattFireblade]

I've been gassing for either the 6 or 7 string Holcomb model for a year or so now and this definitely doesn't make it any better.

[BrianSkeezer]

I concur with your assessment of the World Music PRS SE line guitars! They are top notch instruments. I played one at my local store, an SE245 in Whale Blue, that I loved, but all in it was $720. It played very well, felt and looked great, but I didn't want to put out that much at the time and this store sill not work with anyone on price. I started looking online and found an Indonesian 2018 for $425. The flame veneer isn't anywhere near as nice as the Korean one, but it feels and sounds just as great. The switch on mine doesn't have the feel that you described with yours, it's perfect. I also love the wide/fat neck profile of the neck. My zebra pickups (I forgot how they labeled them) are pretty good to my ears, I get very pleasing feedback at the ends of chords and the harmonic undertones are wonderful. Mine also has the S2 wraparound that your Zack Meyers has and I haven't put the locking posts on because it really doesn't need them. The only change on it that I did was put on the bonnet style knobs from my AL3100MC because I liked them on this more than the speed knobs. I also want to put in push/pulls to split the coils to see if I like it, but I haven't yet.

[RiverDog]

I've owned 3 and never bonded with any of them.

I first bought a Dave Navarro SE because I fell in love with how it looked. It played nicely but was nothing to write home about. I thought the stock pickups were kinda dull-sounding and I came to hate the trem. I couldn't get the guitar to stay in tune, even after swapping out the tuners so I sold it.

Next I acquired a Marty Friedman SE sig guitar which I liked pretty well at first, but after I spent time with it I decided it was just kinda meh overall and I sold it.

The last was an SE One which I wanted to love but again, I just didn't bond with it. I traded a Deluxe Players Strat for that one, which was a big mistake.

I'd love to get my hands on a Bernie Marsden model, as I've read great reviews about them. Maybe one day.

[toomanycats]

I own one PRS SE, and it's the only one I've ever owned. I've have however played others at music stores and pawn shops.

It's often said that PRS guitars are lifeless, and I've gotta say that I don't totally disagree with that. Most that I've played don't have that open, airy, breathy, alive sound that you hear in a better Gibson. They actually remind me of . . . and I'm digging myself deeper into a hole with many people here who are fans of both these brands . . . an Agile AL-3XXX. If you love an Agile AL-3XXX, then you'll probably dig a typical PRS SE.

Now we come to the subject of my own PRS SE, which is one of the early Korina models with abalone dot inlays instead of birds and no neck binding. This guitar is all killer and no filler. It sings like my Custom Shop Gibson Les Paul, for real. It certainly doesn't hurt that the previous owner installed a Dimarzio Mojo in the bridge, a Gibson Burstbucker 1 in the neck, and upgraded the wiring harness including a vintage old stock Sprague Vitamin Q capacitor. This is truly a special PRS SE. YMMV.

[Razzle]

I had a PRS SE Custom 24 in Trans Purple Quilt. I thought it was a fine guitar, I agree with a lot your points in your review. I sold it for two reasons:
1. The neck, I couldn't bond with the neck, it seemed a bit wide for my liking
2. The tremolo, it would never stay in tune

For a while there I was looking for a floyd model but for some reason they were way more expensive and not readily available. I guess the biggest reason was that even though I could get one to stay in tune (floyd) I still would have not been able to bond with the neck profile.

I thought it was very well made, had a perfect finish, and had a really nice purple color (which didn't suffer from fuscia FWP syndrome).

[DonM]

I have two, an Orange Flame Santana and a Yellow Flame Singlecut. I love them both and play them a lot. They are very well made, look fabulous, and are extremely playable.

[Flatline]

I have a Se Custom 24 in trampas green. It’s a 2018 model. One of the early made in Indonesia. When I bought it online I didn’t realize they had moved from Korea to Indonesia.

I did have an issue with a high fret that had to be taken care of to get the action dialed in without fret buzz on the high E and B strings around the 8-12 frets.

I’ve been playing it more recently and it plays great. I prefer my MIA strat as far as feel and playability, but my SE gets regular play in my rotation.

[mighty_duck]

I only had one indonesian SE CU24 (vs 3 Korean ones). Mine was every bit as good a player as its Korean cousins. There were a couple of differences:
1. The neck was thicker on the Indonesian - almost like a PRS pattern regular neck.
2. Top wasn't as good
3. Top bevel wasn't as deep.

If the top wasn't so off putting, I would have kept it, if only for the lovely neck shape.

[mkgearhead]

My first SE was a white Soapbar II. I would've kept it, but I needed cash at the time and was able to sell it for 2 1/2 times what I paid for it. My current SE is a 2012 Custom semi hollow. I traded a Fender Modern Player Tele Plus for it. It's a fantastic guitar I see no reason to change anything on it. I also have 2 Harley Benton PRS copies and they're very nice as well.

[MrM0964]

I've owned close to a dozen SEs, all Korea World Music, and they were all great. Slap on some mini Grover locking tuners and nothing else was needed. I had a SE245, an older flat top custom 24 with McCarty switching, a newer custom 24 with blade switching, a bunch more but the best of the bunch was the Bernie Marsden. That thing was a monster. Only sold because I bought a Ted McCarty limited SC245 that covered the same territory. Great guitars, totally gig worthy.

[Lacking Talent]

Used to have this Tremonti, should've kept it!

[CyFan152]

Here's mine...

2018 CU22 semi-hollow. Upgrades include: Grover mini locking tuners, all new wiring, nickel/silver pup covers, clear PRS knobs, custom switch tip. Great guitar from WMI Korea. I'll keep this one, it's a great guitar! The only upgrade it really needed was the tuners. The other upgrades I did after I decided it was a keeper.

[solteroblues]

The only SE I've ever owned was a Zach Myers singlcut semi-hollow like the OP's. It was perfect out of the box, but it did seem lifeless. The only true issue with it was the rosewood fretboard looked like swiss cheese, I've never seen such porous wood... literally looked like a sponge. You couldn't feel it when playing, but I just couldn't get over it and sold it rather quickly. Fortunately, it was a Black Friday deal, so I didn't lose much on the resale.

My son has a beautiful older CU22 with a perfectly purple flamed veneer... you know how hard it is to get purple to look right, his is deep and rich, with no trace of pink or fuscia in it. But again, it doesn't really inspire you to play. My son talks about trading it all of the time, but it really is so nice I don't want him to. Nothing wrong with it physically, it has great frets, fit and finish is flawless, but I never feel like grabbing it and playing it.

Not to sound like a spoiled brat or a cork sniffer, but my core PRSi are all the most perfect (for me) guitars I've ever played. Sure, I've gone through a ton, but I kick myself constantly for trading some of the away, usually just for a different finish or something. But I've never owned a core that didn't inspire me to play. Resonant, full of life, perfect setup. The only one I've ever bought that really had an issue was my P22 that came from up north and the fret ends would cut you. I didn't play it too much because of that, but now that its acclimated to the southern climate, those frets no longer stick out at all, I guess it was so dry in the winter that the fretboard shrunk, and now its expanded back to where it should be, because I never did anything to it and it's flawless now.

My wolf PRS copy is fantastic, I prefer it over any of the SE's that I've ever played. I find that I play it all of the time, in fact, its my downstairs guitar for when I'm just sitting around watching tv or something.

[uglyvw]

Thanks for all the input guys. I knew we had several experienced folks on here. I can see not bonding with some of these. My se single cut plays amazing and I can't fault any single item, but it doesn't draw you in to go play it. The problem is that every time I think of getting rid of it, I play it and just can't. My Zach Myers is different though, it rings out and resonates like crazy. I have read that it and the Bernie model are top of the whole line. I don't know about that for sure, but my ZM isn't going anywhere.

All that said, the finest guitar I have ever played was an early Mccarty goldtop, and it is still on my bucket list.

[voodoorat]

I've had a total of 3 PRS SE (and now have one PRS core): A ZM, a Custom-24 and a Custom-22 Hollowbody (the old style with the slash f-holes). I sold the latter two, still have the ZM.

The Custom-24 I loved the look of but never really bonded with (it was a quilt sunburst). It looked great and played well but the neck was thinner than I prefer and it was not an acoustically very resonant guitar. I rarely can play with a ton of volume so it felt kind of lifeless. I found the pickups to be underwhelming, not horrible or anything but just bland.

The Custom-22 Hollowbody was my first foray into PRS-land and it was really a good guitar. It was ridiculously light (I'd be surprised if it was much more than 5 lbs) and felt great to play. Much preferred the neck shape to the Cu24 (it was a wide-fat). The pickups were also not great but I could have replaced them. I kind of regret selling it, but the reasons were mostly pretty shallow: The flame on one side was not very pronounced, so from most angles it looked like the left side had no flame and it was badly mismatched. The other thing I didn't like about it was the flat top, the later version of the same guitar *looked* much better to my eyes. This is one of the few guitars I kind of regret selling and that regret is kinda what led me to get the ZM.

The ZM is great--the neck shape and finish make it one of my favorite necks full stop. It's not particularly "hollow" compared to the other semi-hollows I have and have had, it is about as heavy as a normal solid body and feels like one but that's not a bad thing. Again I didn't really like the pickups (I'm sensing a pattern here) but I replaced them with a Guitar Madness A2 set and like those in it a lot. All that said, this is the only one of the three that i had any playability issues with (since resolved): There was something wrong with one of the treble-side tuners which caused a horrible buzzing sound from the G tuner. I tried a bunch of stuff to resolve but eventually got a replacement set of Gotoh lockers. It's a guitar where I had a weird fretting out issue on like one fret on the high-E string. I never really tracked it down but raising the action a hair prevented it from happening. The flame veneer is a little uneven, it's got a fair about of the vertical BBQ flame mostly on one side and the flame is kind of inconsistent but I like the Trampas finish itself a lot. it's a great playing and sounding guitar though with the issues sussed out.

Oh one other issue I had with all of them: The nuts were all cut with very thin slots and I had tuning issues putting 010 gauge strings on all of them. I've mostly switched back to 009's now so I don't know if it would have still been an issue, but I also replaced the nuts with PRS core nuts and widened the slots.

Pics of the ZM and two departed customs:

(and the latest:)

[nomadh]

Here's mine...

2018 CU22 semi-hollow. Upgrades include: Grover mini locking tuners, all new wiring, nickel/silver pup covers, clear PRS knobs, custom switch tip. Great guitar from WMI Korea. I'll keep this one, it's a great guitar! The only upgrade it really needed was the tuners. The other upgrades I did after I decided it was a keeper.

One of the few prs that really tempts me.

[tonebender]

I've owned two, both with P90's. The first was a Soapbar with upper and lower horns and the other was the LP looking model. Bother were stellar guitars in every respect. I only sold them because I got rid of most of my imports.

[dabbler]

My 3 Korean SEs:

Not my favs, I too understand people describing them as lifeless. But they are well made. i tend to like a chunkier neck, but if you know how to talk to them, they will make it do what it do. They started putting birds on the SEs after I got mine which made me kinda upset because I really like the birds. So, because of the chunkier necks and the birds, I like my SX and Hadean PRS inspired guitars better.

[supersoldier71]

My SE Custom 24 Floyd was a revelation. When I bought it, it was the best guitar I owned and maybe the best I’d ever played.

Five years later, my neck carve preferences have changed a bit, so I prefer my Strat’s 10/56 or S2 Standard 24’s Pattern (Regular) profiles to the SE’s Pattern Thin.

But the SE still stays in tune for weeks at a time, is lighter than just about any Floyd Rose guitar I’ve played and looks amazing. It also has a slinky, easy-playing feel that makes me very happy whenever I play it.

I’ve come to prefer hotter bridge pickups than the 85/15s, but I swap in a Super Distortion and call it good.

My S2 was a bit disappointing at first. It’s light, has a satin finish that feels good in the hands, also stays in tune, and the neck carve is really nice for me. But I wasn’t really happy with the sounds I was getting. Given the fact that it and my SE have the same OEM pickups, it’s not really surprising that I wanted something else, although I did like them in the SE at first.

Any complaints I had about the S24 are gone after installing a Super Distortion and a Bluesbucker. Something like that is what PRS should ship these guitars with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[OMB]

I had never heard of PRS (I live under a rock) and then was listening to "Smooth" and noticed Carlos playing one. Did a little research and then a little shopping and ended up with my first PRS SE a Santana...


Then PRS came out with Paul's Guitar and well...


I am not a solid body guitar fan. I have owned Teles, Strats, Liquid, Jazzmaster and miscellaneous others. BUt the PRS is to me the best of the bunch. Whether I hang onto it or not is another question. This one has coil splits and a fat wide neck. It is strung with 9's.